Can new opera on inmportant contemporary subjects draw in new audiences? Opera Philadelphia's We Shall Not be Moved and Sky on Swings argue yes emphatically. Sky on Swings tackles Alzheimer's. Each member of the creative team reported long conversations following the announcement that they were involved with an Alzheimer's opera.

The Theater for the New City, executive director Crystal Field presents a unique on-line production of Ella the Ungovernable by David McDonald, directed by Melania Levitsky. Gracefully bridging the space between a full production and a reading, the actors bring the story to life.

Jennifer Trainer Thompson is director of Hancock Shaker Village. She is the author of numerous cookbooks. Here she shares a Shaker recipe for traditional lemon pie

Larry Kramer died recently at age 84. The activist and playwright tried to bring attention to the AIDS crisis after perceiving indifference among government officials and others. Kramer penned a largely autobiographical play, The Normal Heart. The late, fiery Kramer also founded the Gay Man's Health Crisis. It was the world’s first and leading provider of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy.

Prescient or just plain lucky, the streaming of Independence Eve occurred in the midst of a new pandemic of racism in America. The opera premiered in Arlington, Virginia in 2017. A triptych of duets between a white man and black man, who end up as 10 years olds in 2063, is a fresh look at the persistence of racial issues. Urban Arias continues to stream on Facebook.

Since the late 18th century, the Shakers have embraced individuals of all racial and cultural backgrounds as equals – including black, brown, and indigenous. We are a museum, not Shakers – but as a museum and in keeping with the historic Shaker values of equality and justice, we are appalled by what we see before our eyes across America.

New Federal Theatre is fifty years young and going strong. Even in this time of lock down, its founder, Woodie King Jr. persists. On Tuesdays at 3 during June he is discussing theatre with various artists. Not only are these captivating afternoons a superb introduction to aspirants in theatre and the performing arts, they show King at his best, drawing out talent and showing the path for others to follow.

HERE has always been on the cutting edge of multi-disciplinary art. In 2005, they produced Disposable Men by James Scruggs. Scruggs presented the black man as the object of fear in communities. People in turn rise up against innocent men of color. Amadou Diallo, shot 41 times on his doorstep in New York in February 1999 is Scruggs' jumping off point.

On April 14, 2020 Alan Shestack passed away at 81. From 1987 to 1993 he was director of the Museum of Fine Arts. He was notable as a mediator and problem solver. As director he presided over 26 departments with an uneven distribution of resources and power. This interview took place not long after he arrived at the museum.

For the first time in the festival’s history, ShortFest, will not host an in-person event. Instead, the Palm Springs ShortFest, one of the most prestigious film festivals and the largest film market for short films in the world, remains undaunted and will present a ‘virtual festival’ that will run from June 16 through June 22, 2020.

We Are All Contagious is an on line exhibition of U Mass Dartmouth. It was juried by Nato Thompson the Artistic Director of Philadelphia Contemporary. He started his career at MASS MoCA. Artists respond to COVID-19. Will the art of contagion be heroic, tragic, mythic, humorous? We are authoring our own history and future right now with this online exhibition.

MoMA is streaming a restored print of Right On!, a classic film released in the early 1970s. Featuring The Last Poets, we are taken back to the origins of Hip Hop and of the first presentation of black culture by blacks. Felice Luciano, one of the original poets, speaks briefly about the prophetic poetry of the group. Fifty years ago they predicted today.

The collage artist Lynn Gall divides time between the Berkshire and New York where she works and exhibits. Collage Brain: Insights, Ideas, Inspiration is her first book.

The Drama Desk Awards ceremony was streamed live. The annual event honors the best of Broadway, off, and off-off Broadway. Matthew Lopez's The Inheritance wins Outstanding Play honors. A Strange Loop is named Outstanding Musical.

The real beauty of this engaging, powerful and achingly poignant film lies in the performances of its sublime ensemble cast. They’re experienced, talented, and spot-on in their portrayals, and all are in the thrall of the great 80-year-old (when she made the film) Vanessa Redgrave. The great ones never seem to lose that special gift of star quality.

Woodie King Jr.'s Rapping with Artist Series continues with a discussion of Larry Muhammed's acclaimed "Looking for Leroy." Director Petronia Paley and the playwright join King in a lively discussion of the play, one of the best Zoom theatrical pieces,

MFA director Jan Fontein first apppointed John Walsh as curator of European Paintings then Theodore E. Stebbins as curator of American Paintings. In this first of our two part coverage Stebbins discusses the M&M Karolik and William H. and Saundra Lane collections. On his watch Stebbins acquired major American, modern and contemporary works. His legacy for the museum and in the field is formidable.

The Antonyo Awards debuted recently with a spirited ceremony marked by a celebratory aura. Tina: The Tina Turner Musical won "Best Musical" honors.

Chris Busa, the son of the abstract expressionist, Peter Busa, cast a long shadow over the Provincetown artist’s colony. The 35th anniversary issue of Provincetown Arts Magazine will soon include a memorial to its publisher. He passed away in June 20 at the age of 73. We spoke and collaborated often here is an interview from April, 2015,

Musicians return to Bach as a home base. He is not only fundamental, but a composer of sheer beauty, delight and even complexity. As listeners, we can return with the Orchestra of St. Luke's to a series of online concerts for our home bound performance time.

Isaac Davis, Captain of the Acton troops was the model for the Minute Man. He was the first officer killed on April 19, 1775. The statute is placed on the ground on which he died.

The Royal Ballet's #OurHousetoYourHouse premieres a stream of Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works, featuring music by Max Richter and inspired by the writings of Virginia Woolf. It won the Olivier and the Critic's Circle Awards for Dance in 2015. Allesandra Ferri dances Woolf.

Salacia is a short film made by Tourmaline, a transgender artist who discovered a compatriot in a New York City Village located in Manhattan in 1830. It was one of the few places in America that black people could own land and vote. It was taken by eminent domain to make way for Central Park.

When the British born Malcolm Rogers took over the Museum of Fine Arts in 1994 it had a $4.5 million annual deficit and was generally moribund. It was better than he found it when he departed in 2015. He left a bricks and mortar legacy of The American Wing designed by Lord Norman Foster. Under a mantra of One Museum, however, he dismantled the traditional departments, fired renowned curators, or forced them to leave. He created a structure of mega departments staffed by cooperative curators. The current director, Matthew Teitelbaum, inherited a debt of $140 million and is tasked with mending curatorial fences.

What a month to hear black men, and women too, at the top of their game in theater, talk about their journeys to success. As Andre De Shields told the world when he won his first Tony at age 73, "the slowest way is how to get where you want to be." Chuck Smith is a resident director at the Goodman in Chicago. Woodie King Jr. founded the New Federal Theater fifty years ago.