If arts institutions had to survive on locals’ loyalty alone, MoMA wouldn’t be adding yet another new wing, the Metropolitan Museum of Art wouldn’t be open seven days a week, theaters would go dark, and opera would cease to exist. That cute antiques store on your block that you hope won’t get gentrified out of existence? Chances are a quarter of its clientele lives abroad. – New York Magazine
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Mark Morris Directs His First Non-Dance Theatre — Beckett, No Less
The choreographer is directing three plays — Come and Go, Catastrophe, and Quad (a pure-movement piece which Morris likens to Lucinda Childs) — for this month’s Happy Days festival in the Northern Irish town of Enniskillen (where Beckett went to boarding school). “The timing is actually much harder than it looks; the point isn’t virtuosity, it’s expertise,” says Morris. “… And I am all about timing.” – The New York Times
Cold, Dead White
Posset was a drink that, in the 16th century, solidified, a sheer nightmare with emollient richness I can only say is a spoonful of lacks — texture, diversity, surprise. On its face, raw tofu comes close — until you cut, taste, wake up. – Jeff Weinstein
BlogBack: A CultureGrrl Reader on Critic Douglas Crimp, Met Curator Douglas Eklund & “The Pictures Generation”
“We seem to be fighting similar battles,” wrote a CultureGrrl reader in response to my appreciation, posted Monday, of the critic/scholar, 74, whose pioneering work defined what became known as “The Pictures Generation.” – Lee Rosenbaum
Why David McAllister Stepped Down From Running Australian Ballet
Having presided over the company’s 40th and 50th anniversaries, he was looking ahead to the 60th anniversary and planning what he could do that would “be new and different”, he explains. “And I just sort of went — you know what? Maybe it’s actually the time for a new person to have the opportunity – a new director, new vision.” – Dance Australia
Why Tracy K. Smith Spent Her Two Years As Poet Laureate Traveling America
“She felt poetry might be able to help mend some of the divisions that the election had highlighted. Her plan was this: to put together a collection of poems from living poets, called American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time, that she felt were in some way relevant to our moment, and to hit the road — visiting community centers, senior centers, prisons, and colleges.” (audio) – The New Yorker Radio Hour
How Did Nature Get To Be Seen As A Moral Good?
Today, nature is valued as a signifier of sustainability, resilience, and good quality of life not only in European and American cities, but also in new “smart” cities across Asia and the Middle East, and in “megacities” of the Global South. – Public Books
Poet Marie Ponsot, 98
“She supported [seven children] as a translator, writer for radio and television, and college professor, carving out at least 10 minutes each day to write. While changing diapers and preparing dinners, she scribbled lines of poetry on notebooks, napkins and the backs of envelopes, ultimately filling the drawers of her desk with completed poems.” Twenty-five years after publishing her first book of poems, she published a second, and went on to be “recognized as one of the most distinctive poets of her generation.” – The Washington Post
#CriticsSoWhite (And Male)
“It’s 2019 and we are in the middle of a renaissance in black artistic production. And you are telling me the best people to evaluate that are the same ones who basically ignored black artists for decades?” – The New York Times
Martin Charnin, Who Won A Tony For ‘Annie’, Dead At 84
“With more than 40 productions to his credit, Charnin penned lyrics for seven Broadway musicals and directed seven shows as well. He won his Tony Award for best original score, with composer Charles Strouse, for Annie,” which he also directed. “Charnin also received three Emmys for his work on television variety specials and won a Grammy for Jay-Z’s ‘Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem),’ which sampled his lyrics from the Annie song of that name.” – The Hollywood Reporter