By Dawoud Kringle
On Tuesday, May 21st, 2019, the New York Composers Circle presented “New Music for Ensembles and Electronics;” a concert of music by several of its members. The event was hosted by the National Opera Center.
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Text by Dawoud Kringle
The Trump tariff fiasco has reached a predictable outcome.
China played its hand as well as it could have. The thing that Trump and his like cannot understand is that China rarely thinks in terms of short term gains: they think in terms of decades and centuries. Trump underestimated them, and US businesses and economies are suffering because of it.
Of course Trump needs to scapegoat China with an economic war to detract people from his domestic filth, in an effort to win another election term. China is an easy target for his voting base. They fear China because US companies have become dependent upon buying from China. Trump squeezes the idea of IP theft for everything he can get from it; and it’s a fair assessment. But every country is engaged in this game, including the US. Ultimately China has strongly contributed to almost 20 years of global prosperity. Slowing China is bad for the US, even though it hurts Trump’s ego (and his follower’s egos) to know that any other country is prospering.
On Sunday April 21, 2019 (3:00 – 8:00 PM), Planet Heart presents its World Peace Earth Day Celebration & Benefit: Awakening Humanity’s Consciousness as One, Celebrating Our Planet, Healing Our Heart.
This will happen at 4 West 43rd Street (near 5th Avenue), Social Hall, New York, NY 10036.
CD Review by Dawoud Kringle
Artist: Mehmet Polat & Embracing Colours
Title: Quantum Leap
Label: Aftab Rec
Genre: World music
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Text by Dawoud Kringle
For the third year in a row, the Trump Administration repeated its efforts to destroy the arts in the US. The White House has proposed a federal budget that would shutter the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (which supports PBS and NPR) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Like the two previous years under Trump, the plans diminishing appropriations for each agency are a clear attempt to facilitate its demise.
The cuts total $897 million of the $4.7 trillion 2020 spending plan.
In the beginning of his administration, Trump called for the complete elimination of these agencies. The Republican-led Congress funded them both times, with the NEA, NEH and IMLS each seeing small increases in 2019. The 2020 budget provides $29 million for the NEA and $38 million for the NEH, both funded at $155 million this year. The CPB would receive $30 million, down from $465 million, and the IMLS would receive $23 million, a $219 million cut. This translates to about $1.35 per citizen per year.
