Arts

Afghan artists in California's Bay Area step up to help artists still in Afghanistan

4:41pm December 08, 2021

by Chloe Veltman

One of the biggest Afghan expat communities in the U.S. is in California's Bay Area. With the Taliban's return threatening artists in their homeland, Afghans in America are embracing activism.

Revered cultural critic Greg Tate has died at age 64

4:41pm December 08, 2021

The revered critic Greg Tate, an early and influential hip hop writer, has died. Tate grew up around intellectuals and developed a rabid curiosity about music, film, literature, theory and politics.

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Halle Berry plays MMA fighter Jackie Justice in Bruised.

Arts

Halle Berry entered the ring ready — she's been a fighter all her life

2:55pm December 08, 2021

by Tonya Mosley

Berry stars as a disgraced MMA fighter in Bruised — a film she also directed. It's a role that she identifies with fundamentally: "I've also been a fighter my whole life, my whole career."

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Arts

'Being the Ricardos' dramatizes Lucy and Desi's very complicated relationship

2:55pm December 08, 2021

by David Bianculli

Aaron Sorkin's latest film zeroes in on one very stressful week in the lives of Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem), when Lucy was accused of being a Communist.

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John Lithgow and Kevin Hart appear as Mr. Drummond and Arnold in ABC's 'Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes.'

Arts

Kevin Hart and cast surprises rescue 'Facts of Life' and 'Diff'rent Strokes' revival

1:19pm December 08, 2021

by Eric Deggans

The best parts of Tuesday's live special on ABC came when actors added something new to the decades-old scripts.

Actor Rose McGowan, who accused Weinstein of raping her more two two decades ago and then of destroying her career, joins other accusers and protesters as Harvey Weinstein arrives at a Manhattan court house for the start of his January 2020 trial in New Y

A federal judge dismisses Rose McGowan's lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein

11:21am December 08, 2021

by Joe Hernandez

The actor said that as she was preparing to publish a memoir with details of an alleged assault by Weinstein, he hired lawyers and investigators to obtain a copy of the book and discredit her.

Mel Brooks (shown here in 1984) calls comedy his "delicious refuge" from the world: "I hide in humor and comedy. I love it."

Books
Arts

Mel Brooks says his only regret as a comedian is the jokes he didn't tell

9:02pm December 07, 2021

by Terry Gross

Brooks wrote countless edgy jokes over the years, but he doesn't regret any of them. He calls comedy his "delicious refuge" from the world. "I hide in humor," he says. His new memoir is All About Me!

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Greg Tate, a powerful chronicler and critic of Black life and culture, has died at 64

5:18pm December 07, 2021

by Andrew Limbong

Tate was a longtime staff writer at The Village Voice, where he documented Black art and culture. He eventually became a leading figure in cultural criticism.

Three of the student authors of Who Is Florence Price? (left to right: Sebastián Núñez, Hazel Peebles and Sophia Shao), joined by their English teacher, Shannon Potts.

These NYC kids have written the history of an overlooked Black female composer

4:18pm December 07, 2021

by Anastasia Tsioulcas

A group of sixth, seventh and eighth grade students realized there was no children's book about the composer Florence Price. So they wrote, illustrated and published their own.

Avoiding trial, a former hedge fund manager turns over $70 million in stolen antiques

3:44pm December 07, 2021

by Joe Hernandez

Michael Steinhardt has denied he committed any crimes in acquiring the antiques and said many of the dealers who sold him items claimed that they were the objects' lawful owners.