PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
PJ Grisar
By PJ Grisar
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Culture Embattled Whitney Museum Vice Chair Resigns From Board Over Tear Gas, Gaza Outrage
In response to mounting pressure from artists and protests groups, Warren B. Kanders, the chief executive of police and military equipment company the Safariland Group, resigned from the board of the Whitney Museum on July 24. He had previously been a vice chair of that board, on which he sat for 13 years. “The targeted…
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Culture Deborah Levy, Salman Rushdie And Margaret Atwood Make 2019 Booker Longlist
Murder, sex, dystopia and madness earned spots on the diverse longlist for the 2019 Booker Prize. The annual award, which honors the year’s best English-language novel published in the United Kingdom or Ireland, announced the 13 authors in the running on July 24. British author and playwright Deborah Levy is nominated for her book “The…
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Culture Buried For Decades, These Roman Coins Might Identify Forgotten Victims Of The Holocaust
This February, homeowners in Keszthely, Hungary were working on renovations when they stumbled on a potentially historic find. While digging a hole in their cellar, the building owners discovered five sealed glass jars containing 2,800 gold and silver coins, many of them dating back to the Roman Empire. The question of to whom the coins…
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Culture Ida Wyman, Trailblazing Street And Magazine Photographer, Dies At 93
Ida Wyman, whose keen-eyed photography captured both ordinary and larger-than-life subjects, died on July 13 in Fitchburg, Wisconsin. She was 93. Her death was reported by Monroe Galleries in Sante Fe, New Mexico, which represents Wyman’s work. Wyman was a trailblazing street and documentary photographer for Life and Look magazines who approached her craft with…
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Culture Updated: Artists Abandon Whitney Biennial Over Board Member’s Alleged Ties To IDF Violence In Gaza
Update, July 22, 12:17 p.m.: This version of the story includes news of additional withdrawals and new research suggesting one of Kanders’s businesses may have provided bullets used by the IDF during the 2018 Gaza protests. Eight artists have requested the removal of their work from the Whitney Biennial – a historic and often career-making…
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Culture 4 Artists Withdraw From The Whitney Biennial Over Controversial Board Member
Four artists have requested the removal of their work from the Whitney Biennial – a historic and often career-making exhibition of contemporary art – citing their objection to military and police hardware entrepreneur Warren B. Kanders’s position as one of the five vice chairs of the Whitney Museum’s board. “We respectfully ask you to withdraw…
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Culture Could The ‘Cats’ Movie Design Be Inspired By Chagall’s Creepy Kittens?
To paraphrase the blockbuster musical “Cats,” Jellicles can and Jellicles do. But should they have? A trailer for “Cats” the movie, director Tom Hooper’s latest cinematic vivisection of a popular musical, was unleashed upon an innocent public July 18. It is notable for its familiar Andrew Lloyd Webber score, A-List talent and its Doctor Moreau-esque…
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Theater Michael Tilson Thomas, Conductor And Yiddish Theater Scion, To Receive Kennedy Center Honor
The Kennedy Center Honors announced July 18 that it would recognize a member of Yiddish Theater royalty. Michael Tilson Thomas, the longtime music director of the San Francisco Symphony and an 11-time Grammy winner, will receive the prestigious award at a ceremony to be broadcast December 15. Thomas is a veteran maestro, pianist and composer…
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