We had houseguests this past week, dear friends we?ve known for decades. Lingering over breakfast on Friday, we divvied up the \New York Times\. Whoever commented first on the employment report (200,000 new jobs had been forecast for July, but only 32,000 actually materialized) spoke what all of us were feeling: I hate to say …
In my blog entry for June 6th, I reported on a meeting of community artists. I described how the participants noticed that, out of political demoralization, we had silenced ourselves in the public arena, not even bothering to state our case. Unlike earlier times, we artists weren’t promoting a cultural policy agenda for the presidential …
This is amazing! Check out this beautiful ad created to run on Arabic-language TV, apologizing for what was done at Abu Ghraib in our names. If the clip doesn?t play right away, click on “low” and a low-resolution version will open in another window.
At the end of May I attended a conference sponsored by the Community Arts Network, a uniquely rich resource for anyone interested in culture and community. It was conceived as a state of the field meeting, a check-in. While some of the participants were relative newcomers to community cultural development practice, there were enough 20-30-year …
The Nation of 17 May carried a piece about the shortcomings of the new South Africa. The article seems well-informed and mostly reasonable, and some (but not all) of the shortcomings seem short indeed. But my heart sank when I saw it. It’s not that I thought post-apartheid South Africa was heaven on earth, it’s …