Weekend Reading: June 2 Edition

Around Ohio

• ICYMI, now you can grab yummy snacks to accompany movies in the Wex’s Film/Video Theater.
• The city’s been abuzz this week about Current, the new Janet Echelman sculpture now hovering over the intersection of Gay and High. There’ll be a community celebration for the work Friday morning.
• Sunday brings this month’s OTE Art Walk.
• Matter News spoke with Luka Weinberger, one of the artists featured in the new show of trans portraiture at 934 Gallery.
• Speaking of 934, it’s put out the call for entries for the 2024 exhibition season.
• The latest episode of the new podcast Now at Ohio State centers on the power of creativity.
• The City of Akron will be seeing more dance in the future, thanks to a major grant from the Knight Foundation to Akron University’s National Center for Choreography.
• Tuesday, Cartoon Crossroads Columbus is taking over Seventh Son for a party to announce this year’s special guests.
• Also Tuesday, the Columbus Ohio Discovery Ensemble (CODE) presents the new music program Breathe at Short North Stage.
• Thursday, the Columbus Museum of Art unveils the second wave of the Scantland Collection in the exhibition PRESENT ’23.
• It’s Franklinton Friday next weekend, with a new show by Lorenzo Doyle and the drag-themed exhibition Knock Down, Drag Out among the attractions.
• Friday also brings the Columbus Arts Festival. Construction has forced a slight move of the unofficial kickoff of the summer festival season, but it’ll be no less lively. Stop by the Wex booth over the weekend to spin our prize wheel; we’ll be along the west side of the river, between the Rich and Main St. bridges.
• And the Big Local Arts Village will be back at the fest, featuring artists such as Wex friend Dan Gerdeman.
• Last but not least, the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo, or SPACE, happens next weekend at the Rhodes Center.

Around the globe

• We’re happy to share the exciting news that Ampe: Leap into the Sky, Black Girl, the short by Claudia Owusu and Ife Oluwamuyide that we screened during a Family Saturday in April, will have several screenings this month in Ghana, birthplace of the game at the center of the film.
• French filmmaker Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall led the award winners at the Cannes Film Fest.
• The directors of blockbuster-bound Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse cited Leonardo da Vinci and Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break as among their influences.
• Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, and other stars of Wes Anderson’s new film offered their own take on the Anderson-inspired TikTok trend.
• The Guardian looked at the longstanding Hollywood tradition of the gay best friend.
• Striking Writers Guild of America members dispelled some myths about their profession.
• Grab your popcorn: there’s a feud afoot between the Amsterdam art collective KIRAC and French author Michel Houellebecq, who’s not happy with the film he agreed to make with the artists about his life.
• Dave Eggers spoke about his Young Editors Project, which brings kids into the creative process of books intended for them.
• Peter Trojic, a dancer and accessibility director for a New York City dance company, discussed the challenges for disabled audience members and performers and how to address them.
• Never-before-heard recordings of jazz greats John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy will be released after they were discovered in the New York Public Library, where they’ve been hiding for the past 60 years.
• The Hannah Gadsby-curated Picasso show at the Brooklyn Museum has had less than a warm reception. But the museum is taking the pans in stride.
• The Mellon Foundation announced its 2023 Latinx Fellows, including performance collective Postcommodity and photographer Diana Solís.
• Turkish cultural figures expressed fear of a crackdown on their work following the reelection of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
• Bard College just had the first graduating class from a new degree program for artists living in crisis zones: Human Rights and the Arts.
• Artist Darren Bader decided that the next work he’ll put up for sale is his practice.
• The Whitney sold its former home, the Breuer Building, to Sotheby’s.
• There’s much concern over AI’s impact on the creative world, but some scientists and programmers announced this week that we should be thinking bigger.
• Last week, we lost Bill Lee, the bassist and composer who created memorable scores for films including Do the Right Thing for his son, Spike Lee. The elder Lee was 94.
• We’ll close with some exciting, late-breaking news: A federal judge has declared that Tennessee’s law against drag performances is unconstitutional. Happy Pride month, everyone.