‘Radical de-investment': $600K cut to Oregon arts groups
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Artistic Director Brian Weaver would like to focus on the August Wilson play, that is now playing. Instead he's dealing with a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts that was withdrawn the day before the play opened.
The grant was initially awarded to help fund the show about Black history. Since it was withdrawn, the public stepped up to help cover the financial loss.
'If you're saying , 'Could people just pay for it directly?' I would say yeah, they could,' Weaver told KOIN 6 News. 'They could pay for roads, too. They could pay for schools. If you strip away public money, individuals will pay for it, but it will leave a lot of people behind.'
The head of the said so far nearly $600,000 promised to dozens of Oregon organizations have been cut.
While some arts organizations can get large donors to help fill gaps, that's not the case at most performing arts locations, especially in smaller communities. The shows and performances often help local economies as people dine out and explore the area.
'I think what we're seeing at every level of government is a radical de-investment in arts,' said Josh Hecht of the . 'And if we think that art and culture does a public good, then the public needs to support the art.'
On Monday, US Rep. Suzanne Bonamici brought groups together to talk about a strategy going forward.
Bonamici pledged to continue to fight to restore the NEA funding that was promised but taken away. Meanwhile, arts groups will try and figure out how to plan for the future.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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USA Today
29 minutes ago
- USA Today
Librarians, teachers and others plan day of action to fight book bans and preserve history
Librarians, teachers and others plan day of action to fight book bans and preserve history Show Caption Hide Caption Major publishers and authors are suing Florida over its book ban law Major publishers and authors are suing Florida over its law banning books deemed to have sexual content, saying the law violates free speech. Straight Arrow News In Gainesville, Florida, The Lynx Books will host a screening of 'Banned Together" on its back patio. In Washington, D.C., participants will march on the National Mall stopping at museums to highlight the importance of preserving history. And in Seattle, visitors to some public libraries will join a ''silent read-in'' of banned books. Across the country, librarians, teachers, bookstore owners, civil rights activists and others plan to hold as many as 100 events June 7 as part of Teach Truth Day of Action. The national campaign aims to support the teaching of unvarnished history and to encourage people to read more, including banned books. The actions come in the wake of efforts by the Trump administration and some conservative groups to restrict the teaching of certain history and to ban some books, many written by authors of color. 'This wave of book banning is not new, but now it's being not only supported by the federal government, but the federal government is using it to threaten to withhold funds so it's making it worse," said Rebecca Pringle, president of the National Education Association. 'Now we have more and more who are realizing we need to stand up and we need to use our voice." It's not censorship, but education, some say Dozens of states mostly led by Republicans have adopted or proposed measures that activists said overlook critical parts of Black history or restrict language related to race, sexuality and gender issues in public schools. Some have also restricted what books and materials are available in classrooms, many that focus on race or sexuality. These mostly conservative lawmakers and groups argue that some books are offensive and should be kept from children, and that key parts of Black history are already taught in schools. Jonathan Butcher, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said if school officials decide a book is too sexually graphic for young people, then it shouldn't be in the school library. He said it is the responsibility of the school board and parents to make that decision. 'That's their job,'' Butcher said. 'It is entirely appropriate for school boards and parents to work together and decide what books should be kept on shelves." More: The new Selma? Activists say under DeSantis Florida is 'ground zero' in civil rights fight He said banned books are likely available online or in public libraries and that some claims of censorship are exaggerated. 'I think it's a tactic to make it appear as if censorship is happening, when actually this is what education is about," Butcher said. 'Adults come together, decide what should be taught in sex education, in health ed, in civics and history and they determine what books should be kept on the shelves." March to preserve history Pringle and leaders of libraries and civil rights groups said their concerns and actions extend beyond book bans to pushing back against narrow interpretations of history. 'We last year focused a lot on banned books because obviously those were a lot of the things that were happening in the public square," said Nakeesha J. Ceran, deputy director for Teaching for Change, an advocacy group. 