Jill Lepore: “The literature of contagion is vile. A plague is like a lobotomy. It cuts away the higher realms, the loftiest capacities of humanity, and leaves only the animal. “Farewell to the giant powers of man,” Mary Shelley wrote in “The Last Man,” in 1826, after a disease has ravaged the world. “Farewell to the arts,—to eloquence.” Every story of epidemic is a story of illiteracy, language made powerless, man made brute. But, then, the existence of books, no matter how grim the tale, is itself a sign, evidence that humanity endures, in the very contagion of reading.” – The New Yorker
Blog
Shifting Ground: Are You Ready For A New Discourse For A New World?
“These are not the end times, I mean, but nor are they business as usual, and we would do well to understand that not only is there room for a middle path between these, but indeed there is an absolute necessity that we begin our voyage down that path. To the squealing chiliasts and self-absorbed presentists, indulging themselves with phrases like “the end of the world,” I say: “Did it never dawn on you that all of human history has just been one partial apocalypse after another?” And to the business-as-usual mandarins I say: “Thank you for your service in the glorious battles of the past.” – The Point
The Organist Who Kept Britain Company During World War II
Sandy, as listeners called him, spoke like a reassuring, relatable friend. “Sandy Macpherson’s quiet voice is very reassuring at a time when our ears are on the alert for warning sirens,” one family wrote in September 1939. At Christmas, fans showered him with “flowers, mufflers, handkerchiefs, cigarettes, fruit and pots of jam.” – The Conversation
Nightlife Is The Soul Of A City. Now It’s Gone And We Need To Protect It
The rise of night mayors after 2012 followed the recognition by many cities that they largely ignored what many called their nighttime economies. Those who worked in the nighttime entertainment sector had long argued that their contributions to employment and city tax coffers went unrecognized. – The Conversation
A Ballet School In A Rio Favela
Tuany Nascimento grew up in Complexo do Alemão, a poor and often dangerous group of hillside slums in Rio de Janeiro. She studied dance with hopes of becoming a professional ballerina, a dream she gave up in order to help support her family with a day job. But she kept dancing when she could, and enough neighborhood girls became curious that she started her own school, called Na Ponta dos Pes (meaning on pointe). (video) – Al Jazeera
Of Arts CEOs Who Are Giving Up Their Salaries
“There’s a symbolism and communications problem if you’re starting to inflict loss and suffering on your staff. If Peter Gelb or Deborah Rutter start to, and need to, lay off lots of people and calling the people they have contracts with and saying they going to invoke force majeure . . . it doesn’t look great or feel great if they’re not making a sacrifice themselves.” – Washington Post
Next Step In Social Distancing And The Arts: Live Performance For One Audience Member At A Time
In a project called “One on One”, the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, known as one of the most innovative in Russia, will let 850 people (as many as the auditorium could hold) register for a lottery for each ballet, concert, or opera; one winner will get to buy a ticket at the regular price and attend. Says director Marat Gatsalov, “We’d been told that we can’t let viewers into the theatre hall. But that doesn’t mean we can’t let just one viewer in.” – The Guardian
Our Home-Isolation Comes With A Sober Realization: This, Actually, Is Who We Are
The necessary response to the pandemic has, after all, intensified huge swaths of the population’s pre-pandemic situations. The economically and medically fragile are at new risk; the cloistered and privileged have only thickened the walls of their bubble. Single people feel extremely single. People in relationships are now super-duper in relationships. The home has become not a refuge from the world’s arena but rather the arena itself. It’s thus tempting to think of the crisis as a personal reckoning: This is the life you’ve been making all along. Now live it. – The Atlantic
Jeremy Marre, Whose Documentaries Introduced Britons and Americans To World Music, Dead At 76
“With a minimal camera and sound crew, Mr. Marre visited Jamaican dance halls, Brazilian favelas, Appalachian churches, Egyptian temples, South African workers’ hostels and Bollywood soundstages to film music and musicians on home turf that was often gritty and unglamorous.” – The New York Times
The Other Bach: Before He Died, Peter Serkin Labored To Reveal The Genius Of C.P.E.
Day after day during the recording sessions, he did take after take, hour after hour. It was Marty Krystall who finally starting insisting on regular breaks. Death hovered over the sessions in more ways than one. – The New York Times