Laura Collins-Hughes: “As we flock online in these isolated, uncertain days, looking to sate our theater cravings, a lot of us are watching plays we have already seen onstage — familiar comforts that, in digital form, can bring fresh revelation, too.” – The New York Times
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A Book Festival For The Epidemic Era, Live From Africa
“Afrolit Sans Frontières, a series of hourlong readings and question-and-answer sessions held entirely on Facebook and Instagram, kicked off on March 23 and [is recurring monthly]. In the face of the pandemic, with countless numbers of book fairs, tours and other literary events canceled or postponed, Afrolit stands out as a gathering where readers — for some sessions, hundreds have logged in — can hear from authors and talk to them about sometimes difficult or taboo subjects.” – The New York Times
Francophone African Authors Are Finally Getting Their Work Published Within Africa
For decades, most authors writing in French in Africa have had to publish their books in France, partly because of a lack of publishing infrastructure at home and partly because French companies have insisted on worldwide rights. So if these writers’ books appear in their own countries at all, the prices are something like a week’s pay for an ordinary person. Now the authors are pushing back, insisting on retaining rights for Africa and even starting their own publishing houses to produce affordable editions. – The Guardian
Book Sales Were Down 35 Percent In April
Categories of books that sold best last month were fiction, cookbooks, and children’s books, but compared with April 2019, sales were largely down at the indies contacted. Most saw declines of more than 35% compared to the same period in the prior year. For many, online sales continue to be a lifeline, especially direct-to-home orders fulfilled by Ingram. – Publishers Weekly
What Are The Possibilities Of Socially Distanced Performance? We’ve Been Seeing Some Of Them For Years
Justin Davidson: “There is a cohort of artists and presenters who, long before the great contagion, were already rethinking the physical relationships between performers, audience, and space. They rebelled against the tyranny of the proscenium, placed intimate shows in vast rooms, coaxed audiences to roam, and expanded their palette with electronics — all techniques that could now prove essential. … I can think of a dozen powerful experiences from the recent past that might seem suddenly timely.” – Vulture
The Medieval Book That Suggested How The World Looked
Asking a Medieval person to imagine the world and their place on it would demand a radically different sort of cognitive map than one a modern person might rely on. This affects pragmatic matters (of navigation and so forth), but also what could be termed poetic ones as well. Philosopher Bertrand Westphal writes in Geocriticism: Real and Fictional Spaces that the “perception of space and the representation of space do not involve the same things,” and this is a crucial point. – Nautilus
Morton Feldman’s Music Is Just The Thing For Quarantine
By the time new Washington Post classical critic Michael Andor Brodeur confesses that he used to listen to Feldman at the supermarket and when stuck in traffic, you might think he’s not impartial enough to make a convincing case. Actually, he’s pretty persuasive: “Now, as the days repeat with barely perceptible variations like one of Feldman’s figures, his music isn’t just lending form to time as it drifts by, it’s recalibrating my sense of scale. And I’m not alone.” – The Washington Post
This 222-Year-Old Poem Really Captures The Spirit Of 2020 (And Not Just Because Of COVID)
“Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,’ first published in 1798, is … the dream-poem of right now.” It’s currently appearing on YouTube in short daily installments read by a nebula of quirky stars (Jeremy Irons, Marianne Faithfull, Willem Dafoe, Hilary Mantel, Tilda Swinton, Iggy Pop, etc.), and James Parker explains why the project reflects our zeitgeist so well. – The Atlantic
Why The Pandemic Has Seen Shakespeare Popping Up Everywhere Online
Alexis Soloski: “The glut of new content speaks to the reach and ubiquity of his work, the open-source accessibility of his plays, the confidence that if you do share a snippet of pentameter, you will be heard, recognized and retweeted. The plays — and the humanist values they intimate — offer a [common] cultural touchstone when the rest of our lives feel unsteady.” – The New York Times
Coronavirus Or No, Demolition And Construction At L.A. Museums Goes On
“In California, all construction — including museum expansions — has been categorized as essential. While much of the art world is standing still, expansions at LACMA, the Hammer, and other museums are prompting both questions and criticisms.” – Hyperallergic