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Deborah Block’s Exile
SINCE 1992, the arts have been integral to our mission—and to our lives in large and small measures. We too often don’t realize their importance. The arts can influence cultures. The arts can change politics. The arts can give comfort in dark times. The arts can change lives. The arts, the economy, and ICON, as well as well as mom and pop businesses and Fortune 500 companies, are subject to the vicissitudes of life and fortune. We’re all together now in this time of historic insecurity. ICON has supported the arts since 1992, through good times and bad. We think of ourselves as their partners, their cheerleaders. We haven’t skipped an issue in nearly 30 years, so if you can’t find ICON one month, if we skip an issue here and there, be assured we’re just resting until the arts—and all of us—are healthy and confident again.
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ICON The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, nightlife and mad genius.
Since 1992 215-862-9558 icondv.com facebook.com/icondv PRESIDENT Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com EDITORIAL Editor / trina@icondv.com
ART FEATURE By the Master’s Hand: Rembrandt Revealed
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An undiscovered Rembrandt emerges in Allentown Art Museum
Raina Filipiak / Advertising filipiakr@comcast.net
DISRUPTORS
PRODUCTION Richard DeCosta
A conversation with Producing Artistic Director Deborah Block, who has made Theatre Exile in her image.
BOOKS
ESSAY Theatre Exile’s production of Babel, by Jacqueline Goldfinger. Directed by Deborah Block. Set by Colin McIlvain Lighting by Drew Billiau Photo by Paola Nogueras
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A THOUSAND WORDS
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From a Distance
EXHIBITIONS 6|
Winter Small Works Show Silverman Gallery Small Works Show AOY Art Center Two by Two, 2020 Cerulean Arts
ON THE COVER:
Mank Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom To the Ends of the Earth
Joe Canuso and Deborah Block. Photo credit: Paola Nogueras
A. D. Amorosi Robert Beck Jack Byer
Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America
Peter Croatto
by Michael Eric Dyson
Mark Keresman
First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country by Thomas E. Ricks
George Miller
In Case You Get Hit by a Bus: A Plan to Organize Your Life Now for When You're Not Around Later by Abby Schneiderman and Adam Seifer, with Gene Newman
Collective
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
by Homeira Qaderi
In Search of Elsewhere: Unseen Images by Steve McCurry
FILM ROUNDUP 10 |
Dancing in the Mosque
Rita Kaplan
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GUIDE TO THE ARTS
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HARPER’S FINDINGS
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ART NEWS
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HARPER’S INDEX
The New Hope Colony Artists Residency
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THE WASHINGTON POST SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE
Geoff Gehman
Susan Van Dongen Keith Uhlich
Subscription: $40 (12 issues) PO Box 120 • New Hope 18938 215-862-9558 ICON is published twelve times per year. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. ICON welcomes letters to the editor, editorial ideas and submissions, but assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material. ICON is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. ©2020 Prime Time Publishing Co., Inc.
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a thousand words
From a Distance
I WANTED TO PAINT last year’s Christmas dinner while it was underway, but I had kitchen duties and couldn’t make it work. Instead, I paid attention during the meal and reconstructed the memory when I got back in the studio. One of the hazards of doing it that way is that it gives me too much time to play around. If I did it live, I’d only have two or three hours to depict the entire scene, and no time for dwelling on the people. I wouldn’t worry about likeness; I’d just hope the figures look human. Sometimes I’m only close, but that’s enough. Without a deadline, the gestures, narrative, and details become available for
STORY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK
leisurely rumination and analysis, and the next thing I know I’ve created a busy village of individuals engaged in worldly tasks. Or maybe something Hieronymus Bosch-like, if it’s been a bad day. This is one of those dangerous paintings where the people aren’t supposed to be identifiable but if you know who was probably there you can pick them out, and that’s what you focus on. I used my family as reference; moving them
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exhibitions
Autumn Twilight, by Trisha Vergis, 9 x 12 in., o/l Joan Walton, Bubbles, wood-fired stoneware, 8” x 10” x 6”
Two by Two, 2020 Cerulean Arts 1355 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 267-514-8647; ceruleanarts.com November 25–December 24, 2020 Gallery hours: Wed - Fri 10-6; Sat & Sun 12-6 Kingfisher on Cattail, 8”x10” by Lynn Holl
Small Works Show Cobalt & Lemon, by Evan Harrington, 9 x 12 in., o/l
Winter Small Works Show Silverman Gallery 4920 York Rd. (Buckingham Green) Holicong, PA 215-794-4300; Silvermangallery.com December 12-January 17, 2021
AOY Art Center, 949 Mirror Lake Road, Yardley aoyartcenter.org December 5–19; Hours: Sat. & Sun. 12–5:00 Reception/Opening Night: December 4 at 6:00
The Small Works exhibition features work by all of the gallery’s artists. Collectors often choose smaller works of art that can fit more easily in their homes. And a small painting may be a perfect gift. Gift wrapping, shipping, gift certificates, local delivery available.
The annual Small Works Show (cash & carry) is just in time for holiday shopping. It features works on canvas, not larger than 8x10,” works on paper, not larger than 11x14,” priced at $125 or less, and jewelry and ceramics. Visitors can see and purchase art at aoyartcnter.org. Timed reservations available at aoyartcenter.org. The reception will be outside and require masks. Visitors inside the gallery will be time limited with sanitation stations present.
Bald Pate Vista, by Jean Childs Buzgo, 12 x 12 in., o/b
Tender Morning, 8”x8” by Jo-Ann Osnoe
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Cerulean Arts is pleased to present Two by Two, 2020, an exhibition of small works by ten artists on view through December 24. The paintings, drawings and mixed media works comprise a variety of subjects and aesthetic intents, but are unified in their presentation with each artist exhibiting four same-sized works installed “two over two.” This year’s artists include Kristin Balmer, Marie Theres Berger, Michael Gallagher, Susan Howard, Heidi Leitzke, Erin Murray, Hiro Sakaguchi, Sterling Shaw, Joan Walton & Jenn Warpole. The challenge of the format creates intriguing conversations among each of the arrangements. Join the artists for a virtual reception and artists’ talk via Zoom on Saturday, December 5 at 2:00 p.m. To register for this free event: ceruleanarts.com/pages/events
Heidi Leitzke, Blue Meditation, thread & acrylic on linen, 12 x 12
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feature By the Master’s Hand: Rembrandt Revealed By Robert Stevens and Chris Potash
Painting conservator Shan Kuang, of the Conservation Center at New York University, examines Portrait of a Young Woman closely with a Leica DM400 B microscope and SpotFlex Basic software to determine which layers of paint are original and which ones were added later.
