EDITOR’S NOTE: The Utah Review begins its preview coverage today of the 46th Utah Arts Festival, which will be held June 23-26 (noon to 11 p.m. on June 23-25 and noon to 9 p.m. on June 26) on the Library Square in downtown Salt Lake City. As this is the state’s largest multidisciplinary arts and … Read more
Provocative comedy is an underappreciated, underutilized art form in Utah. The state’s social character and pop culture are sufficiently peculiar, offbeat and unusual to produce spot-on satires and farces. Some segments of Utah’s independent film industry (think of the HaleStorm comedies, for example) have aspired to achieve crossover appeal by highlighting weird, quirky aspects of … Read more
In Utah, many contradictions confound in their complexities. Mormonism champions its cosmopolitan outreach through its mission service, where members proselytize about the virtues of perfection, prosperity and duty of faith. Meanwhile, while immigrants and refugees are welcomed in the state, many also feel isolated and vulnerable, seeing clearly how lip service and posturing barely mask … Read more