As the Civil War raged, Kentucky was officially neutral – but it was a slave state. Freedom lay just across the river in Indiana, says poet Hannah Drake, whose nonprofit is preparing to install a kind of monument to those who dreamt of escape. “The memorial will start as a path of cast or carved footprints. That will lead people from nearby history museums to the river, where there will be limestone benches. Then there will be more footprints leading to the river’s edge.” – NPR
Author: ArtsJournal2
That Time A Research Librarian Discovered His Library Owned A First Edition Of Beethoven’s Sixth
At the Moravian Music Foundation, librarian David Blum “was doing a routine cataloging of material that the foundation has owned for years, [when] he noticed the plate number of the printing was 1809, his first clue that he was onto a first edition. He thought that would be great — but unlikely.” And yet. – Winston-Salem Journal
Obie Award Winner Vinie Burrows Has Been Working In Theatre For More Than Seven Decades
Burrows is an actor, playwright, producer, and activist who started her career as a kid on a radio show. In 1968, she was favorably written about in The New York Times, and she says, “It put me in another tax bracket. I remember being in Algiers at a festival. Why was someone in Algiers talking about me? He knew me because he had read the Times article about me. The Times review can put you in another tax bracket, even today.” – American Theatre
James Murdoch Has Resigned From The News Corporation’s Board
Rupert Murdoch’s son James, who has championed environmental causes and helped force out Bill O’Reilly at Fox after the host’s past with sexual harassment came into the open, “abruptly resigned from the board of his father’s publishing company Friday, signaling an acceleration in family tensions over the tenor and politics of its far-flung media empire. “- Los Angeles Times
The Literary Museums That Made It This Far Are Slowly Reopening
Shakespeare’s birthplace just reopened, and Jane Austen’s house is about to reopen – and some of the changes advantage the visitors coming now. “The cottage where Austen revised, wrote and had published all six of her novels will be offering a far more intimate experience to visitors than before: numbers will be significantly limited, with visitors given time slots.” – The Guardian (UK)
How Poetry Can Guide Us Through Trauma
Audre Lorde’s 1977 piece “Poetry Is not a Luxury” seems prescient right now. “Poems have alchemized death and imagined the continuation of lives cut short by racist violence. They’ve given texture to the ‘sudden strangeness’ of life brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, offering comfort to countless readers. In moments of uncertainty, poetry has illuminated bridges to the past—and shown how the act of remembering might alter the future.” – The Atlantic
Tokyo’s Kabuki-Za Theatre Has Reopened
Blocked off seats, reduced capacity, and musicians wear masks and face shields, with dancers keeping far apart as they perform onstage. – BBC
Why Is Netflix’s ‘Most Watched’ List Such A Wasteland?
Whew: “If HBO’s Game of Thrones was the last great piece of TV monoculture, then the pandemic has popularized a series of forgettable productions that each offers a fleeting, miniature facsimile of communal attention. Absent the usual summer blockbusters, and with few prestige shows rolling out new episodes, the landscape of American entertainment is barren enough for C- shows and movies to rack up the viewership of B+ productions, if not the associated enthusiasm.” – The Atlantic
It Is Wacky To Think That Writing For Adults Is Better Or More Important Than Writing For Kids
Author Robin Stevens on writing for kids: “What book changed your life? What stories made you think about the world? I couldn’t tell you much about what was in most books I read last month but I can tell you every character in Howl’s Moving Castle. Eva Ibbotson’s morality has become mine, Diana Wynne Jones has influenced how I write, the way Terry Pratchett talks about society helped me think about all those things.”- The Guardian (UK)
Leon Fleisher, Pianist And Teacher, Has Died At 92
Fleisher famously spent 30 years mastering piano’s left-handed repertoire after an injury to his right hand – and then reintegrated his right hand when it recovered after three decades. “Fleisher often pointed out after his comeback that he was not, and never would be, fully cured. But he also acknowledged, late in life, that the incapacitation of his right hand in 1964 ultimately gave him a far more varied musical life than he might have had if he had been able to pursue a conventional career as a virtuoso pianist.” – The New York Times