'What feels different in this moment is really the deep concerted effort to undermine all spaces and sites of public education, inclusive of public schools, museums, libraries." The D.C. march, led by Teaching for Change and others, will start at the National Museum of African American History and Culture with stops at the National Museum of American History, the Hirshhorn Museum, the National Air and Space Museum and end at the National Museum of the American Indian. The popular African American history museum has been singled out by President Donald Trump who called its work part of a 'widespread effort to rewrite our nation's history.' Ceran disagreed, saying it's important to educators, students and others to be able to teach the truth about the history of all Americans. 'It also matters in the midst of seeing all of the dismantling that's happening, to be inspired by people, movement and resistance that is happening every day," she said. Reading material impacts 'the culture of a place' In Florida, The Lynx Books will hold a discussion Saturday about book bans and proposals to restrict the teaching of history. It will be followed by a showing of 'Banned Together," a documentary about teenagers fighting book bans. 'In our local community there are a lot of people who are very saddened by the banning of books and the intense curriculum restrictions in Florida and really want to fight against that,' said Viv Schnabel, events and community outreach for the independent bookstore. Lynx sells banned books year-round and hosts a monthly banned-book book club. Up next is 'If Beale Street Could Talk," by James Baldwin. The bookstore has also donated books, including banned ones, to community organizations. ''It's an issue that impacts every single community," Schnabel said. 'What is being taught and what is available for children to read and for everyone to read directly impacts the culture of a place. So I think everyone certainly should care.' 'Working on fighting book bans' Pringle called Florida 'Exhibit A" in the fight against book bans and restrictions on teaching history, but said the pushback is happening in other states as well. 'We have to have activists in every community,'' she said. The Seattle Public Library, for example, is hosting anti-book banning events on June 7, 14 and 21. 'The country is experiencing unprecedented levels of censorship," said Kristy Gale, a teen services librarian there. 'So many people wanted to get tapped into something like this. I think we're going to get a lot of interest from folks who want to support libraries … and the work that we do. " In 2023, the library launched 'Books Unbanned," a free digital collection of audio and e-books, including some that are banned. More than 440,000 books have been checked out, library officials said. 'It's our way of taking our resources that we have and making them available to people in other parts of the nation who don't have the kind of support for libraries or are experiencing censorship,'' said library spokeswoman Elisa Murray. More: Protestors rally to support the national African American museum and Black history Schnabel of The Lynx Books hopes the efforts have impact beyond a day. 'We're working on fighting book bans year-round not just on this day," she said. "But we're excited and hopeful that this day will shed a particular light on the work that we're doing and the work that other people across the nation are doing.'
Los Angeles Times
38 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
A Black reimagining of ‘The Great Gatsby' spotlights a hidden L.A. history
In 2022, Kyra Davis Lurie heard a story on KCRW's 'Curbed Los Angeles' about the residents of South L.A.'s West Adams Heights, nicknamed Sugar Hill after a community of wealthy Black Harlemites. Learning about the sumptuous soirees Academy Award-winning actor Hattie McDaniel hosted in her Sugar Hill mansion, Lurie realized there was a hidden Black history waiting for her to unearth. But how she created the enthralling historical novel 'The Great Mann' is a story that owes as much to Lurie's ability to reinvent herself as it does to F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby,' the iconic 20th century critique of the American dream, which provided a touchstone for the novel. Lurie, 52, grew up in Santa Cruz, far from the neighborhood where McDaniel, Louise Beavers, Ethel Waters and other striving Black actors and business pioneers depicted in 'The Great Mann' lived. While she visited family regularly in L.A., Lurie stayed up north, where she penned the light-hearted 2005 book 'Sex, Murder and a Double Latte.' She quickly followed it with two more mysteries. Encouraged by her success, Lurie struck out for L.A. to pursue her dream of getting into a TV writers room. The 2007 writers' strike deferred that goal, so Lurie pivoted to write three erotic novels which, she reveals, were 'critiques of capitalism wrapped in a romance novel.' By the time she heard about Sugar Hill and its famous inhabitants, Lurie was ready to take on a more nuanced challenge. But many literary agents weren't receptive to her change of genre. 