Are our theaters indifferent, craven, or complicit? Take your pick.
Commentary
Arts Commentary: “The Death of the Artist” — Culture Workers Unite!
The shared baseline of these conversations is that there are no good old days to go back to. If the cultural sector in the United States returns to the ways things were organized in February, 2020, with all the inequity and unsustainability that implies, we will have failed.
Jazz Remembrance: The Lasting, Complex Legacy of John Coltrane
Of all the musicians who were harbingers of change, none has had the long-term influence on young musicians that John Coltrane has had.
Arts Commentary: Meditations on Separation
This is what I feel can add: the perspective of a native-born son of the Rochester metro; and a view from the bridge through jazz-colored glasses.
Arts Remembrance: Soul Iconoclast Roy C
Roy C may not have lived to see the current regime toppled or his litigation over past royalties resolved to his satisfaction, but he died knowing that he was — without a doubt — a Black American original.
Visual Arts Commentary: Digital Media — Public Art Is a Bridge to Our New Normal
In a time when everyday seems like Wednesday, creative use of new media is a visual and experiential bridge to our new and hopefully innovative normal.
Arts Remembrance: Fred “Toots” Hibbert — Resiliency in the Face of Struggle
As anyone who is familiar with “Toots” Hibbert’s near sixty-year career could testify, he was an artist who wrote songs that were guaranteed to transcend the contexts of their particular place and moment.
Police Violence Commentary: Another NYPD Murder — Two Decades Ago
To be killed — as in murdered — by police you don’t necessarily have to be a person of color.
Jazz Commentary: Charlie Parker — The Eternal Radical at 100
I’m still not sure I heard what’s revolutionary about Charlie Parker’s recordings — they’re very old news by now. But I warm to the expressions of unique genius, a beauty that in itself is radical.
Arts Commentary: Family-Friendly Pandemic Entertainment?
Will attendees of Jurassic Quest “have a dino-mite time!”? Who knows? But the event will look mighty attractive to parents who havee been stuck in the house with kids who are driving them to distraction.