Grand Illusions
By the time L. Frank Baum introduced the world to Dorothy and the gang, he’d already made his name as a shop window dresser par excellence.
The Living Newspaper Speaks
Scripted from front-page news, the Federal Theatre Project’s Living Newspaper plays were part entertainment, part protest, and entirely educational.
Reading Aloud in the Early Republic
Magazines of the freshly founded United States drew legitimacy and stability from the collective voice and sociability of their editors.
All Male Cats Are Named Tom: Or, the Uneasy Symbiosis between T. S. Eliot and Groucho Marx
Class and religious differences, among other factors, thwarted the would-be friendship between two cultural titans, suggesting opposites attract, but may not adhere.
From Screaming to Singing
How one German choir changed the way we think about, practice, and perform choral music.
The Living Dead Embody Our Worst Fears
Zombie movies are scary fun, but they also help us examine our anxieties about contagious disease and unstoppable chaos.
Film and TV Ratings in the Streaming Age
We've got Netflix, AppleTV, YouTube, and Prime literally in the palms of our hands. Do conventional movie and television rating systems matter to us?
The New York School Poets
From Bernadette Mayer to Joan Mitchell. Tracing the path from the New York School poets to their painter friends.
The Bug in the Computer Bug Story
Soon after a team of engineers discovered a moth in a machine at Harvard, the word "bug" became a standard part of the programmer's lexicon. Or did it?