'It was as if Marlon James had gone from writing comic books to 'A [Brief] History of Seven Killings,'' she says, name-checking the famous Jamaican writer and his Man Booker Prize-winning novel. But as Lurie continued researching the neighborhood and its history, she knew she had to tell its story, even if using 'The Great Gatsby' as her North Star proved problematic. 'I'm a huge Fitzgerald fan,' Lurie says, 'even though there was a line in that book that always bothered me.' She's referring to Nick Carraway's reference to 'two bucks and a girl' upon seeing three wealthy Black people passing by in a white-chauffeured limousine. 'While it was probably used to get a laugh in 1925, it was demeaning,' Lurie says of the scene. 'In the wake of the Red Summer of 1919 [when a record number of race riots and lynchings of Black Americans occurred in the U.S.] and the destruction of Black Wall Street in the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, Fitzgerald's language says a lot about America's cultural climate at the time.' Was it subversive to use Fitzerald's most famous novel to frame the story of a vibrant Black enclave whose prosperity rivaled that of Jay Gatsby and his ilk? Absolutely, Lurie says, adding, 'Through a Black reimagining of 'The Great Gatsby,' I tried to marry a family's story with a little-known part of L.A. history.' The family story is told through the lens of Charlie Trammell III, a World War II veteran emotionally scarred by the violence he witnessed on the battlefield and at home in Jim Crow Virginia. Charlie arrives in L.A. looking for a fresh start and to reconnect with his cousin Margie, with whom he shares pivotal childhood experiences. But Margie, who now goes by the more exotic Marguerite, has shaken off the past and married Terrance Lewis, a vice president at Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Co. The Lewises live with their son in Sugar Hill, along with McDaniel, Beavers and Norman O. Houston, the real-life co-founder and president of Golden State Mutual. Soon Charlie is swept into the world of L.A.'s wealthy Black elite, a mix of real Angelenos like John and Vada Somerville, pioneering Black dentists and founders of Central Avenue's famed Dunbar Hotel; singers-actors Waters and Lena Horne; and fictional characters including James Mann, the mysterious Black businessman recently arrived in Sugar Hill who hosts lavish parties unlike anything Charlie's ever seen: 'The air is flavored with flowery perfumes and earthy cigars. All around me diamonds glitter from brown earlobes, gold watches flash against brown wrists. The only things white are the walls.' Mann befriends Charlie, treating the recently discharged veteran to his first hand-tailored suit and fine wine, but soon embroils him in his quest to reunite with Marguerite, the love of his life since the two met some 10 years before when they both lived in the South. Like Fitzgerald's classic juxtaposition of West Egg and East Egg in 'Gatsby,' 'The Great Mann' is about new money versus old — interlopers like Mann and the entertainers versus businesspeople like Houston and the Somervilles. But Lurie 'tried not to invent flaws' in her historical figures by doing her homework, sourcing accounts in Black newspapers, biographies and even letters between Houston and NAACP leader Walter White to depict these frictions. 'The Great Mann' is also about people reinventing themselves amid the realities and contradictions of the time. Like Black actors who played maids but employed Black 'help' in real life. Or the controversy over the stereotypically demeaning roles Black actors depicted. Chief among them was Delilah Johnson, the subservient Black maid portrayed by Beavers in the 1934 film 'Imitation of Life.' It's a debate that's introduced in 'The Great Mann' when Marguerite and Terrance tell Charlie that Beavers' home, where he will be staying and which is much grander than theirs, is paid for 'with Black shame.' Also addressed in the novel are touchier subjects like White's advocacy for the lighter-skinned Horne to get roles over her darker-skinned colleagues like McDaniel or Beavers. But the engine that fires up the plot of 'The Great Mann,' and which sets it apart from 'Gatsby,' is the battle Black creatives and business owners faced to hold onto their properties. A clause placed in thousands of L.A. property deeds in 1902 restricted housing covenants at the time West Adams Heights and many other L.A. County communities were developed, prohibiting homes from being sold to anyone 'other than the white or Caucasian race.' But some white sellers sold property to Black buyers anyway, who then had to fight white groups — like the West Adams Heights Improvement Assn. — to prevent eviction from their own homes. To say how Sugar Hill's Black residents fared in court would spoil the enjoyment of this suspenseful tale, which has put Lurie on a new path in writing historical fiction. She has another project percolating, but for now, she's just grateful to have found her niche. 'It's been a journey,' she says of the twists and turns of her writing life, 'but writing about historical Black lives feels like home to me, what I was meant to do.' Lurie will be discussing 'The Great Mann' at Vroman's Bookstore at 7 p.m. June 10; Diesel, a Bookstore at 6:30 p.m. June 11; and Chevalier's Books at 6:30 p.m. June 19.
