Commentary

Visual Arts Interview: The Colonial Elephant in the Room — Talking with Barnaby Phillips, author of “Loot: Britain and The Benin Bronzes”

June 16, 2021
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Last week, just a month after the publication of Loot in the US, the Met in New York announced that it was returning two Benin Bronzes to Nigeria.

Arts Commentary: Small Business Administration — Cut the Red Tape and Distribute Fed Money to Shuttered Venues!

June 12, 2021
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Boston’s independent theatres and music venues are joining thousands from around the country to call on the Small Business Administration to immediately release Shuttered Venue Operators Grant funds.

THE ARTS FUSE TURNS 14! — Our Spring Appeal

June 4, 2021
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Please help us bring the arts and culture community roaring back to life by supporting the magazine and its independent coverage.

Arts Reconsideration: The 1971 Project — Blue Lives Madder, “Dirty Harry” Turns 50

June 4, 2021
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The path Dirty Harry (and too many of his defenders, then and now) chose to pursue — the urban policing version of “killing the village in order to save it” — was outdated and discredited even in 1971.

Theater Commentary: A Time for Tragic Reflection

June 1, 2021
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“We can, of course, be deceived in many ways. We can be deceived by believing what is untrue, but we certainly are also deceived by not believing what is true.” — Søren Kierkegaard

Book Review: “The New Climate War” — Enough of the Doomsayers!

May 22, 2021
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This incisive volume will assist the creation of a much-needed collective effort, helping to frame a unified approach to waging combat on those who are destroying the environment for the sake of short term profit.

Book Interview: Translator Julie Rose on the Lyrical Power of Émile Zola’s “Doctor Pascal”

May 12, 2021
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Published in August of 2020, Oxford University Press’s English translation of Doctor Pascal marked the first time that Émile Zola’s 20-book Les Rougon-Macquart series was available in print under one publisher.

Cultural Commentary: “Dogefather” Elon Musk on SNL – Banking on the Irony of the Rich

May 9, 2021
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“Fate loves irony” opines the billionaire. Will we be in on the joke, or left out in the cold?

Theater Commentary: Who’s Agitating for a “Green New Theatre”?

May 3, 2021
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The arrival of Groundwater Arts suggests the birth of efforts to organize artists and others to press cultural organizations to take meaningful action on the climate crisis.

Film Commentary: “Minari” — An Immigrant Tale with a Southern Accent

April 28, 2021
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Minari is about the triumph of folkways, both Ozark and Korean.

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