Arts & Culture

All Arts & Culture

  • Time for homework. Where’s my Nintendo Switch?

    Games have inspired dozens of movies and TV shows recently. A new English class studies growing critical scholarship on the subject.

    Students explore a narrative video game in a video game storytelling class.
  • ‘That’s not how the story went’

    Novelist Joshua Cohen and professor James Wood discuss the creation of Cohen’s book, “The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family.”

    James Woods, left, and author Joshua Cohen.
  • Old as Chaucer, new as #MeToo

    Scholar Anna Wilson looks at the role #MeToo plays in Zadie Smith’s “The Wife of Willesden,” an adaption of Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.”

    Clare Perkins.
  • Rich history of DIY publishing

    Creative people have bypassed gatekeepers for centuries to distribute “what they wanted to share so badly.”

    Christine Jacobson.
  • So who is included in King’s ‘beloved community’?

    Black queer poet, scholar Cheryl Clarke discusses achieving Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision.

    Cheryl Clarke.
  • If loving you is wrong – let’s explore the ethics

    Assistant Professor Quinn White studies the ethics of love and relationships.

    Quinn White.
  • First lesson in Japanese boatbuilding: Don’t speak.

    Students make 22-foot skiff in “silent” workshop that puts emphasis on observation — and a good hammering rhythm.

    Students gather around instructor Douglas Brooks as they build a Japanese river skiff.
  • Finally, taking a bow

    Many in jazz circles knew music of these four women, but Radcliffe fellow wants to make sure the rest of us do too.

    Maxine Sullivan.
  • Plea from 1980s New York: ‘Please Stay Home’

    Darrel Ellis exhibition at Carpenter Center looks back yet feels of the moment with its themes of family history, identity, loss.

    "Please Stay Home" drawing by Darrel Ellis depicting couple in bedroom.
  • Free Thursday evenings? Like theater? Mixed media? Dance?

    The ArtsThursdays initiative increases accessibility and availability of Harvard arts for University affiliates and the wider community.

    Harvard Art Museums at Night event.
  • Life seeking answers at Giza, Nubia

    Egyptologist George Reisner transformed the field, and a biography by Peter Der Manuelian explores not just his career, but his life during what some consider the golden age of Egyptian archaeology.

    George Reisner with a bronze vase from a 1923 excavation.
  • Seeing ourselves in different light

    Giuliana Bruno’s new book, “Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media,” reclaims concepts of “projection” as positive force connecting us to one another, affirming possibility of change.

    Giuliana Bruno and book cover.
  • War-scarred land

    Makeda Best on images she chose for award-winning “Devour the Land,” which depicts environmental toll of militarism in U.S.

    "Dried Pond along the Rio Grande."
  • Taking fresh shot, once again, to debunk myth of Jewish conspiracy plot

    Dasha Bough ’23 created an animated documentary challenging one of the world’s oldest and most dangerous and persistent conspiracy theories.

    Dasha Bough.
  • New translation of Mishnah looks to make ‘unyielding’ text accessible

    Hebrew literature and philosophy professor’s project aims to make ‘unyielding’ text of ancient Jewish accessible.

    Shaye Cohen,
  • Keeping up with the Joneses 2.0

    Author and Harvard alum W. David Marx digs into how social aspirations underlie all our choices.

    W. David Marx and his book cover.
  • Finding herself in chapter, verse

    Far from her native Indianapolis, Alyssa Gaines steeps herself in life on Harvard’s campus.

    Alyssa Gaines.
  • Scene-stealing puppets of ‘Pi’

    Nick Barnes talks about animal puppets he co-designed for stage version of best-selling novel, now playing at Harvard’s A.R.T.

    "Life of Pi" rehearsal with Bengal tiger puppet.
  • Hollywood’s messaging problem: Sometimes people feel insulted

    Experts took a virtual look at the role of satire in pushing climate change action, with reviews mixed on a recent film.

    Steven Pinker.
  • A singular poet

    Creative process and Jewish tradition were central to a lively conversation as Nobel Prize-winning poet Louise Glück delivered the Center for Jewish Studies’ annual Doft Lecture.

    Louise Glück.
  • What coin tells you about realm

    New classics professor Irene Soto Marín mines answers to question about ancient Egyptian life, economy from everyday artifacts.

    Irene Soto Marín.
  • Book as tree, inside and out

    A Pittsburgh artist who seeks to honor authors has transcribed Richard Powers’ Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Overstory” onto a scroll reminiscent of a redwood tree’s 160-foot cross section. It’s on display through January at the Arnold Arboretum.

    The 160-foot-long substrate created of silk and gampi.
  • The boy king’s throne

    On the 100th anniversary of discovering Tutankhamun’s tomb, an Egyptian jewel comes to Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East.

    Detail of replica of King Tut throne.
  • Laverne Cox, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar among Du Bois winners

    Hutchins Center for African and African American Research returned after three years to award the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal to seven luminaries.

    Betye Saar (from left), Laverne Cox, Deval Patrick, and Agnes Gund onstage at Sanders.
  • Face to face with ancient Egyptians

    Realistic mummy portraits, on view at Harvard Art Museums, shed light on life, death in multicultural Roman era 2,000 years ago

    Three mummy portraits of bearded man wearing white tunic, woman wearing white tunic with purple sash, and woman wearing a purple tunic.
  • Buffeted by unending tides of grief

    Namwali Serpell’s novel explores reality, memory, and race, class of broken family after the death of a child.

    Namwali Serpell.
  • Rethinking Cuban art

    The new exhibition hopes to revolutionize how Cuban art is considered through the inclusion of artists of African descent who were usually excluded from shows.

    Alejandro de la Fuente and Pablo Gonzalez hang exhibition labels.
  • African diaspora explored through performance art

    Atlantic Connections, a jazz performance created by Alicia Hall Moran and Yosvany Terry, takes place on September 15 and 16.

    Yosvany Terry and Alicia Hall Moran .
  • The lesson of an ashtray

    Former Bioethics Fellow Jay Baruch ’02 recalls impatient patient who pulled her own breathing tube (and lived to tell about it) in new memoir

    Jay Baruch
  • From Rodney King to George Floyd

    Former Bunting Fellow Anna Deavere Smith develops revival of “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992.”

    Anna Deavere Smith