WHEN THE CURATORIAL TEAM at the Allentown Art Museum sent the 1632 painting Portrait of a Young Woman out for routine conservation in 2018, they couldn’t know the chain reaction of fortuitous events they were triggering. For more than four decades, tens of thousands of visitors to the Museum’s Samuel Kress Gallery had admired the oil-on-oak-panel painting as a significant Renaissance work credited to “Studio of Rembrandt”—-a rendering of a “young woman” whose identity was lost to history. But over the course of two years of research and restoration of the oil-on-oak-panel painting, staff at New York University’s Conservation Center found reason to reconsider an attribution to the master himself. Now, finally, in 2021, following a delayed rehang due to the COVID-19 shutdown, the refreshed work will return triumphantly to Kress Gallery with a new label identifying the creator—alone—as “Rembrandt van Rijn.” “Evidence revealed by the cleaning and conservation of the picture has led experts in the field to conclude that this portrait is, indeed, by Rembrandt himself,” says Elaine Mehalakes, the Museum’s vice president of curatorial affairs. “It’s very exciting.” The Museum will be celebrating this reattribution and the return of this important work to the galleries in the exhibition Rembrandt Revealed, which will showcase the history and importance of this painting as revealed by conservation science. Barring further lockdowns due to the pandemic, the exhibition is scheduled to open in Allentown on January 24.
Revealing the True Original The removal of old, heavy varnish layers led to a dramatic change in appearance and in interest in the work. The most significant color changes were apparent in the face, which took on a decidedly pinker shade, and the white lace of the collar was revealed. Many subtle and fine details became visible. Rembrandt Revealed will offer a deep dive into the conservation process, highlighting the state-of-the-art digital photography and electron microscopy that probed the depths of the painting, differentiating original paint and materials from those added later. It also invites vis-
Covering Up the Details
Conservator Shan Kuang used solvents to remove old layers of varnish that had significantly darkened the original surface and also layers of overpainting that had obscured Rembrandt’s composition.
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On many occasions over the past centuries, conservators following the trends of the day reduced the painting’s visual clarity in attempts to enhance its appearance. Thick, dark, gooey varnish was brushed over the image of the woman and her clothes, creating a sheen that may have appealed to a past era’s aesthetic tastes, but it muted skin tones and hid the kind of telltale delicate brushwork that experts attribute to Rembrandt. “It was like looking at the painting through a dirty windshield,” says Shan Kuang, assistant conservator and research scholar in the Samuel H. Kress Program in Paintings Conservation, who did most of the work to restore this treasure. “The visual quality had been destroyed.”
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Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669), Portrait of a Young Woman, 1632, oil on panel. Allentown Art Museum: Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961. (1961.35)
itors to learn about the complexities and uncertainties of the attribution process and participate in that conversation. A new octagonal black frame, custom fabricated in Scotland in a style representative of the era when Rembrandt created the painting, will complement the new presentation. The frame was funded through a grant from the Richard C. Von Hess Foundation. n
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KEITH UHLICH
To the Ends of the Earth
film roundup
Collective (Dir. Alexander Nanau). This harrowing doc by director Alexander Nanau examines the fallout from the October 2015 disaster at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest, Romania. 64 people died and many more were injured after an illegal pyrotechnic display ignited the club’s ceiling, though a good number of the fatalities came many weeks later due to widespread negligence and corruption in the Romanian medical system. (One jaw-dropping moment among many: Video of a burn patient left unbathed for so long that maggots develop on their neck.) The film primarily focuses on investigative reporter Catalin Tolontan and newly installed health minister Vlad Voiculescu as they push back against the venal powersthat-be and try to hold the wrongdoers accountable. There is some success, though it tends to be of a micro sort (a resignation here, a small governmental reform there). In the macro view, both Tolontan and Voiculescu are fighting Sisyphean uphill battles that waffle between deflating pointlessness and moral necessity. Documentary. [N/R] HHHH Mank (Dir. David Fincher). Starring: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Charles Dance. It’s (not) all true if you know your film history. But David Fincher’s obstinately, and thrillingly, eccentric study of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (a magnificent Gary Oldman) and his work on the granddaddy of all Hollywood masterpieces, Citizen Kane, isn’t much concerned with unimpeachable veracity. The malleability of truth is one of this Netflix superproduction’s many subjects. Fincher—working from a screenplay credited to his late father 10
Jack, shooting in digitally treated black-andwhite, and recording in alien-sounding mono audio—immerses us in this semi-fictional Mankiewicz’s cynical, perpetually soused headspace, wherein contradictions swirl like Wizard of Oz-ian cyclones. Like many a writer, Mankiewicz sees himself as the star of the story, in love with the sound of his own voice and how that can be translated to the page. But is he aware that he’s also slave to a Dream Factory run by bullying Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard), as well as to an upper echelon of sociopolitical influencers overseen by Kane model William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance)? Or does he even care? Like most of Fincher’s films, Mank is a model of obsessive control, though the fussiness pays off much more purposefully and profoundly here than ever before. [R] HHHHH Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Dir. George C. Wolfe). Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis, Glynn Turman. An adequate filming of a great play by August Wilson (Fences), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom excels on the level of performance, with the late Chadwick Boseman an especial standout as Levee, the jittery self-absorbed trumpeter to iconic early-20th-century blues singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis, all coiled ferocity). The story mostly takes place during an all-day recording session in 1920s Chicago where both temperature and tensions are high. Almost every actor gets a showcase monologue that powerfully illuminates the African-American experience and its myriad horrors. Boseman’s jumpiness contrasts particularly well with Glynn Turman’s imperturbable elder statesman Toledo, who proves to be Levee’s primary antag-
