“Around 100 Hong Kong arts organisations, including commercial galleries, signed up to call a strike on Wednesday as lawmakers were expected to begin a series of votes on the [law which would make it easier to extradite Hong Kong citizens to mainland China on political charges]. Those proceedings have been postponed as protesters and the police clash outside the legislature.” – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
Blog
Ending A Turbulent Few Years, Berlin’s Volksbühne Appoints A New Director
The playwright and director René Pollesch will take the reins at one of Germany’s most important theaters in 2021. He succeeds Chris Dercon, formerly the director of London’s Tate Modern art gallery, who lasted only six months in the job in the face of regular protests over his presence there. “Those included personal attacks — feces were left in front of Mr. Dercon’s office at one point — and an occupation of the theater by left-wing activists.” – The New York Times
World’s Richest Prize For A Novel Goes To First-Time Novelist In Boise
Emily Ruskovich’s Idaho has won the €100,000 International Dublin Literary Award, for which books are nominated by libraries around the world. She said that when she first got news of the prize, she thought she was hallucinating. – The Guardian
New Online Platform For African Writers And Musicians To Reach The Global Market
A Q&A with Chidi and Chika Nwaogu, twin brothers from Nigeria and the creators and chiefs of Publiseer. As Porter Anderson observes,”What’s at issue … is the question of where and how emerging markets are being surfaced in African publishing today. A part of the premise of the program is that ‘digital transformation is allowing these developing publishing markets to leapfrog into the future,’ something that a combination book-and-music platform’s creators surely know something about.” – Publishing Perspectives
The Choreographer Who Makes Theatre Move
Raja Feather Kelly: “I think of virtuosic behavior as what I like to do with my choreography. That’s where I can help: by making the behavior specific and virtuosic. I feel like I found a place — that directors and writers now are wanting to do something different and that makes a place for someone like me who is different.” – The New York Times
The New Arms Race: Information As Weapon
One side attempts to mislead the public over a key issue – the safety of a drug, whether climate change is real, or whether vaccines are dangerous, for example. At the same time, the other side works to combat this misinformation campaign. – Aeon
Ready For The Meritocracy Wars?
Much resentment focuses on the way in which the meritocracy is selected, through the education process, and on the winnowing effect of extensive standardized assessments that seek to measure and validate cognitive skills. – The New York Times
Streaming TV Is Racing To Its Next Phase
The siloed age of television has arrived, a time when people will be paying six or seven different monthly fees, if not more, to keep abreast of pop culture—and the cost will end up approximating the hefty cable bill that every cord cutter has sought to avoid. – The Atlantic
Why Did Artists, Historians And Academics Just Spend Nine Weeks Protesting At The Whitney Museum?
“We can no longer accept the art-world logic of career over cause, with artists and critics making politically engaged work against the backdrop of an institutional framework grounded in the art-washing of profits for figures like Warren Kanders,” the group wrote in a statement in February. – Pacific Standard
Canadian Senate Committee Proposes Putting Cultural Diplomacy At The Center Of Canada’s Foreign Policy
The report said “cultural diplomacy” — the exchange of ideas, art and culture across borders outside of official political channels — should take a central role in Canada’s relations with other countries alongside traditional considerations, such as the economy and trade. – CBC