Combustible Cinema? The Nitrate Film Issue
The early plastic called celluloid was made of nitrocellulose and camphor. It made for spectacular pictures. It also made for spectacular fires.
Under Hokusai’s Great Wave
Hokusai’s watery woodblock print is such a common sight that most people tend to look past the peril at its center.
Willie Mae Thornton Deserves Your Full Attention
In a meditative new biography, DJ and scholar Lynnée Denise examines the mysteries and trials in the life of the legendary performer.
What Is Punctuation For?
Between the medieval and modern world, the marks used to make writing more legible changed from “pointing” to punctuation.
The “Refus Global”
Published in 1948 by the artist group Les Automatistes, the Refus Global manifesto challenged Québécois political, religious, and social traditions.
Reading “The Book of Nature”
Beginning in the Middle Ages, the natural world was viewed as a Christian parable, helping humans to give divine meaning to plants, animals, and the heavens.
Nate Salsbury’s Black America
The 1895 show purported to show a genuine Southern Black community and demonstrate Black cultural progress in America, from enslavement to citizenship.
Can Intellectual Humility Save Us from Ourselves?
Intellectual humility is defined as a willingness to admit you’re wrong. It could be just the idea for our self-righteous times.
Doing Math with Intellectual Humility
Math class is an opportunity to teach students both how to use conjecture to arrive at knowledge and how to learn from the logic of peers.
Exporting Chinese Acrobats
Chinese acrobats have been impressing circus-goers at shows like Cirque du Soleil since the 1980s. How did these gymnastic marvels make their way to the West?