Arts & Culture

Federico Cortese, director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, explains how the choreographer George Balanchine transformed Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” into an American classic.

“Nine Moments for Now,” an exhibit at the Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art in the Hutchins Center, explores social engagement, civic discourse, and the fragility of democracy.

A new Radcliffe exhibit reminds viewers how Harvard astronomer Henrietta Leavitt’s efforts helped unlock mysteries of the cosmos.

Playwright Inua Ellams talks about the research behind “Barber Shop Chronicles,” which is at the American Repertory Theater through Jan. 5.

Geraldine Brooks discussed her work as a war correspondent and her Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction during a visit to Houghton Library sponsored by the Harvard Review.

Now through Dec. 30 at Harvard’s Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, a series of photos shines a light on the America that author and social critic James Baldwin was responding to with his words. “Time is Now: Photography and Social Change in James Baldwin’s America” tracks the social unrest that drove his writing and reflect turbulent times past and present.

The American Repertory Theater’s production of “ExtraOrdinary” samples a decade of musicals while tapping into performers’ stories.

“The Laughing Room,” brainchild of Harvard metaLab researcher Jonny Sun, uses an algorithm to turn library visitors into performers.

Composer David Rothenberg ’84 will bring the sounds of outdoors inside for a demonstration and discussion that features his unique ability to perform with nature.

A whimsical artist’s work is being celebrated in the exhibit “Introducing Tony Conrad: A Retrospective” at Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts and MIT’s List Visual Arts Center.

Panelists at the Office of Career Services’ Music & Entertainment Pathways forum said the best way to a career in music or entertainment may well be networking.

Christina Riggs of the University of East Anglia previewed her forthcoming book, “Photographing Tutankhamun: Archaeology, Ancient Egypt, and the Archive,” in a Harvard lecture.

Author Gore Vidal left his papers and library to the University. The fruits of that gift, combined with an earlier gift of a portion of his papers in 2001, have been meticulously cataloged and archived at Houghton Library.

Columbia Pictures transforms Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum into a Paris park as it films the American classic “Little Women.”

Harvard’s Office for the Arts will welcome producer Darla Anderson and cultural consultant Marcela Davison Aviles for a conversation about their work on the Academy Award-winning Pixar film “Coco.”

At Harvard, a Houghton Library exhibit showcases the influence of immigration on American theater.

In the days before Halloween, we asked Min Jin Lee, Maria Tatar, and other serious campus readers to share with us the stories that have scared them most — and why.

As part of a speaker series, Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad shares his winding past toward belief.

For “Faulkner, Interracialism and Popular Television,” Harvard’s Linda Chavers pairs the white Southern writer’s work with the TV series “Scandal” from African-American writer-producer Shonda Rhimes.

Fujiko Nakaya’s climate-responsive fog sculpture at Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum set the stage for a special twilight performance of “Macbeth.”

“The Rockefeller Beetles,” a new exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, features hundreds of specimens from an exceptional collection that reflects the story of a man whose childhood pursuit grew into a lifelong passion.

Accepting the Mahindra Award for Global Distinction in the Humanities, Nobelist author J.M. Coetzee treated the audience filling Sanders Theatre to thoughts about his earliest reading and the concept of a mother tongue.

At what other event would you hear, “This time there would be no Jell-O?” mused Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian last Wednesday at the Harvard Art Museums. It sounded like a…

Bestowed by the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, eight laureates received the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal at Sanders Theatre for their contributions to African and African-American history and culture.

Composer and writer Min Kahng talks about how he created his musical “Four Immigrants” in advance of his Harvard visit.

Lepore speaks with the Gazette about our shared past, her central argument, Supreme Court fan mail, and more.

Amanda Gorman, the inaugural U.S. youth poet laureate and a Harvard junior, wrote a poem for Harvard President Larry Bacow’s inauguration based on the University’s history, Bacow’s love of running, and his approach to the job that emphasizes the long-term nature of achievement and the importance of working together toward change.

During Harvard visit, artist Scott McCloud explains how comics can promote a new way of seeing.

To honor its past and its future, Harvard will offer special exhibits on Oct. 4 and 5 during the inauguration of Larry Bacow, the University’s 29th president.

Eight expeditions to the Kalahari Desert by a Cambridge family in the 1950s yielded more than 40,000 photographs that captured hunter-gatherer cultures on the verge of disappearing. Many of the photos are now on view at Harvard’s Peabody Museum in a new exhibit, “Kalahari Perspectives: Anthropology, Photography, and the Marshall Family.”