Weekend reading: March 12 edition

Around Ohio

• Total Foxx bandmates and life mates Dave Holm and Melanie Bleavans Holm will perform together live on YouTube Saturday night.
• You can now watch choreographer Donald McKayle’s Rainbow Etude and a discussion about the work via BalletMet and the King Arts Complex’s “HeART of Protest” project. (BalletMet dancer Vincent Harris is pictured mid-performance at top of page.)
• It’s also TEDx weekend at Ohio State, with speakers including Ramona Peel from Equitas Health and clinical psychology Ph.D candidate Briana Brownlow.
• The Decorative Arts Center of Ohio is offering a virtual tour of its exhibition of antique Russian fashion led by Gayle Strege from Ohio State’s Historic Costume and Textiles Collection.
• Tuesday, the College of Human Ecology hosts its own event honoring the legacy of Black fashion design by unveiling a new addition from designer Ann Lowe.
• Wednesday, Urban Arts Space will stream the performance work Manifested Dreams by BFA dance students Simone Burnett and Thaliyah Cools-Lartigue.
• Cleveland Public Theatre announced its all-virtual spring season.
• Evolution in Isolation, a show of recent work by studio artists at 400 West Rich, is now on view.
• Across the street, ROY G BIV has a new show of works by Noah Kashiani and Benedict Scheuer, plus a talk with the artists on YouTube.
• The Comics Journal announced that Dr. Rachel Miller will be the new co-editor alongside Kristy Valenti.
• Bill Blackbeard: The Collector Who Rescued Comics, a book by Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum curator Jenny Robb, is now available to download for free.
• Local rock legend Happy Chichester received some much-deserved love from Foo Fighter Dave Grohl.
• Worn Flints singer/guitarist Kenny Stiegele shared his story of learning how to tune pianos during the pandemic.
• Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center has hired Marcus Margerum for the newly created position of Deputy Director & Chief Business Officer.
• Did you hear that No Place Gallery has a GoFundMe to help secure a new space after landlords didn’t renew the lease at its current location downtown?
• News also hit this week that Robert "Babachu" Spriggs, a dancer/choreographer whose killer dance moves were a mainstay in the crowds at Columbus festivals, passed away at the age of 81.

Around the globe

• Artist Relief just launched a new cycle of emergency grants for artists. 
• For Women’s History Month, Kino Now is offering a free stream of the 1915 social drama Hypocrites by groundbreaking director Lois Weber. (Use the code WOMEN to watch for free.)
• Sunday, director Thomas Allen Harris will discuss his work for PBS in a free virtual event from the Museum of the African Diaspora; the signup page includes info on how to watch Harris’ films beforehand.
• If you’ve ever wanted to learn the proper form for “jazz hands,” March 14–19 brings the Online Global Fosse Festival.
• Artist Amy Sherald has donated her portrait of Breonna Taylor, who was murdered a year ago this week, to two museums that will hold joint ownership: Louisville’s Speed Museum and the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture.
• The Smithsonian American Art Museum also received a major gift: a collection of Amish quilts that includes pieces produced by communities in Ohio.
• Here’s how much of the newly-signed American Rescue Plan is going to arts and culture relief.
• Amid heated discussions about Woody Allen, Dr. Seuss and Pepe Le Pew, critic Olivia Collette dropped a piece about art that doesn’t age well.
• Here’s a piece on how disabled dance artists are building on the work of Yvonne Rainer.
• Performance artist Miles Greenberg discussed the experience of walking on a conveyor belt for 24 hours straight.
• The Calder Foundation has made the archive of Alexander Calder public.
• The legendary Metro Pictures, which reps artists such as Cindy Sherman and Robert Longo, is closing its New York gallery. Here’s an inside perspective on the closure from cofounder Janelle Reiring.
• Jenny Holzer, comedian Tig Notaro, and novelist Ali Smith are among the 75 artists to reflect on a year of pandemic life for The New York Times.
• In exciting movie media news, Film Comment is on its way back!
• Organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival and other high-profile fests discussed how they handled the pandemic-driven shift to virtual programming.
• The BAFTA Awards announced this year’s nominations.
• There’s a new record for NFT sales: $69 million for a jpeg by the artist known as Beeple.
• Wilhemina Cole Holladay, founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, died at the age of 98.
• Writer Norton Juster also passed away at the age of 91. Here’s a local appreciation of the Phantom Tollbooth author’s work.