“The initiative, in its swiftness, its close collaboration with a foreign government and its combination of private and government financing, represents a new model of American cultural diplomacy, one that organizers believe stands in stark contrast to the apathy Americans were accused of exhibiting during the looting of Iraqi artistic treasures in 2003.”
Tag: 05.11.10
Appreciation: Lena Horne
“She couldn’t sing about the penthouse [described in the song ‘Penthouse Serenade’] because she couldn’t live there–and that was that. Obviously, this tells us much about the racist policies of that unenlightened era, but it tells us even more about Horne as an artist: If she couldn’t believe in something, and make it real for herself and her audiences, then she wouldn’t sing it.”