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Devo at 50: ‘We're like the house band on the Titanic at this point’
Devo's 50th anniversary tour called "50 Years of De-Evolution… Continued!" is headed to Boston on May 9.
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June 21, 2024 - Week in Review: Willie Mays, Donald Sutherland, and the Tonys
Today on The Culture Show, co-hosts Callie Crossley, Edgar B. Herwick III and James Bennett II go over the latest arts and culture headlines on our week-in-review,First up, start spreading the news. Literally. France has opened its first museum of cheese, honoring dairy excellence from their famous cheeses to their traditional cheese makers. From there we reflect on the legacy of Willie Mays - the 'Say Hey Kid' who was considered baseball's best all-around player, and speaking of MVP’s, we consider Jaylen Brown’s role as the athlete activist.From there it’s Donald Sutherland, the towering actor whose off-kilter screen presence spanned decades of movies, from “M.A.S.H.” to “The Hunger Games.”Then we recap the Tony awards, from the snubs, surprises and usual suspects.And we top it all off with a cherry–that is centuries-old boozy cherries discovered at Mount Vernon.That and more is next on The Culture Show’s week-in-review. Stay with us. -
June 20, 2024 - Audra McDonald and Leslie Odom Jr.
Summertime, and the living is easy. Or, if you’re Audra McDonald, you make it look and sound easy. The award winning singer and actor earned her fifth – of a record-breaking six– Tony awards for her portrayal of Bess in the Broadway hit “The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess,” which was mounted right here at The American Repertory Theater. The Culture Show caught up with McDonald when she was in Boston for a one-night only performance.Then it’s another star of the stage Leslie Odom, Jr. His portrayal of Aaron Burr in “Hamilton,” gave us a new way to think about America’s historyAnd if history doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes. In his latest return to Broadway, Odom starred in a play that skewers racism in America. He joined The Culture Show ahead of a one-man show in Boston to talk about how music remains at his core. -
June 19, 2024 - Tracy K. Smith and Phyllis Wheatley
Through her poetry, Tracy K. Smith probes the meaning of life, she meditates on what happens to our souls when we die, she communes with the dead. She uses poetry to explore her own role in the world as a mother, making the personal profound. Her poems also scrutinize historical racial oppression, the paradox that is the American dream, and the injustices that plague our nation. All of these themes come together in her new book, “To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul.” She joins The Culture Show to talk about it. In 1761 a young girl crossed the Atlantic on a slave ship. Captured in West Africa, she arrived in Boston where she was purchased by John and Susanna Wheatley. They named her Phillis, after the name of the slave ship that brought her to America. They taught Phillis to read and write. Able to express herself on the page, she went on to become the first African American to publish a book of poetry. Wheatley traveled to England to promote the volume and on her voyage back to America she wrote the poem, “Ocean.”The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture recently acquired this rare, handwritten manuscript along with a trove of other texts that shed light on the life –and the life of the mind—of Phillis Wheatley. Joining The Culture Show to talk about what is the largest collection of Wheatley material in public hands is Kevin Young, the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. -
June 18, 2024 - Juneteenth and the Mars Symphony
Juneteenth is the annual commemoration marking the end of slavery in the United States. The name is derived from the date June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger informed a Texas audience that all enslaved persons were now free…that was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It’s an important fact to underscore because justice delayed is justice denied. In this context, Kerri Greenidge, Associate Professor in history in the Department of Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora at Tufts University, joins us to talk about how we consider Black history in 2024.From there, we get a preview of the Mars symphony premiere, created in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Museum of Science. Boston composer David Ibbett, whose score reveals the music of Mars, joins The Culture Show, along with James Monroe, creative director of programming for the Centers for Public Science Learning at the Museum of Science. -
June 17, 2024 - More Than Our Skin and Alan Cumming
In the documentary film “More Than Our Skin,” five women share their stories about what it’s like to live with vitiligo, an autoimmune disease in which the skin loses its pigment cells, resulting in discolored patches throughout the body. As the film details, while the disease can’t kill you, it can kill your spirit as people with vitiligo are more prone to depression, social stigmatization and isolation. Tonia Magras, the producer and director of the film, and Valarie Molyneaux, one of the women featured in this documentary, join The Culture Show to talk about their work.From there it’s Alan Cumming. He’s an actor, singer, and advocate who has starred on Broadway, on network television and now he’s hosting and producing the reality TV series streaming on Peacock, “The Traitors.” However, he is no traitor to his demographic. At age 59 Alan Cumming is a font of wisdom when it comes to America’s obsession with the fountain of youth—breaking down how abstract and absurd ageism is in his cabaret show, “Alan Cumming is Not Acting His Age”. He joins The Culture Show to talk about this and a tote bag epidemic, which he says is perpetuated by NPR pledge drives.
