Episodes
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July 18, 2024 - LaToya Hobbs, Raqib Shaw, and bonsais
LaToya Hobbs is a painter and a printmaker whose themes are expressions of motherhood, home and cultural identity. While she often reveals her experiences as an artist and an African American woman, her work also has universal resonance.Her monumental series, “Carving Out Time” is both personal and utterly relatable. And it’s massive. She joined The Culture Show ahead of her debut exhibition at the Harvard Art Museum.From there, it’s into the wild world of artist Raqib Shaw. He uses porcupine quills and enamel to create landscapes that are electrified by color. They are lush, opulent and ornate. But, his paintings are also beset by a lurking menace. The Culture Show caught up with him when he was in town to open his exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.Finally, we get a tour of the Arnold Arboretum’s bonsai collection. -
July 17, 2024 - Vijay Iyer, Baseball: The Movie, and Zola Simone
The Grammy Award-winning Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) led by conductor Gil Rose releases Vijay Iyer: Trouble on its eponymous label. Marking his debut recording as an orchestral composer, he joins The Culture Show to talk about this work. In his new book, “Baseball: The Movie,” sportswriter and film critic Noah Gittell takes us through the history of the baseball movie, with a look at how those films have changed–from feel-good, to nostalgic, to cynical–are a reflection of how American values have changed. Finally Zola Simone, who will be performing at Cambridge Crossing Summer Nights Series’ free outdoor concert, joins The Culture Show for a preview. -
July 16, 2024 - The Million Year Picnic at 50, the Lowell Folk Festival, and Sea Monsters
The Million Year Picnic is the oldest comic book store in New England and since the 1970’s it’s been a fixture in Harvard Square. This summer it marks its 50th anniversary. Tony Davis, the owner, joins The Culture Show to talk about its legacy and how they are marking this moment.Then we’re off to Lowell by way of their annual folk festival, which features a mariachi band, parades, a yo-yo-world champion, Creole music, bluegrass, honky tonk and more. The director, Lee Viliesis, joins The Culture Show for a preview.Finally we plumb the depths of the human imagination by plunging into the depths of the ocean with a look at Sea monsters, the subject of a new exhibition at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Peter Girguis, guest curator and Harvard professor of organic and evolutionary biology joins us to talk about it. -
July 15, 2024 - Kneecap, BosTix, and Jane Eaglen
Kneecap, a Belfast-based rap group known for their fiery social and political commentary is on the rise…with a new album and biopic starring Michael Fassbender, which has it’s nationwide release on August 2nd. They join us to talk about it all.From there it’s the return of BosTix, the discount theater ticket kiosk. Catherine Peterson, Executive Director of ArtsBoston joins The Culture Show to talk about what its return means for the arts and culture sector.Finally we enter the world of German composer Richard Wagner. Jane Eaglan, president of the Boston Wagner Society, joins The Culture Show to talk about their forthcoming Boston Wagner Institute program, which includes masterclasses, performances and some taproom tippling. -
July 12, 2024 - Week in Review: Orchestral report cards, Shelley Duvall, and songs of the summer
Today on The Culture Show, co-hosts Edgar B. Herwick III, Callie Crossley and James Bennett II go over the latest headlines on our arts and culture week-in-review.First up: D is for dismal. The report card is in for the world’s orchestras and they get a capital D on diversity. Then it’s a capital F for flop. Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga,” bombs at the box office. Plus we remember actress Shelley Duvall and her subversive screen presence, from “Nashville,” to “Annie Hall” to “The Shining.”From there it’s follow up-Friday where we catch up on the stories we’ve been tracking, among them, the Beyonce bounce. Did her Texas two step into country music pave the way for Shaboozey’s chart topping hit? Finally, it’s not a summer cookout without–what Callie Crossley calls– the surefire song of joy: “Before I let go” by Frankie Beverly and Maze. -
July 11, 2024 - Muppets in Moscow and Jeremy Eichler
In her book, Muppets in Moscow, Natasha Lance Rogoff pulls back the iron curtain on what it was like to work in Russia as a TV producer in the 1990’s. There were absolute triumphs of Big Bird diplomacy, moments when capitalism collided with the legacy of communism, and a deep realization that a country undergoing radical change, can only change so much . Then it’s a conversation about music as memory.Jeremy Eichler joins us to talk about his new book, “Time’s Echo,” which looks at how Shostakovich and other composers used classical music to not only articulate the unspeakable horrors of WWII but to also memorialize the victims of the Holocaust. -
