Culture Shift is a weekly newsletter curated by the HuffPost Culture writers and editors.
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This week we're talking about the phrase "Dumpster Fire," the women playwrights who deserve your attention, how incarcerated youth are making their voices heard through art, Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst's "Relationship," the expansion of #EduHam, and our new Tumblr video series on YA authors.
Where Did ‘Dumpster Fire’ Come From? Where Is It Rolling?
These days, “dumpster fire” seems to crop up all over: Election analysis, business commentary, and, perennially, sports blogs. On Twitter, people throw the term at dismal iTunes updates, the internet generally, TV networks, dumb articles, and other tweeters they think are horrible human beings.
And Trump. Always and especially Trump.
Trump’s early appearance as a 2016 GOP contender encapsulated all that was dumpster-fiery about modern politics. He was bigoted toward racial, religious, ethnic and cultural minorities. He made crass comments about women. He proposed policies that made little to no practical sense, then took them back or denied having ever made them if he felt like it. He implied he had a large penis at a presidential primary debate. He was a showman, and his show relied on the same cheap schtickyness that movies like “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” do.
If, like many aghast Americans (even Republicans), you thought Trump was a garbage person, prejudiced and willfully ignorant and narcissistic — well, unfortunately it soon became clear that he was also en fuego. All his offensive comments and obvious lack of political expertise failed to puncture his rising poll numbers. He took primary after primary until he was left, as he is now, the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. Take one heaping pile of trash and multiply it by the unpredictably destructive force of a raging inferno, and you’ve got something both grotesque and somewhat terrifying. (Read more here.)
Meet The Kilroys, A Gang Of Women Fighting For Gender Parity In Theater
Where are all the women playwrights?
According to the Dramatists Guild of America, only 22 percent of the plays being produced in the United States are written by women. Perhaps a stronger way of communicating this statistic is through the words of playwright Marsha Norman: “In regard to gender parity, if life worked the way the theater does, four out of every five things you heard would be said by men.”
Other stats are more depressing: American Theatre Magazine reported that in the 2015-2016 season, only 21 percent of the 1,914 produced plays were written by women. “It’s not anyone’s feeling that women are underrepresented,” playwright Lisa Kron explained before the season even began. “It’s a fact; it’s in the numbers.”
What lies behind these numbers, though, is a very real field of women writing plays, many of which are un-produced or under-produced. The Kilroys, a self-described gang of female and trans playwrights, are well aware of this field of women. In fact, every year, they shine a light on the many female and gender nonconforming writers who are overlooked by the statistics above — and deserve your attention. (Read more here.)
How Incarcerated Youth Are Making Their Voices Heard Through Art
In 2001, artist Lauren Adelman and juvenile defender Francine Sherman began offering art workshops to girls incarcerated at the Spectrum Detainment Center in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The goal was to empower these young women, so often unseen and unheard, through creative expression.
Fifteen years later, this workshop has blossomed into what’s now known as Artistic Noise, a program designed to bring visual arts practice and entrepreneurial skills to young people who are incarcerated, on probation, or somehow involved in the justice system. An exhibition entitled “Infinite Revolution,” on view this summer, will celebrate the immense artistic talent of the individuals involved in the Artistic Noise community, and their bold spirits that refuse to be muffled. (Read more here.)
In ‘Relationship,’ A Trans/Trans Couple Collected Intimate Photos Of Life Together
Collectively, the images project the idea that gender is only a performance insofar as any relationship is. There are moments of pure individuality, and moments where your private self curls up against someone else’s private self, giving each other shape. (Read more here.)
Diagnosed With Rare Terminal Cancer, Artist Finds Acceptance Through Art
“The works are my only legacy,” artist Kaylin Andres told The Huffington Post when describing her piece “Three Braids.” In the delicate sculpture, interwoven strands of Andres’ own hair drip languidly from a wooden frame, reminders of how quickly our bodies can become detached, lifeless, and other.
“I find it difficult accepting death at such an early age, before I’ve had a chance to make my mark on the world,” she said. Eight years ago, at 23 years old, Andres was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma, a rare and often terminal form of bone cancer. These three braids, lost amidst countless radiation and chemotherapy sessions, embody the way illness rips the body apart, turning active elements into inanimate residue. Andres described her work as a modern day memento mori, a symbolic reminder of the inevitable mortality that affects us all. (Read more here.)
100,000 Students Across The U.S. Will Probably See ‘Hamilton’ Before You Do
Thousands of public school students across the country are about to realize exactly how lucky they are to be alive right now. History is happening. And this time, not just in New York.
During an interview with The Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin, “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda announced that his celebrated #EduHam program is expanding. What started as a project dedicated to helping 20,000 New York City public school students see the Tony-winning musical for just $10 (a Ham for “Ham,” as Miranda has described it) will grow to include thousands more students in cities set to host the musical on its national tour next year.
“We are very excited to announce today that we’re going to bring ‘Hamilton’ to 100,000 school kids around the United States,” Rodin explained to an audiences at Thursday’s Insight Dialogues event. (Read more here and here.)
Artist Terence Koh Chants Names Of Orlando Victims Into Outer Space
On June 12, 2016, a gunman opened fire at a queer nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and injuring 53 others. The massacre was the deadliest shooting in United States history. In the days since, countless individuals have grieved the young, innocent and beautiful lives cruelly cut short through this act of hate and questioned a world in which such a sickening gesture of inhumanity could occur, again and again.
“I was talking to someone about how, as artists, we are responsible, we have to do something,” artist Terence Koh explained in an interview with The Huffington Post. He speaks softly and silvery, his voice one that immediately makes you want to temper your own in response. “He said back to me, ‘We are all responsible.’”
On the evening of June 23, Koh performed a tribute to the victims of the Orlando massacre in the form of a chanting ceremony. Inspired by a ritual he witnessed at a Buddhist monastery, the Chinese-Canadian artist chanted the names of the 49 victims inside a bee chapel, a space in his ongoing exhibition at Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York. The chapel was connected to a microphone that linked to an antenna, which transmitted the sounds that moved through it into outer space, spreading Koh’s message of love into the universe. (Read more here.)
How Teens Can Get More Involved In Politics, According To One YA Writer
The climate of election years can be stormy and often thick with rhetoric, hard for budding young voters still acquainting themselves with the language of policy to parse out.
Young adult novelist Jenn Marie Thorne says this shouldn’t keep those not yet of voting age from educating themselves, and from voicing their own political opinions. There are other ways to have an impact and perform civic duty than casting a ballot.
The protagonist of her latest book, The Inside of Out, learns this quickly after she plans a school dance that allows for same-sex couples and garners national attention for her cause. The Huffington Post spoke with Thorne on Tumblr Live about her novel, and the other politically charged books that inspire her. (Read more here.)
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