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'Summer, 1976' review: The path to freedom starts with a friendship
NEW YORK, NY.- Holly and Gretchen. Those are the little girls names, so dissimilar in the way they hit the ear: one soft, warm and breathy; the other sharp-edged and cramped. Just like their mothers. The children are 5, maybe 6, when they first play together and hit it off, instant pals suddenly eager to see each other every day. In Summer, 1976 David Auburns bittersweet, comic memory play that means their mothers, diametric opposites, will be hanging out a lot, too. This is a fortunate thing for us, the audience. Because in Daniel Sullivans sun-dappled Broadway production for Manhattan Theater Club, Laura Linney plays the austere, censorious Diana to Jessica Hechts vastly chiller Alice or, as Diana describes this fresh acquaintance, a sleepy-eyed little hippie with her shorts and her coconut ... More

Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers announces 'Comics, Toys & Video Games Auction', live and online, May 6th
CRANSTON, RI.- Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers will present an auction titled Graded Showcase: Comics, Toys & Video Games on Saturday, May 6th, online and live in the Cranston gallery at 63 Fourth Avenue. This will be a fun, 154-lot auction, said Travis Landry, Bruneau & Co.s Director of Pop Culture. The focus is on professionally graded comics, toys and video games. In the spirit of May 4th and the Revenge of the 6th, the auction will open with a selection of CAS graded Kenner Star Wars action figures, followed by a collection of Hasbro Transformers Beast Wars. Comic offerings will be highlighted by Part 2 of the Henry Anderson collection of Golden Age comics, pulled from a box at the familys uncles house that was saved from the dumpster. The comics category will be led by three offerings from Fox F ... More

Rare example of Second World War Bomber unveiled after decade of conservation
COSFORD.- The Wellington, one of only two remaining, has moved from the Conservation Centre into the public display hangar and will be the centre piece of a new Bomber Command exhibition opening in May. The fuselage and inner wings section can now be viewed by visitors, while the remaining work of attaching the huge 31ft outer wings, engines, propellers and front turret to the aircraft will be carried out over the next few weeks. Members of the public will be able to view some of the final steps towards its completion as the Museums Conservation team work within the hangar. The Wellington was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, and famous for its geodetic fuselage structure designed by Barnes Wallis. By 1942 Wellingtons were the most numerous aircraft in Bomber Com ... More

African American Museum, Dallas exhibition of Southern African contemporary masterworks now open
DALLAS, TX.- The highly-anticipated exhibition, If You Look Hard Enough, You Can See Our Future, made its worldwide debut at the African American Museum, Dallas in historic Fair Park. Made possible by the beloved restaurant group Nandos, one of the largest collectors of contemporary Southern African art in the world, the exhibition features nearly 90 pieces from more than 60 emerging, mid-career and established artists. Free and open to the public, the exhibition runs through Aug. 13. Some of the most notable Southern African-based artists will have work on display, including Zanele Muholi, Kudzanai Chiurai, Claudette Schreuders, Patrick Kagiso, Igshaan Adams, Stephen Hobbs, Anastasia Pather, Penny Siopis, William Kentridge, Portia Zvavahera and Samson Mnisi. The selection of work is drawn from ... More

Michael Denneny, 80, dies; Editor created outlets for gay literature
NEW YORK, NY.- Michael Denneny, an openly gay editor at a major New York publisher who started a pioneering imprint that was devoted to LGBT literature and who helped found a magazine billed as a gay version of The New Yorker, died on April 15 at his home in Manhattan. He was 80. His brother, Joe, his only immediate survivor, said the cause was likely a heart attack. For about 30 years, Denneny multitasked his way through a jampacked publishing career. His major mainstream successes included Judith Thurmans 1982 biography of Danish writer Isak Dinesen; Watergate burglary mastermind G. Gordon Liddys 1980 memoir, Will; and journalist Randy Shilts magisterial, bestselling history of the AIDS crisis, And the Band Played On (1987). In 1976, Denneny and Chuck Ortleb started Christopher Street, a m ... More

