Arts: Visual Arts Awards/Prizes

Dyani White Hawk, 2023 MacArthur Fellow, Wants Us to Rethink Art

Dyani White Hawk wants us to rethink art. She posits that European-American histories have created a hierarchy wherein certain forms and aspects of art are uplifted while others are devalued. Her focus on Indigenous aesthetics, drawing from her perspective as a Lakota woman, is constantly working against this narrative, with the intent to showcase the parts of her artistic histories that have been excluded.read more.

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Arts: Cinema Arts FF2 Reviews

Joanna Hogg’s Film ‘The Souvenir Part II’ is Cinematic Art

In 2019, Richard Brody (New Yorker magazine’s art house film critic) criticized Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir, writing: “A far more conventional director might have been inclined to ask more questions of the script, to show more of the action, to reveal more about the characters, and, as a result, to make a more engaging and insightful movie.”… read more.

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Arts: Visual Arts Interviews

Camille Eskell and the Plight of the Fez-Maker’s Granddaughter

For artist Camille Eskell, the fez is laden with potent, personal symbolic meaning as vast as its far-reaching mix of geographical and socio-cultural connotations. 

“I often use the fez cap,” she elucidates, “as a structural base for storytelling to signify the foundation, and the patriarchal base, established by both my grandfathers…” 

Her grandfathers, resourceful patriarchs of an Iraqi Jewish family, were transplants to Bombay (present-day Mumbai) three generations ago.read more.

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Arts: Performing Arts Opinion/POV

Living at the Precipice: Sydney Sprague’s New Album

I knew I would love Sydney Sprague’s new album somebody in hell loves you before it came out, and I was right. 

Do you ever feel that way about records? You just know it’s going to be good? You just know it’s going to be exactly what you need, at the time when you need it? That’s exactly how I felt in anticipation of this album, and when it was finally out in the world, I certainly wasn’t disappointed. read more.

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Arts: Cinema Arts SWAN of the Day

Documentary Filmmaker Amy Berg: Witness to Injustice

Eight years ago today, Janis: Little Girl Blue released to U.S. theaters. The documentary follows the life of acclaimed singer-songwriter and rock star Janis Joplin. Through archival footage mixed with powerful narration by Cat Powers (a contemporary woman rocker), the director takes her viewers on a journey into the legend of one of the most celebrated rock and roll icons.read more.

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Arts: Applied Arts Awards/Prizes

Artistic Journey: MacArthur Fellow María Magdalena Campos-Pons

As a multidisciplinary artist with a diverse ethnic background, María Magdalena Campos-Pons has an important goal: “to present the complexity of duality, knowledge, history, heritage, [and] culture.” Born in Cuba, María’s ancestors hail from Nigeria (Africa) as well as Canton (China) and Spain.read more.

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