Arts & Culture

With help from a Harvard grant and a class on the ancient Near East, Harvard students are re-creating casts of Mesopotamian masterpieces.

Matthew Weiner, creator of “Mad Men,” talked about his development as a writer and the show’s beginnings in a conversation with Harvard’s Bret Anthony Johnston on Monday at Sever Hall.

American audiences quickly embraced the Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler when he moved to the United States, and to a surprising degree, lecturer Federico Cortese told an Ed Portal audience.

To mark the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, Martha Hodes’ new book offers firsthand accounts from the days following the murder.

Scholars from across Harvard will convene at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study on Friday for a symposium called “University as Collector” that will explore the importance of universities as collecting institutions.

On a commission from the Harvard Art Museums, Mexican artist Carlos Amorales created “Triangle Constellation” to hang above the Calderwood Courtyard.

A historian’s new book outlines the little-known role of black Americans in international campaigns to ban nuclear weapons.

During a panel discussion at Radcliffe, musicians in the diverse Silk Road Ensemble explained how they combine instruments, mesh traditions to make new music.

“Harvard Voices,” sponsored by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts, united a cross-section of artistic influences and University arts resources.

Two lectures launched a yearlong celebration of Widener Library, which turns 100 this June.

Harvey Cox, the Hollis Research Professor of Divinity Emeritus at the Divinity School, talks about his new book, “How to Read the Bible.”

Filmmaker Stanley Nelson Jr. took part in a question-and-answer session with Harvard President Drew Faust as part of the William Belden Noble Lectures.

A Harvard senior creates a student-run show for his senior project. The work grew out of his special concentration in theater arts and performance. “OSCAR at The Crown and the love that dare not speak its name” runs April 15 and 16 at 8 p.m. and April 17 at 10:30 p.m.

Professor Carlo Ginzburg of UCLA will deliver Harvard’s Tanner Lectures starting April 15.

The story of “Drapetomania: Grupo Antillano and the Art of Afro-Cuba” is one of discovery and rediscovery. For the 30 artists represented, it illustrates the uncovering of an artistic heritage, and a lineage that was long denied. As part of “Drapetomania,” the Cooper Gallery is also presenting a Cuban film series, with screenings on Thursdays at noon.

This walking tour pairs classic Harvard landmarks with a sampling of the poets connected to the University — all in honor of National Poetry Month.

Written approximately 20 years after Elie Wiesel was freed from imprisonment in the Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald concentration camps, “The Choice” is having a staged reading at Sanders Theatre on Sunday. It marks a premiere for the recently rediscovered work.

“Confronting Violence,” an April 9-10 conference at the Radcliffe Institute, will explore how activism and cultural change can affect public policy and reduce violence. It includes an exhibit, “Confronting Violence: Critical Approaches to American Comics and Video Games,” which can be viewed through April 17.

A historian’s photographs expose the sedimentary layers of Cuba, a country in flux.

During a talk at the Graduate School of Design, composer Steve Reich’s haunting “WTC 9/11” demonstrated the unique ability of sound to recall not only the defining moment of loss, but the trauma that continually threatens to erase it from memory.

Speaking at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, two French architects advocate building and rebuilding based on modesty, generosity, and economy, with an eye to comfort and beauty.

Professor Steven Pinker talks about his latest book, “The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century.”

Houghton Library recently acquired its 3,000th American item, the typescript of an unproduced James Baldwin play — a rich tangle of the author’s obsessions in need of a scholar’s clarifying touch.

Performance artist Laurie Anderson delved into her inspirations and motivations as she gave the Music Department’s Louis C. Elson Lecture.

During two days of programming at the Harvard Art Museums, scholars, students, and the public explored the significance and innovative conservation of Mark Rothko’s Harvard murals. The events highlighted the murals’ return to public discourse and their new role as potential models for the treatment of aged and damaged art.

A symposium will investigate what makes us human, and go beyond philosophy to do it.

In a visit to Harvard, Marin Alsop discussed some of the challenges she has faced as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

As part of a course on music composition, Harvard students created original works inspired by objects in the Harvard Art Museums collections. Those compositions were recently brought to life by cellist Neil Heyde of London’s Royal Academy of Music at a concert held in the Calderwood Courtyard.

Harvard course uses the game of soccer to explore the complexity of the humanities.

Author ZZ Packer is spending her Radcliffe year working on her newest effort, a novel titled “The Thousands” that tracks the lives of several families following the Civil War through the American Indian campaigns in the Southwest.