Arts & Culture
Coverage of the Arts by Weekend America.
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New Langston Hughes Poems Discovered
It's Langston Hughes's birthday this weekend, and people across the country are celebrating one of America's most beloved poets with poetry performances and other events. Poetry magazine has given Langston Hughes fans even more reason to celebrate. This month's issue features three previously unpublished Langston Hughes poems, written in 1930.
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Conversations with America: Concluding the Conversation
Since last September, Weekend America has been asking writers and thinkers for their take on what matters to them and what should matter to all of us during this time of political change. Now that we have a new president, we thought we'd get some of the contributors back together to continue the conversation - with each other.
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Weekend Soundtrack: "Shattered" by the Rolling Stones
We've been asking listeners about the songs that bridge the gap from Friday to Monday. Our latest story comes from Susan Akers. Her song this weekend is "Shattered" by the Rolling Stones.
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Saving the Story
MIT is teaming up with a new movie studio in Massachusetts to create the storytelling technology of the future. We asked Reporter Sean Cole to look into the story, but instead of doing a radio report about it, he wrote a sci-fi movie-type drama, and cast himself as the reporter. So grab some Jujubes. Sit back. And enjoy the show.
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Good News, Bad News, No News
Our panel of non-experts weigh in on this week's news events in a parlor game to gauge what kind of week America had. Joining us on this week's panel are Nancy French, author of "A Red State of Mind," comedian Dana Gould and Reihan Salam, associate editor at The Atlantic.
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Eat Cake
With winter temperatures low and the sky gray for weeks at a time, it can be tempting to hole up inside and not go anywhere on weekends. For lots of people who live by themselves, that means hanging out at home alone. We wondered what would happen when two people who were used to being alone in winter accidentally cross paths.
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The Art of Field Recording
Most people think of folk music as a thing of the past. It seemed to disappear in the '60s when rock and roll and the Beatles swept the music scene. But if you search hard enough, folk music and the musicians who play it are still around. Art Rosenbaum has made it his life's work to find and record it. He's become the Indiana Jones of folk music. Independent Producer Philip Graitcer traveled with Rosenbaum to visit a few traditional musicians.
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Letters: Ocean Pollution and Goodbyes
We open the Weekend America mailbag to hear your responses to recent stories. Weekend America's last episode is January 31, and listeners have been writing us to say goodbye. We also revisit our story on ocean pollution from earlier this month, which prompted questions from listeners about the pharmaceutical pollution entering U.S. waterways.
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Bringing Banh Mi to the Masses
This week is the Lunar New Year, a celebration that's all about good food, and one item sure to pop up at street events is the "banh mi," a Vietnamese sandwich with hybrid origins. Banh mis have been slowly conquering the suburbs of California along business arteries where you'd expect to find a McDonald's or Wendy's. Reporter Corey Takahashi went deep into California to discover the future of banh mi.
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This Weekend in 1968: Miss America
In Las Vegas this weekend it's the 88th annual Miss America pageant. At the 1968 competition, outside Atlantic City's Convention Hall, a group of women gathered on the boardwalk. They held signs that read "Women's Liberation." Their demonstration was a window into the emergence of a movement that would gain considerable strength in the decade to come.
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Sleepover!
Two intrepid reporters, Hillary Frank and Jonathan Menjivar, brave the world of PJs, giggles and video games to see what really goes down at weekend slumber parties. Frank and Menjivar went to two sleepovers, a girl's slumber party and a boy's one, respectively, to get the goods on what really goes on once the lights go out.
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Hugging Saint
If it's cold where you are this weekend, you can hug for warmth. Chances are, if you hug, it will be with someone you know. Such is not the case with a woman named Amma. In the last few days, Amma has hugged about 10,000 people. And next week she'll hug several thousand more. A couple years ago, she hugged Weekend America's Krissy Clark in San Francisco.