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onist. (Turman, a great actor, frequently sidelined, makes the authoritative most of his own soliloquy about Black people as America’s “leftovers.”) The main issue is that George C. Wolfe, primarily a stage director, hasn’t entirely modulated the film, in terms of visuals and editorial rhythm, for the screen. Yet the strength of the material and the people playing it is nearly enough to mitigate that. [R] HHH1/2 To the Ends of the Earth (Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa). Starring: Atsuko Maeda, Adiz Rajabov, Ryô Kase. Japanese writer-director Kiyoshi Kurosawa tends to be pegged in the West as a horror director, given scare-fare-that-easilytravels like Cure (1997), Pulse (2001) and the recent Creepy (2016). His latest release often has the feel of a horror film, but within a more grounded context. Yoko (Atsuko Maeda) is a TV travel host whose bubbly onscreen persona belies her pathologically introverted nature. She’s on assignment in Uzbekistan with a skeleton camera crew and translator (Adiz Rajabov), and little goes right, especially when she steps out on her own. Kurosawa’s camera captures the Uzbek sidestreets, bazaars and countryside with an on-the-fly vivacity that is often threatening, though to the purpose of putting us in Yoko’s petrified mindset. The foreign land isn’t the object of her fear so much as it’s a catalyst that brings the disappointments and failures of her own life to the surface. One spectacular surreal sequence pinpoints Yoko’s ultimate goal: To temper her anxieties so that she can sing a literal song of self. The journey of this lovely film proves to be one from dread to delight. [N/R]HHHH1/2 n
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disruptors
A.D. AMOROSI
Courage: DEBORAH BLOCK’S EXILE
IN THE OFTEN UNCHARTED waters of modern theater, Deborah Block has sailed a steady ship while creating her brand of adventure. Through her work as a director and dramaturg, she won the prestigious local Albert Benzwie Award for playwriting. As an educator, Block earned her MFA at Temple U, where she taught for nine years. And as a producer (she cofounded the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe, now FringeArts, as its program director for ten years), Block has advanced the cause of experimental theater. Along with all that, Block formulated and executed the out-of-the-ordinary character-driven, dramatic art of the live stage for an entire company and its property with Theatre Exile. Though she has been a part of co-founder Joe Canuso’s South Philly-based company since 2006, Block took on the role of producing artistic
terview those who have dared to put everything on the line, to challenge themselves. When you started, how did you want to change the game? I think all people are supposed to do whatever they can to make the world a better place to live. That’s part of Theatre Exile’s core values. We each have to do as much in our own unique way. And while I have wonderful stories of how the work I created changed people, I learned that I could change a cultural landscape in a greater way when I’m working as a team. Within that idea, I encourage change by creating an environment where people can feel free to take chances. Organizations with strong voices can change the game in a big way. Do you have a story that might illustrate that risk-taking game change? One of my students saw my production of
mine or a playwright I believe in or an actor striving to achieve a magical moment. I’ve always wanted to work in a team. One of my skills is to see the talents of those around me. I love nurturing the artistic spirit. It’s a joy when we all work together in harmony. It’s a beautiful thing when that happens. How did organizing principles come into view for you? Were you always the one to throw a party and organize it? I was always good at math, visualizing all the steps it took to get from A to Z or from a dream to a party. My father was a Cuban chess player. He was one of the top ten players in Cuban while he was in his 20s. There were always mini-tournaments in our house. I grew up with strategy games. I literally don’t remember a time when I didn’t know how to play chess. Games, planning,
JOE WAS ALWAYS good about bringing PEOPLE INTO THE FOLD. WHEN THEATRE EXILE DID “Killer Joe” BY TRACY LETTS, THAT WAS, TO ME, THE SHOW THAT REALLY HELPED DEFINE EXILE’S VOICE AT THE TIME. Bold & cinematic. IT’S WHEN OUR nudity & blood reputation STARTED. director in 2013. She guided it through a lengthy physical re-building process, and now—in pandemic era 2020—seeing it through to a brave, new, virtual reality for Theatre Exile’s 2020/2021 season, and online shows such as D-Pad by Jeremy Gable (running through Dec. 13), Sin-Eaters by Anna Moench (Feb. 11–28) and Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu (Apr. 22–May 9). Block is a “disruptor,” a person with the courage to put everything on the line, self-esteem included, and challenge the status quo. Not so long ago, I asked an actor and playwright that you work with, Alexandra Espinoza, what Theatre Exile and you bring to the party when you decide to mount an original production. We encourage boldness. We have audiences who expect that. Armed with a daring audience base, we can help each artist face their goals head-on. ICON’s new series about disruptors is to in12
Iron by Rona Munro with Catharine Slusar and Kim Carson. It was the first full show produced at Theatre Exile’s garage space. The student told me that her mother was in jail, and our story prompted her to reach out to her after years of separation, to start a new relationship with her mom. The play did that, and that’s never left me. Art changed their lives forever. What sort of actor, writer, and director were you at the start, and how have those skills changed? I started writing as a young person, poetry at first. I have volumes of sketch pads filled with drawings and poems. I was better with sculpture and 3D art than 2D art. I played instruments, piano at five, then moved to the violin and played in an orchestra through high school. I always enjoyed art, acting, and spent most of my young life as a creator. But, when I started directing in college, I realized that I could use so many of my skills at once. I could do it in a way to serve a larger group. I like realizing a vision; it could be
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and math were fun for me. But I was never attracted to administration. It wasn’t until the Fringe that I realized I could combine those skills in a meaningful way. After the first festival, I changed my mission statement to include using my organizational skills to change the cultural landscape. How and why did you co-create the Live Arts/Fringe Fest? Was it a disruptor in its time, maybe still? I met Nick Stuccio and Eric Schoeffer in 1996 when Eric asked me to direct his show that they were bringing to the Edinburgh Fringe. Upon their return, I joined their efforts to start a Fringe Festival in Philly. I was directing things that often stepped outside of traditional theater and decided to support their efforts because I was excited to create that type of art scene in Philly, where there was a place for me to do the work that I loved to do. I didn’t think of what we were doing as disrupting, but rather expanding. But looking back, that’s what we did. We changed the
landscape. Ironically, to achieve my goals with the Fringe, I needed to dial back my directing work to about one show a year. And I barely acted, did choreography or movement work anymore. But I was so proud that there would be a place for artists who liked to move between forms and experiment easily.
agreed to become producing artistic director, I told Joe and the board that I didn’t intend to change the mission, but instead, I wanted to expand the voices that explored the mission. That’s what I’ve been trying to do since—expanding audiences and helping artists find their voices. I believe that’s where Theatre Exile is now: an organic evolution based on the organizations’ goals,
How did you know Joe Canuso, and where was he in the Theatre Exile process? I got to know Joe through the festival. In the early years, I wanted to encourage more theater in the festival. That was when Exile was beginning. Exile started in 1996 [as Troupe du Jour] and the first year of the festival was 1997. Most of Exile’s early shows were world premieres and shows that Joe helped develop. Joe worked with Joseph Sorrentino and John Lumia to create original works, many of which were part of the Fringe.
Deborah Block. Photo credit: Paola Nogueras.
motivated by a new organizational team all reacting to the world around us.
Theatre Exile’s new permanent home at 1340 So. 13th St, in Philadelphia.
