Read a letter Zora Neale Hurston wrote to her friend and fellow writer Countee Cullen in which she discusses lynching, segregation, and her feelings about white “liberals.”
This week, Reel 13’s featured short films meditate on age–both youth and maturity. Watch an animated portrait of an infant son, a day in the life of an eighty-eight year old grandfather, and a collage of an elderly woman’s fading memories.
“WACK! Art & the Feminist Revolution” (at MoMA’s P.S. 1 until May 12th), is the first international survey of Feminist Art. Mary Beth Edelson, one of the pioneers of Feminist Art, talks about her experience as an artist and an activist during the 1970s.
Cai Guo-Qiang has literally exploded the accepted parameters of art making in our time. Drawing freely from–among others–ancient mythology, Taoist cosmology, extraterrestrial observations, gunpowder-related technology, and methods of terrorist violence, Cai’s art is a form of social energy, constantly mutable, linking what he refers to as “the seen and unseen worlds.”
Cai’s new exhibition, “I [...]
If you want proof that the the borders of classical music just keep getting more porous, you need look no further than Three Lost Chords, a one-hour show that has been playing at the offbeat little Zipper Theater.
Earlier this week, Robert Hass, United States Poet Laureate emeritus (1995-97), won the Pulitzer Prize for his book of poetry, “Time and Materials.” In this video, Hass reads from his book of translations, “The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa.”
The opera world is a predominantly civilized place, but like any other subculture we have our own brand of pejoratives. One of the worst is Regietheater. Find out what it means, then watch an opera clip to see if you can sniff it out.
Update: The Pulitzer board just announced its picks for 2008. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Díaz nabbed the Pulitzer prize for fiction.
Over at Critical Mass, the National Book Critics Circle blog, Marcela Valdes describes her first experience reading Dominican- born, New Jersey-raised writer Junot Díaz:
I still remember the first time I [...]
New art at the Whitney Biennial, Aeros opens at the New Victory Theater, Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opens at the Broadhurst Theater (running now through June 15th), and Sotheby’s holds an auction.
Meet Eric Barry, the “Pavarotti of the panhandle.” Hear Eric’s thoughts on live theater and music, and watch him perform Verdi’s “La Donna É Mobile” from RIGOLETTO.
