Arts & Culture
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17 books to soak up this summer
Harvard Library staff recommendations cover romance, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, memoir, music, politics, history
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What to make? Let the wheels decide.
‘Randomizer’ gets creative gears spinning in ceramic studio
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Writing to the beat of your inner Miles Davis
Jesse McCarthy sees Black authors during Cold War philosophically opting for none of the above, and improvising their own way
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A modern approach to teaching classics
Martin Puchner is using chatbots to bring to life Socrates, Shakespeare, and Thoreau
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Stumbling through fog, disillusionment of 1970s
Francine Prose’s memoir trails fleeing 26-year-old novelist to S.F., her attraction to deeply troubled, fading counterculture hero
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Finding new art in unexpected places
Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies loaning pieces from collection to areas around campus to widen exposure, spark reconsideration
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A feast for the eyes, sort of
A panel of experts explored the various ways in which the history of food in art tells a story of creativity and craftsmanship during a recent virtual talk sponsored by the Harvard Art Museums and presented in partnership with the Food Literacy Project at Harvard University Dining Services.
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Agassiz’s other photographs tell a global tale of scientific racism
In 1865, Harvard Professor Louis Agassiz traveled to Brazil to create a photographic catalog of people of different races as anatomic evidence in support of his beliefs. Scholars, artists, and curators from Brazil and the U.S. will reflect on these lesser-known images during a panel discussion called “Race, Representation, and Agassiz’s Brazilian Fantasy” hosted by the Peabody Museum.
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Round 2: ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’
William Tsutsui, who teaches a course that explores the rich history of Japanese monsters, says which one will win the new “Godzilla vs. Kong” is anybody’s guess.
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Who is this museum for?
During a Harvard panel, experts discuss how displays and artifacts reflect choices about whose story is told, and how and why.
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A digital piece of art worth $69 million
Harvard art expert Mary Schneider Enriquez reflects on the sale of a digital collage of 5,000 images by the artist known as Beeple. The digital work fetched an eye-popping $69 million in auction last week as a non-fungible token, a type of digital file that uses computer networks to prove a digital item’s authenticity, and is paid for in cryptocurrency.
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The sound of lockdown
Theater, Dance & Media students join Junot Díaz and other writers in an audio version of Radcliffe’s fall magazine.
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Let us listen then, you and I
The George Edward Woodberry Poetry Room will celebrate its 90th anniversary by making some of its first recordings — of the poet T.S. Eliot reading his own work — available to the general public on March 19.
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Houghton acquires 1st edition of 1st African American novel
Through the efforts of Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Houghton Library has acquired a first edition of the first novel published by an African American in the U.S.
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Harvard grad reflects on ‘Twilight Zone’ type of year
Harvard alum discusses his Grammy-nominated song “Stand Up” from the biopic “Harriet.”
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Magic, up close and personal
A small band of magicians present “The Conjurors’ Club” with the American Repertory Theater through April 4.
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How to examine troubling images
A number of Harvard faculty and experts took part in a discussion last week about how curators and faculty confront the challenges of teaching with and displaying legacy collections of photographs containing difficult subject matter.
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O Superwoman
Avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson brings her unique style to the Norton Lectures in a series of virtual presentations.
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We’ll always have ‘Casablanca’
The Brattle Theatre will continue its tradition of airing “Casablanca,” offering the iconic 1942 movie through a virtual screening over the long weekend.
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Laurie Anderson is, as always, undaunted
As the recipient of this year’s Charles Eliot Norton Professorship in Poetry Laurie Anderson tells us how she is designing her six Norton Lectures for a virtual audience.
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Harvard Opportunes win national competition
Harvard Opportunes win UpStaged National Collegiate Performing Arts A Cappella Championship.
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Soundwalking around Harvard
Digital Sanctuaries Harvard is an app that invites the public on a virtual walk around and beyond Harvard’s campus through an ever-changing musical score.
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To everything there is a season
Two online art exhibits from the Arnold Arboretum offer a seasonal view of the 281-acre preserve.
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Voices raised in glee
Glee clubs from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton mesh online in song to celebrate diversity and fellowship.
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Here they come a-caroling
On Christmas Eve, the Memorial Church and the Harvard University Choir will present an online service featuring student voices recorded individually from around the world.
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Beethoven at 250
On the 250th anniversary of his birth, several Harvard-affiliated composers reflect on the work and life of Ludwig van Beethoven.
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Strictly Ballzoom
Ballzoom, a digital format that lets teams compete, was a first thanks to Harvard students.
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The unique and beautiful await
Artists from Harvard’s Ed Portal worked from their homes, shops, and studios to amass a catalog of treasures for sale at the fourth-annual winter market.
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Brighter days for arts forecast in Biden administration
Though it is too early to tell exactly how the nation’s cultural landscape will fare under a Biden and Harris administration, a number of indicators suggest creative communities could face brighter times ahead with White House support.
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A family’s secret language, a reckoning with a Nazi past
Martin Puchner shares his knowledge of Rotwelsch in his new book, “The Language of Thieves: My Family’s Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried to Eliminate.”
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A beloved holiday theater tradition, remote but not forgotten
A.R.T.’s annual holiday show, “Jack and the Beanstalk: A Musical Adventure,” is a joyful respite. The 55-minute streamed event is available through Jan. 4.
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Hitting the right note
The four-day Student Composers Festival begins this week, featuring work by 30 Harvard students and recent alumni. The festival is the creation of Veronica Leahy ’23.
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‘Garden’ party
“The Garden” is a new arts course that lets students explore tools and ideas across the disciplines of visual art, film, dance, and music.
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Museums of Native culture wrestle with decolonizing
A panel of museum experts discuss the ways in which museums, which are quintessential colonial institutions, can recreate their missions and practices to respond to social unrest and demands for inclusion and representation.
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Does food have a gender?
A panel of food experts explored the cultural connections between food and gender during a recent talk sponsored by Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology.
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Feeling close to art from miles away
The Harvard Art Museums may be closed due to the coronavirus, but virtual visitors can still connect to its vivid treasures thanks to some art-loving Harvard undergraduates who are leading gallery tours from across the globe.