Playwright Ian Shaw recently spoke to GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen about the inspiration and process behind the creation of “The Shark Is Broken,” as well as what it’s like to play his father onstage.

In a quarter century at its helm, she transformed it from a small museum with 10,000 annual visitors to around 310,000 today.

Romance books featuring spooky characters are on the rise and filling the shelves of bookstores year round, not just during Halloween season.

SÅINT VÅUGHN is a musical artist specializing in creative development, artistic exploration and professional expression of the mind and soul. She is a former Berklee student and independent artist based in New England. She specializes in the following crafts: Double Bass (Classical/Jazz), Electric (fretless) Bass, Singer (Classical, Jazz, Soul, Blues, Reggae, SOCA), Guitarist, Model, and photo editor.

Join us for an evening of music, wine, and food. Registration is encouraged for this free event.

Photo credit: Derek C. French

American Experience presents a virtual PAST FORWARD conversation exploring how music is commodified and what is lost in the process. This conversation is inspired by our new film The War on Disco, premiering MON, OCT 30 @ 9/8c on PBS, and then available to stream on our website and on the PBS app.

Panelists will discuss what is meant by "mainstream" culture, how an art form can move from its original context to a space of "broader" appeal, and the changes that the art form undergoes in this process. They will also explore the emotional and expressive importance of music to different cultures and individuals, and the sense of identity listeners invest in various styles and genres of music. The panel will examine whether music and art forms like it ultimately lose their authenticity and resonance when they enter into the mainstream.

Panelists:

Jefferson Cowie is the James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. Cowie's work in social and political history focuses on how class, race, and labor shape American politics and culture. His latest book, Freedom's Dominion, won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2023. In addition to his scholarship, Cowie’s essays and opinion pieces have also appeared in the New York Times, TIME magazine, NPR Music, Foreign Affairs, Chronicle of Higher Ed, American Prospect, Politico, Democracy, The New Republic, Inside Higher Ed, Dissent, and other popular outlets. The recipient of several fellowships, he has also appeared in a variety of media outlets including CNN’s The Seventies, C‐Span’s Booknotes, NPR’s Weekend Edition, as well as documentaries, podcasts, and radio broadcasts.

Ayana Contreras is a cultural historian, memory worker, radio DJ and archivist. An avid collector with over 8000 vintage vinyl records, she hosts the Reclaimed Soul program on WBEZ and Vocalo Radio in Chicago. She is also a columnist for DownBeat magazine, and her writings have been published in The New York Times, Chicago Review, Oxford American and Bandcamp Daily among other publications. Her book on Post-Civil Rights Era cultural history, titled Energy Never Dies: Afro-Optimism and Creativity in Chicago, was published December 2021 through University of Illinois Press.

The conversation will be moderated by Timothy D. Taylor. Taylor is a professor in the Departments of Ethnomusicology, Anthropology, and Musicology at UCLA. He is the author of several articles and chapters, and many books, most recently, Working Musicians: Labor and Creativity in Film and Television Production (Duke University Press, 2023), an ethnographic study of film and television musicians in Los Angeles.

The event will be streamed live on our YouTube and Facebook pages.

We are here every Thursday bringing you local musicians to make noise at the library! The Nick Grondin Group has been actively performing in the Boston jazz community since 2008, as well as performances in New York City, France, and Italy. Their album, A View of Earth was featured in Down Beat Magazine and the Italian, Guitar Club Magazine. They believe in bringing together diverse musicians to play creative music that is accessible to new jazz listeners, with the goal of creating new audiences for jazz of the Twenty- First Century. Informed by the jazz tradition, they mix in the sounds of blues, folk, rock and funk, with familiar songs and sounds from popular music to create innovative arrangements in a jazz setting. They blend the sounds of guitar, vocals, saxophones, keyboards, bass and drums into a melodic tapestry, which also features the players unique improvisational voices. Nick Grondin has been an active educator in the Boston area since 2008, first at ZUMIX in East Boston, and later at Harvard, Berklee and the New England Conservatory, where he also completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Jazz Performance in May 2023. Join us for an evening of music, wine, and food. Registration is encouraged for this free event.

SOLD OUT


This special chocolate tasting experience includes a drinking chocolate kit and a one-hour pre-recorded virtual tasting class that you can enjoy at your leisure. Gather a loved one, get cozy and learn more from a local chocolatier.

The companion video recording features Bonnie Bennett, co-owner of Kakawa Chocolate House in Salem, MA demonstrating how to set up your tasting station. She will also present a brief history of chocolate. In the video class Bonnie will elaborate on the migration of chocolate from the European continent to North America, focusing on the history of the late 1700s to the present day. She will explore the influences of the first chocolate factory in the United States, located in Massachusetts, and the spice trade influences of the region as well.

The chocolate kit will be mailed to you directly and will include two liquid drinking chocolates and some of Kakawa’s signature eating chocolates that are representative of the last three centuries of chocolate history.

IMPORTANT NOTES: 

We can not deliver these kits to PO Boxes. Only physical street addresses are allowed.

Supplies are limited. Last year this event sold out quickly. Purchase your chocolate tasting kit and companion video in time for the holiday season.

You must purchase your kit by Tuesday, November 28, 2023 at 5pm ET. We will ship the chocolate kit to your preferred shipping address in early December. The companion video with instructions to this chocolate class will be sent to the contact email address provided when you registered.

By RSVPing for this event, you agree to receive timely news and updates on events, films, and special offers from GBH.

Photo credit: Can Stock Photo

The New Repertory Theatre said it could no longer sustain itself, citing pandemic challenges and declining donations.

Rick Riordan, famous for writing the "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series, spoke with GBH News ahead of his keynote address at the Boston Book Festival.

Hear from the author of a revelatory memoir about a 330-mile walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City—an unforgettable pilgrimage to the heart of America across some of our oldest common ground.

Neil King Jr.’s desire to walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City began as a whim and soon became an obsession. By the spring of 2021, events had intervened that gave his desire greater urgency. His neighborhood still reeled from the January 6th insurrection. Covid lockdowns and a rancorous election had deepened America’s divides. Neil himself bore the imprints of a long battle with cancer.

Determined to rediscover what matters in life and to see our national story with new eyes, Neil turned north with a small satchel on his back and one mission in mind: To pay close attention to the land he crossed and the people he met.

What followed is an extraordinary 26-day journey through historic battlefields and cemeteries, over the Mason-Dixon line, past Quaker and Amish farms, along Valley Forge stream beds, atop a New Jersey trash mound, across New York Harbor, and finally, to his ultimate destination: the Ramble, where a tangle of pathways converges in Central Park. The journey travels deep into America’s past and present, uncovering forgotten pockets and overlooked people. At a time of mounting disunity, the trip reveals the profound power of our shared ground.

This program is part of the American Inspiration Series from American Ancestors/NEHGS and presented in partnership with with the Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library and the GBH Forum Network.