Arts

The Arts

Poet Amanda Gorman speaks at the inauguration of U.S. President Biden on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. CREDIT: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Amanda Gorman’s Poetic Response To Pandemic Grief: ‘Do Not Ignore The Pain’

When Amanda Gorman wrote her poem, “The Miracle of Morning,” it was early on in the coronavirus pandemic, when we were only beginning to comprehend the scale of national mourning to come. But even then, she wanted to acknowledge the promise of healing, like the light of morning, that springs from despair. Continue Reading Amanda Gorman’s Poetic Response To Pandemic Grief: ‘Do Not Ignore The Pain’

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Daphne Rubin-Vega played Mimi in Rent. "It was a lot of fun to actually be able to practically apply my research of partying ..." she says. "I knew these people. I knew this world." She's pictured above with Adam Pascal in New York Theatre Workshop's 1996 production of rent. CREDIT: Joan Marcus

13,140,000 Minutes: It’s Been 25 Years Since The First Performance Of ‘Rent’

On Jan. 25, 1996, a new rock musical by a little-known writer, Jonathan Larson, gave its first performance. Friends and family filed into a small off-Broadway theater to see Rent. The show was a retelling of La Boheme, set on the Lower East Side of New York, as people were dying of AIDS. It became an international phenomenon, winning the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award, among others, but the performance almost didn’t happen. Early that morning, Larson died of an aortic aneurysm. I spoke with some of the people who were there that night. Continue Reading 13,140,000 Minutes: It’s Been 25 Years Since The First Performance Of ‘Rent’

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Book cover - Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

BOOK REVIEW: In ‘Remote Control,’ Drones Fly Over The Yam Fields Of A Near-Future Africa

At the start of the story, Fatima is a young Ghanian girl who has taken on the mantle of the Adopted Daughter of Death. Renamed Sankofa — an avian symbol of the West African Akan people, one that embodies the idea of harnessing the past to forge a better tomorrow — she wanders the land, inducing dread and awe in the towns she encounters, a living legend wielding the power of annihilation. The dead pile at her departing feet. Continue Reading BOOK REVIEW: In ‘Remote Control,’ Drones Fly Over The Yam Fields Of A Near-Future Africa

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Poet Amanda Gorman speaks at the inauguration of U.S. President Biden on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. CREDIT: Alex Wong/Getty Images

‘Not Broken But Simply Unfinished’: Poet Amanda Gorman Calls For A Better America At Inauguration

Amanda Gorman echoed, in dynamic and propulsive verse, the same themes that Biden has returned to again and again and that he wove throughout his inaugural address: unity, healing, grief and hope, the painful history of American experience and the redemptive power of American ideals. Continue Reading ‘Not Broken But Simply Unfinished’: Poet Amanda Gorman Calls For A Better America At Inauguration

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Ashton Edwards dancing outside

With A Leap Across Gender Norms, Northwest Ballet Student Looks To Rewrite Rules Of Dance

The way that ballet dancer Ashton Edwards leaps through the air is pure art. The fact that he does it in pointe shoes is a rare feat. Edwards is an 18-year-old ballet student with the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s elite Professional Division in Seattle. He has been studying classical ballet since he was 4 — but always in male roles. Continue Reading With A Leap Across Gender Norms, Northwest Ballet Student Looks To Rewrite Rules Of Dance

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Book cover - Outlawed, by Anna North

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Outlawed’ Frontiers Of Gender And Sexuality Beckon In This Sly Western

Outlawed opens in an alternative America of 1894 that was torn asunder by a flu epidemic some 60 years earlier. West of the Mississippi, centralized government has been replaced by a patchwork of Independent Towns. One of the few things this fragmented America agrees on is that women are put on Earth to bear children. That’s it. Continue Reading BOOK REVIEW: ‘Outlawed’ Frontiers Of Gender And Sexuality Beckon In This Sly Western

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