In this session, we talk about Minsk, 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker, an urgent broadside on life in Belarus’s capital: a place where sexuality is twisted by oppression, and strip clubs, underground raves and gay pride parades pulse beneath the city’s surface.  Minsk, 2011 is undaunted protest turned heart-wrenching confessional, produced by a theatre company in exile, banned from performing in its heartland.

The Morning After - Quartets at Sunset

Between the rise of new media and the shrinking of the old, arts criticism is evolving fast.  While blogs and online forums have opened the conversation to anyone with a keyboard and an internet connection, professional critics fiercely guard their status as informed arbiters of art. What’s the difference between opinion and criticism? Does it really matter?