Marian Anderson Photo Archives
The African American opera singer made history with a stirring concert at the Lincoln Memorial. But there was much more to Marian Anderson.
The Beatles Got Started in Hamburg. There’s a Reason for That.
The Beatles first played Hamburg's pleasure zone in 1960, in a former strip club near the infamous Reeperbahn.
When Black Celebrities Wore Blackface
A Black Bohemia flourished in New York before the Harlem Renaissance and with it a new type of self-determined, contradictory Black celebrity.
The Rec Room Party Where Hip-Hop Was Born
Thinking quickly and reading the dance floor, an innovative DJ began playing the funkiest parts of every record.
When the Truman Campaign Used a Song from an All-Black Show
"I'm Just Wild about Harry" originated with the songwriting team of Sissle and Blake and first appeared in the Broadway musical Shuffle Along.
The Newport Rebels and Jazz as Protest
In 1960 a group of jazz musicians organized an alternative to the Newport Jazz Festival, which they saw as too pop and too white.
Yvonne Rainer, Postmodern Dance, and You
In the 1960s, a group of artists started experimenting with choreography based on ordinary movement and improvisation. Now your living room is the stage.
How Terrence McNally Reimagined the Danse Macabre
The centerpiece of the prize-winning Love! Valor! Compassion! is a rehearsal for an affirming staging of Swan Lake—in drag.
The Rebellious, Scandalous Origins of Polka
The dance is often associated with the traditions of immigrant communities in America. But it emerged in Europe during a time of radicalism.