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07-06-2019, 10:54 AM
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Mary Jane will be weighing in herself shortly.
This from her Facebook page: "I'm almost through with an article that will be online with ARTNews."
Nemo
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07-06-2019, 10:57 AM
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Not defensive, Andrew, more frustrated at how quickly the direction of the discussion turned toward who is doing the telling rather than the events themselves. I deliberately mentioned that the website seemed to have a conservative slant in my first post, because I kind of knew it would come up and I was trying to avoid this being the focus by pre-empting it, I suppose. Didn't work, obviously. Of course this is the kind of 'crazy censorious lefty' story that conservatives love. I think it's a real shame that the conservative media seem to have a monopoly on covering this stuff, because annoyingly sometimes they're right. I'm sorry to have to be in agreement with a typical 'Quillette' story, whatever that entails, but they appeared to be the only place covering it.
Cross-posted with Nemo. That will be interesting.
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07-06-2019, 01:14 PM
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Nemo, I look forward to reading her side of the story through ARTNews.
Mark, they aren't the only place covering it. There are others. There will be more. Sometimes a conservative outlet has a point and this may be is one; they always have an agenda they are pushing behind it, and one that colors how they pitch it. They want to seem reasonable and intellectual so you agree with them, but there's a reason Quillette articles make the approving rounds on Stormfront.
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07-06-2019, 05:07 PM
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Andrew, I don't need a patronising lecture about the conservative media. If, as you say, other places are covering this story then I'd love for you to link to them, I'd be happy to read about it anywhere. This place just happens to be where I saw it. It is the event that interests and disturbs me, not who is telling it, because I'm interested in Julius Eastman and I'm interested and disturbed by what seems to be a trend toward censoriousness in the arts. Art has always been suppressed and censored, but recently, rather than the church or the state, it seems to be other artists/academics doing the censoring/apologising, often at the behest of people claiming to speak for specific groups. Let's just forget, for a minute, what website I happened to read about this on and focus on the facts as we know them.
Mary Jane Leach was invited to give a talk at a festival on the gay, black composer Julius Eastman, about whom she has co-edited a book. She is someone who has devoted over ten years of her life to recovering and curating Eastman's reputation and legacy, for no remuneration and purely for love of the man and his music. She was also scheduled to perform some of her own compositions.
She gave the talk, during which she used Eastman's titles of his own compositions, some of which contain racially charged language. She gave prior warning of this before the talk.
In a Q and A after the talk her decision to speak Eastman's titles aloud was called into question by some number of people. Leach presumably tried to defend her decision.
Some time after the Q and A it was announced that Leach's performance of her own work would not be taking place.
The festival issued a 1,700 word apology in which the content of Leach's talk was described as an instance of 'anti-black racism' and 'violence'.
She had driven 13 hours to get to the festival. She is 70 years old.
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07-06-2019, 05:16 PM
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I remain unconvinced as to the good faith of the festival organizers.
John
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07-06-2019, 05:41 PM
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Mark,
Here's one:
http://exclaim.ca/music/article/hali..._eastman_event
Notice the already quoted here but not in the Quillette: "beyond the repeated invocation of the racial slur, it is our feeling that Leach did not receive the criticisms and questions posed to her with the honour and respect they deserved."
This seems like it might be more complicated than "In a Q and A after the talk her decision to use the titles was called into question by some number of people. Leach presumably tried to defend her decision."
Notice the continued conversation: Patterson also wrote that the festival had reached out to Leach following the event and "intend to instigate conversations of and around accountability, provided she continues her willingness to stay in touch."
The censoriousness of art is minor in today's world. You can pretty much write what you like without going to jail, unlike not very long ago. On the flip side, you might make or say things and not fully consider how it might affect some people, and those people might get upset and tell you so. Other people might agree with those other people.
But, let's pitch this in another way:
• An older white woman speaking to a racially diverse audience and using the racial slurs in titles meant to provoke people, provoked people.
• Said audience got upset, and told her they got upset, and the responses she provided did not resolve the situation.
• The venue took the blame.
• The apology notes that the director "failed to have a thorough-enough dialogue with Leach and We Are Missing in lead up to the event" and that they way they proceeded and set up the event "set up the participants [read: Leach and the facilitator] and the audience to face harm."
• While the venue took the blame they listened to people who were upset and thought it would be best to not have her perform. Perhaps the audience was unreceptive and they thought it would be a worse experience.
• They spoke to her about it and are willing to keep a dialogue open.
• She went home.
• Far from being censored, she's writing an article in ARTNews.
I can't particularly take the outrage seriously because, while she was inconvenienced, she was not silenced in any meaningful way. Her music is still out there, interested parties still have access, etc. This is the equivalent to an audience booing her off the stage and the venue realizing they didn't help her prepare enough.
Last edited by Andrew Szilvasy; 07-06-2019 at 05:43 PM.
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07-06-2019, 05:44 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Isbell
I remain unconvinced as to the good faith of the festival organizers.
John
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What do you mean, John? You don't think the venue did enough in advance or you think they are virtue signaling?
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07-06-2019, 05:50 PM
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My doubts are answered, Andrew, by the new information you provide about the venue admitting they failed both Leach and the audience in their preparations. I’d agree with them, from what has emerged here.
Cheers,
John
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07-06-2019, 06:01 PM
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No problem, John. Just curious.
The Quillette article disparaged the apology and eliminated the parts relating to Leach specifically (the parts I quoted). Other than the effects of language being "violent" (which I take issue with) I found the response pretty reasonable: there are a parts that feel a stretch, but the article claims "The OBEY Convention [...] effectively labeled her as a racist," but there's no such thing in the initial statement nor the three part apology. No surprise.
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07-06-2019, 06:25 PM
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Quote:
On Sunday, June 2nd, 2019, as part of our 12th annual festival, we hosted an event called Gay Guerilla: Julius Eastman, featuring the work of the late artist Julius Eastman, a queer, black composer based primarily in downtown New York City until his passing in 1991. This event was lead by Mary Jane Leach, a composer, researcher and friend of Julius Eastman and was facilitated by Nivie from We Are Missing, a collaborative community project that aims to create QTBIPOC programming in K’jipuktuk.
This event caused direct harm to those involved, those in attendance and to the broader communities surrounding our organization, particularly QTBIPOC folks. We recognize and name this as an instance of anti-black racism.
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Yes, they may have 'taken responsibility', but that's just administrator-speak. If I read this about myself, I might well feel I'd been effectively labelled as a racist. Also, the article doesn't 'eliminate' anything, it provides a clear link within the text to the full apology. And where does the writer 'disparage' the apology? The only hint at editorialising I can see is about its length: '1,700 words long, longer than this article'. And even if the writer was disparaging about the apology, so what?
You say, about today's environment: 'you might make or say things and not fully consider how it might affect some people, and those people might get upset and tell you so. Other people might agree with those other people'. This has surely always been the case with art, which is supposed to be challenging. The difference today seems to be the pressure on the artist or publisher to then apologise, usually in a lengthy and very public way, for their art.
I don't find your alternative bullet-pointed pitch satisfying.
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