“It can be fraught and isolating, it seems, portraying a white character activating the racial overtones of a beloved novel brought to the stage. Just ask Fred Weller, essayer of Bob Ewell, the patently evil father of Wilhelmi’s Mayella, who forces her to concoct the story that sends a blameless black man, Tom Robinson, to prison for rape.” – Washington Post
Blog
In Praise Of The Guilty Pleasure
Because it’s often used in a winking way, the term “guilty pleasure” feels innocent, like a joke we’re proving we’re in on. But if that joke is about something that brings us genuine joy and isn’t harming anyone, then what’s the punch line? – The New York Times
The Robots Can Now Beat You At Poker Too
At the crescendo of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, a pair of computer scientists have announced that they’ve created an artificial intelligence poker player that is stronger than a full table of top human professionals at the most popular form of the game — no-limit Texas Hold ’em. – FiveThirtyEight
Discovery Of A Skull In Greece Changes What We Know About Human Pre-History
The finding is likely to reshape the story of how humans spread into Europe, and may revise theories about the history of our species. – The New York Times
How Could New York City Opera’s ‘Stonewall’ Have Screwed Up So Badly On Trans Issues?
Brin Solomon: “In casting a trans man to play a trans woman, the Stonewall creative team have botched things so spectacularly … It’s difficult to convey how bizarre this casting choice is. It’s like writing a character who’s a lesbian, casting a gay man to play her, and then boasting of writing a homosexual character for a homosexual actor.” – I Care If You Listen
Unlimited Information And Free Access? Turns Out It Was A Problematic Idea
The Palo Alto Consensus held that American-made internet communication technologies (both hardware and software) should be distributed globally and that governments should be discouraged from restricting speech online. Its proponents believed that states in which public discourse was governed by “everyone” — via social media and the internet — would become more democratic. – The New York Times
Same-Gender Couples Come To The Once-Rigidly Male-Female World Of Competitive Ballroom Dance
“Traditional ballroom dancing enacts a caricature of socially prescribed gender roles. The male partner is the leader; the female partner, the follower. The male partner’s movements are meant to be sharp and decisive, while the female dancer is meant to be flowy and expressive. … Same-gender ballroom dancing challenges these norms while also challenging the dancers themselves, who often learn to both lead and follow.” – The Washington Post
Meet The Remarkable Darren Walker
“To me the question is, How do we as the Ford Foundation, and I as its president, leverage the foundation’s and my networks, and on behalf of whom?” – The New York Times
Museums In Britain Are Taking Out And Showing The LGBTQ-Themed Artworks And Objects They Used To Keep Hidden Away
“The [Victoria and Albert Museum LGBTQ] tour’s burgeoning popularity is part of a more general ‘queering’ of British museums that is gathering pace. Institutions across the UK are teasing out stories of same-sex desire and gender nonconformity in artefacts that have, until now, been left untold, or actively suppressed.” – The Guardian
Mapping Where The Creative Class Wants To Live
The creative class has seen remarkable growth in the past decade, increasing from 44 million members in 2005 to more than 56 million in 2017, as virtually all large U.S. metros saw growth. The rate of creative class growth (27.2 percent) was more than double the growth rate of overall U.S. workforce (13.6 percent) over this period. – CityLab