What was Exile’s dramatic, cultural, literary, and societal mien in 2006? Have you changed? How is your Exile different from Canuso’s Exile? Joe was always good about bringing people into the fold. When Theatre Exile did Killer Joe by Tracy Letts, to me, that was the show that really helped define Exile’s voice at the time. Bold and cinematic. It’s when our nudity and blood reputation started. When I joined Exile, I wasn’t trying to change it at all. I decided to join Exile because I liked the mission. In 2013 when I
What have been the most significant shifts in Philly theater since your start, and how have you and Exile helped to motivate those shifts? When I began working in Philly’s theater scene, it was the late 80s. There was good theater and a small underground group of folks who were working in new play development. But it was hard to reach audiences if you weren’t one of the few large companies at the time. If you were stepping outside of the well-made play structure, it was even harder to produce work. And Philly had a terrible case of low self-esteem. Our playwrights would leave town to have their works produced. Changing the self-esteem of the artists’ community was one of my major motivational forces. Exile encourages bold voices. That’s part of the way to shift the fabric of our
whole community. I also am proud to be one of the many companies now producing more new work regularly. That’s also how we make these shifts. Our audiences are more ready for new work than they were in the 80s. As its producing artistic director, how are you steering Exile? When Joe handed the company off to me, we started a new phase. We were coming out of the aftermath of the recession. And while Theatre Exile was artistically strong, it was financially fragile. The goal was to find a new, sustainable way to create work. It was an honor to lead the company through that journey. If we hadn’t found new stronger ground, we would never have been prepared to create an opportunity for ourselves when our building went up for sale. There was one moment when everything changed for us. I was talking with one of the new building owners. I said something like, “I know that you need to have a commercial space in the building. Why don’t you expand what you have and make a theater?” He looked at me and said, “Oh Deborah, you can’t afford us.” He was right. So I said, “Well, the majority of the theater can be subterranean. As long as we have a first floor presence, everything else can be down below.” One week later, I received a drawing from their architect to review. And at that point, the board and staff and I were about to undertake a crazy fast marathon. The first-floor had to keep up with the developer’s timeline. It was insane, but I had a great board and staff. And I was in communication with our key donors. Everyone was excited. They all saw us get out of debt and find firm ground. They were all game. It makes me short of breath when I think about it, because we’re still not done. When Covid happened, it was time to get our equipment, put up signs, and get chairs. How has the pandemic changed the local theater landscape and Theatre Exile It’s forced us to ask ourselves what is the essential Exile. We’ve decided to answer that by saying that we tell stories that spark conversations or illuminate part of ourselves that we tend
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Winter Festivities Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides Thru December 31. Presented by Historic Bethlehem Museum & Sites. Experience Christmas City, USA. Horse-drawn carriage rides are the perfect way to enjoy the lights, sights, and sounds of Bethlehem. Be amazed by the National Historic Landmark District of Historic Moravian Bethlehem as you enjoy a holiday tradition for locals and guests alike. Tickets on sale now. Get yours before they sell out. The Visitor Center, 501 Main St., Bethlehem. 800-360-8687. Purchase today at HistoricBethlehem.org Historic Holidays in the Colonial Industrial Quarter Thru December 31. Activities include pop-up shopping, Putz displays, a winter art exhibition, Christmas Huts, Colonial Blacksmith demonstrations and warming stations. It’s fun for the entire family. 459 Old York Rd., Bethlehem. Reserve your timed tickets, 800-360-8687. HistoricBethlehem.org Historic Holidays at Burnside Plantation Thru December 31. Find your
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perfect tree at our tree farm and don’t miss the holiday greens sale and winter garden. Celebrate the farm’s historic roots through hands-on activities, a barn bake sale, outdoor displays, family photo ops and pop-up shops. 1461 Schoenersville Rd., Bethlehem. Reserve your timed ticket. Call 800-360-8687. HistoricBethlehem.org
care heroes in our lives. Ornaments and engraving are free and first come, first serve. They will be on display all season and then available for pick up. If you are interested in reserving one or sponsoring this initiative, please email Angela at angelad@lehighvalleychamber.org. 610-841-5800 Lehighvalleychamber.org
Christmas City Stroll Thru December 31. Take a walk through beautiful downtown Historic Bethlehem with our certified guide in period dress. Discover the story of Bethlehem’s unique beginning in 1741, the tales of a candlein-every-window, and the renowned Bethlehem Star. The Visitor Center, 501 Main St., Bethlehem. 800-360-8687, HistoricBethlehem.org
Luminaria Night December 12, at sundown, city-wide, Bethlehem. Presented by New Bethany Ministries, Luminaria Night is a beautiful and enchanted evening when neighborhoods line their streets with white bags illuminated by votive candles. Luminaria are a symbol of unity and caring for those less fortunate. Luminaria night started in 1998 in a small neighborhood in Bethlehem to benefit one family in need. Celebrating its 22nd year, it has grown into a valley-wide event connecting neighborhoods together in a beautiful evening of light and giving. All proceeds from the sale of kits go to New Bethany Ministries, a faith-
Trellis at City Hall Thru January 1, presented by Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce. Payrow Plaza (Bethlehem City Hall). The Chamber will be dedicating the ornaments on the trellis at Bethlehem City Hall to the health-
in Lehigh Valley based, non-discriminatory agency providing programming to the hungry, homeless, poor, and mentally ill of Lehigh Valley. $10 kit includes 10 candles, sand & bags. 610-6915602, ext. 201 Newbethanyministries.org Opening Up Our HeartsMusic and Inspiration of Christmas December 13, 4-6 p.m. The Bach Choir of Bethlehem presents Virtual Concert on The Bach Choir’s YouTube Channel and Facebook page. Recorded outdoors in Nazareth and in Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, this virtual concert offers seasonal selections from Bach and other composers, along with poetry and sacred texts expressing the beauty of the season. Tickets are free. Call 610-866-4382, ext. 110. Bach.org Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker, Christmas Stream December 19, 8:00 p.m. Step into a simpler time filled with sweet dreams and Christmas magic. World-class artists, over
200 dazzling costumes, stunning sets, towering puppets and soaring birds. Tickets are being sold through Moscow Ballet’s platform. $50 for Stream only, and $65 for Stream with meet & greet. $25 of each stream purchased will go to the non-profit State Theatre’s Your Seat is Waiting Campaign. Easton, PA. 610-252-3132. Statetheatre.org Christmas City Follies XXl December 20, 7:00 p.m., premiering via YouTube watch party and available through January 2, 2021. The highspirited, homegrown send-up of the Christmas season in the Christmas City goes online for 2020. For the last 20 years, Christmas City Follies has been singing, dancing, laughing and cartwheeling its way into the hearts of audiences. For ticket information and purchase, call 610-867-1689. Touchstone.org. PEEPSFEST December 30 & December 31. Presented by Just Born Quality Confections. The
Lehigh Valley’s sweetest festival returns for its 11th year with two days of virtual and in-person family programming. The event culminates with the PEEPS Chick Drop on New Year’s Eve and a spectacular fireworks show. Tickets are FREE. ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks, 101 Founders Way. 610-332-3378. SteelStacks.org Baum School of Art’s 2020 Holiday Gallery December 1-22. The galleries will be filled with one-ofa-kind artworks from over 45 of the region’s talented artists and artisans. Shop online or in-person by appointment this holiday season. 510 W. Linden St., Allentown, PA. 610-4330032. Baumschool.org Historic Bethlehem Live Advent Calendar December 1-23, nightly from 5:30 p.m. Kicking off its 13th year, the program lasts 10-15 minutes each night, and is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the season. 1810 Goundie House, 501 Main St., Bethlehem. 610-739-1775. GetDowntownBethlehem.com
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books Dancing in the Mosque by Homeira Qaderi Harper; 252 pages In the days before Homeira Qaderi gave birth to her son, Siawash, the road to the hospital in Kabul would often be barricaded because of the frequent suicide explosions. With the city and the military on edge, it was not uncommon for an armed soldier to point his gun at the pregnant woman’s bulging stomach, terrified that she was hiding a bomb. Frightened and in pain, she was once forced to make her way on foot. Propelled by the love she held for her soon-to-be-born child, Homeira walked through blood and wreckage to reach the hospital doors. But the joy of her beautiful son’s birth was soon overshadowed by other dangers that would threaten her life.
Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America by Michael Eric Dyson St. Martin's Press; 240 pages The night of May 25, 2020 changed America. George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis when a white cop suffocated him. The video of that night’s events went viral, sparking the largest protests in the nation’s history and the sort of social unrest we have not seen since the sixties. Long Time Coming grapples with the cultural and social forces that have shaped our nation in the brutal crucible of race. In five beautifully argued chapters, Dyson traces the genealogy of anti-blackness from the slave ship to the street corner where Floyd lost his life―and where America gained its will to confront the ugly truth of systemic racism. First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country by Thomas E. Ricks Harper; 416 pages On the morning after the 2016 presidential election, Thomas Ricks awoke with a few questions on his mind: What kind of nation did we now have? Is it what was designed or intended by the nation’s founders? Trying to get as close to the source as he could, Ricks decided to go back and read the philosophy and literature that shaped the founders’ thinking, and the letters they wrote to each other debating these crucial works—among them the Iliad, 16
Plutarch’s Lives, and the works of Xenophon, Epicurus, Aristotle, Cato, and Cicero. The first four American presidents came to their classical knowledge differently. Washington absorbed it mainly from the elite culture of his day; Adams from the laws and rhetoric of Rome; Jefferson immersed himself in classical philosophy, especially Epicureanism; and Madison, both a groundbreaking researcher and a deft politician, spent years studying the ancient world like a political scientist. Ricks interprets the effect of the ancient world on each man, and offers startling new insights into these legendary leaders. In Search of Elsewhere: Unseen Images by Steve McCurry Laurence King Publishing; 208 pages Steve McCurry is known for creating some of the most iconic images of recent times and in this new collection, he shares previously unseen photographs from his incredibly rich archive. In Search of Elsewhere takes us across the globe and offers new perspectives on many of the locations that the photographer has already made famous—from India, Myanmar and Cuba, to Kashmir and the whitewashed temples of the Himalayas. Each image is reproduced at large format and in remarkable detail and this new compilation reveals the incredible depth of his work. In Case You Get Hit by a Bus: A Plan to Organize Your Life Now for When You're Not Around Later by Abby Schneiderman and Adam Seifer, with Gene Newman Workman Publishing Company; 251 pages Even the most disorganized among us can take control of our on- and offline details so our loved ones won’t have to scramble later. Breaking the task down into three levels, from the most urgent (like granting access to passwords), to the technical (creating a manual for the systems in your home), to the nostalgic (assembling a living memory), this clear, step-by-step program not only removes the anxiety and stress from getting your life in order, it’s actually liberating. And deeply satisfying, knowing that you’re leaving the best parting gift imaginable. n
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13 DEBORAH BLOCK
to keep in the dark. And while you can’t compare how it feels when the actors and audience are in the room together, we can still tell stories that engage. And Theatre Exile’s audiences are already primed to take chances. What do the pieces you’ve chosen for the 2020-2021 season say about Exile going forward? D-Pad was the play that gave me the confidence to say that we can have a season; that Theatre Exile will continue to do what Exile does, but we may have to change how we do it. We have to be flexible and safe in achieving those goals, and it was going to be scary. But I knew that Jeremy would be a great partner. He was entirely willing to take his play to what feels like the next organic step based on the reality of our time. I knew that I’d only choose plays that would naturally or organically pivot to the type of storytelling that would work safely. What does the virtual world of Theatre Exile look like? We’re doing two shows online, and they will each look different. D-Pad has four actors in different places, some of whom are using green screens. The characters who go into video games are all communicating virtually. That’s a specific experience. We want the form that we are using to help us tell the story. For our second show, Sin-Eaters by Anna Moench, directed by Matt Pfeiffer, actors Bi Jean Ngo and David Raine live together, as do the two characters. It will have a different feel. We also want the screen usage to feel organic, but the result will feel different, more like a film than D-Pad. Our third show will most likely be produced outside. Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu, directed by Ozzie Jones, takes place on a street corner. So if we can’t be inside, putting it outside is an easy and preferable choice. Now what? As time goes on, we will keep the good things that we’ve learned from this time. We can create a deeper engagement with ideas and artists through Zoom. But I ache to get us all back to the theater. I walk through that beautiful space a few times a week, and I want to share its potential. My goal is to keep our community strong, our team intact, and prepared to be ready when the world is safe. Walter Dallas taught me to get rid of the fallacy of the starving artist. Imagine how much better we can be when we’re all strong and healthy together. Let that be the big disrupter. The world is better when each of us is strong. Let’s ditch the hierarchical norm for holding hands in a circle. Radical, I know. n Theatre Exile, 1340 So. 13th St, Philadelphia. (215) 218-4022. theatreexile.org
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Guide to the Arts Art
Theater
Allentown Art Museum Evolution of the Spiritual: Europe to America, through January 3, 2021. Prints and Protest 1960-1970, through January 24, 2021. New Century, New Woman, through January 24, 2021. Intuition & Reflection, The Ceramics of Toshiko Takaezu, through January 2, 2021. 31 North Fifth St., Allentown, PA. 610-432-4333. Allentownartmuseum.org
1812 Productions In its 15th annual production, This Is The Week That Is (TW20), a staple of Philadelphia theater, returns in a digital format. Streaming live December 3, 2020-January 3, 2021. Opening night Dec. 9, 7:00 p.m. Tickets and information: 1812productions.org or 215592-9560. This Is The Week That Is, takes its cues from the ever-changing news cycle.
