Arts
The Arts
Metropolitan Opera Backstage Workers: ‘Without People, The Opera Is Nothing’
The Met is the largest performing arts organization in the United States, employing close to 3,000 people, with an annual budget of over $300 million. When it shut down because of COVID last March, the company cited the force majeure provision of its agreements, and made the decision to furlough all its union artists and craftspeople.
BOOK REVIEW: In ‘Nubia: Real One,’ Trying To Be A Hero When Society Thinks You’re A Threat
Nubia: Real One doesn’t take place on Wonder Woman’s home island Themyscira, but somewhere in modern-day America — though a modern-day America in which superheroes are a real thing. And Nubia is not an adult woman warrior who knows who and what she is (as she did when she first appeared in 1973’s Wonder Woman Vol. 1 #204), no. This is McKinney’s take on Nubia for real.
Black Women Were Vital To The Black Church. Their Stories Are Explored In New PBS Program
In his latest documentary series and book, “The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song,” Gates examines the cultural institution within Black communities. He explains how the Black Church has played such a vital role in Black liberation, since its beginnings. And along with viewing the Black church through a critical eye and exploring its origin, the new PBS series also pays tribute to the often overlooked work of Black women for the Black church.
Where Are They Now? We Check In With Broadway Workers, Now Off Broadway Nearly A Year
Every year, as a set-up for the Tony Awards, we take you backstage to meet people who aren’t even eligible. These are Broadway’s essential workers – ushers, stage managers, costumers. But this year, the Tonys seem like a faraway dream; even though nominations for the shortened season were announced in October, no date has been set. So, I decided to check in with some of those essential workers I’ve interviewed before, to find out how they’ve been coping since theaters closed.
TV REVIEW: ‘It’s A Sin’ Series, Set During AIDS Epidemic, Resonates During COVID-19
The emergence of AIDS provides the impetus for It’s a Sin, a hit British series about five young people who share a London apartment over the years from 1981 to ’91. The show is the semi-autobiographical brainchild of Russell T. Davies, a writer best known for creating Queer as Folk and resurrecting Doctor Who. With his gimlet eye for the pop jugular, Davies turns the story of that deadly pandemic into a soapy drama that, like many dance songs from that era, is equal parts bounciness and woe.
5 Things Every Family Should Know About Paying For College
For many families, paying for college is one of the biggest financial decisions they’ll make. College tuition is the highest it’s ever been — and the financial aid process is anything but clear. American journalist Ron Lieber’s new book, The Price You Pay for College aims to take the black box of college financials and, “turn it lighter and lighter shades of gray.”
Korean American TikTok Chefs Share Quarantine Recipes For Lunar New Year
Lunar New Year hits differently this year. It’s an annual holiday celebrated on a bedrock of bringing families, across the country and overseas, together for home-cooked meals and lots of catching up.
Author Leah Johnson On Being Young, Black, Queer And In Love
Johnson says she wrote You Should See Me in a Crown for her readers, yes, but also for herself: “I wanted to remind myself that it is possible to be Black and queer and from where you’re from, and still get all the best things out of life.”
FILM REVIEW: ‘Judas And The Black Messiah’ Is A Tense Thriller About The Black Panther Party
One of the virtues of Judas and the Black Messiah is that it gives us such a captivating sense of who Hampton was. He’s played here by an electrifying Daniel Kaluuya, who captures the young man’s gift for inspiring other activists and his ferocious critique of the nation’s white power structure.
Poetry Collection ‘Love And Other Poems’ Promises That Love Will Find Us
The book is guided by the structure of time. We go full circle from June through to May; summer through to spring. There is a poem for each month, just as there is a poem for each feeling. Pleasure, annoyance, boredom, spiritual awakening — we feel it all. And as the poems travel through time, the poet’s vulnerability and loneliness are palpable enough to, perhaps deliberately, make the reader feel less alone.
BOOK REVIEW: ‘The Removed’ Walks A Path Between Memory And Mourning
The roads taken by the family in The Removed, Brandon Hobson’s new novel, are essential ones in this moment of national reclaiming. The story in this book is deeply resonant and profound, and not only because of its exquisite lyricism. It’s also a hard and visceral entrance into our own reckoning as a society and civic culture with losses we created, injustices we allowed, and family separations we ignored.
Christopher Plummer, Star Of Stage, Screen, ‘Sound Of Music,’ Dies At 91
In 2012, when he was already well into his 80s, Christopher Plummer told NPR that he was busier than he had been in a long time – and that was OK with him. “You never stop learning how to act, both on screen and on the stage,” he said. “I feel like I’m starting all over again. Every sort of decade I feel this, and that’s very satisfying.”
