Category: Arts & Culture

  • The Whimsical Soul of Gregory Porter

      With signature Kangol with ear flaps pulled over his head—looking more the vagabond than the genius—Gregory Porter would have cut a figure in any era; but it is his voice—as original as they come—that surely arrests everyone’s attention.  Gregory Porter is among a generation of Black male jazz singers, including Jose James and Dwight…

  • Transit of Venus: A Review

      Transit of Venus by Three Days Grace (RCA, $11.88) The Canadian rock band, Three Days Grace, is back with another album! Transit of Venus was released October 2, 2012 with Adam Gontier’s brilliant vocals welcoming us to this beautiful sound. You may be more familiar with their songs “Never Too Late,” “I Hate Everything About…

  • Local Bands Making Things Hot This Winter

      Ryan Lee Crosby by Ryan Lee Crosby Ryan Lee Crosby, former leader of Cancer to the Stars, once again reinvents himself musically with his newest release.  Recorded and mixed entirely analog, the album sounds like a lost psychedelic gem from the late 60s, with a deep sonic diversity that combines the guitar heroics of…

  • Reflections From The Road

    I cannot sleep tonight stars scream in my eyes the train horn tosses and turns in my bed invisible children stomachs as empty as their dreams whimpering in the rush of night homeless clutching cardboard resumes and coffee cups void of hope fragile voices asking my nightmares for change —Jake St. John

  • Life After Murder: A Review

      Life After Murder: Five Men in Search of Redemption by Nancy Mullane (PublicAffairs, $26.99) Will the stain of murder ever be removed from the soul of the perpetrator? There are many people in our society who are responsible for the death of another human being, and never face a judge or experience the confinement of a…

  • Argo and the Roots of U.S.-Iran Tensions

      News in November 1979 that U.S. diplomats had been taken hostage in Tehran shocked the United States. Students stormed the U.S. embassy, blindfolding 52 Americans and threatening them at gunpoint. The hostages, held captive for 444 days, immediately became the nation’s top news story and dogged President Jimmy Carter’s unsuccessful re-election campaign. Argo traces the…

  • Mariama White-Hammond: Project Hip Hop

    Project Hip Hop was started in 1993 and is run out of Roxbury, MA. It is a youth-led organization that aims to re-connect a new generation with the values of the Civil Rights Movement, and to raise people’s awareness of the ongoing struggle against institutionalized racism. Project Hip Hop’s main goal is to teach young…

  • Book Review: Martin's Dream by Clayborne Carson

    Martin’s Dream: My Journey and the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. by Clayborne Carson. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 304 pages. $27. The intellectual property of Dr. King has been subject to much controversy over the last two decades. The discovery of his apparent plagiarism in his dissertation and other academic writing shocked the public,…

  • A Mighty Stream: The Faith of Martin Luther King Jr.

    “Darling I miss you so much. In fact, much to much for my own good. I never realized that you were such an intimate part of my life”, writes a young graduate student, Martin Luther King, Jr. to his love interest, Coretta Scott. They are separated for a few months because King had gone home…

  • Outside In

    On Saturday, December 15, a group of volunteers created an unusual photography exhibit on the Palmer Street façade of 8 Brattle Street in Harvard Square. With the help of a cherry picker they pasted 35 posters, 3 by 4.5 feet each, on the brick wall, all of them portraits of homeless youth by photographer and…