Weekend reading: June 26 edition

Around Columbus

• Enjoy Comfest this year without the parking hassles and sunburn; the event goes virtual this weekend.
• Columbus Flea is hosting a virtual shopping event Sunday from noon to 2 PM with vendors including Bookspace Columbus, vinyl sekker Moses Carryout, BRIM Headware, and skin care artists Wild Origins.
• The excellent experimental animation program Malt Adult will present an online edition Sunday night. (The event mascot is at top of page)
• Wex Film/Video Curatorial Assistant Layla Muchnik-Benali has a new virtual show at Urban Arts Space.
• Stonewall Columbus has a new interim director: former Wex colleague and current CEO of Pride Fund Densil Porteous.
• Angela Meleca discussed her new role as Executive Director of Ohio Citizens for the Arts.
• Hanif Abdurraqib wrote a moving piece for The New Yorker on the disappearing monuments of Columbus
• Columbus writer and No Evil Eye film fest programmer Rooney Elmi has an essential list of groundbreaking black documentaries.
• Columbus Monthly covered a handful of recent books featuring the city or local authors such as Chris Bournea and Maggie Smith.
• The New Music Ohio series of Sunday concerts has launched online, pairing technical innovation with live performance in a range of styles.
• Maybe the most recognizable work of residential architecture in the city, the Short North’s historic Circus House is headed to auction.

Around the globe

• Here’s a reason to watch Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things ASAP. A free Q&A with producer Reggie Nadelson and author and music critic Will Friedwald is happening Saturday at 7 PM.
• The Brooklyn Art Book Fair is online this weekend.
• Carve out a little time for an essential work streaming through 2 PM Sunday: Arthur Jafa’s Love is the Message, The Message is Death. Artforum pulled its review of the work from the archives
• ICA Boston is holding a virtual gala Tuesday night honoring artists Virgil Abloh and Sterling Ruby with live music, conversation, and tributes from luminaries including Jafa.
• The BBC has a piece on how the iconic cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Picture Show has been a literal lifesaver.
• This writer believes the films of Spike Lee helped keep him alive.
• Entertainment Weekly has a podcast on the enduring influence of Paris is Burning.
• The Toronto International Film Festival announced its plans for a hybrid physical/digital festival in September.
• Filmmaker George Romero’s lost 1973 film The Amusement Park will finally see the light of day.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art plans to reopen August 29.
• But the Kennedy Center has canceled most performances through the end of the year.
• The 2020–21 Fellows at the Center for Ballet and the Arts include Tesseract choreographers Silas Reiner and Rashaun Mitchell.
• A group of Black artists have created See in Black, a new platform for photographers of color.
• Here’s some history on the monument to Theodore Roosevelt that’s being de-installed from the American Museum of Natural History.
• The founders of Monument Lab, a Philadelphia art studio focused on considering the role of the monument in public spaces, wrote about their work and the future of public monuments.
• LA Times critic Christopher Knight raved about the new young adult book by museum social media star Kimberly Drew: “a story of how, in an American society where art is of marginal public interest, the author came to discover its power.”
• With At Home with Amy Sedaris now in season three, the multitalented artist behind the show talks about what it’s been like to stay at home.
• The Washington Post has a write-up on the recently launched performing arts streaming service Marquee TV.
• Artnet answered some questions surrounding artists’ image rights.
• The Met Breuer will no longer be the Met Breur.
• The curatorial team for Documenta 2022 is now a lot bigger.
• Lastly, ICYMI, this is an incredible example of editorial design as social justice art.