Arts & Culture :: Culture

Author Will Schwalbe discusses 'We Should Not Be Friends'

Author Will Schwalbe discusses 'We Should Not Be Friends'

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Feb 28, 2023

Will Schwalbe's "We Should Not Be Friends" is a memoir about two people who couldn't possibly be more different yet became unexpectedly good friends.

Spotify GLOWs for LGBTQ artists

Spotify GLOWs for LGBTQ artists

  • by Laura Moreno
  • Feb 28, 2023

Spotify introduced GLOW, a new global music program that amplifies LGBTQ artists and creators all year round. The hub includes not only music, but podcasts, news, and an expansive selection of themed playlists,

Noir Town: stage meets screen in A.C.T.'s 'The Headlands'

Noir Town: stage meets screen in A.C.T.'s 'The Headlands'

  • by Jim Gladstone
  • Feb 21, 2023

The stars of 'The Headlands,' local playwright Christopher Chen's San Francisco mystery, now playing at A.C.T.'s Toni Rembe Theatre, are the scenic and projection design by Alexander V. Nichols.

Rebecca Makkai: author discusses 'I Have Some Questions For You'

Rebecca Makkai: author discusses 'I Have Some Questions For You'

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Feb 21, 2023

Novelist and straight ally Rebecca Makkai has created some of the most unforgettable queer characters in contemporary fiction. She shared insights on new novel, 'I Have Some Questions For You.'

Sargent and Spain: John Singer Sargent exhibit graces the Legion of Honor

Sargent and Spain: John Singer Sargent exhibit graces the Legion of Honor

  • by Robert Brokl
  • Feb 14, 2023

Like a swank ocean liner of a bygone era, the John Singer Sargent exhibition, "Sargent and Spain," at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco from the National Gallery in Washington, is a welcome arrival, full of his trademark bravura paintings and drawings.

Sargent's 'Grand Affair' - biography of the painter brings new light on his life

Sargent's 'Grand Affair' - biography of the painter brings new light on his life

  • by Brian Bromberger
  • Feb 14, 2023

Paul Fisher, professor of American studies at Wellesley College, begins his full-scale biography, "The Grand Affair: John Singer Sargent in His World," with a confession that Sargent, a great American artist (1856-1925), is also an abiding enigma.

Mark Morris Dance Group's "The Look of Love" - company director & Berkeley native Sam Black returns to his roots

Mark Morris Dance Group's "The Look of Love" - company director & Berkeley native Sam Black returns to his roots

  • by Philip Mayard
  • Feb 7, 2023

Cal Performances welcomes back Mark Morris Dance Group for the Bay Area premiere of Morris' "The Look of Love: An Evening of Dance to the Music of Burt Bacharach." Company Director and Berkeley native Sam Black discussed his work with Morris.

Tom Crewe's 'The New Life' - Wilde times in Britain

Tom Crewe's 'The New Life' - Wilde times in Britain

  • by Tim Pfaff
  • Feb 7, 2023

Tom Crewe's debut novel, "The New Life" (Scribner), has been rightly praised as historical fiction at its finest. The irony, richly deserved, is that its two main protagonists, John Addington and Henry Ellis, never met in real life.

Streaking through history: New Yorker article tells of Robert Opel

Streaking through history: New Yorker article tells of Robert Opel

  • by Jim Provenzano
  • Feb 6, 2023

Robert Opel, the famed "Oscar streaker," was also a gay gallery owner, nudism activist, and freelance photographer whose life and death are the subject of an expansive essay by Michael Schulman in the February 6 issue of The New Yorker magazine.

Castro art gallery starts fundraiser as rent doubles

Castro art gallery starts fundraiser as rent doubles

  • by David-Elijah Nahmod
  • Feb 6, 2023

Queer Arts Featured, a boutique, gallery and event space located at the former camera shop owned by Harvey Milk, had its rent double this past month. The owners have launched a GoFundMe campaign.

Chingwe Padraig Sullivan: queer Native American actor in SF Playhouse's 'Cashed Out'

Chingwe Padraig Sullivan: queer Native American actor in SF Playhouse's 'Cashed Out'

  • by Jim Gladstone
  • Jan 31, 2023

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Chingwe Padraig Sullivan reflected on growing up in New England and pursuing a career in theater as a queer Native American. Sullivan costars in the cast of "Cashed Out," currently running at SF Playhouse.

'Clyde's' - Lynn Nottage's diner comedy at Berkeley Rep

'Clyde's' - Lynn Nottage's diner comedy at Berkeley Rep

  • by Jim Gladstone
  • Jan 31, 2023

The beautifully balanced ensemble of five actors who play the owner and staff of a truck stop diner in "Clyde's" are provided with a bumper crop of fresh, zesty dialogue by Pulitzer-winning playwright Lynn Nottage.

Winter's tales; new books part 2

Winter's tales; new books part 2

  • by Jim Piechota
  • Jan 31, 2023

Continuing on our Winter Books picks, here comes part two, which contains even more provocative reading material than the first group. Enjoy tales of thrillingly engrossing wartime queer love, conversion camp survival, and speculative foreign lands.

'Getting There' - world premiere debuts at NCTC; 'tick tick BOOM' postponed

'Getting There' - world premiere debuts at NCTC; 'tick tick BOOM' postponed

  • by Jim Gladstone
  • Jan 24, 2023

"Getting There," Dipika Guha's shifting, shimmering new play asks its characters and audiences to puzzle over a half-dozen abstract but interrelated concepts: loneliness, desire, friendship, love, guilt, and aging.