What’s the Legacy of Disco Music?
If you listen to Blondie, The Police, or the Pretenders, it’s in the beat.
Odette vs. Odile: A Tale of Two (but Not Opposing) Swans
The distinction between the leading female characters of Swan Lake—the swan princess and her “black” counterpart—initially wasn’t so sharp.
The Legacy and Power of Performance Poetry: A Reading List
MTV might take credit for getting spoken word on the pop cultural radar, but it’s a tradition that spans millennia and continents.
Arthur Miller, Comedian
Yep. The author of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible wrote comedies as well. Funny ones.
The Wonderfully Complex Whitman Sisters
A popular act on the Black vaudeville circuit, the Whitman Sisters relied on a reputation for strong morals while challenging racial and gender codes.
Bob Dylan and the Creative Leap That Transformed Modern Music
In 1964, Dylan decided that he wanted to make a different kind of music.
A Holiday Pantomime
With origins in the theater of the early eighteenth century, “panto” remains a crucial element of the holiday season in Great Britain and Ireland.
Reasons for Re-Enacting at the Renaissance Faire
Why do we love donning period costumes and re-enacting our history through mock battles, pioneer villages, and Renaissance Faires?
Memphis: The Roots of Rock in the Land of the Mississippians
Rising on the lands of an ancient agricultural system, Memphis has a long history of negotiating social conflict and change while singing the blues.
Carry On, Karaoke
Karaoke became a global phenomenon after its invention in the 1970s, the wide embrace of it exemplifying transnational flows and hybridization.