Playwright Aleshea Harris, who won the Obie Award in 2018 for Is God Is, “is part of a vanguard of young, African American playwrights boring into questions of race and history through humor, drama, absurdity and tragedy. Their works reveal how the legacy of slavery continues to twist through the American consciousness.” – Los Angeles Times
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It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Climate Change Christmas At The Tate
And a very merry apocalypse to you too. Artist Anne Hardy got the Tate Britain commission this year, and she says she worked back from the Winter Solstice, “creating what could be a ransacked temple with tattered banners and tangled cables of lights. On the stairs are pools of ice and sculptural patches of river mud and broken columns. … Something has happened and whatever it is, it’s not good.” – The Guardian (UK)
What’s Happening On Broadway After Dark
Broadway is … people, of course, and despite how touristy some of the shows can get, “there’s still a weird, gritty New York patina in there somewhere,” says one of four photographers sent to find out more about the Broadway that isn’t just on stage. – The New York Times
As Fines Head To The Scrap Heap, Libraries Tear Down (Self-Inflicted) Barriers For Low-Income Patrons
Fines probably seemed like a great idea at the time – an encouragement for children (and adults) to keep track of time, keep track of library books and DVDs, and go back into the library to return books and encounter yet more of a library’s offerings. Yet libraries have realized fines and overdue fees are agents of inequity: “The penalties drive away the people who stand to benefit the most from free library resources.” Scrapping fines is one part of the answer. – NPR
Ski Architecture That’s Meant To Be Egalitarian And Perhaps Has Aged Better Than It Began
One of the ideas of Les Arcs was to make skiing holidays easier and more affordable for French holidaygoers. “This huge block of holiday apartments is cantilevered into the hillside, one side tilting outwards so that each floor gets the same amount of sunshine bouncing off the snow. The balconies are on the other side – again each set so that no apartment has more light than another.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Latin Dictionary That’s Been Underway For 125 Years And Isn’t Finished Yet
German researchers started working on this new dictionary in the 1890s, thinking it would take 10-15 years of work. But “the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (T.L.L.) has seen the fall of an empire, two world wars and the division and reunification of Germany. In the meantime, they are up to the letter R. This is not for lack of effort.” – The New York Times
Social Media Has Made Our Democracy More Toxic. But We Can Fix It
“The problem may not be connectivity itself but rather the way social media turns so much communication into a public performance. We often think of communication as a two-way street. Intimacy builds as partners take turns, laugh at each other’s jokes, and make reciprocal disclosures. What happens, though, when grandstands are erected along both sides of that street and then filled with friends, acquaintances, rivals, and strangers, all passing judgment and offering commentary?” – The Atlantic
Study Refutes Longstanding Claim That Molière Didn’t Write The Plays Attributed To Him
“The late blooming of Molière’s talent, his purported lack of education and culture, his busy agenda, and the lack of manuscripts are among the arguments that triggered a century-long debate. Systematic objections to these assertions have been provided. Yet, the sparsity of available archives has so far prevented the debate from ending,” the pair write in their paper Why Molière Most Likely Did Write His Plays, published on Wednesday in the open-access journal Science Advances. – The Guardian
London’s Dulwich Gallery Reopens After Brazen Attempt To Steal Rembrandts
An intruder forced their way into an exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London on 13 November and removed two valuable Rembrandt artworks. Police intervened before the intruder was able to take them away but the building has been shut since then. – BBC
Clive James, 80 – Invented a Genre Of Modern TV Criticism
From the 1980s, beginning with the classic Unreliable Memoirs, he published a series of uproarious biographies that charted his journey from dusty Australia to windy Cambridge to grubby Fleet Street and on to eventual success with TV shows such as Clive James on Television. James may, however, be best remembered for inventing modern television criticism. – Irish Times