The Lasting Power of Janet Jackson’s “Got ‘Til It’s Gone”
Twenty years ago, Janet Jackson released her single "Got ‘Til it’s Gone." Today, we celebrate the layered artistry that led to the video's timeless appeal.
Frederick Wiseman’s Reality Fictions
Frederick Wiseman's 42nd documentary in 50 years of film-making has just been released. What's he making movies about, anyway?
An Artist of the Floating World: Two Interviews with Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro, an English novelist, won the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature. His work deals with topics like national identity, memory, and trauma.
How 19th Century Women Were Taught to Think About Native Americans
In nineteenth-century American women's magazines, Native American women were depicted as attractive, desirable, and pious.
Weirdly Enough, Movies about TV Prepared America for TV
Ironically, it was movies that helped accustom American viewers to television in the first place, writes Richard Koszarski.
Glenn Ligon’s “Blue Black” Exhibits the History of Race in America
Artist Glenn Ligon grounds his work in American history, addressing the inextricable link between history of slavery and the black experience in the U.S.
Why We Will Never Hear What Mozart Heard
Modern pianos are the product of a 600-year evolution—from Hermann Poll's 1397 clavicembalum, to clavichords, harpsichords, and the modern grand piano.
A Natural History of the Wedding Dress
The history of the wedding dress is shorter than the history of weddings, and even shorter still than the history of marriage.
Mexico’s Radical Women Artists
Art by Mexican "Radical Women" artists capture the turbulent times of the feminist movement in Mexico in the 1970s and still ring true today.
Celebrate Banned Books Week
The last week of September is Banned Books Week, when the American Library Association calls our attention to works that have been censored.