Category: people

“[His] example offers a helpful corrective to the tendency of contemporary education debates to fixate on economic questions. … Douglass’s own life testified to the ability of the liberal arts – fields such as literature, philosophy, the physical sciences, and social sciences – to inspire internal emancipation as well.”

“Mr. Freberg was a hard man to pin down. He made hit comedy records, voiced hundreds of cartoon characters and succeeded Jack Benny in one of radio’s most prestigious time slots. He called himself a “guerrilla satirist,” using humor as a barbed weapon to take on issues ranging from the commercialization of Christmas to the hypocrisy of liberals.”

“Ms. Wilson began her career as a musical theatre actress, both in New York and London. But, beginning in the 1980s, she began to focus on the smaller stages of the cabaret world, finding acclaim for her interpretations of songwriters such as Stephen Sondheim, Kurt Weill, the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart and Cole Porter.”

“Despite not publishing one single piece during that time, Mitchell kept showing up to work, and The New Yorker kept paying him. So, what exactly was Mitchell doing the last 30 years of his life?”

“Their analysis suggests being forced to fight for status and recognition—not to mention commissions, performances, and pupils—took a physical toll on these artists. It provides evidence that the stress of competition—particularly among fellow composers living in the same city—literally took years off their lives.”

Dr. Ruth McAllister looks at contemporary testimony about Gesualdo and his relationships with others, including his second wife, a rival composer, musicians employed by someone else whom he dressed down to their faces, a former mistress tried for witchcraft, and one of his uncles, St. Carlo Borromeo.

“Seeking visual representations of black people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, [Phyllis Klotman] learned of the existence of a body of work — long scattered, little known and unpreserved — by early black filmmakers. She traveled the country, scouring attics and cellars and museum vaults, assembling a collection of films by and about African-Americans. Many had survived only in fragments.”

“By the time Jones finishes reading a script, she already has ideas about which actors might be right for the roles—and who can handle the pressure of constantly improvising during the eighty-hour workweek that shooting a television comedy often requires. But she also likes the surprise of the unknown.”

Michele Serros “believed her stories deserved to be told — little everyday stories about one life, hers. But she also believed everyone else’s story deserved to be told, too. It is a notion that still feels audacious, radical, maybe even revolutionary.”