Arts & Culture

Scholars gathered at Harvard to discuss the Emancipation Proclamation and African-American service during the Civil War.

In this year’s Tanner Lectures, Yale Law School Dean Robert C. Post suggested common constitutional ground in the campaign finance reform debate.

Humanities programs are in trouble in universities across the world — but hope prevails.

A team of Harvard scholars is cataloging, and transcribing, and digitizing thousands of 18th- and 19th-century anti-slavery petitions held in the Massachusetts State Archives.

When artistic director Diane Paulus gave the classic “Pippin” a facelift for 2013-13 lineup of the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), people took notice. Now “Pippin” has been nominated for 10 Tony Awards, including best director of a musical for Paulus.

Radcliffe fellow and classically trained pianist Tsitsi Jaji uses her musical expertise and knowledge of comparative literature to explore how composers of African descent set poetry to music for solo voice and piano.

For the first time, students at Harvard Medical School in the Longwood area are participating in the annual Arts First festival, the University’s four-day celebration of the visual, literary, and performing arts.

Art historian Steven Nelson inaugurated the Richard Cohen Lecture Series at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute with a look at how black American artists draw from centuries of the African diaspora.

Actors Matt Damon and John Lithgow met at Sanders Theatre on Thursday for a spirited conversation that kicked off Harvard’s annual Arts First celebration.

Steven Rozensk and Matthew Sergi have collaborated with the American Repertory Theater for a public reading of the epic poem “Beowulf” in its original Old English. There is a free reading from noon to 5 p.m. at the A.R.T. on April 25.

Two Harvard conferences, each trimmed from two days to one by the Boston Marathon bombing and resulting manhunt, provided surprisingly appropriate lessons of comfort and perspective.

Students in a Boston high school sacrificed some of their precious spring break to spend time with master trumpeter and jazz legend Wynton Marsalis.

Artist and composer Wynton Marsalis returned to Sanders Theatre for his fourth lecture-performance at Harvard, an exploration of the strange alchemy of instinct, expertise, and empathy that jazz musicians need to “play and stay together.”

“Mirror With a Memory” is a new Pusey Library exhibit of photographs and other artifacts from the years when Harvard and the nation were anticipating the Civil War, then fighting it, and, finally, remembering it.

Professor Jill Lepore delivered the third and final presentation in Harvard College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds’ book talks in the Widener Library rotunda. The series was designed to bring students and faculty together outside of the classroom.

Professor Kimberley C. Patton suggests dreams are “a language of enigmatic parable” that Western culture generally prefers to dismiss. “There’s a devaluation of dreams in the West,” said Patton, something the ancients would have found incomprehensible.

Albanian novelist Gazmend Kapllani, a Radcliffe Fellow this year, draws inspiration for his writing from his nation’s ink-dark past under harsh Communist rule.

Harvard Medical School’s Jonathan Beckwith has used his course “Social Issues in Biology” to teach students about the societal implications of science, and now he is collaborating with a Harvard alum Calla Videt to bring his message to the stage.

A diehard interpreter of the great American songbook and musical theater repertory, Barbara Cook surprised the audience at a recent Harvard master class by quoting a maverick music-maker.

Biographer Walter Isaacson shared his insights into the minds and makeup of three of America’s greatest thinkers, who helped to change the world.

Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, soon turning 50, was celebrated at the Graduate School of Design through a visit from its first director, Eduard Sekler, along with early faculty and students.

The Harvard Glee Club and a Dorchester boys choir have joined forces over the past two years, performing together in concerts and at services, and establishing a fellowship.

A panel of experts discussed the study of humanities in the digital age, and how humanists’ skill set is well-suited for careers in this advancing world of technology. The discussion was part of a series supported by the FAS Office of Career Services.

Installation artist Helen Marriage, a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, conversed with Professor Rahul Mehrotra about a modern conundrum: In an increasingly secular age, can public space be spiritual? “Streets of Gold” continues the series on April 5.

Actor Jason Alexander, best known for playing the neurotic George Costanza on the television comedy “Seinfeld,” visited Cabot House for a cozy conversation with 60 students.

Harvard music professor Anne Shreffler and a trio of graduate students have developed an exhibit based on the extensive material related to contemporary music patron Paul Fromm. “Composing the Future: The Fromm Foundation and the Music of Our Time” is on view at the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library through May 2.

A pair of 19th-century photo albums, recataloged after more than 130 years at Harvard, reveals a vanishing world of North American Indians.

Best-selling author and journalist Walter Isaacson will present the 2013 Maurine and Robert Rothschild Lecture, “The Genius of Jobs, Einstein, and Franklin,” on April 8 at the Radcliffe Gymnasium.

Exploring the sweet and dark sides of chocolate, a new course examines the history and food politics of the beloved treat.

What’s in store for the revamped Harvard Art Museums, set to open in fall 2014? On Wednesday evening, curators offered visitors a glimpse of how the museums’ collections will be showcased in the new building, with a nod toward the thoughtful, the innovative, and the interactive.