“Birkenau” Blunder: Metropolitan Museum Says Richter’s Riffs on the Holocaust are “Poignant”  “Poignant” is a word that I’ve never before seen (and hope never to see again) in connection with the Holocaust. These paintings soft-pedal and aestheticize photos that were taken of gas chamber victims while their remains were being burned and disposed of. – Lee Rosenbaum
We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside  Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s stunning new trio album for the Sunnyside label is one that we have been hoping for weeks to call to your attention: It’s a highlight among recent releases in all jazz genres. – Doug Ramsey
Syracuse Refuse: Everson Museum Discards its Pollock to “Address Inequality” & Pursue the New  I’ve been planning to call out the lamentable decision of the Everson Museum in Syracuse to jettison its only Jackson Pollock painting “in order to refine, diversify, and build the museum’s collection for the future” (in the words of the museum’s self-justification). – Lee Rosenbaum
Dvořák and the American Experience of Race — An Antidote to “Checkbox Diversity”  Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony may not have been the work of a Black composer. But Dvořák embraced the African-American experience to a degree that would be controversial today. – Joseph Horowitz
“Porgy” and Race — continued  On “the Porgy Exchange,” in which an ordinary woman changed, on the spot, the opinion of two prominent Black opera singers that white baritones should be able to take on the lead role in Gershwin’s opera. – Joseph Horowitz
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