An Angry White Guy in Chicago: The Cultural Bleed of the NEA:
Gioia did a lot for the NEA - he bolstered the budget, instituted lots of reading programs, pushed jazz as America's only indigenous art form - all after a fifteen year beating the agency took after the fallout from the NEA Four* and Congress's insistence that the NEA was not their responsibility.
So, if the former corporate executive-turned-poet did such a bang up job, what the fuck has happened in the past six years that leaves a bad taste in my mouth?
Simply put, instead of fighting the conservatives so offended by the work of individual artists or spending the money allocated on actual art, Gioia made the NEA the arts branch of the Department of Education.
10:17 AM
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