Arts & Culture

Inspired by her love of science and her exploration of the universe’s mysteries, Sarah Howe wrote a poem dedicated to Stephen Hawking. A video has Hawking reading Howe’s poem, marking National Poetry Day, Oct. 8.

“Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” author Rebecca Skloot, at Radcliffe as a visiting scholar, talks about her new book project, on the bond between humans and animals.

The distinguished German photojournalist Barbara Klemm will show her works this month in the Center for European Studies (CES) exhibit titled “West Meets East,” which commemorates the 25th anniversary of the reunification of Germany.

While volumes of poetry, sadly, may not sell the way, say, a Stephen King novel does, Ifeanyi Menkiti knows firsthand that poetry’s gifts are priceless. That’s why, in 2006, he purchased the Grolier Poetry Book Shop, a historic literary enclave down an unassuming Harvard Square side street.

HarvardX’s MOOC “The Book” uses technology to mine ancient texts and bridge the modern and the medieval.

New concentration brings excitement by merging three disciplines and capitalizing on Harvard’s vast creative resources.

A new exhibit at Houghton Library spans the many pursuits of the British artist Walter Crane.

A growing Harvard collection documents life and propaganda in the controversial, short-lived Asian state of Manchukuo.

A new collection of materials donated to Harvard Library from the José María Castañé Foundation is keenly focused on major conflicts and transformative events of the 20th century, including the Russian Revolution, the two World Wars, the Spanish Civil War, and the Cold War.

Kellie Jones, an associate professor in art history and archaeology at the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University, discussed “Civil/Rights/Act: Art and Activism in the 1960s” as part of the W.E.B. Du Bois colloquia this fall.

Curious visitors who turn left off the Harvard Art Museums’ elevators on the building’s fourth floor are greeted by the Forbes Pigment Collection, a floor-to-ceiling wall of color compiled from about 1910 to 1944 by the former director of the Fogg Museum.

A phone call last month led to the acquisition of Corita Kent prints at Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library.

Harvard anthropologist Susan Greenhalgh’s new book, “Fat-Talk Nation: The Human Costs of America’s War on Fat,” delves deep into the national obsession with thinness.

A Harvard undergrad learns by doing, digging through a Roman historical site during a summer excavation program.

Dave Malloy traces the inspiration for “Ghost Quartet,” set to run at Oberon Sept. 9-12, to the scary stories of his youth.

An exhibit at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design showcases, explains half a century of lessons in living around the globe.

“Black Chronicles II,” at the Cooper Gallery, explores issues of race and identity through archival photographs from Victorian England.

A new exhibit at the Harvard Art Museums reviews the work of pop artist and activist Corita Kent.

The 2015 Arts and Passion-Driven Learning Institute traced connections among inspiration, imagination, and creative work.

Harvard’s Houghton Library has acquired Henry David Thoreau’s notes from the scene of the shipwreck that killed social reformer and writer Margaret Fuller.

Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles is returning to her musical-theater roots as the composer of “Waitress,” which opens at the American Repertory Theater this weekend.

Jesse Aron Green ’02 is the first Harvard alumnus to have an exhibition at the new Harvard Art Museums. A former Quincy House resident and a Needham native, Green spoke with the Art Museums about his Harvard education and the inspiration for his work.

Summer Summits: Notes from further afield, a new initiative at the Carpenter Center, is bringing voices in contemporary art to Harvard for a live travelogue of stories, relics, musings, and photographs from escapades near and far.

Christina Leigh Geros’ creation for Radcliffe’s Wallach Garden is brilliantly responsive to its surroundings.

Schlesinger Library receives letters from African-American servicewomen grateful for hair products that eased their lives while on assignment.

An exhibition by an Iranian artist recalls the heavy human cost of the long and brutal Iran-Iraq War.

A Harvard Law School scholar reflects on the legacy of the 800-year-old Magna Carta.

Unfulfilled as a lawyer, Robin Kelsey took a leap and began a career in photography and teaching. Today he leads Harvard’s Department of History of Art and Architecture.

Former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson on coaching the next generation of journalism leaders.

More than 75 years after being expelled from his homeland by the Nazis, Austria-born Martin Karplus, a Harvard theoretical chemist and Nobel laureate, returned to Vienna in May in triumph — and as a film star. The mid-June American release of “Martin Karplus — The Invisible Made Visible” yet to be announced.