Burlesque dancer Mary Mack reclining on a chaise longue, circa 1950.

Burlesque Beginnings

From its nineteenth-century origins, burlesque developed into a self-aware performance art that celebrates the female form and challenges social norms.
Man listening with headphones on a blue sine wave background

In the Mood for “Fake” Music?

In 2017, it was reported that Spotify was promoting fake artists on its platform. But this type of approach to “content creation” wasn’t new.
Masqueraders at the Winneba Fancy Dress Festival in Ghana

Performing as “Red Indians” in Ghana

In Ghana, asafo and Fancy Dress traditions draw on a stereotypical but much-admired figure inspired by the nations of the North American Great Plains.
Charlotte Cushman, 1843

The Long Shadow of the Jolly Bachelors

More than a century ago, Charlotte Cushman presided over a group of queer female artists who supported one another’s creativity and left a pioneering, if overlooked, legacy.
Group portrait of Christian heavy metal band Stryper, 1984

Sex (No!), Drugs (No!), and Rock and Roll (Yes!)

In the 1980s and 1990s, Christian heavy metal bands used head-banging music to share the politics and values of evangelical Christians with America’s youth.

Revolutionary Writing in Carlos Bulosan’s America

Bulosan’s fiction reflects an awareness of the inequality between the Philippines and the US and connects that relationship to his own class experience.
La Bayadere, Estudio Dance Mariela Gonzáles, 2018

Pas de Deux With Cancel Culture

Traditionally set amidst an exoticized conception of India, La Bayadère’s recent staging argues for stripping away stereotypes in the creative reimagination of old ballets.
Students attending a lesson in lecture hall

Heritage Bilinguals and the Second-Language Classroom

So-called heritage learners are forcing educators to rethink and reframe their approaches to teaching second languages in the classroom.
Collier's illustration for E. W. Hornung's Raffles short story "Out of Paradise" by J. C. Leyendecker, 1904

The Joy of Burglary

In the early 1900s, a fictional “gentleman burglar” named Raffles fascinated British readers, reflecting popular ideas about crime, class, and justice.
Interior of the Musée des Monuments Français, between 1795 and 1816

Saving Art from the Revolution, for the Revolution

Alexandre Lenoir’s Musée des monuments français, founded to protect French artifacts from the revolutionary mobs, was one of the first popular museums of Europe.