Arts & Life

Opera Looks To A New Mask To Safely Rehearse Again

4:43pm May 06, 2021

by Chloe Veltman

A new mask for singers has been developed and tested by the San Francisco Opera in collaboration with medics and researchers. The company is testing it in rehearsals for its first post-pandemic show.

"Recycle art activist" Thomas Dambo makes gentle giants from scrap wood, old pallets, twigs and debris. Above, the troll Marit in It Sounded Like a Mountain Fell in Wulong, China.

Arts

Far From The Internet, These Big, Benevolent Trolls Lure Humans To Nature

4:39pm May 06, 2021

by Elizabeth Blair

"Recycle art activist" Thomas Dambo makes these gentle giants out of scrap wood, old pallets, twigs and debris. Dozens of them now preside over mountains, forests and parks around the world.

Sampson Levingston, of Through2Eyes, runs walking tours focusing on Indianapolis' Black neighborhoods and history.

Arts

'I Fit In Right Here': A History Buff Leads Walking Tours Of Black Indianapolis

4:17pm May 06, 2021

by Neda Ulaby

Amid the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests, Sampson Levingston decided to bring people together by offering tours of African American neighborhoods. He's turned it into a thriving business.

Arts

One Listener Can't Forget 1991 Story On Haitian Cane Cutters

10:31am May 06, 2021

All Things Considered listener Joel Abrams shares how a story about Haitian farmworkers has stuck with him since it aired on the show in 1991.

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The ladies of Girls5eva: Gloria (Paula Pell), Dawn (Sara Bareilles), Wickie (Renée Elise Goldsberry), and Summer (Busy Philipps).

'Girls5eva' Is Just Catchy Enough

5:34am May 06, 2021

by Aisha Harris

The Peacock comedy series about a has-been fictional girl group from the '90s has great, big performances and a lot of nostalgia.

Everybody: A Book about Freedom, Olivia Laing

Books
Arts

'Everybody' Examines The Idea That Bodies Can Confine Or Free

5:00am May 06, 2021

by Annalisa Quinn

Olivia Laing weaves the history of people and ideas in with her own life, bringing readers on a fleet, gracious tour of bodily distress and joy that takes in Malcolm X, the Marquis de Sade and others.

Things We Lost to the Water, by Eric Nguyen

Books
Arts

'Things We Lost To The Water' Is A Literal And Allegorical Look At Dislocation

5:00am May 06, 2021

by Thúy Đinh

Eric Nguyen's debut novel plays off a Vietnamese word that means both country and water, examining all the ways those two things affect a family of Vietnamese refugees who resettle in New Orleans.

Ed Ward, photographed in the Rolling Stone office in December, 1970 in San Francisco.

Ed Ward, Rock Critic And Historian, Dead At 72

4:43pm May 05, 2021

Ward spent time writing and editing reviews for a young Rolling Stone – and later became both a broadcast critic and historian, publishing two volumes on the beginnings of rock and roll.

Alison Bechdel Takes On Exercise Trends In 'The Secret to Superhuman Strength'

1:24pm May 05, 2021

by Terry Gross

Bechdel's new graphic memoir is about her lifelong obsession with exercise. She says she has a "predisposition of being extremely self-conscious and very caught up in my head" — and exercise helps.

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Aditya Modak plays an aspiring Hindustani classical musician in The Disciple.

Arts

'The Disciple' Is Triumphant, Even As It Tells A Story Of Failure

1:24pm May 05, 2021

by Justin Chang

A young man from Mumbai aspires to be a great classical singer — but he's an erratic performer at best. The Disciple is a richly layered story of artistic struggle.

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