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The Oscars Were Invented To Breakup Hollywood Unions

David Thomson Vanity Fair
Last week's Oscar's ceremony was groundbreaking and historic, let's look at the origins of the awards 95 years ago. It started when the original Hollywood titans wanted an industry free of unions, of residuals, union benefits, well you get the idea.

Roots of the Black Chicago Renaissance

Malik Jackson South Side Weekly
A new collection explores the early twentieth-century artists and institutions that made the Black Chicago Renaissance possible.

books

Toni Morrison Nobel Lecture

Toni Morrison Nobel Prize
Novelist and writer Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Here is the speech she gave on that occasion.

Writing While Socialist

Vijay Prashad, Mark Nowak Boston Review
Over the past year, the scholar and activist Vijay Prashad taught a series of nonfiction writing workshops to students, activists, workers, and journalists across India. The workshops sought to develop an ethics and practice of socialist writing to foreground what Prashad calls “the small voices of history.”

books

Literary Agents

Patrick Iber The New Republic
In the age of "fake news" and other mysterious media distortions, this book reminds us of a "simpler" time. Joel Whitney offers a new history of how, beginning in the late 1940s, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) simply (if much of the time secretly), paid writers, musicians, and artists, and sponsored publications, concerts, exhibitions, and cultural institutions as part of its Cold War arsenal.

labor

Can Unions Save The Creative Class?

SCOTT TIMBERG Salon
Artists, writers,musicians and similar occupations are under attack. Low pay and lack of health benefits for most are major problems. Can unions help make their lives better? The author gives a brief history of organizing in these fields.
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