Tag: 09.23.19

As Banned Books Week Comes To An End, One Might Wonder If Books Are Really Still Banned

The answer is yes. Yes, they sure are. And it’s not just Harry Potter or And Tango Makes Three. “Our government doesn’t actually ban books, does it? Sure it does! The federal government, and state and local governments, do it all the time. The New Jim Crow. The Color Purple. Excel for Dummies. In the incarceration capital of the world, books are often withheld from prisons because of their content, though sometimes for capricious and inexplicable reasons. When this kind of censorship becomes public prison officials often back down because it’s embarrassing. But still it happens.” – Inside Higher Ed

Of News Fake Or Emotional (Do We Understand The Difference?)

“What we do is share content that gets people riled up. Research has found that the best predictor of sharing is strong emotions — both emotions like affection (think posts about cute kittens) and emotions like moral outrage. Studies suggest that morally laden emotions are particularly effective: every moral sentiment in a tweet increases by 20 percent its chances of being shared.” – The New York Times

Has “Cancel Culture” Become A Culture Cancer?

“Whatever you call it—public shaming, call-out culture, or cancellation—what’s happening now is in no way a new phenomenon. But what is new is the scale of it all. This isn’t just happening to public figures; it’s happening everywhere that social media exists, and you no longer have to be powerful, or even notable, to get canceled. And sometimes the offense was committed when the guilty party was just a kid.”  – The New Republic

After 20 Years And An Asbestos Crisis, A Josef Albers Mural Greets Manhattan Commuters Again

“Hundreds of interlocking panels — black, white and Coca-Cola red all over — made up Josef Albers’s Manhattan, a mural in which geometry and meticulous precision met modernist vivacity. It was undeniably busy, which was appropriate, given its home high above the commuters bustling to and from Grand Central Terminal through 200 Park Avenue, best known as the MetLife Building.” – The New York Times

Berkeley Art Museum Director Lawrence Rinder To Step Down

In 2016, Rinder led the move of the museum from its original home, an architecturally significant but seismically challenged structure, to an acclaimed new building. The $112 million project, designed by New York architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, relocated BAMPFA from the southeast periphery of the Berkeley campus to a lively corner of Center Street. In the process, art and film became a much-needed linchpin between the university and the downtown of its host city. – San Francisco Chronicle

The Night Broadway’s ‘Slave Play’ Was Performed For An All-Black Audience

The producers of Jeremy O. Harris’s daring drama set aside all 804 seats on Sept. 18 for Black theatregoers, and they marketed the event almost entirely through direct outreach. Harris was thrilled by that night’s atmosphere: “People got out of their seats to go to the bathroom when they needed, people spoke, people laughed loudly, talked back, people (mon dieu!) texted with their ringers off and screens turned low. And the whole room felt free.” – American Theatre

Why Make Art In Times Of Disaster? The Point?

Michael Chabon: “Maybe the world in its violent turning is too strong for art. Maybe art is a kind of winning streak, a hot hand at the table, articulating a vision of truth and possibility that, while real, simply cannot endure. Over time, the odds grind you down, and in the end the house always wins. Or maybe the purpose of art, the blessing of art, has nothing to do with improvement, with amelioration, with making this heartbreaking world, this savage and dopey nation, a better place.” – The Paris Review