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Rebecca J. Ritzel

@rjritzel.bsky.social

790 followers 190 following 740 posts

Fellow @rjionline.bsky.social‬ Views = mine Journalist: Arts, culture, health, etc. Bylines: Globe and Mail, New York Times, Dance Magazine, and many more. Cancer and stroke survivor somehow still here. [email protected] https://what-if-arts.ghost.io/

what-if-arts.ghost.io

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Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · Jan 9

"Why do you have so many tabs open?" -- My niece, age 9.

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Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 16h

A Baltimore area nonprofit has been sued for failing to pay art teachers. Special place in a Hieronymus Bosch depiction of hell, etc. www.thebanner.com/education/k-...

Art teachers sue Baltimore City schools, nonprofit for missing pay

The teachers, employed through Leaders of Tomorrow Youth Center, allege they haven’t been paid for work they did months ago, putting them behind on rent and car payments.

www.thebanner.com

Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 16h

They also never fulfilled their promise of replacing Flashpoint with another venue when that space was sold. 😬 The numbers just don't add up, and I wish I were employed by a news outlet that would let me follow the money.

Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 17h

"Emerging visiting artists" is the exact opposite of who Source was serving! The InSeries and Constellation are (were?) established arts groups that serve important roles in DC's performing arts ecosystem.

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Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 17h

💯

Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 17h

Me too!

Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 18h

Un-effing-believable. The rogue nonprofit Cultural DC sold The Source, pretty much the only shared arts venue in the downtown core, and gave $500,000 to Howard University for visiting artists residencies, instead of providing space for DC artists. dctheaterarts.org/2025/10/14/a...

After 27 years, CulturalDC announces sunset and legacy gifts

Legacy gifts include a half-million-dollar endowment to Howard University’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts and a $250,000 gift to Theatre Alliance.

dctheaterarts.org

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Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 19h

I'll always remember what Sarah Ruhl said when she was asked what she'd spend her MacArthur money on: Babysitters and taxi cab rides.

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Reposted by Rebecca J. Ritzel

Diep Tran @diepthought.bsky.social · 20h

"The advice that I've gotten from other theatre artists that have gotten this award was, 'Don't spend it on your art unless you absolutely have to. Spend it on your time.'" I talk to composer Heather Christian (who I've always considered a genius) on winning the MacArthur Genius Grant

Composer Heather Christian on What's It Like to Be Told You've Won $800,000

She was in rehearsal for Off-Broadway's Oratorio for Living Things when she got an important call from the MacArthur Foundation.

playbill.com

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Reposted by Rebecca J. Ritzel

RJI @rjionline.bsky.social · 20h

RJI Fellow @rjritzel.bsky.social meets with @mujschool.bsky.social students Kat Ramkumar and Kayla Sydnor to discuss her Arts Journalism Initiative on Oct. 7 in Columbia, Mo. The students are creating a database of arts agency grants that support journalists. More: rjionline.org/person/rebec....

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Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 22h

Don't send me a press release about an arts admin intern program unless you're going to tell me that the interns get paid.

a woman talking on a cell phone with the words " unpaid internship " behind her

ALT: a woman talking on a cell phone with the words " unpaid internship " behind her

media.tenor.com

Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 22h

#RIP D'Angelo. Feel all the feels by watching, choreographer Kyle Abraham's AN UNTILTLED LOVE, a suite that the celebrates joy in quotidian Black life. share.google/L9alze4EXjdz...

A.I.M by Kyle Abraham - Jacob's Pillow On Demand

Kyle Abraham’s highly anticipated work An Untitled Love was a creative exaltation that served as a thumping mixtape celebrating culture, family, and community. Composed of the catalogue of R&B legend ...

share.google

Reposted by Rebecca J. Ritzel

Alan Zilberman @alanzilberman.bsky.social · 23h

Fuck cancer.

D'Angelo Dead at 51

Grammy-winning R&B soul singer D'Angelo is dead from pancreatic cancer ... TMZ has learned.

www.tmz.com

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Reposted by Rebecca J. Ritzel

Soraya Nadia McDonald @sorayanadiamcdonald.com · 1d

👀

Broadway Musicians Have Voted to Authorize a Strike

Musicians and actors are currently negotiating with the Broadway League for a new labor contract—and a strike is now officially on the table.

playbill.com

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Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 1d

Sinclair Broadcast chair David Smith teed this up in 2023 when he bought The Baltimore Sun and begun slapping up content from his flagship Fox station.

Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 1d

Imagine being CBS and paying 150M for a blog and then giving the boss of that blog the reins to CBS News and she starts reposting shit from her blog

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 1d

Update: After Bari Weiss was made Editor-in-Chief, CBS News is now uplifting stories from Weiss’s The Free Press.

Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 1d

Ditto for the literature Nobel going to a Hungarian writer who's a vocal critic of Viktor Orbán. God, I love the Nordics.

Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 2d

The bronze-contrast columns were in Edward Durell Stone's OG design! Trump said it looked like they'd been left unfinished and wanted them repainted. 😬

Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 2d

All-male creative team

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 5d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

Reposted by Rebecca J. Ritzel

◥◤Kriston Capps @kristoncapps.bsky.social · 4d

HUD laid off so many fair housing investigators on Friday that it shuttered the regional offices that oversee discrimination cases in 9 states: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

HUD Issues Layoff Notices, Targeting Fair Housing Staff With Deep Cuts

Fair housing staffers who investigate claims of housing discrimination at field offices nationwide were among the hundreds of HUD staffers who received layoff notices.

www.bloomberg.com

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Reposted by Rebecca J. Ritzel

Emily @sadcypress.bsky.social · 5d

Damn Yankees ends with a couple loving each other enough to beat a contract with the devil, and this is staged via a reprise of a love song that they sing SO LOUD it drowns out the devil’s complaint. I’m not saying this is directly relevant to current events, but I am not NOT saying it.

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Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 5d

“The Nobel Committee is an independent body and the Norwegian government has no involvement in determining the prizes. But I’m not sure Trump knows that. We have to be prepared for anything from him.” -- Norway's foreign ministry spokesperson Kirsti Bergstø.

Norway braces for Trump’s reaction if he does not win Nobel peace prize

US president may impose tariffs, demand higher Nato contributions or even declare Norway an enemy, analyst says

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Rebecca J. Ritzel

Charles T. Downey @ionarts.bsky.social · 5d

Image for comparison - the tree-filled terrace running parallel to the Potomac (estimating 65% of the trees were chopped down)

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Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 5d

Sorry that I thought "lower terrace" meant by the parking garage exits. Looking at the pics on a computer (instead of a phone) makes a biiiiig difference.

Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 5d

Oh my God. What on earth are they doing? That portico was so, so unbelievable pleasant.

Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 5d

So did they chop down the gorgeous willows on the north side, and the trees on main level terrace?

Rebecca J. Ritzel @rjritzel.bsky.social · 6d

"The story of Owens and Lorincz is also the story of America today, in all its seething rage and fear; a place of racial division and gun violence."

‘The world needs to know what happened to my baby’: inside devastating new police-body-cam film The Perfect Neighbor

Composed almost entirely of footage filmed by police, The Perfect Neighbor is a harrowing documentary about a black woman shot by her white neighbour in Florida. The director reveals how she made it