Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra New Works (2012)

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“Deviating from a repertory angle, but not necessarily from a historical one, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra presents two new works from within its ranks. “God’s Trombones,” by the trombonist Chris Crenshaw, draws inspiration from the identically titled book of free verse sermons, by James Weldon Johnson, published in 1927. And “Inferno,” by the saxophonist Sherman Irby, builds on the familiar theme by Dante, with music performed in collaboration with HopeBoykinDance.”    —Jazz at Lincoln Center (retrieved on May 11, 2012)

See also: The New York Times, May, 10, 2012 (retrieved on May 11, 2012)

Ecstatic Alphabets, MOMA (2012)

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“In a drawing from 1966, ‘Heaps of Language,’ Robert Smithson assembled a pyramid of words about words: ‘Language’ at the apex, supported by ‘phraseology speech,’ ‘tongue lingo vernacular,’ and on down through a base of synonyms. The playful exhibition ‘Ecstatic Alphabets/Heaps of Language,’ opening on Sunday at the Museum of Modern Art, borrows Smithson’s title and runs wild with his vision of words as materials. . .
One could spend a long time here, listening to poets and staring at Bruce Nauman’s hypnotic flashing neon piece ‘Raw War.’ But that’s all prologue; the show begins, in earnest, with a short printed text by Sharon Hayes — one of four woven through the galleries and installed so close to the floor that you have to crouch down to read them. In these paragraphs Ms. Hayes puts herself forth as Virgil to the viewer’s Dante, though she also assumes the roles of spurned lover, diarist and political agitator.” [. . .]    –Karen Rosenberg, The New York Times, May 3, 2012

Rachel Kneebone, “The Descent” at the Brooklyn Museum

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“…Even the chef d’oeuvre of the show, “The Descent” (2008), which recalls Rodin’s “Gates of Hell” — which, in turn, was inspired by Dante’s “Inferno” — feels more like a poetic celebration of flesh and the sculptural medium than anything else. Comprising dozens of little figures descending into a cauldron-shaped pit, the sculpture, viewed by stepping up on a narrow wooden platform encircling it, is nearly 11 ½ feet in diameter.” [. . .]    –Martha Schwendener, The New York Times, April 4, 2012

On display at The Brooklyn Museum, January 7 – August 12, 2012.

“Alchemists Needed for Mets’ Golden Anniversary”

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mets-logo “Two years ago, I quoted Dante in warning Met fans to expect nothing. (“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”) That still works in 2012. But Mets fans need to take stock of the hope and humor that course underground, like a long-forgotten creek under a municipal dump.” [. . .]    –George Vecsey, The New York Times, March 31, 2012

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Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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