Readings

While Nelson Mandela sat in prison, cultural authorities in South Africa clamped down on “subversive” music, banning albums and raiding gigs. Warrick Sony’s Kalahari Surfers, however, found a way through.

To those deemed worthy, six weeks at the MacDowell Colony bring new work, friendships, and great meals. Compare this to the Canadian model, in which artists (even emerging ones) receive just enough to live on from governments. Which way works best?

A draft from the unpublished sequel to Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, excerpted from Conversations with Myself, a collection of letters, notes, and journal entries.

The Group of Seven imagined an idealized Canada: rural, wild, devoid of people, out of history. Kim Dorland’s new exhibit “You Are Here” revisits those landscapes, but with a twist: humans are present, but nature may not be too hospitable toward them.