“If they were a strange sight to me, I was no less of a one to them. It was the first time that many of them had seen an ‘intellectual.’ I was being gradually drawn, you see, into the political struggle with the peasantry! I wish you could have seen them – the true Third Estate, the very material that makes revolution. It’s one thing to think revolution, or talk about it to … [Read more...] about Aaron Copland: “One Red to Another”
“An Act of Empathy” — a Dvorak Radio Documentary
When PostClassical Ensemble produced an hour-long film about Dvorak and “the American experience of race” last September, we hardly envisioned turning it into a 45-minute public radio special for the holidays. But that’s what happened, thanks to an invitation from Rupert Allman, who produces the nationally distributed radio magazine “1A.” You can hear, it and read about … [Read more...] about “An Act of Empathy” — a Dvorak Radio Documentary
The Erasure of the Arts
This week’s The American Purpose carries another of my essays on the erasure of the arts from the American experience – how it happened and what to do about it. It’s a sequel to my piece in the current American Scholar on the impact of the pandemic on culture. My new piece takes the form of a response to The Upswing, the important new book co-authored by the sociologist … [Read more...] about The Erasure of the Arts
FDR, Radio, and What’s Wrong Today
“I can recall walking eastward on the Chicago Midway on a summer evening. . . . Under [the elms] drivers had pulled over, parking bumper to bumper, and turned on their radios to hear Roosevelt. They had rolled down the windows and opened the car doors. Everywhere the same voice, in old Eastern accent, which in anyone else would have irritated Midwesterners. You could follow … [Read more...] about FDR, Radio, and What’s Wrong Today
The Pandemic and the Arts: A “Climate of Fear” and “Radical Upheaval”
The current American Scholar includes my 8,000-word essay on the impact of the pandemic on the arts in the US. It seems to me a terribly important topic -- please find time to read the whole thing. Here’s a readers’ guide: I begin by contrasting the European rush to “rescue our cultural institutions” to an eerie American silence. I write: “Why is no one in Congress or … [Read more...] about The Pandemic and the Arts: A “Climate of Fear” and “Radical Upheaval”