Watch 2:58
Appreciating the ‘powerful good’ of the public library
As the American Library Association bestows its 2018 “I Love My Librarian” awards, librarian Kristen Arnett expresses her humble opinion on why visiting a library is the best way to show your appreciation.
These wicked Day of the Dead poems don’t spare anyone
A proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico is the product of “the underworld” in one calavera literaria written for the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos.
Watch 4:37
‘Eighth Grade’ captures our need to connect
Following a week in the life of a middle schooler, the new film "Eighth Grade" sets the familiar fumblings of adolescence against the constant glare of a glowing screen or Snapchat filter. Jeffrey Brown takes a look at why it’s…
Watch 3:06
How art connects us to our ancestors and ourselves
Growing up in a family with Chinese, Dutch-Indonesian and Native American ancestry, Kayla Briët says the first medium that really allowed her to express her identity was music. Briët offers her Brief but Spectacular take on storytelling through art, language…
"Black Panther" isn't just a big-budget action movie getting rave reviews; it's a full-fledged cultural phenomenon. Unlike other movies in the Marvel universe, it has an African superhero, a majority-black cast and an African-American director. Jeffrey Brown reports on the…
The Appalachian Film Workshop was started in Kentucky in the 1960s to foster new technical skills and give people a way to tell their own stories of their home. Now known simply as Appalshop, their mission has extended far beyond…
Chuck Close is famous for his large-scale portraits in contemporary art museums across the world. But recent allegations of sexual harassment have prompted museums to postpone an exhibition and remove his work. It's yet another flashpoint in a national reckoning…
Multimedia artist Carrie Mae Weems hosted a day of music, art and talk in a public event called “The Shape of Things,” exploring America’s history of violence. Jeffrey Brown reports from New York about what inspired Weems to take on…
The British folk song, “The Old Churchyard,” performed here by the Portland band The Decemberists and English singer Olivia Chaney at this year’s Newport Folk Fest, is part of a rich, oral tradition passed along by musicians and…
