Louisville School Reverses 'Ragtime' Cancellation After Twelve Hours

Key facts

• Nathan Balasubramanian, incoming academic chief for Louisville city schools, secretly ordered the cancellation of Manual High School's 'Ragtime' over racial slurs.
• The district reversed the cancellation that evening after a viral outcry, but board member Linda Duncan said the superintendent was not informed.
• The clock tower in Veracruz plays the original 'La Bamba' every hour, a song three centuries older than Ritchie Valens' hit.
• Son jarocho was dismissed in the 1970s as 'the music of drunken people,' but its fandangos now draw dancers from Tokyo to Los Angeles.
• Charles Lai has run a free calendar of gallery openings in Melbourne for a decade, turning down gallery sponsorship to keep his own counsel.
• A critic used Lai's listings to visit seven shows by e-bike, including a converted lending library and Everfresh Studio, an artist collective back after its old space closed.
• Conductor Andris Nelsons, pushed out by the Boston Symphony this year, had his contract with the Gewandhaus orchestra in Leipzig extended to 2032.
• YouTube, TikTok, and Meta are declining paid ads for Alex Gibney's documentary on Elon Musk, despite the ads breaking no political-ad rules; distributor Bleecker Street is appealing, but Meta refused.