James Weldon Johnson.

James Weldon Johnson’s Ode to the “Deep River” of American History

What an old poem says about the search for justice following the Capitol riot.
Andra Day as Billie Holiday in her dressing room.

The Trials of Billie Holiday

Two new movies emphasize the singer’s spirit of defiance and political courage.
Picture of the Ingalls family from the TV Series, "Little House on the Prairie."

Laura Ingalls Wilder in the Big Woke Woods

A recent documentary reminds us of her family’s strength and our own weakness.
Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros

What Counts, These Days, in Baseball?

As technologies of quantification and video capture grow more sophisticated, is baseball changing? Do those changes have moral implications?
Men with six-packs on a boat

When Men Started to Obsess Over Six-Packs

Greek statues, the Napoleonic wars, and the advent of photography all played a role.
Morgan Wallen
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The Crossroads Facing Country Music After Morgan Wallen’s Use of a Racist Slur

Will the industry remain a bastion of conservatism, or take advantage of the opportunity to broaden its base?
Lawd, Mah Man's Leavin' by Archibald Motley Jr.

How Should We Understand the Shocking Use of Stereotypes in the Work of Black Artists?

It's about the satirical tradition of 'going there.'
Carole King

'It Shook Me to My Core': 50 Years of Carole King's Tapestry

James Taylor, Roberta Flack, Tori Amos, Joan Armatrading, Rufus Wainwright and more on the 70s masterpiece.
A graphic featuring illustrations of Stan Lee.

The Unheroic Life of Stan Lee

In a career of many flops, he laid claim to the outsized success of Marvel Comics.
Gerd Stern.

Ping Pong of the Abyss

Gerd Stern, the Beats, and the psychiatric institution.
Cartoon of Philip Roth at a typewriter, with the typescript turning into himself looking back at him

The Possessed

Joshua Cohen imagines how Philip Roth would review his own biographer.
Jacob Lawrence.

Jacob Lawrence Went Beyond the Constraints of a Segregated Art World

Jacob Lawrence was one of twentieth-century America’s most celebrated black artists.
Two women sitting on a rocking chair in a nineteenth century photograph

Postures of Transport: Sex, God, and Rocking Chairs

What if chairs could shift our state of consciousness, transporting the imagination into distant landscapes and ecstatic experiences, both religious and erotic?
illustration of boy playing Cold War video game

First-Person Shooter Ideology

The cultural contradictions of Call of Duty.
Two people playing mahjong in black-and-white photo

White Women and the Mahjong Craze

Travelers brought the Chinese game to American shores in the early 1920s. Why was it such a hit?

The Library of Possible Futures

Since the release of "Future Shock" 50 years ago, the allure of speculative nonfiction has remained the same: We all want to know what’s coming next.
Duncanson landscape painting

Robert S. Duncanson Charted New Paths for Black Artists in 19th-Century America

Deemed “the greatest landscape painter in the West,” he achieved rare fame in his day.
A group of five wealthy women in Victorian dress.

A Pool of One’s Own

Group biographies and the female friendship vogue.
Hendrix performing at Woodstock

Rewinding Jimi Hendrix’s National Anthem

His blazing rendition at Woodstock still echoes throughout the years, reminding us of what is worth fighting for in the American experiment.
An illustration of a skeleton apparition.

A History of Presence

The aesthetics of virtual reality, and its promise of “magical” embodied experience, can be found in older experiments with immersive media.
An illustration of an accordion being played.

The "Good Old Rebel" at the Heart of the Radical Right

How a satirical song mocking uneducated Confederates came to be embraced as an anthem of white Southern pride.
A woman behind a bar.

The Rise and Fall of America's Lesbian Bars

Only 15 nightlife spaces dedicated to queer and gay women remain in the United States
Union suit on clothesline

How 19th-Century Activists Ditched Corsets for One-Piece Long Underwear

Before it was embraced by men, the union suit, or 'emancipation suit,' was worn by women pushing for dress reform.
A screencap from Looney Tunes featuring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.

Hungry Like the Rabbit

On the HBO Max streaming service, with their skipped numbers, the episodes omitted from the 31 seasons of Looney Tunes are easy to spot.
F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Why Do We Keep Reading the Great Gatsby?

Ninety-six years after the book's publication, the characters of "The Great Gatsby" continue to mesmerize readers.
Illustration of a 1920s party in a martini glass

On Imagining Gatsby Before Gatsby

How a personal connection to Nick Carraway inspired the author to write the novel "Nick."

A Brief History of Peanut Butter

The bizarre sanitarium staple that became a spreadable obsession.
The Citizen DJ logo, a stylized stick-figure person with headphones on.

Citizen DJ 2020 Retrospective

The long history of sampling in music, and a new tool that lets artists sample without fear of copyright claims.
Carolers walking and carrying sheet music
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The Forgotten Civil War History of Two of Our Favorite Christmas Carols

Over time, the historic roots of some holiday music have been forgotten.
Christmas yard decorations with an inflatable black Santa and "JOY".
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Black Santas Have a Long and Contested History in the U.S.

What’s at stake in debates about the meaning and visibility of the Black Santa.