theconversation.com: The performing arts and politics have an uneasy relationship.
From Aristophanes satirizing the senselessness of the Peloponnesian War in Lysistrata to Shakespeare telling the story of Elizabeth I’s grandparents in Henry IV Parts I and II, artists have put forth sharp criticisms of their governments. Artists in Russia and Germany during the 1910s and 1920s created art that supported communism. And during the 1960s, artists all over the world were some of the loudest voices for social and political change, whether it was the civil rights or anti-war movements.
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This article talks at length about the ability of art to predict, critique, or change the way that politics reaches the ears of even the hardest to reach members of society. As Donald Drumpf, at first the butt of a thousand jokes about the deterioration of the Republican party, rises to power through a series of victorious primaries, the art world reacts with both rage and indignant critique with a heavy layer of "I told you so." As the article talks about Huey Long, and the Sinclair Lewis novel "It Can't Happen Here," I am reminded to take a step back and reconsider where I stand, both as a voter in this upcoming election and as an artist with a voice to be raised in support of my brothers and sisters in the arts and entertainment world, outfighting the good fight against hate, ignorance, fear, and outright stupidity. As Sinclair Lewis first warned us, the frightening and unthinkable CAN happen here, and "it" may be much closer than we think. It is the responsibility of the arts to draw attention to this possibility, and to be a catalyst for much needed, hopefully timely inspiration.
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http://www.berkeleyrep.org/season/1617/10650.asp
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