Arts + Culture
The latest in arts + culture.
Black Kids Should Study Larkin
In this excellent piece, Tomiwa Owolade argues that efforts to “decolonize” curriculum are patronizing. It is “based on the assumption that black students resonate most with poetry written by black poets. That is nonsense… Race is not the only thing that defines the life and experiences of a person; I used to think only avowed racists believed it does…This is not inclusion; it is division.”
Can Musicians Think Freely?
In this episode, Coleman and Winston Marshall discuss Winston's time with Mumford & Sons, the influence of Jordan Peterson on Winston’s thinking and songwriting, cancel culture in the music industry in Hollywood, reparations for slavery, the differences between America and the UK, and much more.
Opera’s Lack of Diversity Extends to Offstage, a Study Shows
In addition to a lack of racial diversity in principal roles and composers being performed, Hernández highlights a recent study showing there is “also a striking dearth of minorities… in the ranks of opera administration.” Issues of diversity “gained fresh urgency after the police killing of George Floyd… which brought renewed attention to questions about representation in the arts.”
Who Can Write About What? A Conversation With Roxanne Gay and Jay Caspian Kang
In this 30-minute NYT’s The Argument episode, writers Roxanne Gay and Caspian Kang discuss writing across identity lines with host Jane Coaston. “When does creative license become cultural appropriation? Take ‘American Dirt’ and ‘The Help,’ two books by white authors that drew criticism for their portrayals of characters of color. Artists’ job is to imagine and create, but what do we do when they get it wrong?”
She Wrote a Dystopian Novel. What Happened Next Was Pretty Dystopian.
Author Sandra Newman wrote a sci-fi book about the sudden disappearance of all men from the planet. As Paul documents, the activists responded swiftly: “[Asserting] the salience of biological sex…was enough to upset a vocal number of transgender activists online.” Months before its release, the book was attacked as a “transphobic, racist, ableist, misogynist nightmare of a book.”
Live not by Lies with Ignat Solzhenitsyn
A must-listen conversation with FAIR in the Arts Fellow Clifton Duncan and Ignat Solzhenitsyn, world-renowned composer, pianist and son of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. They discuss the impact of Russian history on art, how Russian writers speak for the people and the truth, “speaking truth to power” in Russia vs. America, the clustering of artistic creativity, how a nation and its art can recover from the annihilation of its artists, and the necessity of artists to be free, live free, and speak the truth.
The War on Western Art
In this excellent conversation, FAIR in the Arts Fellow Clifton Duncan and FAIR Advisor Douglas Murray discuss why the left finds art more important than the right, whether art can fill the “God-shaped hole” in society, how theatre today is boringly political in one direction, the theatre as a think tank, how creative spirit is killed by conformity, and how art is in and of itself cultural appropriation—listening, borrowing and borderless. And, they discuss the three things Murray wants to see end.
Representation Matters. We Need to do it Right.
In this personal and insightful piece, FAIR Advisor Eduardo argues that true representation is more than cosmetic— “Because art is so integral to the human experience, it’s no surprise that we often focus our energies on correcting the record through art… My concern is that we undercut our own enterprise if we fail to engage ‘representation’ with the depth and nuance that it deserves.”
The Limits of ‘Lived Experience’
“Did Dana Schutz, a white artist, have the right to paint Emmett Till? Was it fair that a white historian, David Blight, won a Pulitzer for his biography of Frederick Douglass?” These are questions posed by Paul as the gatekeepers of our culture deem that “only those whose ‘lived experience’ matches the story are qualified to tell the tale.”