Crash Course
Federal Theatre and Group Theater: Crash Course Theater #42
The 1930s in the United States were pretty bad for employment in all industries, and the theater was no exception. As part of Roosevelt's New Deal, the Works Progress Administration created a division called the Federal Theatre Project....
PBS
Theater in rural Appalachian Virginia brings regional themes to the stage
Barter Theatre, which opened during the Great Depression and is thriving 90 years later, is known for bringing regional themes to its rural Appalachian stage. Jeffrey Brown visited Abingdon, Virginia, to show the changing face of the...
PBS
Isabel Allende's Newest Historical Novel Tells Familiar Story Of Refugee Life
"A Long Petal of the Sea," a new historical novel by renowned writer Isabel Allende, draws upon events spanning from the Spanish civil war to the 1973 coup in her native Chile -- and with resonance for the experience of refugees today....
PBS
"Trust Exercise" Author Susan Choi On Power Dynamics And Timely Fiction
Susan Choi’s novel “Trust Exercise” takes place in a high school for the performing arts in an unnamed southern city. But the subjects examined, including consent, power and memory, are universally relevant. “Trust Exercise” won the 2019...
PBS
Why We Should Think Differently About Classical Music
Musician and critic Jennifer Gersten wants us to transform the way we think about classical music. Perceived by many as "inaccessible, elitist, incomprehensible," the genre is often marketed by producers and performers primarily as...
PBS
Civil Rights Pioneer Ruby Bridges On Activism In The Modern Era
In the 1960s, Ruby Bridges became the first African-American student to
integrate into an entirely white public school system in New Orleans. She
joins Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who followed in Bridges' footsteps 60 years
ago and...
PBS
How this 72-year-old weightlifter is lifting expectations
In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, a 60-year-old grandmother from
Fairfax, Virginia, developed a love for weightlifting and garnered up to 12
world records in her age and weight categories. Now 72, Linda Leightley can
deadlift...
PBS
A Humble Opinion On Accepting Risk In Order To Choose Joy
Hobbies can offer an amazing sense of purpose and fulfillment, and many of us acquire new ones as we grow older. But what happens when a pursuit of passion poses risk of physical harm? Novelist Jane Hamilton shares her humble opinion on...
PBS
Poet Amanda Gorman On How She Prepared For Inauguration Day
The poet who will carry on a tradition and present her new work, "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration this week is already quite accomplished at the age of 22. Jeffrey Brown talked to Amanda Gorman to learn more, as part of our...
PBS
Why You Should Be Proud Of Your Ethnic Name
Filmed before the Georgia shootings, writer Te-Ping Chen shares with us her "Humble Opinion" that people with ethic names must embrace them instead of shying away. Chen, who says she was given a "boy's name" at birth, looks back on how...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Iseult Gillespie: Frida Kahlo: The woman behind the legend
In 1925, Frida Kahlo was on her way home from school in Mexico City when the bus she was riding collided with a streetcar. She suffered near-fatal injuries and her disability became a major theme in her paintings. Over the course of her...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How to see more and care less: The art of Georgia O'Keeffe | Iseult Gillespie
Feeling disconnected from creating art within classical conventions, artist Georgia O'Keeffe began experimenting with abstract drawings that defied easy classification. Using the shapes and rhythms of nature to capture her internal...
TED Talks
How a strong creative industry helps economies thrive | Mehret Mandefro
When global leaders think about which industries can fuel economic growth, the arts are often overlooked. But filmmaker Mehret Mandefro says the creative sector actually has the power to grow economies -- while also helping safeguard...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Michelle Brown: What is a butt tuba and why is it in medieval art?
A rabbit attempts to play a church organ, while a knight fights a giant snail and a naked man blows a trumpet with his rear end. These bizarre images, painted with squirrel-hair brushes on vellum or parchment by monks, nuns and urban...
PBS
Are Olympic Competitors Geniuses?
Everyone is obsessed with the Olympics right now, watching these geniuses push the boundaries of their field. Wait, did we say GENIUSES? Yes! We normally associate the word "genius" with intellectual accomplishments, but athletes are...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The art forger who tricked the Nazis
It was one of the strangest trials in Dutch history. The defendant in a 1947 case was an art forger who had counterfeited millions of dollars worth of paintings. But he wasn’t arguing his innocence— in fact, his life depended on proving...
TED-Ed
The strange history of the world's most stolen painting | Noah Charney
Throughout six centuries, the Ghent Altarpiece, also called "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb," has been burned, forged, and raided in three different wars. It is, in fact, the world's most stolen artwork— and is considered one of the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Silvia Moreno-García: Titan of terror: the dark imagination of H.P. Lovecraft
Arcane books of forbidden lore, disturbing secrets in the family bloodline, and terrors so unspeakable the very thought of them might drive you mad. These have become standard elements in modern horror stories. But they were largely...
PBS
Is the Web Browser Replacing the Art Gallery?
For the past 200 years, the gallery has been the home of new and cutting-edge art, a place where the art community can come together and share new ideas. In the era of the internet, however, you can view remarkable art from the comfort...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Alex Gendler: Why should you read "The Master and Margarita"?
The Devil has come to town. But don't worry– all he wants to do is stage a magic show. This absurd premise forms the central plot of Mikhail Bulgakov's masterpiece, "The Master and Margarita." Its blend of political satire, historical...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What’s a squillo, and why do opera singers need it?
An orchestra fills an opera house with music, but a singer’s voice soars above the instruments. Its melody rings out across thousands of patrons— all without any assistance from a microphone. How is it possible that a single voice can be...
TED Talks
Phil Hansen: Embrace the shake
In art school, Phil Hansen developed an unruly tremor in his hand that kept him from creating the pointillist drawings he loved. Hansen was devastated, floating without a sense of purpose. Until a neurologist made a simple suggestion:...
TED Talks
TED: every piece of art you've ever wanted to see -- up close and searchable | Amit Sood
What does a cultural Big Bang look like? For Amit Sood, director of Google's Cultural Institute and Art Project, it's an online platform where anyone can explore the world's greatest collections of art and artifacts in vivid, lifelike...
Crash Course
Modern Thought and Culture in 1900: Crash Course European History
Europe was in transition politically and culturally at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, we're looking at the dawn of modern science, and the rise of Modernism in the arts, especially in music, dance, and visual arts. We'll look...