Arts & Culture

Playwright and director Ifeoma Fafunwa brings the hopes and challenges of Nigerian women to Harvard with “Hear Word!,” making its U.S. premiere at the Harvard Dance Center this weekend.

Vijay Iyer, the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts, gathered four friends and colleagues for “Bending Toward Justice: Improvisation, Freedom, and the Arts,” a panel discussion on how dance, music, and their improvisational tendencies influence the world.

Sinologist Stephen Owen devoted eight years to the first complete English translation of the great Chinese poet Du Fu.

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson gave a lecture called “The Divine” at Memorial Church.

Orlando Patterson, the John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the 2016 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.

Noted jazzman Rufus Reid is teaching Harvard students, and will share his wisdom and musicianship with the public. There will be two events open to the public — on April 6 and 9.

Thomas Wisniewski, a Ph.D. candidate in comparative literature at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a 2016 Harvard Horizons Scholar, seeks to reintegrate the neglected field of prose metrics into literary studies.

Chilean poet Raúl Zurita will deliver a bilingual reading as the Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor in Latin American Studies.

Harvard Business School (HBS) and BBC Radio 4 have worked together to produce the first episode of “The Global Philosopher,” a program hosted by Harvard political philosopher Michael J. Sandel.

Todd Rose, lecturer in education, debunks the myth of the “typical” learner in his new book, “The End of Average.”

“The Art of Jazz: Form/Performance/Notes” explores the interaction between jazz and the visual arts.

Harvard professor and Weatherhead faculty associate Robert Bates’ book “When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa” has been selected for inclusion in the Canto Classics series by Cambridge Univerity Press.

The New York Times’ chief film critic, A.O. Scott, visits Harvard to discuss his new book, “Better Living Through Criticism,” on Thursday.

Four lectures focusing on Hannah Arendt, the political theorist best known for coining the phrase “the banality of evil” when she wrote about the trial of Nazi architect Adolf Eichmann for The New Yorker in the early ’60s, will be held March 9 and 30 and April 6 and 20 at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies.

Harvard sophomore finds support for his concentration in Ancient History (Greek and Roman), which allows him to pursue his passions “while maintaining marketability in an increasingly competitive world.”

Toni Morrison delivered the first of six Charles Eliot Norton Lectures to an adoring crowd at Sanders Theatre on Wednesday. Morrison is the 58th scholar given the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship of Poetry.

In his weekly 90-minute lectures, Professor Robin Kelsey brings historical awareness and contextual experience to 13 technologies that have transformed visual communication.

The Radcliffe Institute will host “Ways with Words: Exploring Language and Gender,” a conference on March 3-4 that explores the interplay of gender, language, and why Facebook now offers three pronouns.

Five poets are celebrated in “‘A Language to Hear Myself’: Feminist Poets Speak,” a Schlesinger Library exhibit running from Feb. 29 to June 17, with an accompanying performance March 1.

Harvard is behind the re-creation of a chair from a 4,500-year-old tomb.

Toni Morrison will deliver the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, which will be held throughout March and April at Sanders Theatre. Hosted by the Mahindra Humanities Center, Morrison is the 58th scholar to be given the arts and humanities honor, officially named the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship of Poetry.

Cartoonist, children’s book author, and songwriter Sandra Boynton will present a fast-paced audiovisual retrospective of her work on Feb. 23, part of the Askwith Forum series.

Grammy-nominated saxophonist Yosvany Terry is bringing the music of his native Cuba to campus as a senior lecturer and leader of the Harvard Jazz Ensembles.

This year marks five centuries since the death of Hieronymus Bosch. Harvard Art Museums is paying tribute to the Dutch artist with the exhibit, “Beyond Bosch: The Afterlife of a Renaissance Master in Print.”

Conan O’Brien spoke with President Drew Faust about how his humanities education made him one of TV’s most successful comedians.

Visiting Professor Verena Andermatt Conley talks about her first venture into romance writing, “Cree.”

An interview with novelist Claire Messud launches a new series in which Harvard writers discuss how their stories take shape.

A selection of Mount Auburn Cemetery’s evocative funerary sculptures and monuments is the subject of a new book by Meg Winslow and Harvard’s Melissa Banta.

A new exhibit at Houghton Library marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

The Irish novelist Colm Tóibín will sit down with Claire Messud, a lecturer and fellow novelist, as part of the Mahindra Humanities Center’s Writers Speak series.