Tag: 11.01.19

America’s First Banned Book, Published And Suppressed Back In 1637

Thomas Morton came to Massachusetts with the Puritans in 1624, but he was there strictly on business. What’s more, he didn’t fear the surrounding landscape as the devil’s dwelling place, he loved it and the Native Americans who lived there. He was a dandy, and one year he even (gasp) put up a maypole. Morton and the Puritans despised each other, and when he let them have it in his New English Canaan, they promptly banned it. – Atlas Obscura

Has The Publishing Business Become Too Reliant On Huge Hits?

Though the hits-driven nature of publishing has not changed in recent years, the nature of those hits has. Due to a number of coalescing factors—including a shrinking physical retail market and an increase in competing entertainment driven by the proliferation of streaming TV platforms—book publishing has watched as a handful of megaselling titles have begun to command an ever-larger share of its sales. – Publishers Weekly

Why Contemporary Architecture Cognoscenti Like “Ugly” Buildings

“A widespread public bewilderment at the ‘Deconstructivist’ showcase buildings that they are told is great modern architecture is well known. But less well understood is that most of the Western world’s architectural academy are militantly disdainful of most popular conceptions of architectural comeliness. And this disdain extends not only to the “classical” in public and commercial buildings but equally to the average person’s ideal of a home and neighborhood.” – The American Conservative

Writing Versus The Performance Of Being A Writer

No doubt social media in particular seems to represent the triumph of the writerly type over the writing itself. But DeWitt, Baker, Whitehead, and Atwood are among our most accomplished writers; so what if they’re willing to play the type on occasion? It might seem possible to just perform the office of writer—thoughtfully curated Instagrams of to-read piles, tweets geo-tagged at the MacDowell Colony—but it’s still a publish-or-perish business. – The New Republic

Meet Colombia’s Grand Entrepreneur Of Graffiti

“Where the average eye sees empty and drab building walls, [Camilo Fidel] López, the founder of the graffiti artists crew Vértigo Graffiti, sees blank canvases, opportunities to colorfully further the cause of social justice, whether in his home city — the Colombian capital, Bogotá — or the rest of the world. … Not a graffiti artist himself, Mr. López plays multiple roles: art director, business manager, promoter, negotiator, lawyer, entrepreneur, festival producer, even tour guide.” – The New York Times

Anna Deavere Smith Hands Over The Docu-Play That Made Her Famous — And For Which She Did All The Interviews — To Another Actor

A revival of Fires in the Mirror, Smith’s 1992 solo show about the riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and the tension between Caribbean Blacks and Hasidic Jews there, is opening in New York next week. For the first time, all 29 parts are being played by another actor: Michael Benjamin Washington. Salamishah Tillet interviews both of them about the handover. – The New York Times

Look Out, Akhnaten — Your Famous Son Is Getting An Opera Of His Own

As Philip Glass’s work about the monotheist pharaoh gets a major revival at the Met, news comes that a new opera on the life of King Tutankhamun is set to premiere late next year in Cairo. The libretto is co-written by the famous archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister of antiquities, with the score by Italian composer Lino Zambone. Performances are planned to mark the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo. – The Art Newspaper