July 10, 2024 - Quilling, the Boston Ballet, and Joyce Kulhawik
Quilling is the ancient art of coiling long strips of paper around a needle–or going back to its namesake– around a quill. In a twist of fate, Huong Wolf has ended up on a mission to keep this tradition alive. Today she and her husband run the Framingham-based business, Quilling Card, a fair trade company that sells handcrafted cards–and now handcrafted art. She joins The Culture Show to talk about the history of quilling and what it means to bring it into these times. From there, Boston Ballet, by way of a 360 dome, has created a portable portal to dance that’s making its way through Massachusetts. Ming Min Hui, the Executive Director of Boston Ballet, joins The Culture Show to talk about its upcoming appearances at Tanglewood and Woods Hole.Finally, it’s still Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, which means it’s still Jump the Shark Week on The Culture Show – if you think we’ve jumped the shark, Culture Show contributor Joyce Kulhawik is bringing her life boat and her list of what she thinks has just gone too far. -
July 9, 2024 - Art prescriptions, Shark Week, and Pedro Alonzo
What is a prescription for anxiety or isolation that doesn't need FDA approval and won’t get churned through big pharma to drive up prices? Art and culture.Known as “social prescriptions,” there is a growing movement of physicians writing out prescriptions for dance classes, nature walks or a trip to the museum as a way to help treat mental and behavioral health concerns.Now Massachusetts is the first in the nation to have a statewide program. Michael J. Bobbitt, Executive director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Dr. Priscilla Wang, Associate Medical Director of Primary Care Health Equity at Mass General Brigham join The Culture Show to talk about this new initiative.From there, It’s still “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel, which means it’s still “Jump the Shark Week” on The Culture Show, where we look at what in the zeitgeist has gone the way of the Fonz on water skis. Today Culture Show co-host James Bennett II joins us for his list of things that have gone too far.Finally independent curator and Culture Show Curator Pedro Alozno joins us to talk about the latest exhibition he’s curated, “The Objects We Choose,” at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York. -
July 8, 2024 - Ben Shattuck, jumping the shark, and Shakespeare on the Common
Ben Shattuck’s latest book, “The History of Sound: Stories” is a collection of interconnected stories that examine the lives and landscapes of New England where Shattuck spans centuries in these haunting and often humorous stories. He joins “The Culture Show” ahead of his event at Harvard Book Store.And, it might be “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel, but on The Culture Show, it’s “Jumping the Shark Week” where we ask: what in the zeitgeist has gone the way of the Fonz when he took that fateful jump? Culture Show co-host Edgar B. Herwick III joins us for his take.Finally, “The Winter’s Tale.” Shakespeare’s parable of human failings and forgiveness comes to life next week at the Parkman Bandstand by way of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s annual –and FREE–Shakespeare on The Common. Bryn Boice, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s Associate Artistic Director, and actor Nael Nacer join The Culture Show for a preview. -
July 5, 2024 - Fat Ham and The Shark Is Broken
Today on The Culture Show, The play “Fat Ham.” It’s a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where the court of Denmark is transported to a backyard barbecue in the South, but the most radical change is the sublimation of Shakespeare’s epic tragedy into an uproarious comedy. Playwright James Ijames won a Pulitzer for Fat Ham in 2022. We caught up with him when Fat Ham was onstage in Boston. From there, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Jaws and the turbulence on the set, from the actors feuding with one another to a mechanical shark that was more blundering than plundering. The actor Robert Shaw, who played Quint , a world-weary shark hunter, used to bring his son Ian to the set of Jaws. In an epic and oedipal twist, Ian Shaw played his dad in the “Shark is Broken,” a play that he also co-wrote. Ian Shaw joins The Culture Show to talk about the making of Jaws and the play that it inspired.
