A Crossroads For The Oregon Shakespeare Festival

The nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit repertory theater company is at a pivotal moment, with change at the top and challenges everywhere. It’s bringing in its first new artistic director in 12 years and preparing to start a search for a new executive director. It’s coming off a smoke-plagued 2018 season that ended with 26 outdoor performances either canceled or moved indoors, $2.3 million in losses and 16 layoffs.  – The Oregonian

There’s A Whole New Crop Of South Asian-American Stand-Up Comedians Coming

“They’re finding strength in numbers that have swelled in the wake of new role models, mounting recurring group shows with names like Kutti Gang and Brown Privilege in New York, and Desi Comedy Festival [in California]. … (It’s also no small thing to have people like [Mindy] Kaling and [Hasan] Minhaj to point to when arguing with immigrant parents who may disapprove of even their adult offspring pursuing stand-up.)” – The Daily Beast

The Man Who Used Culture To Transform Medellín’s Most Dangerous Slum Says He Can Do The Same With Paris’s Poor Suburbs

“Thirty years ago, Medellín was the most violent, the most dangerous city in the world. Nobody wanted to go there, not even Colombians,” says Daniel Carvalho, the urban planner who launched street-art and hip-hop programs to make the notorious Comuna 13 district attractive to visitors and locals (and keep give young people something to do other than joining gangs). Now officials from Paris are consulting him on similar ideas for the French capital’s poorest banlieues. – The Observer (UK)

Colleagues Remember I.M. Pei

People in the field who were close to him, recalling him after his death, said that the warmth was innate and not for show. “You think of architects who seem to lead with their ego, and he was never like that,” said David Childs, a consulting design partner with SOM, a firm that often competed with Pei’s. “He was very generous to me when I was a 28-year-old kid.” – The New York Times