Baum School of Art’s 2020 Holiday Gallery December 1-22. The galleries will be filled with one-of-a-kind artworks from over 45 of the region’s talented artists and artisans. Shop online or in-person (by appointment) this holiday season. 510 W. Linden St., Allentown, PA. 610-433-0032. Baumschool.org
DeSales University/Act 1 Performing Arts Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, adapted by James Walker, directed and originally scored by Dennis Razze. A live, pre-recorded 2020 production. December 5 & 6. DeSales.edu/act1, 610-282-3192
Bethlehem House Gallery 2020 Holiday Show, through January 9, 2021. 459 Main St., Bethlehem, PA. Wed.-Thurs. 117, Fri.-Sat. 12-9, Sun. 12-5. 610-419-6262. Bethlehemhousegallery.com Mercer Museum WE’RE OPEN! 200 Years of Bucks County Art Through December 31, 2020 Paintings by Charles Willson Peale, Edward Hicks, Martin Johnson Heade, Thomas Hicks, Thomas Otter, William Lathrop and Daniel Garber, as well as Jonathan and William Trego, Edward Trego, Samuel DuBois, Robert Street, Samuel Moon.. 84 South Pine St., Doylestown, PA. Mercermuseum.org. 215-345-0210 New Hope Arts Center Works in Wood 2020, through January 10, 2021. In-gallery & virtual juried exhibition, including sculpture, assemblage, furniture, and vessels. 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope, PA. 215-862-9606. Newhopearts.org Silverman Gallery of Bucks County of Impressionist Art. Winter Small Works Show, December 12-January 17, 2021. Buckingham Green, Route 202, just north of PA 413, 4920 York Rd., Holicong, PA. 215-794-4300. Silvermangallery.com The Snow Goose Gallery What do artists do in quarantine? Through December 20. In lieu of an opening, nine of the twelve artists will be appearing either in person or online on Sunday afternoons from 1-4 pm throughout the exhibition. Call or visit our website, or see our ad for more details. 610-974-9099 Thesnowgoosegallery.com
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Williams Center for the Arts Manual Cinema, A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens’ classic reimagined for 2020. Lafayette College, Easton, PA. Live streaming December 5-19. Tickets and info: AtTheWilliams.org Touchstone Theatre Christmas City Follies XXl, December 20, 7:00 p.m, premiering via YouTube watch party and available through January 2, 2021. 610-867-1689 or Touchstone.org State Theatre Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker. Christmas Stream, December 19, 8:00 p.m. Tickets: Moscow Ballet’s platform. $50 for Stream only, and $65 with meet & greet. Easton, PA. 610-252-3132. Statetheatre.orgs Theatre Exile D-Pad, by Jeremy Gable. Virtual performance, Nov. 27-December 13; opening night December 2. All performances will be produced online. Explore the world of independent gaming through the lens of wunderkind developer Alex. Theatreexile.org 215-218-4022
Literature Emerging Playwright Competition. Congratulations to the winning playwrights of Phillips’ Mill Community Association’s third annual juried competition: Nick De Simone, Close Your Eyes; Adam Richter, Eye Contact; Jeff Stolzer, The New Abnormal; J.B. Heaps-Go Gently Into The Night; Jim Moss, Far From Providence, Kimberly Kalaja, Acts Without Words. Observing Covid restrictions, we invite the community to readings of all six short plays followed by a talkback and wine reception with the playwrights, judges and actors in June 2021. Check our website in May 2021 for date and time. Phillip’s Mill, 2619 River Rd., New Hope, PA. 215-862-0582. PhillipsMill.org.
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The New Hope Colony Artists Residency for international artists pursuing creative + professional growth The Phillips Mill Foundation for the Arts has announced plans for the launch of its New Hope Colony Artists Residency in April 2021. For its inaugural residency, The First Ten, the Foundation formed the Artists Residency Council (ARC) composed of renowned female artists and creatives including architect Deborah Berke, visual artists Marilyn Minter and Miya Ando, furniture maker Mira Nakashima, filmmaker DeMane Davis, gallerist
Wood shop built by Morgan Colt..
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5 FROM A DISTANCE
around, dressing them as I wanted, having them do as I said. Some I even left out, as I did myself. Artists are advised to take risks, but that’s like spitting into the wind, especially since I expect to see all these folks again. I saw two in-depth exhibitions of Edvard Munch’s work a few years back and was struck by his interior paintings. What impressed me was how comfortably he made you witness to a scene that happened more than a hundred years ago. When I looked at them, I felt like I was at the edge of the room wearing a waistcoat, holding my top hat respectfully in my hands. It didn’t seem unnatural because what he captured wasn’t a moment, it was a human experience. He didn’t just show you; he reminded you. Munch’s paintings have stood a big test of time. For me to get a viewer to interpret my subjects as I do requires keen observation and considered description. Getting them to do it a century from now takes a whole bunch of luck on my part, and there’s no way to know how I’m doing while I’m at it. The secret is in the people; I’m sure of it. I don’t want to paint Edvard’s paintings, but I do want my images to have a clarity and eloquence that maintains their relevance over time. To go beyond depicting a moment and a place, to describing a way. While it’s important that a future audience be aware of how things have changed, there is much to be learned from what hasn’t, and I want all of that in the image. Our dining room adds to the context. I chose this view of the table and the doorway to the kitchen in order to best establish illumination and depth. Those paintings are actually there. Some people are delighted by paintings with other paintings in them, but for me they’re merely helpful when I want to locate backgrounds, shadows, and sources of light. Doreen and I have hosted the holiday dinner for many years, so I know well the cast and interactions, and how they have evolved. It’s an event with a history and personality. The painting describes a complex but familiar interaction. This kind of activity summons recollections of family traditions and gatherings for almost everybody. One of the hallmarks of our family dinners is that there is always at least one conversation going on, and usually more. People focused on people. I think that’s typical. The image is a story about stories, as well as having paintings within a painting. And like the Munch interiors, it depicts an emotional place not just a moment. The youngest in our tribe are adults with their own homes, and there will be a changing of the holiday kitchen guard someday soon. I don’t attempt to spotlight what I think is significant or relevant about my era, although want it to be in there. I just try to bring the viewer out of the stands and onto the field, to feel the grass, smell the air, and realize what people are doing here and why. When I painted this image last February, I couldn’t have known that we wouldn’t be doing it again come the holidays. Seems so long ago. When family dinners do resume, some things will be the same, but there will be a difference as well. I can feel it in the painting already. n Answer to December’s puzzle, CAPITAL GAINS
Phillips Mill Art Colony.
