Although the commission raised several possibilities for the seal and motto, the panel punted a decision to the Legislature. How that decision will be made is unclear at the moment.
Arts and Culture
Posted inTransportation
Blue Line ridership disappointing during and after tunnel closure
THE SUMNER TUNNEL shutdown on July 5 prompted an increase in MBTA passenger levels on subways, buses, ferries, and commuter rail, but the increase wasn’t as big as expected and there’s little evidence that people who tried public transit during the closure remained riders after the reopening on August 31. According to a presentation to […]
Posted inArts and Culture
UMass Dartmouth exit a tough blow for New Bedford
WHILE STUDENTS ACROSS the state descend on campuses for fall move-in day, Monday was move out day for Zeph Luck. With a backseat loaded with canvases, the 26-year-old grad student was making his third and last trip to clear all his paintings out of the downtown New Bedford studio where he’s been working for two […]
Posted inEducation
UMass Dartmouth arts college exiting downtown New Bedford. Who’s to blame?
THE ABRUPT announcement Monday that the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s College of Visual and Performing Arts would be immediately vacating a downtown New Bedford building, where it’s been housed for 22 years, has sent an unwelcome jolt through the Whaling City and entire South Coast region. Nearly everyone seems to lament the sudden turn of […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Drag queen story hours: pulling back the sequined curtain
ON A TOASTY JUNE DAY, the tinkle of a ukulele and cheerful outbursts from children bounced around an unassuming Brookline library building. Just a short stroll from the Chabad Center of Chestnut Hill, visitors entering the library walked past a Star of David composed of interlinked rainbow arms declaring “Together Against Antisemitism;” a bold blue […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Old North Church grapples with slavery
WINDING THEIR WAY along the red brick and red painted Freedom Trail, Boston tourists eventually find themselves in front of the Old North Church. Their eyes may seek out the bell tower where lanterns famously beamed out – one if by land, and two if by sea – a warning of arriving British troops. But […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Opinion
1812 Overture should be dropped from July 4 playlist
PROTESTING THE BARBARIC Ukraine invasion by banning Russian music from orchestral concerts is shortsighted, but replacing the 1812 Overture on July 4th programs is long overdue. Tchaikovsky was born in Russia, but his father’s family came from Ukraine (“Chaika” is the name of a Cossack war boat). He often summered there, and at least 30 of […]
Posted inOpinion
Pride month is special because I am coming out
FOR ME, the Pride parades and festivals are special this year because I am coming out as bisexual. I’ve been married to my wife for almost thirty-eight years. I love, cherish, and enjoy her and I’m not about to change my lifestyle. I am moved to speak openly about myself for all the reasons that […]
Posted inOpinion
A creative imagining of the Emancipation Group statue
IN THE SUMMER of 2021, I wrote an opinion piece for CommonWealth with suggestions on what to do with the city’s Emancipation Group statue, the one showing Abraham Lincoln with arm outstretched over a kneeling enslaved Black American that had been removed from Boston’s Park Square the year before. It was the aftermath of the […]
Posted inArts and Culture
The promise and pitfalls of relying on artificial intelligence
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 […]