Mexico’s cultural appropriation ban is off to a messy start

The Verge: TheThe first embroidery stitch María Méndez Rodríguez learned at the age of 7 was the chain stitch. It’s the same one that, years later, she would teach to her seven children. At 42, Méndez has mastered advanced stitches like the closed buttonhole and rococo. She’s now diving back into the drawing process, trying to evolve from the traditional motifs of flowers and leaves she embroiders on blouses to better reflect the flora in her community.

A white artistic director pretended to be black – it would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so damaging

The Independent: "It has emerged that an artistic director at one of the UK’s few black-led theatres has been masquerading as black. Anthony Ekundayo Lennon describes himself as an “African born again” and stated in 2012 that “although I’m white, with white parents, I have gone through the struggles of a black man, a black actor”.

Theater professionals of color decry the Muny's casting, unwelcoming culture

St. Louis Public Radio: The boos launched by a group of protesters mid-show at the Muny two weeks ago are continuing to reverberate. Actors and directors of color in St. Louis say it’s time for theaters to stop casting white actors to portray people of color.

Now’s Your Chance to Write a Simpsons Episode

lifehacker.com: In the fallout of comedian Hari Kondabolu’s documentary The Problem With Apu, and the weirdly defensive response from The Simpsons, producer Adi Shankar wants to make a woke Simpsons episode about Apu. To get the script, he’s running a screenwriting contest. If you agree with Shankar and Kondabolu that Apu is a gross stereotype, then check out the contest rules

German theater asks guests to wear swastikas for Hitler play

The Seattle Times: A theater in southern Germany is proceeding with plans to open a satirical play Friday about Adolf Hitler’s youth in which some patrons will be wearing swastika armbands, despite objections and legal complaints. The Konstanz Theater’s production of George Tabori’s “Mein Kampf ” opens Friday night for a monthlong run.

Sierra Boggess Withdraws From WEST SIDE STORY Concert Following Backlash

www.broadwayworld.com: Last week it had been announced that Broadway and West End star, Sierra Boggess, had been cast as Maria in an upcoming concert version of the classic musical West Side Story presented as part of the Proms 2018 concert series at London's Royal Albert Hall.

Actors' Equity votes to change the name of the Gypsy Robe

Broadway News: The Gypsy Robe is changing its name.

After hearing concerns about the insensitivity of the name, the Actors’ Equity Association has voted to rename the robe that is awarded to the chorus member with the highest number of Broadway credits on opening night of a show. The name change will be put in place next season and the more than 60-year-old tradition of the robe will continue.

'The Simpsons' To 'The Problem With Apu': Drop Dead

Monkey See : NPR: Comedian Hari Kondabolu made a documentary in 2017 called The Problem With Apu. It's not very long — less than an hour. In it, he interrogates the legacy of Apu, the convenience store owner on The Simpsons voiced by Hank Azaria. Kondabolu talked to other actors and comics who longed for more South Asian representation, only to find that at the time, Apu was just about all there was. And Apu was not only voiced by a white actor, but he was doing what Azaria has acknowledged is a take on Peter Sellers doing an Indian accent in the movie The Party. In other words, he based his caricature of an accent on someone else's caricature of an accent. Or, as Kondabolu said on W. Kamau Bell's show Totally Biased, "a white guy doing an impression of a white guy making fun of my father."

Simpsons Apu Ep Is What Happens When You’re on Air Too Long

www.vulture.com: In “No Good Read Goes Unpunished,” the 633rd episode of The Simpsons, the longest-running scripted series in TV history finally acknowledged that there is something problematic about the way it has portrayed Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, owner of the Kwik-E-Mart, for the past three decades. Yet at the same time, the show managed to continue taking no responsibility for its tone-deafness on the matter. If the episode didn’t quite do what Bart Simpson would have done in season five, episode 12 — i.e. say “I didn’t do it” — it certainly implied that nothing can be done to make Apu less of a stereotype now.

What I Learned From Committing Cultural Appropriation

Theatre Development Fund – TDF: Last summer I was at a dinner party recounting one of my tried-and-true tales. It's about a home movie I made at age 11 in which I portrayed Queen Liliuokalani, the last reigning monarch of Hawaii. The story isn't so much about the film but how, as a teen, I sent it to PBS when I heard the channel was airing a documentary about Liliuokalani. Spoiler alert: PBS didn't use my submission. But as I watched that program, I realized that I hadn't quite grasped the nuances around the history of the Queen. In fact, I'd gotten some parts of her story pretty wrong -- hilariously and heartbreakingly so.

Latinx Advocacy Group Threatens to Boycott Hollywood Studios

Colorlines: Ahead of the 90th Academy Awards, The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) targeted Hollywood exclusion of Latinx artists at a pair of protests. Now, the media advocacy organization sets its sights on six of the biggest entertainment studios, which it says ignore Latinx people both on- and off-camera.

The Bruno Mars Controversy Proves People Don’t Understand Cultural Appropriation

thegrapevine.theroot.com: The furious debate about Bruno Mars and whether or not he is a cultural appropriator has bubbled beneath the surface of his career for a while. It existed before he remade Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Uptown Funk” or Bell Biv DeVoe’s “Finesse.”

Reminder: "Dressing Up" as a Latinx for Acting Work Is Not OK

The Mary Sue: A word of advice to any aspiring actors out there who come to Hollywood and are looking for additional acting training: Stay far away from Lesly Kahn and Co. Not only does Ms. Kahn not know what she’s talking about when talking about the industry in which she supposedly works, but she apparently loves to sprinkle all of her classes with a light dusting of racist comments.