“Hollywood’s argument is circular: If Asian-Americans — and other minority actors more broadly — are not even allowed to be in a movie, how can they build the necessary box office clout in the first place? To make matters worse, instead of trying to use their lofty positions in the industry to push for change, Hollywood players like Mr. Landis and Mr. Sorkin take the easy, cynical path.”
Category: issues
Can ‘The Mikado’ Be Saved From Its Yellowface History?
“The setting was no longer England (or Japan). It was now going to be in Milan during the Renaissance. … And Brooks and Barbara Heroux (the theatre’s artistic director emeritus) have combed through the script, changing character names, modifying any reference to Japan, and removing anything that could be construed as an ethnic slur. For example, the character of the Mikado is now Il Ducato, emperor of Milan, and the line, ‘We are gentlemen of Japan’ has become, ‘We are gentlemen of Milan.'”
Prince Was So Ferocious About His Intellectual Property, He Got A ‘Lifetime Aggrievement Award’
“In 2013, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Prince … the Raspberry Beret Lifetime Aggrievement Award, in honor of his groundbreaking use of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to prevent fans of his music from publishing his tunes or image anywhere he didn’t want them to be. … For all the groundbreaking work he created as a musician in the 20th century, his approach to the internet and copyright was shockingly old-school, and one that should be studied for centuries after his passing.”
Ukraine Bans Russian Movies. And TV. And Cultural Figures
“They have barred each other’s main TV channels on their territory. Ukraine has blacklisted 83 cultural figures, most of them Russian, whom it considers a national security threat. Those on the list – barred from visiting Ukraine – mostly support Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.”
Here’s Where This Year’s Presidential Candidates Stand On The Arts
“The choice in November’s general election will no doubt be much clearer when it comes to support for arts, but the current field of two Democrats and three Republicans offers a rainbow of cultural policies. Here’s a rundown of some of the key points from each candidate’s political career.”
Democratize The Arts? Doesn’t Really Mean Much, Does It?
“If art and culture are to matter to more people, they must provide them with value. Much audience development work, however, seeks to provide people not with value but with values, because the ideological basis of audience development is the democratisation of culture.”
Syria’s Greatest Writer Says Arabs Must Separate Religion And The State
Adonis: “In the [European] Middle Ages, the ecclesiastical courts were just like the jihadists today. They killed people and burned them. But the West succeeded in separating church from state, and created modern societies. And if the West was successful in this separation then there is no reason to prevent the Arabs from separating [the two] as well. … If we do not distinguish between what is religious and what is political, cultural, and social, nothing will change and the decline of the Arabs will worsen.”
City Of Vancouver Opens Up Cultural Facilities To Homeless Arts Amateurs
“Rent is only one barrier a community group faces to being in a venue. It is actually the easiest barrier to remove. Real progress would be made if we could help arts organizations with these hard costs. Rent is about paying utility bills; these other costs are about paying people.”
Data: Why Donors Stop Giving To Arts Organizations
“Not being thanked for a previous gift, not being asked to donate again, and lack of communication about the impact of one’s donation all represent massive communication fails. Advances in relationship management technologies are supposed to make communication fails increasingly rare – but, the data suggest that many of us remain our own worst enemies when it comes to retaining donors.”
Witches Are Back In Popular Culture – And This Could Be Why
The Crucible on Broadway, the film The Witch, the TV series Salem and The Devil You Know — “Just as Arthur Miller pulled McCarthyism from Early Modern American witch obsessions, the applications of witchcraft narratives to the current day are manifold. … So what’s the most globally pervasive contemporary witch hunt you can think of? What forms of radicalism has it helped catalyze?” (The questions are not just rhetorical.)