ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS changing the way we think about authorship, art, and white collar work. It may be changing how we think, full stop. As artificial intelligence, or machine learning, becomes more integrated into people’s everyday lives, it runs the risk of “replacing moral judgments, or by replacing practical judgments, or replacing everyday judgments,” Nir […]
Arts and Culture
Posted inArts and Culture
Boston pitches libraries, affordable housing as perfect match
IN THREE BOSTON neighborhoods, home could soon be where the stacks are. The city is set to join a handful of other places that combine public libraries with affordable housing, a popular pairing that addresses increasingly pricey housing markets and limited land for new development. “Certainly no one would argue that housing is one of the […]
Posted inOpinion
How arts enrich the state’s civic life
LOCAL ARTS PROVIDE a wellspring for community – energizing residents and enriching civic life. Our regions benefit from the remarkable ways that arts and cultural expression help people engage, connect, and contribute to more equitable, vibrant places. It happens on multiple levels. Merrimack Valley residents join in municipal development through a question that goes to […]
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In end of era, Bay State Banner sold
BIG NEWS FROM the world of local news in Boston: After almost 60 years at the helm, Mel Miller has decided it’s time for a changing of the guard at the Bay State Banner, the venerable weekly focused on the city’s Black community that he has owned since its founding in 1965. The 88-year-old publisher […]
Posted inOpinion
As history shows, those educated in arts shape the future
THIS YEAR marks a profound milestone in how Massachusetts became a national symbol of ingenuity and creativity, leading the way in preparing new generations to take on the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing economy. In 1871, state leaders had the foresight to make an inspired investment in our Commonwealth’s future. Without the luxury […]
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‘The Embrace’ is good art, but not good public art
I AGREE WITH those who say “The Embrace” tribute to Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King is good art. But it may not be good public art. Good public art, as understood both in the academy and among regular folks, is art that evokes both historical memory and challenges us in ordering our future […]
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Ashmont Grill offered a healthy serving of community-building
IT HAS BEEN, to borrow the hackneyed line from a made-up Boston bar, a real-life place where everybody knows your name. For 18 years, the Ashmont Grill has been the go-to gathering place for my Dorchester neighborhood, as well as for a wider circle of people in Boston and beyond. We were drawn to its […]
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GBH host O’Donovan faces bleak prognosis with ‘poetry and prayers’
IT WAS A MOMENT when memories were made, beautifully, poignantly, publicly. Brian O’Donovan, celebrating the 20thyear of his annual live show “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn,” stood onstage at Boston’s Cutler Majestic Theater with his wife and two of his daughters, along with the rest of the cast. As the audience joined in, they sang the […]
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Broadening theater’s reach
RODNEY KING’S BEATING at the hands of Los Angeles police officers in 1991, their subsequent trial and acquittal, and the days of violent unrest that followed came 15 years before Samuel Adedeji was born. But seated last month in a darkened Cambridge theater, the Boston teenager was suddenly transported into the middle of the tinderbox […]
Posted inOpinion
Supporting BIPOC artists helps grow communities
Second in a series of commentaries on arts in community ARTISTS, AND THE cultural expression they create, are essential to the future of Massachusetts cities and towns. Communities must do our part to support their development, celebrate their work, and amplify their voices. Justin Beatty makes visual art in Western Massachusetts based on his worldview […]