Leila Heller, and sculptor Malene Barnett. ARC advisory members were invited to nominate ten diverse women artists of the first cohort to have the honor of joining the First Ten. The 4-week residency will be virtual at the onset, but ultimately the artists will reside in the restored historic English Village at Phillips Mill in New Hope, PA. The original New Hope Colony was founded as an artist residency almost 100 years ago by famous Pennsylvania Impressionists William Lathrop, Edward Redfield, and Daniel Garber, and were joined by the architect/artist Morgan Colt who built the iconic English Tudor village. The non-profit PMFA has launched a $35 million fundraising campaign to restore, preserve, and reinstate the New Hope Colony as an international destination for artists and the public to engage, learn and grow, as the founders before them, in this magical place by the Delaware River. www.phillipsmillfoundation.org n 20
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harper’s FINDINGS
INDEX
Ninety-six percent of mammalian extinctions in the past hundred thousand years were attributable to humans. Even as CO2 emissions fell during lockdowns, atmospheric concentrations continued to rise. The Greenland ice sheet, whose melting last year exceeded the previous record by 15 percent, was found to have entered “a constant state of loss.” The rate of Arctic sea-ice melt in recent decades has either exceeded predictions or matched worst-case scenarios, though large-scale river dams have slowed global sealevel rise. A survey determined that only 6.5 percent of the world’s most ecologically valuable tropical forests are formally protected, and current climate models can explain neither the speed nor the pattern by which certain parts of the tropics are expanding. The highest reliably measured temperature in history was recorded in Death Valley. Urban air pollution was driving energy consumption, leading to even greater levels of air pollution, which in turn was driving antibiotic resistance. An interdisciplinary team posited that energy efficiency will not save civilization, as it simply allows for more efficient economic growth.
Portion of local U.S. parks that saw an increase in visitors this spring: 2/3 Portion of U.S. parks-and-recreation agencies that have been asked to reduce spending this fiscal year: 2/3 Percentage of dust particles in U.S. national parks that are plastic: 4 Factor by which the annual amount of plastic pollution accumulating in bodies of water is expected to increase by 2040: 2.6 By which the amount accumulating on land is expected to increase: 2.8 Approx. number of square miles that have been lost from the Louisiana coast in the past 100 years: 2,000 Est. % change by 2100 in the mortality rate in Accra, Ghana, as a result of temperature-related deaths: +19 In Oslo, Norway: −28 Percentage by which the population of the average wildlife species has declined globally since 1970: 68 In Latin America and the Caribbean: 94 Rank of deforestation among the causes of wildlife decline on land: 1 Estimated number of animals that have been killed or displaced by Australian wildfires over the past two years: 3,000,000,000 Estimated percentage of wildland firefighters in California who are prisoners: 14 Percentage by which the U.S. prison population has dropped since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: 8 Portion of its viewership that the cable channel A&E lost after canceling Live PD in the wake of George Floyd’s killing: 1/2 Percentage increase in police stops of black drivers in the month after a Trump rally was held in a given area in 2016: 4.2 Estimated number of stops for which this accounted: 30,000 Percentage of black Americans who wish police officers would spend less time in their neighborhoods: 19 Who wish they would spend more: 20 Percentage decrease in the length of the average work meeting since the onset of the pandemic: 20 Percentage by which employees in open-plan offices took more sick leave than those in private offices before COVID-19: 62 Percentage by which the unemployment rate of recently graduated U.S. physics majors exceeds that of art history majors: 60 Estimated amount that South Korea was willing to spend to save a single life in the first phase of the pandemic: $6,682,000 That the United States was willing to spend: $87,000 Number of Americans who have become billionaires over the course of the pandemic: 24 Average factor by which countries led by men have had more COVID-19 deaths than countries led by women: 1.9 Portion of U.S. adults who think it is probably or definitely true that COVID-19 was planned by “powerful people”: 1/4 Percentage by which women are more likely than men to see some truth in the theory: 38 Factor by which mainstream newspapers cite organizations that oppose climate action more often than those that support it: 2 Portion of Americans who admit to not relying on the news sources they regard as the most trustworthy: 1/3 Percentage by which Republicans are less likely than Democrats to say that health officials are handling the pandemic well: 24 By which they were more likely than Democrats to say so in March: 14 Portion of Americans who have yet to complete a census form who say they would refuse to answer the door for a census worker: 2/5 Percentage of eligible U.S. voters who do not have a government-issued photo ID: 11 Min. amount that 5 states have spent implementing voter-ID laws since 2006: $36,000,000 No. of hours that Texas state lawyers have spent litigating voter-ID laws since 2011: 12,400 Percentage of Americans who would support testing presidential candidates’ cognitive ability: 67 Who would support administering drug tests to candidates: 70 Portion of Americans who think neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump would make a good president: ¼
g
Tiehm’s buckwheat may prevent the construction of the first American lithium mine, in Nevada; the presence of lithium in drinking water lowers suicide rates; living at high elevation in the American West predicts a “frontier” personality; adult ADHD predicts car crashes; and wind weakens St. Elmo’s fire on airplanes. Scientists probed equatorial cold-tongue biases, and blamed the difficulty of predicting El Niño’s North American Januaries on Tibet, where large foraminifera were found to have been more vulnerable than small ones during the extinction pulses of the early Jurassic. Sunburned plant spores from the Devonian–Carboniferous boundary suggest that the Late Devonian extinction may have been caused by radiation from a supernova. Two time crystals created by physicists began interacting and exchanging particles.