China detains Taiwan-based publisher in national security investigation
TAIPEI.- A Taiwan-based publisher who disappeared while in China has been detained for suspected violations of security laws, Chinese authorities confirmed Wednesday, fanning concerns in Taiwan that Beijing is sending a warning to the islands vibrant publishing sector. The publisher, Li Yanhe, widely known by his pen name, Fu Cha, is a Chinese citizen who has been living in Taiwan since 2009. His company, Gusa Publishing, is well known in Taiwan for books that cast a critical eye on Chinas ruling Communist Party. Li had returned to China early last month to visit relatives but fell out of contact shortly after, according to his colleagues and friends. Lis detention is a strong blow and will have a chilling effect, Bei Ling, a writer from China living in Taiwan, said Wednesday. Publishing houses, publishers and fre ... More

Popular Diptych series continues with four new books
NEW YORK, NY.- The Frick Collection expands its popular Diptych series with four new titlestwo already available, two to be published this summer. The books focus on Titians Portrait of a Man in a Red Hat, a bronze oil lamp modeled by Riccio, Bronzinos Lodovico Capponi, and the recently acquired pastel Portrait of a Man in Pilgrim's Costume by Rosalba Carriera, all from the Fricks permanent collection. These 2023 publicationsbringing the number of titles in the Diptych series to thirteenprovide fresh perspectives on Frick artworks by pairing art historical essays with contributions from contemporary cultural figures. Currently available in the Museum Shop at Frick Madison and online, Titians Man in a Red Hat focuses on an exquisite Italian Renaissance portrait from the 1510s ... More

Review: Dancing with the flowers and Douglas Dunn
NEW YORK, NY.- Douglas Dunn isnt afraid of color, or even of dizzying patterns placed on color. Costumes that slip into the outlandish? Bring them on. This is a choreographer and dancer who merges formalism with the fantastical. He met his match, years ago, in visual artist and designer Mimi Gross. They first worked together in 1979, when she designed the body-conscious, colorful costumes for Foot Rules. In Garden Party, Gross has taken their collaboration to a new level by transforming Dunns studio into a springtime oasis, within which 10 dancers, including Dunn, immerse themselves in a lush and somewhat leafy setting: a quirky and whimsical dance garden. They also wear Gross costumes, gorgeously cut leotards, each different but each embellished with a pop of fluorescent yellow. From time to time, th ... More

Star choreographer Alexei Ratmansky on Russia's cultural war
NEW YORK, NY.- Alexei Ratmansky was scrolling through social media recently when he came across a startling post. A video showed rehearsals from a production of The Pharaohs Daughter at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia, that Ratmansky, the renowned ballet choreographer, had worked on before Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Ratmansky had severed ties with the Mariinsky at the start of the war. But the video suggested that the company was still using some of his choreography, though his name had been removed from the production, a version of the 19th-century ballet by Marius Petipa. Ratmansky, who is of mixed Russian and Ukrainian descent and grew up in Kyiv, Ukraine, posted a statement on social media last month calling the episode the most painful professional experience in m ... More

Harry Belafonte, folk hero
NEW YORK, NY.- Of the many (many) job titles you could lay on Harry Belafonte singer, actor, entertainer, talk show host, activist the one that nails what hes come to mean is folk hero. Not a title one puts on a business card or lists in, say, a Twitter bio. Folk hero is a description that accrues over time, out of significance. Youre out doing those other jobs when, suddenly, what youre doing matters to people, to your people, to your country. Belafonte was a folk hero that way. Not the most dynamic or distinctive actor or singer or dancer youll ever come across. Yet the cool, frank, charismatic, seemingly indefatigable cat who died Tuesday, at 96, had something else, something as crucial. He was, in his way, a people person. He understood how to reach, teach and challenge them, how to keep them h ... More