In 1963, James Baldwin told a LIFE magazine reporter: “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected to me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive. Only if we face these open … [Read more...] about Taking a Page from Baldwin: Book-Reading as a Violence Coping and Prevention Strategy
Meet the New Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts-Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson!
Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, the 13th chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, is no stranger to the Arts Endowment having had a great deal of first-hand experience with the agency as she has served on the National Council on the Arts since 2013. She comes to the position of chair with years of experience in comprehensive community building that focuses on the centrality of … [Read more...] about Meet the New Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts-Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson!
Quick Study: Some Stats on Book-Reading
In this episode, we take stock of recent studies about book-reading through print and digital media, and how patterns may have changed during the pandemic. A transcript of this podcast is available at the NEA website. … [Read more...] about Quick Study: Some Stats on Book-Reading
Sade Lythcott of National Black Theatre and Radical Storytelling
Sade Lythcott CEO of National Black Theatre (NBT) is carrying on the legacy of her mother Dr. Barbara Ann Teer who founded NBT back in 1968. Based in Harlem and born out of the Black Arts Movement, NBT has spent the last five decades presenting stories by and about Black people with an aim is "to produce transformational theater…by telling authentic stories of the Black … [Read more...] about Sade Lythcott of National Black Theatre and Radical Storytelling
An Untapped Energy Source: Colleges and Universities as Cultural Anchors
Think of an anchor and you’re sure to picture a clunky steel appendage that grounds a vessel to a halt, or, in tattoo ink, graces Popeye’s forearms. Think of an “anchor institution” and you might construct an image just as leaden or, alternatively, cartoonish. By most definitions, community anchors are large and immobile, even if they typically are nonprofits with a social … [Read more...] about An Untapped Energy Source: Colleges and Universities as Cultural Anchors