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A preserved embryo confirmed the presence of nose horns among titanosaur hatchlings. Archaeologists near Stonehenge, where acoustics favor listeners in the inner circle, found a flute made from a human thigh bone. The earliest known Near Eastern cremation, of a young person with moderate arthritis and a fragment of flint lodged in the sinister scapular spine, was dated to around 7000 bc. Tooth cementum indicated increased stress among Balkan women during the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition, and a calcified lung nodule of Bishop Peder Winstrup of Lund supported the theory that tuberculosis emerged in the New Stone Age. The vast suburban homes of boomers and Gen X-ers were forecast to become unsellable. Casual observers can identify photos of white men and women convicted of crimes and of priests convicted of sexually abusing children because their faces, compared with controls, are manifestly unhappy. Teens today can accurately classify teens in video interviews from 2006 as “anime/mangas,” “druggies/stoners,” “emo/goths,” “fine arts,” “jocks,” “loners,” “populars,” “smarts,” and “troublemakers.” College students’ word choice in describing marijuana intoxication follows a progression of impairment from “nice” to “high” to “happy” to “hungry” to “stoned” to “baked” to “paranoid.” Eighty-eight percent of opioid-induced deafness cases involve a single exposure. Bone-fracture patients who received positive daily affirmations from a chatbot used 37 percent fewer opioid pills. Neurologists gave macaques reversible brain damage. Recent American recipients of Chinese mystery seeds, contrary to government warnings, planted them. Other Americans ate them. 22
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SOURCES: 1,2 National Recreation and Park Association (Ashburn, Va.); 3 Janice Brahney, Utah State University (Logan); 4,5 Winnie Lau, Pew Charitable Trusts (Washington); 6 Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (Baton Rouge, La.); 7,8 Amir Jina, University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy; 9–12 WWF (Washington/Sydney); 13 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (Sacramento); 14 The Marshall Project (NYC); 15 A&E Network (NYC); 16,17 Pauline Grosjean, University of New South Wales (Sydney); 18,19 Gallup (Atlanta); 20 Evan DeFilippis (Boston); 21 Karl Bang Christensen, University of Copenhagen (Denmark); 22 Federal Reserve Bank of New York; 23,24 Ben Balmford (Exeter, England); 25 Institute for Policy Studies (Washington); 26 Supriya Garikipati, University of Liverpool (England); 27,28 Pew Research Center (Washington); 29 Rachel Wetts, Brown University (Providence, R.I.); 30 RAND Corporation (Santa Monica, Calif.); 31–33 Pew Research Center; 34 Brennan Center for Justice (NYC); 35,36 The Guardian (NYC); 37,38 YouGov (NYC); 39 Gallup.
CAPITAL GAMES by EVAN BIRNHOLZ SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1 5 10 14 18 19 20 21 22 24 25 26 27 29 31 33 35 38 39 40 41 43 45
48 54 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 65 66 69 71 72 73 74 75 77 78
Radiate, as heat Herb on caprese pizza Some D.C. electees Move quickly Food bank donations Italian setting of the Palazzo Giusti “You’ve got that right!” Clue weapon Imaginative instrumental work composed by a stoner? Queen of Olympus ___ Philharmonic (Pennsylvania orchestra) “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” playwright Cheetah feature Like Kramer in “Kramer vs. Kramer” Like some marsh plants Sacred choral work composed by a detractor? Raleigh sch. “OMG, we’re having a blast!” Store hours contraction “This hot tub feels nice!” ___ Vegas Raiders Military squad “Come in the morning while the ___ of night, / Which are fair Nature’s tears in darkness shed”: Wilfrid Scawen Blunt Instrumental piece composed by a South Korean car salesman? Occurring a single time Movie review symbols “You win” [Please milk me, human] Tower full of grain “Doing fine” 2018 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Steve Freezes Identify, as on social media Multi-movement work composed by a concierge? Theatrical musical work composed by a jockey? Hr. when you may leave “Mean Girls” producer Michaels “The Rapture” actress Rogers Again Site of a certain type of city garden Hawaiian wedding band instrument, for short He has 2020 visions
79 81 83 86 87 89 90 91 93 96 100 104 105 106 108 112 113 115 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124
Occupy, as an activist might Overhauled, as an essay Contrapuntal musical piece composed by a fiction author? Snooty sort Vichyssoise ingredient “Can I ___ your phone?” The E of Ransom E. Olds Minor thing to “pick” Is situated atop Woodwind heard in “Take Five” Rhythmic musical piece composed by a dissident? Wilt Claim again, as power Type of dip, or a type of dance with dips ___ comedy (genre featuring awkward, embarrassing situations) Allocate, with “out” Reason for suing Vocal piece composed by a yodeler? Making an ocean voyage Bespectacled pirate in “Peter Pan” Wormhole in sci-fi, e.g. “Misty” singer Fitzgerald Woodpecker’s dwelling Olympics event with an electrified weapon Olympics event with a loaded weapon Apt soda pop for pops?
DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 19 23 28
Form of self-reflection? Most important “Bus Stop” playwright William PJs top, perhaps Grammy winner Harper Like many black light theater productions Shower cleaner? One bearing antennae Strata Rowdy crowd sound Some university retirees Georges whose book “A Void” notably avoided the letter E Show hostility toward Like sleep free of nightmares, say Passage you know by heart? Characters in Lara Prescott’s novel “The Secrets We Kept” Follows Parker at a restaurant Pest hopping on hounds Diminish the strength of
30 32 34 35 36 37 38 42 44 46 47 49 50 51 52 53 55 56 59 63 64 66 67 68
69 70 73 76 78
Pass over, vocally Tuna salad seller “Napoleon Dynamite” actress Majorino Informal refusal Low coral islands “Pull the plug on the whole thing!” Close off from others Extremely foolish Ace Hardware offerings Chardonnay and riesling, e.g. Like some radiation Old what’s-his-___ Whimsically amusing Invites, as one’s Tinder match On the ___ (exactly) Burnt firewood residue Difficult Piece of attire once worn at the Colosseum Spots for pleasure craft National coup? Dr. Robotnik’s hedgehog foe in video games Mister, in Münster Platte River people Steve who invented a wristwatch that allowed him and Carl Winslow to travel back in time “In here, quickly!” Org. fighting speciesism Sch. that trains many physicists What’s claimed when calling shotgun Stock characters in “Sons of
80 82 83 84 85 88 92 94 95 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104
107 109 110 111 114 116
Anarchy” Saints’ city, briefly Awards for off- and off-off-Broadway shows She called Chewbacca a “big walking carpet” ___-wheel drive Veto Sturdy plant associated with the underworld in Celtic mythology Fly with duplicated letters Tricksy types “Hey, check this out!” In the neighborhood “Silent All These Years” singer Amos Presented perspectives Guy doing corp. spin “Wild” star Witherspoon “Black Water” author Joyce Carol ___ Defeat decisively Poet whom Pope Francis called “a prophet of hope, a herald of humanity’s possible redemption and liberation” “Whatever you say” Lion voiced by Beyoncé in the 2019 remake of “The Lion King” Adorn ornately Chronological chunks Driving range prop Eye on one’s arm, e.g., briefly
Solution to this month’s puzzle on page 20
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