Move4ART

Seldom get to write in this place, in this voice. Here goes.  Where? Going to witness Sleeping Weazel 's presentation of "3/Fifths" Trapped in a Traveling Minstrel Show  this weekend at the Calderwood Pavilion .  Why? Because  Minstrelsy dominated American culture for three-quarters of a century--from the 1840s, when minstrel shows became the 'hot ticket' in every city, town, and hollow across the United States of America.  And the more white entertainers realized there was money to be made by stereo/typing cash-poor (mostly) Southern blacks, minstrel shows  'went viral'--infecting the American bloodstream with antibodies that continue to poison our system to this day. Black performers gained acceptance with white audiences in the United States by 'blacking up.' If you didn't put on blackface, you didn't get to take the stage in otherwise "white only" houses. In other words, you didn't even get to play.   At first bl...

Thanks to  MassCreative , Mattapan creatives have a basis for comparing the two mayoral candidates before we pull a lever next Tuesday.   And while the Mattapan Arts Council (M.A.C.) has decided  not  to endorse a candidate this time around, a side-by-side comparison of the candidates’ responses to  MassCreative’s questionnaire  is worth considering. One way to compare the two is between ‘head’ versus ‘heart:’  one candidate speaks from his personal connection to the arts; the other reveals only what he thinks about the arts.  Put differently, one approaches the questions posed from the “inside out;” the other, from “outside in.” Of course  the challenger  is promoting change, while  the incumbent  is defending the status quo.  And it is on the hinge between the two that the M.A.C. found itself deadlocked. The challenger acknowledges the need for change, at least.  His responses suggest he’d  do some...