At the very heart of Smile Politely is a yearning for social justice, for change.
Today, the live performance industry is taking the day off to honor and rest in the names of Ahmaud Arbery, Breona Taylor, and George Floyd, and the millions that have come before them.
We try to be a comprehensive culture magazine, but one of the cornerstones of our identity is previewing, covering, and reviewing the live performances that take place in Champaign-Urbana. Our work with PYGMALION — which is also owned/operated by the same parent company as Smile Politely — intersects the industry that supports it, and that executes daily to make sure that it is on stage, and that it is able to be seen. If it’s theater, or jazz, or metal, dance or aerial performance arts, you name it — if it’s comedic by nature, or if it’s not — we want to know about it, and we want you to know about it.
It is no secret that the live performance space has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that is currently on display through absence inside and outside the walls of the venues we cherish in C-U.
In solidarity with them, and in recognition of the amazing artistic achievements that African Americans have given this nation, and in partnership with National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), an organization of 1800+ venues and promoters that are trying to preserve independent live performance, and all of the people who work to make them tangible and important, we are not publishing any new content today. We are going to pause, take detailed note of what is ahead of us, and try to learn more about what’s come before this; after what’s just happened this past week, it is more clear than ever that the work is not done.
If you’d like to read or see more about our current position, you can do so here, and here, and here.
— Seth Fein, Publisher