Barbara Lee

Latest Articles

Offerings

Nora Chipaumire and Thomas Mapfumo at the ICA, BoSoma and Contrapose at BU
Nora Chipaumire’s lions will roar, swans will fly, angels will wrestle heaven, rains will break: gukarahundi , presented at the ICA last weekend by CRASHarts, had the makings of a multimedia extravaganza.
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | April 27, 2010

Conductor karaoke

Xavier Le Roy at the ICA
Surrealists who work with movement have to manage a demanding slight-of-hand.
By DEBRA CASH | April 06, 2010

Taking sides

The US Senate election is forcing Massachusetts pols to choose their team. Plus, Pagliuca’s plan, and the state GOP tries to get serious.
The stakes are high in the battle for Massachusetts’s first new US senatorship in a quarter-century.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 04, 2009

Terpsichore's delight

A season of foot (and body) work
There's no end to variety to the fall's dance season, from a Boston Ballet classic to Hawaiian hula and "extreme action" acrobatics.
By DEBRA CASH | September 14, 2009

It’s about time . . .

The Ditson Festival of Contemporary Music starts in Boston
It’s been 17 years since Boston’s last local festival of contemporary music, the New Music Harvest organized by composer Charles Fussell: 19 programs (several free), a celebration of composer Ned Rorem, an opera production performed by BU students, and the participation of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 25, 2008

Basic elements

The international and roots-music scene heats up
Boston was a world-music stronghold even before the “world music” genre existed.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | September 08, 2008

Women on the verge

Clinton die-hards have created a new-girls’ network bent on remedying decades of sexism by putting women in elected office
At next week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver, Hillary Clinton’s delegates will get just about everything they’ve wanted — aside from the nomination of their candidate, of course.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 20, 2008

Senate shuffle

Massachusetts hasn’t had a Senate-seat vacancy in nearly 25 years. Now we may have two. Let the speculation begin.
Don’t count Ted Kennedy out just yet, but the prognosis immediately set minds thinking about the inevitable departure of Kennedy from the US Senate, where he has served since 1962.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 27, 2008

Ebb and flow

Dance: 2007 in review
The good news is that we still have our own major company, Boston Ballet, and it made its first international tour — to Spain — in more than a decade.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | December 17, 2007

Live and kicking

Live reviews: 2007 in review
Yes, we suffer from an embarrassment of riches when it come to live music here in the Boston area.
By BOSTON PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | December 17, 2007

Promise deferred

The new ICA’s visual arts at one year
Last December 10, the Institute of Contemporary Art moved to brand new digs on the South Boston waterfront, tripling its exhibition space in the process.
By GREG COOK | December 09, 2007

Taking the Fifth

The race for Marty Meehan’s congressionalseat is running below the radar, but it could hold the answers to a couple of burning political questions
The September 4 Democratic primary has compelling interest beyond the borders of the Fifth Congressional District.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 22, 2007

The million-dollar widow

Why is the Niki Tsongas juggernaut heading backward? Plus, ignoring global warming close to home.
The powerhouses of Massachusetts’s Democratic Party have rallied behind Niki Tsongas’s bid to succeed Fifth District US Congressman Marty Meehan.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 26, 2007

Amerindie Echoes

Deerhunter, Institute of Contemporary Art, July 12, 2007
There were no frocks or fits of self-abuse on stage.
By MATT ASHARE | July 23, 2007

All dolled up

Misaki Kawai and Louise Bourgeois at the ICA
Misaki Kawai’s Space House is what Barbie’s Dream House would look like if Barbie weren’t such a stuck-up square plastic bimbo.
By GREG COOK | April 09, 2007

Who’s with whom

When John Kerry bowed out of the presidential sweepstakes, it freed Boston’s big Democratic brokers to find a favorite.
For Democratic presidential candidates, Boston is the ATM kiosk on the way to New Hampshire.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | March 29, 2007

Building blocks

Nacho Duato, Jorma Elo, Marc Bamuthi Joseph
New ballets must be one of the world’s most expensive consumable products.
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | March 06, 2007

Self singer

Stephen Petronio at the Barbara Leee
“One’s self I sing, a simple separate person. . . . Of physiology from top to toe,” goes one of the Walt Whitman poems set by Rufus Wainwright for Stephen Petronio’s Bloom.
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | January 17, 2007

Dullsville

A contrarian view of the new ICA
I waited in a crowd for two hours before finally getting into Boston’s new Institute of Contemporary Art on opening day, December 10. Just then a mother rushed out the door, telling her husband and their four little girls, “They say another hour.”
By GREG COOK | January 17, 2007

Dancing across the city

Between the opening of the new ICA and Bank of America's de-funding of Celebrity Series, will Boston be a city on the move or on the make in 2007?
The ICA’s Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater, with its sprung wood dance floor and wrap-around windows framing the harbor, is positioned to become Boston dance’s most significant venue.
By DEBRA CASH | December 27, 2006

L’Allegro, fuss and feathers, and the ICA blues

A year in dance
This year we were looking forward to dance performances at the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater in the new ICA.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | December 20, 2006

Bold steps

The new ICA sets the agenda for Fan Pier
The new Institute of Contemporary Art is a gleaming jewel on the desolate South Boston waterfront, but it has the potential to be the catalyst for a new Seaport District. Slideshow: Architectural images from the new ICA The artists’ view: What we talk about when we talk about the new ICA. By Greg Cook.
By DAVID EISEN | November 29, 2006

Gadfly Driver brings independent challenge to Langevin

Talking politics
While US Senator Lincoln Chafee is fond of likening himself to the Independent Man atop the State House, Rod Driver might have an even better claim.
By IAN DONNIS | October 25, 2006

Happy feet

From butoh to Swan Lake and back
The architectural team of Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater at the new Institute for Contemporary Art as a 325-seat jewel box, its transparent walls allowing the Boston harbor and skyline to serve as a scenic backdrop or turn opaque as the performance requires.
By DEBRA CASH | September 13, 2006

In the Pink

Seekonk’s second is a perfect sculpture of sound
Any group of musicians can get together, ramp up the beats per minute, and impress a crowd of onlookers with a barrage of notes, but only a finely tuned band can play slowly and keep people interested.
By SAM PFEIFLE | April 26, 2006

Portland scene report, March 17, 2006

Sibilance
Now Transmissioin, Hi-Fivin' White Guys, Radiation Year, and Seekonk poised to issue new releases; plus, JD's Medicine Hat forms
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | March 15, 2006

Albums of the decade

10 discs you should own
I somehow stumbled into a radio gig playing local music at the beginning of this decade and subsequently had a ringside seat for a lot of what transpired.
By CHARLIE GAYLORD | December 23, 2009