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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 7 May 2019
Madonna gives emotional speech at GLAAD Awards

By MESFIN FEKADU that the evening changed
NEW YORK (AP) — Madon- her life.
na, a pioneer for gay rights, "For the first time I saw men
accepted the Advocate kissing men, girls dressed
for Change Award at the like boys, boys wearing
2019 GLAAD Media Awards hot pants, insane, incred-
with a rousing speech that ible dancing and a kind
went from playful to emo- of freedom and joy and
tional, bringing the audi- happiness that I had nev-
ence to its feet. er seen before," she said.
The 60-year-old pop icon "I finally felt like I was not
turned heads as she walked alone, that it was OK to be
to her table at the Hilton different and to not be like
Midtown in New York on everybody else. And that
Saturday night, before tak- after all, I was not a freak.
ing the stage to celebrate I felt at home, and it gave
her three decades of ad- me hope."
vocacy work in the LGBTQ Madonna also said Flynn
community. pushed her to leave Michi-
"Why have I always fought gan and go to New York
for change? That's a hard to pursue her dreams. And
question to answer. It's like when she arrived in the Big
trying to explain the impor- Apple in 1977, she was in
tance of reading or the awe with all New York had
need to love. Growing up I to offer — diversity, creativ-
always felt like an outsider, Honoree Madonna accepts the advocate for change award at the 30th annual GLAAD Media ity — but she also learned
like I didn't fit in. It wasn't Awards at the New York Hilton Midtown on Saturday, May 4, 2019, in New York. about the AIDS epidemic.
because I didn't shave un- Associated Press "The plague that moved
der my armpits, I just didn't in like a black cloud over
fit in, OK," she said. "The first high school and he was the artist and as a human be- beautiful." New York City and in a blink
gay man I ever met was first person that believed ing. I know this sounds trivial Madonna went on to say of an eye," she said and
named Christopher Flynn. in me, that made me feel and superficial, but he was Flynn took her to her first snapped her fingers, "took
He was my ballet teacher in special as a dancer, as an the first man to tell me I was gay club in Detroit, and out all of my friends."q

Italian artist Lorenzo Quinn builds bridges over Venice

MILAN (AP) — Italian art- ennale, one of the many
ist Lorenzo Quinn created side events that vie for the
a splash on the sidelines attention of the art world
of the Venice Biennale that floods Venice every
contemporary art fair two two years.
years ago with a gigantic Due to its enormous suc-
sculpture of a child's hands cess, "Support" was extend-
reaching out of the Grand ed six months beyond the
Canal, calling attention close of the 2017 Biennale,
to climate change that and now is slated for per-
threatens, among other manent installation on the
things, to sink the lagoon island of San Servolo, oppo-
city. site the Biennale's Giardini.
For this edition, Quinn has Quinn said that cities — he
created a successor sculp- won't say which — already
ture that he wants to be a have opened a bidding
call to action: Six pairs of process to win "Building
arching hands creating Bridges" once its Biennale
a bridge over a Venetian stint is closed.
waterway, symbolic of the An artistic rendering of Lorenzo Quinn's six pairs of arching hands creating a bridge over a Vene- Quinn — the 52-year-old
need to build bridges and tian waterway. son of the late actor An-
overcome divisions. Associated Press thony Quinn — said the
They are being erected in biggest compliments he
the Arsenale former ship- Quinn says. But his ideals "Venice is a testament Both projects have been received for "Support" were
yard against the backdrop are clear. to that. Venice opened backed by Venice city of- not for its execution or aes-
of a city that stands as an "Humanity has never grown routes to Asia, the Far East, ficials, after the Biennale re- thetics.
historic East-West gateway by creating barriers. It al- with Marco Polo and the fused to accept "Support" "Quite a few people said to
— and as Europe prepares ways grows when it opens Merchants of Venice. It has two years ago. me that the sculpture 'Sup-
to vote in a continent-wide up its borders and it wel- been a driving force of Eu- But the lack of formal art port' struck a chord in them,
election that is shaping comes new cultures," Quinn ropean growth always." fair acceptance has hardly in that due to the sculpture
up as a battle of populism told The Associated Press Quinn's "Building Bridges" in- mattered. The monumental they changed their daily
against more open social by telephone on Friday as stallation, like "Support" be- sculpted hands proved to habits," he said, from not
democratic traditions. he oversaw the installation fore it, is a collateral event be one of the most popular running water while brush-
The sculpture isn't meant another pair of the arching, to the Venice Biennale, works of 2017, even though ing their teeth to taking
as a campaign platform, clasping, white resin hands. which runs May 11-Nov. 24. it was out of the official Bi- shorter showers.q