“In the following conversation, theatremaker Lauren E. Turner recounts her courageous healing journey from the depths of sustained racialized trauma working in a New Orleans theatre to the launching of her own theatre company, No Dream Deferred, into its first season this fall. Given the persistence of racialized trauma in white theatre institutions, we interrogate how — and if — people of color feel they have a place within them.” – HowlRound
Tag: 11.18.19
Research: Extraordinary People Are More Likely To Be Polymaths
Studies have found that Nobel Prize-winning scientists are about 25 times more likely to sing, dance or act than the average scientist. They are also 17 times more likely to create visual art, 12 times more likely to write poetry and four times more likely to be a musician. – BBC
American Theatre Is Traumatizing Its Own Practitioners
Lauren E. Turner, founder of the New Orleans theatre company No Dream Deferred, says that she was deeply lucky as a kid. “I was taught creating space was my duty. The idea of what was out there and available for performers of color was accessible, and I knew there was power in being able to tell a different story in different ways. Had I not had that experience, I would have just assumed theatre was strictly for white people.” – HowlRound
World’s Biggest Secondhand Book Market Could Be In Danger
With a history going back almost 150 years, College Street in Kolkata “has every imaginable type of text, available in Bengali, English, Mandarin, Sanskrit, Dutch, and every dialect in between. Precious first editions and literary classics sit cheek by jowl with medical encyclopedias, religious texts, and pulp fiction, often precariously stacked in uneven piles that resemble jagged cliff faces.” But many of the booksellers there are worried about an enormous new mall, planned by the West Bengal state government, set to open next year as a literary hub. – Atlas Obscura
Dublin Is Booming Again. Alas, Making Art Is Again More Difficult
“We hear people saying that the boom is back but that doesn’t seem to be translating into a richer arts and cultural centre. Ireland has a really strange relationship with arts and culture. As a society, we love talking about it. We love owning it. But we don’t fund it very well. We have some of the lowest arts funding per capita in Europe.” – Irish Times
Trump Proposes Shutting Down NEA, NEH, Cultural Agencies… Again
For the third time in as many years, the White House has proposed a federal budget that would shutter the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which supports PBS and NPR — and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Like last year, the plan provides small appropriations for each agency to facilitate its orderly demise. – Washington Post
Ian Williams Wins $100,000 2019 Giller Prize
“Reproduction” is set in Brampton and explores the nature of family — both blood relatives and chosen family. The writing, as reviewers expect from Williams, is beautiful — he’s written many volumes of poetry, and been shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry prize in 2013. This was his debut novel, proving he’s an equal master in both forms. – Toronto Star
How Margaret Atwood Became A Global Superstar
It’s remarkable that Atwood, who turned eighty in November, has reached this crest after spending six decades writing into an ever-shifting cultural landscape. When she was starting out, writers, for the most part, didn’t get published in Canada. Canadian literature as a concept didn’t even exist. – The Walrus
Princess Who Saved Cambodian Classical Dance, Norodom Buppha Devi, Dead At 76
The daughter of the late King Sihanouk. she began dancing at age 5; by age 16, she was a leader of the royal dance company and a mainstay of Cambodian cultural diplomacy. She fled the country when the Khmer Rouge took control in 1975; in the 1990s, she returned and, with the 10% of dancers who survived the killing fields, set about to revive the art form. – Reuters
Alone Among Australia’s Big Arts Festivals, Adelaide Refuses To Engage With Country’s Past And Present
“Perth and Sydney have recognised [their responsibilities] by commissioning diverse local artists working in diverse forms. These festivals are engaging with their place in contemporary culture by supporting local artistic communities, and reflecting stories of their cities back to their audiences. Meanwhile, Adelaide has continued down a well worn path … [of] proven successes from Europe, with a preference for male auteurs.” – The Conversation