“The global poverty rate is now lower than it has ever been in recorded history,” Jim Yong Kim, a former president of the World Bank, recently argued. “This is one of the greatest human achievements of our time.” Or perhaps not. – The Atlantic
Blog
Five Lessons From This Year’s Emmy Nominations
Who can blame voters for wanting to escape? The last year has been a wrecked clown car inside a dumpster fire that’s riddled with the plague. Series that deal with today’s ugly reality through a sci-fi or comic-book lens are a fine way of working through tough issues without subjecting oneself to the here and now. – Los Angeles Times
Museum Of Contemporary Art Detroit Fires Director
The MOCAD board brought in outside counsel to investigate the allegations against Elysia Borowy-Reeder, who became director in 2013. In a release announcing her termination, the board said the investigation found that Borowy-Reeder’s “leadership fell short of its goals for diversity, inclusivity, and a healthy work environment.” – ARTnews
Reimagining Los Angeles’ Approach To Culture
Even in the best years, funding for arts and culture in our city does not meet the needs of the communities we serve. It is time to expose this hard truth and build the support needed to focus on culture and creativity as a primary driver of racial equity, create healthy communities, assure key economic recovery, and build vital long-term sustainability. – KCET
Changing The Powerful Symbols Along Richmond’s Monument Avenue
“As protesters have remade this avenue, forcing the removal of memorials to men who betrayed their country, covering the remaining plinths with graffiti and activating the street day and night with new forms of protest and community, they also have underscored deep connections between urban planning and old ideologies of whiteness, greatness and cultural ambition. They have made problematic the idea of the City Beautiful, a powerful late 19th-century American contribution to the annals of urban design.” – Washington Post
Keith Sonnier, Playful Post-Minimalist Sculptor, Dead At 78
“In both the manifold building blocks of his works and their titles — Ba-O-Ba, Ju-Ju, Palm Saw Tooth Blatt, Bison Bop — Mr. Sonnier came off at times as an irreverent sensualist alongside peers like Bruce Nauman, Eva Hesse, Jackie Winsor and Robert Smithson, who employed some of the same materials.” – The New York Times
Watching Online: The Differences Between Audience and Viewer
Amid this deluge of performance art offerings flowing into my house, I realized two words marred my experience: remote and control. With remote clenched in one hand and phone in the other, it hit me: No longer a member of an audience, I had become merely a viewer now. – ArtsandCultureTexas
Crop Of Books Takes New View Of Old Epic Poetry
“Those second looks have turned up several shared themes. One is a new skepticism regarding the relationship that has developed between the epic and prevailing ideas about male heroism. ‘A lot of toxic masculinity has been shaped by imperfect understandings of epic poetry,'” said Maria Dahvana Headley, translator of a new edition of Beowulf. “That result, she and [Aeneid translator Shadi] Bartsch agree, is a consequence of particular choices made in reading, not the substance of the epics themselves.” – The New York Times
AMC Theatres Makes Deal For Quicker Video Releases
In a stunning reversal, AMC Theatres has struck a historic agreement with Universal that will allow the studio’s movies to be made available on premium video-on-demand after just 17 days of play in cinemas, including three weekends, the two companies announced Tuesday. – The Hollywood Reporter
Want A COVID-Safe Space For Your Play That’s Easy, Quick, And Cheap? Try A Circus Tent
“Every day we read about a new proposed seating plan or air-filtering system being trialled in an Edwardian playhouse to enable safe, socially distanced theatre in a building designed for the opposite. A big top is far more spacious.” You can fit in hundreds of people with plenty of social distance, and raised sidewalls provide plenty of air circulation. What’s more, argues Circus250 ringmaster Dea Birkett, a big top offers plenty of advantages in terms of diversifying your audience. – The Stage