“Naming Gallery in Oakland, California, is a multi-purpose arts space where people congregate on Saturday nights. … In August 2016, a fatal shooting occurred outside the gallery where hundreds of people were celebrating. ‘If we let this destroy us as people, we won’t be able to gather, we won’t be able to share art with each other,’ says Imari, a musician who is part of the Naming Gallery community. ‘To stay open is the only thing I can do right now.'” (video)
Tag: 11.03.16
Why Movie Romantic Comedies Are A Problematic Genre
“The common knock against rom-coms—besides their being too often glibly hetero-normative and horrendously lacking in diversity and ironically ambivalent about the women who generally watch them—is that they are fantasies, in the worst way as well as the best.”
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Unless It’s In A Commercial
Lewis Lapham: “For the last several years the word ‘revolution’ has been hanging around backstage on the national television talk-show circuit waiting for somebody, anybody – visionary poet, unemployed automobile worker, late-night comedian – to cue its appearance on camera. … Why then does nobody have any use for it except in the form of the adjective, revolutionary, unveiling a new cell phone app or a new shade of lipstick?”
This Is Why, In The Age Of Social Media, A Theater Shouldn’t Stiff Its Actors
“Cash-strapped Mad Cow Theatre must pay actors and others owed money by Dec. 1 if it wants to receive a $75,000 grant from Orange County. … The council’s recommendation also requires the downtown Orlando theater to explain how it plans to deal with its long-term debt.”
Exploring Dylan As A Literary Phenomenon
Accademia has grappled with the literary stylings of Bob Dylan for some time. It may be that Dylan hits a funny sweet spot in academia today: To many professors, he still stands for literary ambition and ’60s rebellion. And for many students — born in the last years of the 20th century — he is so distant from the streets where they live he might as well be John Keats.
A Deep Meditation On What Emma Rice Meant To The Globe
The U.S. and Britain don’t have public investigations of theatres’ artistic direction, though Germany does. Perhaps the Globe’s seemingly peremptory dismissal of recently hired AD Emma Rice over lighting will lead Britain to figure that out a little more clearly – together, before hiring a new artistic director.
Quentin Tarantino Says He’ll Retire After Directing Two More Films
The director says he’ll fulfill a long-ago pledge to direct 10 films and then move on to other creative endeavors. In his own words: “Drop the mic. Boom. Tell everybody, ‘Match that shit.'”
A U.S. Visa Fee Hike For Traveling Artists May Make It Even Harder For Them
The fees have gone up to fund free visas for refugees, says the US Citizen and Immigration Services. The fee hike will hurt more than the artists: “When only the wealthy kids who can hire an agency to advocate for their passage are coming, I can’t help but think that hardworking foreign artists aren’t the only ones missing out on something.”
How Video Games Desensitize People To Violence
“Young children have unprecedented access to violent movies, games and sports events at an early age, and learning brutality is the norm. The media dwells upon real-life killers, describing every detail of their crime during prime-time TV. The current conditions easily set up children to begin thinking like soldiers and even justify killing. But are we in fact suppressing critical functions of the brain? Are we engendering future generations who will accept violence and ignore the voice of reason, creating a world where violence will become the comfortable norm?”
Does Shaming An Arts Organization For Not Being Diverse Make A Difference?
Is it fair for one aspect of an organisation’s work to tar the rest? And, equally, can the sector become more diverse and inclusive by ‘naming and shaming’?