Arts & Culture

PBS will air “Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness,” a documentary that examines the towering influence of controversial anthropologist Melville Herskovits, on Feb. 2 at 10:30 p.m. as part of the series “Independent Lens.” Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal will host the program.

An exhibit of photos by photographer Amy Stein at the Harvard Museum of Natural History explores the boundaries between humankind and nature.

Two daguerreotypes recently acquired by the Harvard Art Museum’s Department of Photographs show a distinguished African-American man and a woman, countering stereotypes of the day.

Harvard University President Drew Faust today (Dec. 21) announced the formation of a University-wide advisory committee on the arts, the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA).

Western poet Katie Peterson, a Radcliffe Fellow, shares her sense of desert life on a vast canvas with startling intimacy.

At Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, more than 30 scholars gather for three to 10 months to pursue their studies on the Italian Renaissance: its music, history, economics, science, politics, and art.

English professor Elisa New found her great-grandfather’s cane, and that spawned a twisting journey to find her family history, now relayed in a book.

Julie Peters, the inaugural Byron and Anita Wien Professor, focuses on artistic cultural history, as well as the literary works themselves.

A.R.T. leads effort to keep Shakespeare’s plays relevant for modern times, with its primary mission what his likely was: to lure audiences into the theater.

The Harvard Ceramics Program turns 40 this year and says goodbye to its longtime director Nancy Selvage.

Students digging in Harvard Yard may have found remnant evidence of Indian College, one of Harvard’s earliest buildings.

Biblical scholar Elaine Pagels visits Radcliffe, presenting a “mad dash” of fresh thinking on the New Testament’s Book of Revelation.

With more than 50 years of experience in the economics and policy worlds, Fein dishes the lessons he’s learned on government, decision making, and more, attempting to breathe new life into our nation’s welfare.

Sociologist Lawrence-Lightfoot’s inspiring book says that ages 50-75 are prime time for adventure. Forty interviews with people living in their “third chapter” show how fulfilling life can be then.

Tatar plumbs the lore and enchantment of children’s stories, revealing their power to ensnare imaginations, and highlights the magic of reading and what children take from it.

A new Schlesinger Library exhibit, “To Know the Whole World,” introduces an interactive Web site on women’s travel writing.

Harvard Library director pens book that in itself is an ode to books.

Panel says higher education is freshened, expanded, and challenged in a networked age.

Musician Fred Ho received the Harvard Arts Medal and performed the premiere of his piece, “Take the Zen Train,” with the Harvard Jazz Bands.

A sobering book, sure to draw ire: This psychologist posits that addiction is voluntary.By analyzing buckets of research, Heyman offers insight on how we make choices, and how we can stop ourselves from going too far.

Goldsmith and Kettl edit a posse of policy practitioners who argue for network-driven government practices. Presenting case studies from across the nation, these authors reveal how work gets done when forces join together.

This is Zurita’s harrowing chronicle of General Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship in Chile, along with the writer’s subsequent arrest and torture. It’s a visually stunning book of unforgettable poems.

Artist Sanford Biggers completes his work “Constellation: Stranger Fruit,” which recalls the horrors of slavery even as it celebrates the stars above.

Harvard authors who met years ago through social networking produce the book “Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives.”

Musician Fred Ho’s new work, a commission from Harvard’s Office for the Arts and the Harvard Jazz Bands, chronicles the composer’s successful three-year battle with cancer.

Nancy Rappaport reads from “In Her Wake,” a book written about the exploration of her mother’s suicide.

While Harvard the institution is picking up the pace on supporting the arts, Harvard the students — as ever — are busy making the arts their “irreplaceable instruments of knowledge.”

A timeline of the arts at Harvard begins in 1636, when Harvard was founded, the Massachusetts Bay Colony had barely 10,000 settlers, and wolves howled at the edge of the endless forests.

“Street Scene” is performed in Harvard Yard by a group of A.R.T. students.

The Lab, a three-year experiment orchestrated by David Edwards, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering, offers a “forum to help catalyze ideas” across many fields. Stemming from his course “Idea Translation” (ES 147), the exhibition of student-based experiments is designed to morph into an ongoing series of events and “idea nights” open to anyone at Harvard with something to show or say.