Saadia Faruqi is a Pakistani-American author who decided to step up her interfaith writing after 9/11. She wrote journalism, op-eds, and an acclaimed book of short stories. Then she had kids, and she noticed an issue: “Here we are in multicultural America, where in many cities, including my own hometown of Houston, brown and black is the majority skin color, and yet an overwhelming percentage of children’s books feature white kids. There were certainly not any Muslim or South Asian main characters in early readers, and that’s the age kids are just learning their own identities and deciding if they love reading or hate it.” So, she thought, why not help change that?
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Nancy Blomberg, Curator Who Championed Native American Art And Artists, Has Died At 72
Blomberg was a curator at the Denver Art Museum who dramatically changed the way Native art was treated at the museum and elsewhere. “She emphasized that pieces often thought of as anthropological artifacts were in fact artworks; she also pushed to expand the collection with work by contemporary artists and set up residencies for them.”
What Could Theatre Do To Work With And Spotlight NonBinary People Onstage And Beyond?
Philadelphia seems to be finding out: “Justice for non-binary people is about naming and acknowledging that we exist in rehearsal, performance, and audience spaces. It’s about creating braver spaces amidst verbal and physical harassment on the street as well as in respectable, progressive establishments. It’s about training companies to understand and respect the non-binary experience before they invite us into the room. It’s about paying non-binary folks for their emotional and intellectual labor when we’re asked for dramaturgical help in a creative process. It’s about theatres doing their own research before expecting non-binary folks to educate them.”
It’s The End, Or Beginning, Of An Era: The Met Will Perform On Sundays
Whoa, whoa, whoa, what? Yep: “The unions representing the Met’s orchestra, chorus and several other groups finished ratifying a new contract this week that will pave the way to a change, as the company, facing a worrisome decline in attendance, has realized that audiences find it increasingly difficult to squeeze in lengthy operas on weeknights.”
Black Chat Shows Are Absolutely Thriving In Britain – But Only Out Of The Mainstream
That may be starting to change a bit, as some move under the umbrella of the BBC. One host:”Traditionally, media has been this finished product, whereas when we first started, and still, we’re not a finished product.”
City Ballet Fires Two Male Stars Implicated In Explicit Photo-Sharing Lawsuit
The two, including “leading light” Amar Ramasar, were named in the same lawsuit that said City Ballet had a “fraternity atmosphere” in which one dancer – Chase Finlay, who resigned before he could be fired – was “accused … of sending explicit pictures and videos of Alexandra Waterbury, a young woman he had been dating, to his friends without her consent, and asking others to send back explicit photos of their own.”
The Emmys Are Coming, And Here’s A Cluster Of Stories You Will Want To Read
Including: Why the heck are the Emmys on a Monday? (You know why, and it’s spelled s-p-o-r-t-s-b-a-l-l.)
On The Misuse Of Civility
Lewis Lapham: “The operatic protest blowing through the country’s internet portals raises the question as to whether the sound and fury signifies something or nothing, the telling of “mischief-making,” fairy-tale lies that is the life of our good and great consumer economy, or the voicing of competitive truth that is the vitality of a democratic republic. It’s hard to know which is which because over the past forty years we’ve become accustomed to pretending that democracy is a peaceful idea, something civil, orderly, quiet, and safe. It isn’t.”
After A Year (and Major Surgery), A Cellist And His Cello Are Reunited
The accident led to the discovery of other, more insidious problems: Matteo’s three-hundred-year-old insides were collapsing. The top was losing its arch; the cracks were widening. “A domino effect,” Matt Haimovitz said. He visited every two months. Once, he arrived to find cello parts scattered around the room, attended to by different experts, like an intensive-care unit. “For thirty years, it goes everywhere with me, and then, so suddenly, not to have it around? And then to see it—” He broke off, full of emotion.
Ira Sabin, Founder Of JazzTimes Magazine, Dies At 90
In 1962, he bought out a brother-in-law who had a record store, renaming it Sabin’s Discount Records. The store, at Ninth and U streets NW, was in the heart of Washington’s thriving jazz district, within walking distance of two theaters and six jazz clubs. The shop carried one of the country’s largest collections of jazz recordings, and musicians often stopped by to shop and chat.