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This week we're talking about what Pride means to LGBTQ artists, the Filipino designer who helped bring a story of Liberian women to life, the women artists challenging history, a Cuban choir tackling machismo culture, Jesse Ball's fiery new novel, and the recommendations you need to #ReadBooksAndChill this weekend.
LGBTQ Artists Reflect On What Pride Means To Them
As the month of June comes to a close, it’s a better time than ever to ask: What does Pride mean to you? In honor of the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan, which took place almost five decades ago, parades and gatherings across the U.S. celebrated the importance of Pride this month.
To continue the commemoration, we asked 12 artists who’ve explored LGBTQ issues in their work to reflect on what Pride means to them. From South African photographer Zanele Muholi to Canadian performance artist Cassils to First Nations artist Kent Monkman, each submitted a statement and a piece of art that represents what it means to be proud.
In the wake of the Orlando tragedy — the largest mass shooting in American history — these words are meant to inspire, educate and spread love. Because as Vivek Shraya wrote, “Queerness is a gift.” (Read more here.)
How A Filipino Designer Helped Bring A Story Of Liberian Women To Life
“Eclipsed” made history this year as Broadway’s first all-female production —written, directed and acted by black women. The play, a story of five mothers and daughters fighting for survival during the Second Liberian Civil War, quickly drew crowds as it not only recounted an important history of resilience, but reminded audiences today that violence against women is hardly a thing of the past.
Another member of the “Eclipsed” team made history too — Clint Ramos, one of the few men on the creative side, who was tasked with bringing the play’s set and costume design to life. After winning a Tony at this year’s ceremony for his work on “Eclipsed,” he became the first person of color to win in the costume design category, and the fourth Filipino to have ever won the coveted Broadway award. (Read more here.)
21 Recommendations For Anyone Who Wants To Read Books And Chill
It’s summer. You have visions of beaches, ice-cold beverages, and three-day weekends rolling around in your brain. Sure, maybe winter is the season to Netflix and chill. But the months of June, July and August? ‘Tis the time to read books and chill.
In honor, here are 21 books that hook you from page one and keep you hungry for more even after the last page. Go forth, dear readers, and chill:(Read more here.)
Today’s Artists Are Sick Of History Framing Women As Perfect
In art and in life, women have long been held to impossible standards of perfection. Walk through the halls of any museum and you’re sure to encounter classically rendered depictions of ladies — or, more aptly, muses — draped languidly over sofas, covering their body parts modestly yet suggestively, looking longingly into the distance, or, well, dead. And even in death, most appear unruffled, the ideal balance of innocence and seductiveness.
It comes as no great surprise that artists, mostly male, chose to immortalize women this way. The scrupulous standards fictitious women are made to maintain in art mimic those thrust upon them in real life. Be modest, but not uptight; sexy, but not sexual; beautiful, but not vain. The list goes on.
An exhibition of contemporary art titled “The Woman Destroyed,” on view now at New York’s P.P.O.W. Gallery, attempts to rip the ideal woman from art history’s grip, presenting instead a slew of female subjects who are struggling, hungry, furious, bulging, drowning, bleeding and crashing. (Read more here.)
A New Novel About Teenage Rebellion Is Summer’s Fieriest Read
Jesse Ball’s “How To Set A Fire And Why” follows a troubled young girl to detention and a secret arson club. (Read more here.)
Meet Mano A Mano, Cuba’s First And Only Gay Male Chorus
Mano a Mano is Cuba’s first and only official gay men’s chorus. It was founded two years ago by Cuban-born filmmaker Fermin Rojas and his husband, Jay Kubesch.
“The idea was a result of a documentary that I worked on in Cuba about visual artists living and working there,” Rojas explained to The Huffington Post. “One of the artists I interviewed said, ‘All I can leave behind is a record of what I’ve done for my country.’ That moved me to the point where I thought, I have to do something.” (Read more here.)
Book of the Week!
Yasmine El Rashidi’s debut novel illuminates the experience of coming of age amidst revolution — and asks us to question what revolution even means. (Read more here.)
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