“We must admit that for a long time your Hollywood movies have been better made than Chinese movies, so we watched them all,” said Zou Ping, a parcel delivery worker in his 20s, leaving a showing of “Wolf Warrior 2” in Beijing. “But now you must also admit that this movie was pretty good, and it has a Chinese hero. It feels good to be on the side of justice.”
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The First Black Movie Star In Britain Is Still Here At Age 100 (And He Says He’s Not Retired)
“He’s appeared in Ealing dramas, a James Bond movie and played a wily dictator in Sidney Pollack’s The Interpreter. But if [Earl] Cameron never quite achieved leading-man status, that was hardly his fault – there were other factors at play. … In hindsight, perhaps, he peaked too early. He broke the mould on his very first film. Shot in 1951, Basil Dearden’s thriller Pool of London cast him as Johnny, a young sailor who battles racists at the docks and romances a white girl beside Greenwich Observatory.”
This Black New York Actor Became The Toast Of 19th-Century Europe
“[Ira] Aldridge’s career as an actor was exceptional, and not just for a black actor at that time. He traveled farther, was seen by audiences in more countries, and won more medals, decorations, and awards than any other actor of his century.”
Art Cannot Solve America’s Race Problems, Says One Of America’s Leading Black Female Artists
Kara Walker, in the artist’s statement for her newest show: “I am tired, tired of standing up, being counted, tired of ‘having a voice,’ or worse, ‘being a role model,’ Tired, true, of being a featured member of my racial group and/or my gender niche.”
What Confederate Monuments Really Mean, And Why They Must Come Down: Philip Kennicott
“Our statuary is largely derived from and better suited to authoritarian societies than democratic ones because monuments require assent to a common proposition: This man was great. They are meant to put historical truths into final form, beyond debate, literally etched in stone.”
Hard Truths Or Easy Targets? New York Times Theater Critics Assess The Summer Of Trump
Alexis Soloski, Ben Brantley, and Jesse Green survey the scene – and the damage. As Brantley puts it, “I don’t experience catharsis unless I’m startled into feeling more deeply than I do just reading the headlines on my phone.”
American Boychoir And Its School To Shut Down
“Throughout its 80-year history, the choir has performed for presidents, on television and radio, and at places like Carnegie Hall and the Academy Awards. The choir toured the country and world and performed as many as 100 concerts each year.” But in recent years the school has been plagued by declining enrollment, cash shortages, and a sexual abuse scandal.
At ‘Pompeii Of The Middle East’, 1,200-Year-Old Mosaic Workshop Unearthed
“The ancient house was likely undergoing a remodel when, on Jan. 18, 749, the massive earthquake struck Jerash, located in what is now Jordan … Before the earthquake, artisans were putting together mosaics for the floors of the house, but they abandoned their artwork after the natural disaster struck. This abandonment turned the house into a time capsule, allowing modern-day archaeologists a chance to see how artisans from the Umayyad – the early Islamic period – assembled these decorative mosaics.”
What’s Charlotte Ballet’s New Artistic Director Been Doing There? You Have No Idea
“In 14 months of affiliation with the company – only two as its artistic director – [Hope Muir] has hired an astonishing array of new choreographers, rehired all but two members of the first company, endeared herself to donors from Charlotte to Chautauqua, N.Y., begun to investigate national and international tours, created a choreographic lab to inspire new dancemakers, put together a collaboration for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra’s Classical series in April, said goodbye to resident choreographer Dwight Rhoden and instituted family matinees for mainstage works beyond the inevitable Nutcracker.”
The Next Big Dance Technique? Countertechnique
“‘Many older techniques have a strong inner logic,’ says [Countertechnique creator Anouk] van Dijk, who now directs Melbourne-based Chunky Move. ‘But I found they didn’t prepare the body for when the dancer has to be highly versatile.’ Countertechnique equips dancers with a range of skills and teaches them to apply them within familiar movements. This gives dancers more agency, which van Dijk believes can reduce anxiety in performance and even help dancers prevent and recover from injury.”