-
SXSW’s Troubling Deportation Policy
Yesterday, artist Told Slant announced he was canceling his SXSW performances after discovering the something alarming in the artist contract – there’s a clause stating that “foreign artists” performing on certain visas may not participate in unofficial showcases and that doing so “may result in immediate deportation, revoked passport and denied entry by US Customs Border Patrol at US ports of entry.” The managing director of SXSW has been busy doing damage control, first stating that Told Slant put two portions of the contract together to make it seem worse than it is (which Stereogum quickly debunked) before backtracking to say the clause is meant to deal with more serious infractions than playing unofficial shows. The Future of Music Coalition published a breakdown of the controversy as a mounting list of artists get serious about possibly boycotting the festival. Victoria Ruiz of Downtown Boys has started a petition to remove the clause from the contract.
-
Rihanna Honored By Harvard
Havard named the singer Humanitarian of the Year and received the Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award for starting a nonprofit that helps Caribbean children who are attending school in the United States, starting an oncology and nuclear medicine center in Barbados, and her Believe Foundation, which helps disadvantaged children around the world. Go to 1:13 in the ceremony’s livestream to watch her speech.
-
Other Highlights
Lady Gaga will replace Beyonce at Coachella; Lorde, Cold War Kids, and Thurston Moore all released new videos and music; check out the awesome winners of NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest; members of Wilco/Deerhoof/Minutemen formed a super group; and a Roger Waters album is coming in May.
