“Nordic noir, Scandinavia’s best-known cultural export, mixes violent crime and political intrigue. The climate is savage, the characters terse and there aren’t many laughs. Instead, you get snow, secrets, abuse, alcohol and some pretty ragged writing. Niviaq Korneliussen’s debut novel is completely different.”
Blog
Canadian History Isn’t Boring, It’s Just The Way It’s Told…
“The way that a lot of our history in Canada is curated, it seems that it’s the same types of histories that are repeated over and over again, and then there are other histories that we never hear about. So we have to start questioning and looking at that critically, of why we’re hearing some things and not others.”
When A Public Radio Pro Turns To Solo Podcasting (And Wonders If He’s Going Insane)
Public radio fans may remember Scott Carrier from his segments (many involving long road trips) on This American Life. In 2015, he switched to podcasting, reporting and producing the series The Home of the Brave with funding provided solely by listeners. Barrett Golding, who co-founded with Carrier the Peabody Award-winning NPR project Hearing Voices, talks with him about the transition to solo work and everything that it takes (and takes out of you).
Does Banned Book Week Serve Any Purpose?
Are we winning any converts with this annual orgy of self-righteousness? The rhetoric of Banned Books Week is pitched at such a fervent level that crucial distinctions are burned away by the fire of our moral certainty, which is an ill that wide reading should cure not exacerbate. And what books are actually, effectively “banned” in the United States nowadays? The titles on the Top 10 Most Challenged list, in fact, sell hundreds of thousands of copies every year. How many authors would kill to be “challenged” like that?
In Which Bradley Cooper Makes A Journalist Question All The Premises Behind Celebrity Profiles
Taffy Brodesser-Akner wrestles in print with the actor’s famous reluctance to discuss his personal life (after having wrestled with Cooper himself over it during the interview) — and comes to understand (after several thousand words) that “he was just telling me that I’m asking the wrong questions.”
New Discoveries Change What We Know About Mayan Civilization
Combing through the scans, Mary Jane Acuña and her colleagues, an international 18-strong scientific team, tallied 61,480 structures. These included: 60 miles of causeways, roads and canals that connected cities; large maize farms; houses large and small; and, surprisingly, defensive fortifications that suggest the Maya came under attack from the west of Central America. “We were all humbled.”
Why We Should Stop Trying To Justify The Arts (And Their Funding) With Measurable Data
“Underlying the development of quality metrics seems to be the question: ‘Are the arts justified?’ In other words, we are looking for evidence. This is the opening the quantifiers of the world need. Witness the attempts to find the value of the arts in their instrumental benefits to society, to the economy and to things like cognitive development. Not that these things can’t or shouldn’t be measured. It is just that they are not the reasons for art to exist. No child ever picked up a paintbrush to benefit the economy.”
Cultural Districts — How Can We Ensure They’re Not Run For The Few?
“Who gets to decide how cultural districts – areas of a city with a concentration of cultural production and consumption – are designed and run? How do you ensure the right voices are heard: artists and cultural organisations, citizens and civil society groups, property developers and corporates, and urban planners and authorities? Whose interests should districts seek to serve, for what purpose, and how is the appropriate balance of power maintained?” Global Cultural Districts Network director Beatrice Pembroke offers some ideas.
Filmmaker Todd Solondz Brings His Jet-Black Humor To The Stage
As A.O. Scott once noted of the man behind Welcome to the Dollhouse and Wiener-Dog, “We don’t turn to Mr. Solondz for warm affirmations of human decency.” Elisabeth Vincentelli talks to Solondz about his debut as a playwright and stage director, Emma and Max.
Teens Are Using Dance To Protest School Shootings
“Tackling social justice causes has typically been the territory of mature dance artists and brainy college students. Not anymore. This year, teenage dancers throughout the country have started getting involved to highlight an issue that directly affects them in the worst way possible: gun violence. And they’re doing it through dance.” Jennifer Stahl presents some examples.