Episodes
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May 24, 2024 - Week in Review: Apple's Top 100 Albums, the NCAA settlement, and the NYC-Dublin Portal
Today on the Culture Show, Callie Crossley, James Bennett II and Edgar B Herwick III go over the latest headlines on our arts and culture week-in-review. The topics they discuss include, Scarlett Johansson’s feud with Open AI, Elvis Presley’s Graceland having a brush with foreclosure fraudsters, and Apple’s 100 best album list. They also look at a taco stand in Mexico City that has just received a Micehlin star, discussing if this is a burden or a blessing. Plus, they analyze how two antitrust headlines affect the arts and culture universe: the NCAA settlement and the Department of Justice suing Live Nation for having a monopoly on the concert industry.Finally, they deliver another edition of follow-up Friday, bringing listeners up to speed on some of the stories we’ve been covering on our weeks-in-review, which include an update on the American Museum of Natural History, the photography of the late, great Charles Daniels AKA “Master Blaster,” and the public art exhibit that connects Dublin and New York City via a live streamed portal. What can go wrong when you have a huge webcam connecting two major cities? Well, it turns out a lot of nudity and other offenses but the overseers of the portal have decided to give humanity a second chance. -
May 23, 2024 - The Boston Lyric Opera, Lorraine O'Grady, and Toni Stone
When it comes to opera performances, Boston Lyric Opera is literally putting the wheels in motion. On June first the BLO is rolling out its “Street Stage Series” and by rolling out, we mean driving a semi-trailer that converts into a stage, which will travel to different neighborhoods throughout the summer, offering opera and popular music performances. The BLO’s Brad Vernatter, the Stanford Calderwood General Director and Nina Yoshida Nelsen, the BLO’s Artistic Director join The Culture Show to preview this summer’s series.From there Jared Bowen goes to Wellesley College's Davis Museum to talk with artist Lorraine O’Grady about her first-ever museum retrospective.Finally, Lydia Diamond. Her latest play tells the story of Toni Stone, a sports phenom who is rejected by the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League because she is black. Instead she becomes the first woman to play professional baseball on a man’s team in the Negro Leagues. Lydia Diamond joins The Culture Show to talk about bringing this story to the stage. -
May 22, 2024 - Aaron Lansky, James Bennett II, and the Boston Triennial
Aaron Lansky is credited with saving a world of Yiddish literature, language and culture. It started in the late 1970’s when he was studying Yiddish literature at Mcgill University and was having a hard time finding the books he needed to pursue his scholarship. So he organized a nationwide network of volunteer book collectors and launched a campaign, now known as The Yiddish Book Center, to save the world’s surviving Yiddish books. At the time, it was estimated that there were 70,000 Yiddish books to rescue. His team saved 1.5 million. Today the Yiddish Book Center, located in Amherst on the campus of Hampshire College, is one of the largest Jewish cultural organizations in the worldAaron Lansky joins The Culture Show to discuss why he has decided to retire as the center’s president.From there Culture Show co-host James Bennett II joins us with and arts and culture roundup, which includes a photography exhibit at the Boston Athenaeum, “Framing Freedom: The Harriet Hayden Albums,” which features nearly 90 photos depicting Black lives and Black freedomFinally we get a preview of the first-ever Boston Public Art Triennial which will happen in May 2025. It will distinguish Boston as one of the few cities in the U.S. to do this and it could forever change Boston’s relationship to public art.I’m joined by two of the people behind this effort: Kate Gilbert, Executive Director of Boston Public Art Triennial, and culture show contributor Pedro Alonzo. He’s an independent curator who is the Artistic Director of the triennial. -
May 21, 2024 - Imari Paris Jeffries, theo tyson, and a Boston Calling preview
Imari Paris Jeffries, president and CEO of Embrace Boston, joins The Culture Show every month.With Memorial Day approaching, we’re going to get his take on the role black military members have played in U.S. history, from emancipation to protecting our democracy, and how recent developments in local government are supporting Embrace Boston’s call for reparations. From there, we’re fashion forward, backward and everything in between. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is making a fashion statement with its new exhibit “Dress Up.” With more than 150 objects on view, it is a survey of the history and histrionics of fashion, from fast fashion, to fashion as fantasy, to fashion as identity. theo tyson, curator of Fashion Arts at the MFA, joins us to talk about the exhibit.Finally, GBH’s Haley Lerner and Molly McCaul–our resident live music experts– give us a preview of “Boston Calling,” one of the region’s largest music festivals. -
May 20, 2024 - Ethan Hawke, Young Black Woman | Old White Man, and parenting
Writer Flannery O’Connory was a devout Catholic. She grew up in Georgia and eventually lived on a farm among peacocks. She negotiated life under the threat of looming death because she had lupus. But her imagination took her elsewhere. Mostly to peculiar places, often violent ones, where prophets, sinners and outsiders sought truth and redemption.Now her biography, her characters and her life of the mind converge in the new film “Wildcat.” It’s directed by Ethan Hawke, he also co-wrote it with Shelby Gaines and it stars his daughter, Maya Hawke as Flannery O’Connor.Ethan Hawke joined The Culture Show ahead of his event at Coolidge Corner Theatre for a screening, followed by a Q and A on May 23rd and May 24th.From there we meet the artists behind an upcoming exhibit at the South Shore Art Center titled “Young Black Woman|Old White Man.” It shows two very different perspectives and experiences of events that have rattled the world: From the murder of George Floyd to the January 6th insurrection.It features the work of Devyn Casey, an artist and art teacher based in Norfolk, Virginia and South Shore artist James Burke. Opening night is May 30th, the exhibit is on through June 30th. Finally, writer Lucas Mann joins us to talk about his latest book, Attachments: Essays on Fatherhood and Other Performances.” Lucas Mann teaches English at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and lives in Providence, Rhode Island where he and his wife co-own Riffraff Bookstore and Bar. -
