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The Biggest Art World Controversies Of 2019

“This past year saw no shortage of controversies in both the art world and the real world. And perhaps more than ever before, the distance between those two worlds seemed to collapse, as artists and activists began demanding with unprecedented strength that patrons — both board members and corporate sponsors — answer for their actions outside the confines of the museum. We zeroed in on 11 hot-button issues that ignited heated debate in the art world this year, and the particular questions they provoked.” – artnet

Christianist Extremists In Brazil Firebomb Satirical Troupe That Made Holiday Special With Gay Jesus

A previously unknown groups calling itself the “Popular Nationalist Insurgency Command of the Large Brazilian Integralist Family” has claimed credit for a Christmas Eve incident in which Molotov cocktails were thrown at the Rio de Janeiro offices of Porta dos Fundos, the comedy group that created The First Temptation of Christ, which depicts a stoner Mary and put-upon Joseph throwing a 30th-birthday party for Jesus as he returns from his 40 days in the desert with a “close friend” named Orlando. – BBC

The Recycling Con

Bailing out the recycling industry may sound like a benign proposal. The funds might even be a wise infusion at such a precarious moment for scrap buyers, processors, and sellers. But the hazy aspirations of the RECOVER Act are just the latest cover in a long-running deceit that for more than half a century has deflected responsibility from the companies who profit from pollution while ensuring our broader waste problem goes unaddressed. – The Baffler

Burning Man Sues US Government Over Sharply Rising Fees

In 2012, Burning Man organizers reimbursed the BLM nearly $1.4 million in expenses, a 60 per cent year-over-year increase, though the event population increased by only 4 per cent that year, according to the lawsuit. The following year, the same bill was $2.9 million, according to the lawsuit. In three years, the cost recovery charges increased by 291 per cent, and the Burning Man event population increased by 39 per cent, Black Rock City attorneys said. CBC (AP)

50 Years At The Church (Literally) Of John Coltrane

For Franzo and Marina King, who had begun taking Coltrane’s music and ideas seriously as a world view, he had not passed away. He had merely ascended. Franzo had always imagined becoming a preacher one day. He had now found his God. The Kings’ jazz club was refashioned into a temple, where members participated in the organizing and uplift common in the Bay Area of the sixties. – The New Yorker

What’s Funny Changes. And So Does Comedy

Humor is about connection—shared references, shared emotions, shared perspectives. The best comedians both surprise and unite the audience. They create a moment. But moments keep coming. Over time, attitudes change, and humor has to change with them. When older comedians complain that they can’t perform at colleges anymore because the audiences are too “politically correct,” they are missing the point. – The New Yorker

She Was *Not* Going To Play Princess Jasmine: Shereen Ahmed, First Arab-American To Play Eliza Doolittle In Major Production

“I don’t want to be Jasmine. She’s one of my favorite princesses, but I don’t want to perpetuate that stereotype: completely powerless, or overly sexualized,” says the Baltimore-born daughter of an Egyptian immigrant father. After understudying Laura Benanti on Broadway (she went on a dozen times), Ahmed is headlining the national tour, currently at the Kennedy Center. – The Washington Post