Arts & Culture
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When to quit a book
Some give up without guilt while others insist going cover to cover. Harvard readers share their criteria.
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Lace up gloves, enter ring, and write
Novelist and boxer Laura van den Berg says the two practices have a lot in common
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Unearthed papyrus contains lost scenes from Euripides’ plays
Alums help identify, decipher ‘one of the most significant new finds in Greek literature in this century’
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A photographer who makes historical subjects dance
Wendel White manifests the impetus behind his new monograph during Harvard talk
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LeVar Burton got his Du Bois Medal, and the crowd couldn’t resist
‘Reading Rainbow’ theme breaks out at ceremony honoring Black luminaries — including trailblazers in sports, arts, politics, and more
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When the act of writing itself is part of the art
Calligrapher Wang Dongling creates piece with ‘chaotic script’ before Harvard Art Museums audience
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Melting pot of American cuisine
A new exhibit at the Peabody Museum examines the various cultural origins of American cuisine.
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To control women, fertility, and nature itself
“Love in a Mist (and the Politics of Fertility),” the fall exhibit at the Graduate School of Design, examines ways culture seeks to control women and nature.
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Lessons of ‘West Side Story’
Cast and crew of Harvard’s new production of West Side Story wrestle with the classic musical’s racial, ethnic, and political complications
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Art and the history of indigenous America
In a first-year seminar, students study portraits of indigenous American leaders to learn about art, identity, and the history of indigenous peoples.
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The heart of the matter
In a Radcliffe talk, an expert on regenerative medicine and a transdisciplinary artist explore the heart as organ and metaphor.
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Gilbert and Sullivan drop the mic
For six decades, Harvard’s Gilbert and Sullivan players have staged romping and boisterous productions.
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Confronting bias through fashion
Walé Oyéjidé talks about art and fashion ahead of a screening of his new documentary, “After Migration: Calabria,” on campus Nov. 12.
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Hindu monastics at Harvard
Three Hindu monastics share their thoughts on Harvard Divinity School and the world they will return to.
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Teens tackle question of freedom in America
Boston-area high school students will perform “Freedom Acts” on Nov. 2‒3. As part of the A.R.T.’s Proclamation Project, the play tackles questions of what hypocrisies and contradictions exist in what we think of as American freedom.
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Inside the house of screams
In a class called “Haunted: Writing the Supernatural,” Harvard students put their imaginations to work creating tales of demons, monsters, and ghosts.
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The story of a museum and of America
Lonnie G. Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, recalls his challenges in founding the National Museum of African American History and Culture
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Persistence, courage take the dais
Rapper Queen Latifah, poets Elizabeth Alexander and Rita Dove, Smithsonian secretary Lonnie Bunch III, philanthropist Sheila C. Johnson, artist Kerry James Marshall, and entrepreneur Robert F. Smith were honored with this year’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medals.
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Writing Black lives
“Writing Black Lives,” a Radcliffe talk by three biographers that explored how the lives and work of three influential Americans — federal judge and activist Constance Baker Motley, playwright Lorraine Hansberry, and author James Baldwin — helped shape and are still shaping conversations around black politics, community, identity, and life.
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Urban planning and social justice
Harvard historian Lizabeth Cohen’s latest book explores the life and career of Ed Logue, a Yale-trained lawyer who became an influential city planner and applied the lessons of Roosevelt’s New Deal to urban renewal.
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All the right moves
Amirah Sackett uses dance to challenge conceptions of Muslim womanhood. The Chicago dancer, choreographer, educator, and activist combines hip-hop with Islamic themes to explore her identity and invites viewers to expand their understanding of movement as a mode of self-expression. The Gazette spoke to Sackett about the importance of education in the arts, her activism, and love of poetry.
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Nas next to Mozart? Why not?
Since 2002, the Hiphop Archive and Research Institute has been documenting hip-hop’s growing legacy and culture.
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A lost Yugoslavia
A selection of photographs from Nobel laureate Martin Karplus is on display at the Minda de Gunzburg Center’s Jacek E. Giedrojć Gallery until Jan. 13, 2020.
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The soul of a jazz man
In “The Sound of My Soul: Frank Stewart’s Life in Jazz,” nearly 80 photographs large and small document Stewart’s fascination with capturing the country’s signature art form — one rooted in improvisation — on film.
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Love stinks
In an excerpt from the essay “Museum of Broken Hearts,” Leslie Jamison, a 2004 Harvard grad, explores love, loss, and renewal through the relics of her relationships past.
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Thinking like a magician
In his 2019–2020 Kim and Judy Davis Dean’s Lecture in the Humanities, Joshua Jay offers listeners a look at techniques involving perception, attention, and surprise that he insists have practical applications well beyond the realm of magic.
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Creative research at heart of ArtLab
The ArtLab, Harvard’s newest Allston lab, open its doors for some creative research.
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Using art to inspire action
Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Climate Creatives are using art and design to create an event to help people see the urgent need to act on climate change.
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Judging a book
Clint Smith is a writer and teacher whose collection of poetry, “Counting Descent,” was published in 2016. He is currently working on a doctoral dissertation exploring how people sentenced as juveniles to life without parole make meaning of education while incarcerated.
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Artists in residence make Harvard home
Harvard chamber music veterans, Blodgett Artists-in-Residence the Parker Quartet, will perform this Friday in Paine Hall.
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Bluegrass symphony
Theresa Reno-Weber is a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and a former lieutenant. She deployed to the Persian Gulf and served as a sea marshal on the first U.S.C.G. cutter to circumnavigate the world. Today, she is president and CEO of Metro United Way in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Breaking artistic boundaries
Located on North Harvard Street, the ArtLab is the University’s latest Allston laboratory devoted to creative inquiry, research, and experimentation. Focused on interdisciplinary artistic collaboration, investigation, and connection, the ArtLab will be open to members of the University and the public this week.
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The artist as witness
“Winslow Homer: Eyewitness,” currently on view at the Harvard Art Museums, traces how the artist’s experience as an observer tasked with accurately documenting the conflict helped shape his career and informed much of his later output.
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Uncommon coinage
Carmen Arnold-Biucchi recently retired after almost two decades as the museums’ first curator of ancient coins. During her tenure she helped bring roughly 2,000 other coins to Harvard, small-scale works of art adorned with mythical creatures, ancient architecture, biblical references, important persons, and poignant dates.
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Fall into art
A sampling of the season’s best in local music, theater, and visual arts.
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Five lessons from Toni Morrison
Harvard Divinity School pays tribute to the late Toni Morrison during its convocation.