May 17, 2024 - Week in Review: King Charles' portrait, Black Twitter, and the Dublin-NYC portal
Coming up on the Culture Show, live from our GBH studio at the Boston Public Library, it’s our arts and culture week-in-review.First up, The Red Scare. The new portrait of King Charles III is saturated in reds and sparking controversy. Is it a monarchy masterpiece? Or a monstrosity? Then we remember culinary legend Jasper White who elevated New England’s food scene by taking us out of the era of plain old corn pudding and fish chowder with a series of successful seafood restaurants, including Summer Shack. Plus, a live stream installation connecting Dublin to New York City has been shut down because people are using the exhibition to be exhibitionists baring bosoms, butts, and beyond. -
May 16, 2024 - Martyna Majok, the Nakba in photographs, and film
F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said “There are no second acts in American lives.” but there are certainly second acts when it comes to Fitzgerald’s own classic “The Great Gatsby.” Fitting for a story about reinvention, The Great Gatsby has been adapted to the screen and stage countless times. Now the American Repertory Theater is bringing it to life in a world premiere musical “Gatsby: an American Myth.” The score is by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett and the book is by Martyna Majok, whose Pulitzer prize-winning play “Cost of Living” recently had a critically acclaimed run in Boston. Martyna Majok joins The Culture Show to talk about diving into the glittery Gatsby galaxy. From there GBH’s James Bennett II joins us for an arts and culture roundup, from a photo exhibit sparking controversy in Newton for featuring Palestinian refugees to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum giving an 18th century viola d’amore a stress test.Finally, Culture Show contributor Lisa Simmons joins us to talk about a range of topics, from a roundup of upcoming film festivals to her take on normalizing 90 minute movies. Lisa Simmons is the artistic and executive director of the Roxbury International Film Festival and program manager at Mass Cultural Council. -
May 15, 2024 - Miranda July, Ekua Holmes, and the Elliot Norton Awards
Miranda July, a triple threat in the art world as an innovative visual artist, filmmaker, and writer has just released a new novel titled “All Fours.” It’s a coming-of-middle-age story about a married woman who is either experiencing a turning point or is turning her world upside down when she derails a solo road trip by abruptly checking into and staying at a highway motel. She joins The Culture Show to talk about it and her creative process.From there we look at another innovative artist, the illustrator and activist Ekua Holmes who has redefined children’s books with her bold colors and sophisticated collage work. She’ll joins us to preview this Saturday’s Roxbury Book Fair and to discuss her latest book, a biography of Coretta Scott King.Finally Culture Show contributor Joyce Kulhawik joins us. She’s president of the Boston Theatre Critics Association, which sponsors the Elliot Norton Awards. She’ll talk through this year’s nominees and preview next Monday’s awards ceremony. -
May 14, 2024 - "Touching the Void", Colm Tóibín, and The Plastic Bag Store
Climbing a mountain is a metaphor frequently used to describe something that seems insurmountable. For the Chelsea-based Apollinaire Theatre Company, they are both figuratively and literally climbing a mountain in their latest production “Touching the Void.” The play involves a climbable mountain, a Scottish pub, a base camp, and the ever-present void. Two of the actors starring in this production, Parker Jennings and Patrick O’Konis, join us to talk about taking theater to new heights. Then author Colm Tóibín joins us. He doesn’t care for sequels. He thinks of them as kind of a literary copout. But 15 years after he published his critically acclaimed novel “Brooklyn,” he has written a follow up: the novel “Long Island.” He joins us to talk about the hold that his protagonist, Eilis Lacey has had on him. Finally, do you want plastic or plastic? You have only one option at “The Plastic Bag Store,” an immersive art experience now open at MASS MoCA, presented in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival. We talk to the creative force behind this, artist Robin Frohardt who has found multiple uses for single use plastics. -
May 13, 2024 - Kerri Greenidge, the BSO, and LexSeeHer
The landmark Supreme Court case that struck down racial segregation in public schools helped to dismantle the legal apparatus of white supremacy. It also prompted a civil rights movement. With This Friday marking the 70th anniversary of this ruling, Kerri Greenidge, associate professor in history and in the department of race, colonialism, and diaspora at Tufts University, joins us to talk about its legacy and limitations. From there we look at racial imbalance in another realm, classical music. U.S. orchestras have come under scrutiny in recent years for being predominantly white –now they’re working to change that. CRB’s Brian McCreath takes us to Symphony Hall with a look at how the Boston Symphony Orchestra is encouraging a new generation of diverse musicians.Finally, sisters are doing it for themselves. As America prepares to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution, Lexington, Massachusetts is telling a story about the women who were a part of this history but were forgotten or erased and never celebrated. Hence, the monument “Something is Being Done.” Years in the making it will be unveiled this Wednesday at 10:30 . It depicts women with Lexington roots, from the 18th century to the present.Jared Bowen talks to Meredith Bergmann, the acclaimed Massachusetts sculptor who created this monument and Jessie Steigerwald, president of LexSeeHer, Inc.
