“In these plays, part of my job is to unflatten history in a way that’s engaging, and also shows us that it’s okay for us to feel overwhelmed and confused and scared by the world — that we’re not so different from the people who came before us. They got through it, and we will, too.”
Interview
Theater Interview: Tennessee Williams and Censorship
“A lot of censorship in America has to do with the impulse to shut down what women have to say, literally hanging and burning them as witches to shut them up.”
Film Interview: “Searching for Mr. Rugoff” — A Passion for Independent Cinema
A documentary about a “crazy genius,” theater owner and film distributor Donald Rugoff, a difficult but insatiable P.T. Barnum-like impresario whose storied rise and tragic fall in the movie business has been overlooked.
Author Interview: “Of Thee I Sing” — Ben Railton on the Cycles of American Patriotism
“If you are more critical or try to highlight some of the worst things that happen in America, then you are un-American or anti-American.”
Author Interview: Boston’s Joseph Torra — Reflections of a Writer’s Life
“I’m an anarchist as an artist — I write what I want, however I want. I refuse to adhere to the forms that society hands down.”
Short Fuse Podcast #42: PROMISE WITNESS REMEMBRANCE
Host Elizabeth Howard talks with Stephen Reily, Director of the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky about the exhibition, “Promise, Witness, Remembrance.”
Author Interview: Aaron S. Lecklider on the Forgotten History of Homosexuality and the Left in American Culture
The reader comes away from Love’s Next Meeting with an awareness of the rich history of homosexual culture existed long before the Stonewall riots in the summer of ‘69.
Author Interview: Fred Waitzkin on “Strange Love”
One reason Fred Waitzkin’s work, outside of Searching for Bobby Fischer, is not as well known as it might be is that it doesn’t respect time-honored boundaries between fiction and nonfiction.
Visual Arts Interview: The Colonial Elephant in the Room — Talking with Barnaby Phillips, author of “Loot: Britain and The Benin Bronzes”
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.
Film Interview: RoxFilm’s Lisa Simmons — Embracing Cinematic Independence
“It is wonderful to see the variety, diversity, and the opportunities for Black artists to tell their stories and present themselves in ways that are not ‘traditional.'”