Los Angeles Times
42 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Debbie Allen
When Debbie Allen opened the doors to her dance academy in 2000 inside of a revamped Marie Callender's restaurant in Culver City, there was no other place in town like it that catered to disenfranchised Black and Latino communities. The school became a haven for dancers of all backgrounds wanting to learn from the multifaceted performer, who chasséd into the Hollywood scene with her career-defining performance as Lydia Grant in the 1980 musical 'Fame.' Allen went onto become an award-winning director and producer for shows like 'Grey's Anatomy' (which she also stars in), 'How to Get Away With Murder,' 'A Different World,' 'Jane the Virgin' and 'Everybody Hates Chris.' Fast forward 25 years, the Debbie Allen Dance Academy now resides in a 25,000-square-foot 'arts' palace in Mid City at the Rhimes Performing Arts Center (named after Allen's longtime friend and colleague Shonda Rhimes). It's more active than ever with a newly accredited middle school, a summer intensive program, a tap festival and annual 'Hot Chocolate Nutcracker' holiday show. Next up, Allen is hosting her third free community block party on June 8 on Washington Boulevard, featuring dance classes with world-renowned choreographers like Marguerite Derricks and a breakdancing competition with Silverback Bboy Events. And on June 22, Allen will host Dancing in the Light: Healing with the Arts, a bimonthly event that features free dance lessons for those impacted by the wildfires. The event will take place at the Wallis in Beverly Hills and will feature classes taught by choreographers Lyrik Cruz (salsa), Angela Jordan (African) and Anthony Berry (hip-hop). 'It's been wonderful that this community has been able to see each other and have a bit of joy,' Allen said during a Zoom call from Atlanta, where she was working on a new TV pilot. We caught up with Allen, who's lived in L.A. for nearly 40 years, to learn about how she'd spend her perfect Sunday in the city. Much like when she was a child growing up in Houston, Sundays are centered around family and spending time with her four grandchildren who 'own' her weekends, she said. On the call sheet is getting breakfast in Santa Monica, hosting a free dance class and catching a movie at Westfield Century City. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 7 a.m.: Wake up the grandbabies On a typical Sunday, I would wake up at 7 a.m. My [eldest] grandchildren spend the night with us every Saturday. I have four grandkids who are 6, 4, and two who are 6 months old. The little ones are just now getting to where their parents might let us keep them overnight. My room has turned into a nursery. First, we deal with our dog CoCo. We have a beautiful black German shepherd who is amazing. She's such a good family dog and incredible guard dog. She just glistens, just pure black, and she's wonderful with the kids. So we have to let her out and she wants to play. Then we get ready to go to breakfast. 9 a.m..: Time for breakfast We always go out somewhere for breakfast. We either go to a nearby hotel or we go to Marmalade in Santa Monica. They have very fresh croissants, little biscuits with currants and scones. They also have really good omelets and turkey bacon. Then the neighborhood people are there, so we see people that we've met and have gotten to know over the years. There's one man in particular who is always reading books and we can always get a new idea of a book to read. 11 a.m.: Host a free dance class Then we'd come back and on any given Sunday, I might be on my way to Dancing in the Light: Healing with the Arts, where I've been doing these dance classes for all the people who have been impacted by the fires. We've been doing this for months and it's been amazing. We've had tremendous support from Wallis Annenberg, United Way, Shonda Rhimes, Berry Gordy, just so many individuals who have supported. We do classes all over, which start at 11 a.m. But if we're not doing the Dancing in the Light event, sometimes we like to go to the California Science Center, which the kids love. It's great because there's so much going on there now. 2:30 p.m.: Tennis time I'll head back home to catch the kids having their tennis lesson. They are starting to play at this young age and it's so cute. 5 p.m.: Early dinner and a movie We'd either start preparing family dinner because I have a son who has his 6-month-old and my daughter, Vivian, who has her three kids. Or we'd go out to dinner. We love to go to Ivy at the Shore because it's very family-friendly and they have a lot of options. We also like going to Chinois. It's a Wolfgang Puck spot. We'd have an early dinner around 5 p.m. If we don't go out to eat, we might go to the movies. We love going to the movies. We're really close to AMC Santa Monica, but sometimes we'll go to [Westfield] Century City because they have a fantastic food court and the kids like to go up there and pick what they want to eat. 7:30 p.m.: Quality time with MaTurk We'd come back home and spend time with my mom, who we call MaTurk. She's 101 years old. We'd play her favorite music because she was a concert pianist. I did a beautiful piece for her at the Kennedy Center this year based on her book, 'Hawk,' which we republished. It's on sale now. But Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' is her favorite. She played it for me when I was 4 years old, going to sleep on her lap. And my granddaughters are the cutest things with MaTurk. They like to pretend they are the caregivers and they want to brush her hair. They want to massage her legs. It's a sweet thing. 8:30 p.m.: Catch up on our favorite shows After that, it's time to say goodbye to the grandkids. Then my husband and I will nestle in. We're always reading books and watching various series. We've been watching Shonda Rhimes' 'The Residence' lately. We love it! And he also is addicted to 'Power Book.' If I could pick, I'd be in bed by 9:30 p.m.
