Tag Archive for "Arts"

Posts Tagged Arts

When I think of “Home”. Or reasons to watch “Homeland”.

Writers don’t write from experience, though many are hesitant to admit that they don’t. I want to be clear about this. If you wrote from experience, you’d get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy. – Nikki Giovanni

You Guys: I have SO much TV to catch up on. The above epigraph may seem incongruous, but to deny that popular art, and in this case TV dramas are reflections of our collective lives is just dishonest. As a creative writer, I know this. I know that I need a metaspace to organize a set of experiences, memory to mete out what makes sense. There is a great deal of empathy in the life and work of artists. I ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 11 years ago

“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” – Nora Ephron, 1941-2012

Essayist and filmmaker Nora Ephron has died.

Nora Ephron was a giant. Ephron wrote the screenplay for “Silkwood”, best known as the writer of the seminal romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally” and wrote and directed the wildly successful (and still one of my favorites) “You’ve Got Mail”. If you haven’t seen “Silkwood”, please seek to remedy that fact immediately.

But I leave you with Ephron’s commencement address to the Wellesley Class of 1996:

Don’t let the number of women in the work force trick you — there are still lots of magazines devoted almost exclusively to making perfect casseroles and turning various things into tents.

Don’t underestimate how much antagonism there is toward women and how many people wish we ...

Essayist and filmmaker Nora Ephron has died.

Nora Ephron was a giant. Ephron wrote the screenplay for “Silkwood”, best known as the writer of the seminal romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally” and wrote and directed ...

By Miriam • 12 years ago

Sins Invalid: The film

I’ve followed Sins Invalid for a few years now, and always lamented that I haven’t been in Bay Area during their yearly performance. They are:

Sins Invalid is a San Francisco/Bay Area based performance project that celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color and queer and gender-variant artists. Since 2006, our performances have explored themes of sexuality, embodiment, and the disabled body, impacting thousands through live performance.

Now Sins is working to turn their show into a documentary, so that people far and wide can experience their work.

I’m excited.

Like many groups, they are turning to kickstarter to get some funding going. Check out their page and see if you want to support. A donation of $35 ...

I’ve followed Sins Invalid for a few years now, and always lamented that I haven’t been in Bay Area during their yearly performance. They are:

Sins Invalid is a San Francisco/Bay Area based performance project ...

By Jos Truitt • 12 years ago

A feminist in art school

I’m in grad school right now, pursuing an MFA in Printmaking. Maybe not the degree folks who know me from political work would expect. I was born with a crayon in my hand – I’ve been making art my whole life. I was blessed to attend the Boston Arts Academy, a public visual and performing arts high school (I wrote about this extraordinary school here). And my undergraduate thesis was in printmaking.

Working in politics in DC for the past two years sapped me of my passion and creativity – needless to say it wasn’t a great time for my art. So I couldn’t be happier to have moved to one of my favorite cities and to be attending San ...

I’m in grad school right now, pursuing an MFA in Printmaking. Maybe not the degree folks who know me from political work would expect. I was born with a crayon in my hand – I’ve been making ...

By Miriam • 12 years ago

In memory of Cheryl B.

Today is Cheryl’s birthday, and all of the Facebook posts reminded me that I’ve meant to write a post about her and her life since she died earlier this year.

Cheryl was a queer poet and activist living in New York City. I got to know her through my friendship with Sinclair Sexsmith, and through the reading series they co-hosted, Sideshow Queer Literary Carnival. I read at their Butch/Femme show last summer, and it was really an incredible event.

Cheryl died, relatively suddenly, in June because of a complication from her cancer treatment. It was a big loss for the community, and the memorial held in her honor was such incredible proof of the impact she had as a writer and ...

Today is Cheryl’s birthday, and all of the Facebook posts reminded me that I’ve meant to write a post about her and her life since she died earlier this year.

Cheryl was a queer poet and activist living ...

By Agaidis • 13 years ago

Maine Governor Paul LePage Threatens Workers Rights Mural

Last Friday, on the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Maine governor Paul LePage announced plans to remove a mural from Maine’s Department of Labor building painted by artist Judy Taylor of Tremont, ME. The Portland Press Herald writes,
“The 36-foot-long, 11 panel mural depicts the state’s labor history, including a shoe worker strike in Lewiston, female shipbuilders and striking papermakers in Jay.” Gov. LePage also ordered the renaming of Department’s conference rooms, four of which are named after women including Frances Perkins, the first female Cabinet member, and Marion Martin, founder of the National Federation of Republican Women. Another one of the conference rooms is named for Cesar Chavez.
LePage says removing the mural and renaming the ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

The Nutcracker: a beloved holiday tradition and a refuge for racism

For as long as I can remember, the holiday season has been Nutcracker season. My mother grew up watching Balanchine’s Nutcracker at the New York City Ballet, and made sure to introduce me and my sister both to ballet class and to the Nutcracker. As a result, even though Australian dance schools don’t perform the ballet every year the way many American schools do, I grew up knowing and loving this ballet above all others. We used to visit our family in the US once a year, during the Australian summer holidays, which meant that we often had a chance to see Balanchine’s Nutcracker for ourselves. Now that I live in New York, the world’s best-loved production of the ballet ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

“Sexism” in the Sweet realm – a big fat follow-up post

Last week, I blogged about Alastair Macaulay, the New York Times dance critic who, in his review of the New York City Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker, said some insulting and uncalled for things about the size of two principal dancers. Of Jennifer Ringer and Jared Angle, Macaulay said that Ringer “looked as if she’d eaten one sugarplum too many,” and that Angle, “seems to have been sampling half the Sweet realm.”

It was a really bitchy, cruel thing to say, and apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Macaulay received a lot of mail about that review and so, in the weekend Times, he wrote an article defending it. In that article, he calls people ...