Arts & Life

Obama Awards 2015 National Arts And Humanities Medals

4:33pm September 22, 2016

by Brian Naylor

President Obama awarded the 2015 National Arts and National Humanities Medals at the White House Thursday. Mel Brooks, Morgan Freeman, Berry Gordy and Philip Glass are among the many honorees.

Theater Artist Anne Basting Named MacArthur Fellow

4:33pm September 22, 2016

NPR's Kelly McEvers interviews Anne Basting, a theater artist and educator at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, about being awarded the MacArthur fellowship this year. She describes her work with people with cognitive impairment, such as Alzheimer's and dementia, using improv theater and storytelling techniques to improve their lives.

Mel Brooks receives the National Medal of Arts during an East Room ceremony at the White House on Thursday.

At White House, A Golden Moment For America's Great Artists And Patrons

3:43pm September 22, 2016

by Colin Dwyer

Two dozen luminaries — from Terry Gross to Mel Brooks, Morgan Freeman to Louise Glück — got laurels Thursday, as President Obama awarded the National Medals of Arts and National Humanities Medals.

Books
Arts

'Born To Run' Is A 500-Page Springsteen Show

2:53pm September 22, 2016

by Barbara J. King

Can't see The Boss in concert? Pick up his new memoir, which begins with 7-year-old Springsteen watching Elvis on TV. From $3-a-night shows to swooning stadiums, it's a wild and well-written ride.

Brazilian actor Wagner Moura plays Pablo Escobar in Netflix's Narcos. Executive producer Eric Newman says Escobar was "very likely a sociopath, and certainly a terrorist."

Arts

'Narcos' Producer On The Drug War, Colombia And Escobar's Son's Grievances

2:43pm September 22, 2016

Before making Narcos, Eric Newman spent years researching Pablo Escobar's story. He says, "For us ... it was very important to show the most balanced look at the [drug] war we possibly could."

Arts

Fresh Air Remembers 'LA Confidential' Director Curtis Hanson

2:43pm September 22, 2016

Hanson also directed The River Wild, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, 8 Mile and the TV movie Too Big to Fail. He died Tuesday in Los Angeles at the age of 71. Originally broadcast in 1997.

Books
Arts

'The Wonder' Is A Hard-To-Believe Tale Of Belief

11:21am September 22, 2016

by Michael Schaub

Emma Donoghue's latest follows a nurse in 19th century Ireland who agrees to monitor a famed fasting girl. But both the unsympathetic nurse and the credulous villagers are hard to like or understand.

A yellowish brown photograph of Sgt. Hiram White. Sgt. White is wearing a buttoned-up jacket and a kepi in the portrait. He is leaning to his right and his kepi is on the left side of his head. His name is inscribed below the photograph on the same page.

Family Heirloom, National Treasure: Rare Photos Show Black Civil War Soldiers

6:10pm September 21, 2016

by Cheryl Corley

Capt. William Prickitt commanded a company of black soldiers during the Civil War. When he took ill, they saved him. A photo album that he carried the rest of his life has preserved their identities.

Queue Listen Now

A group of seven bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns (played by Byung-hun Lee, Ethan Hawke, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Vincent D'Onofrio and Martin Sensmeier) band together to protect a village in Antoine Fuqua's remake of Th

Arts

'Magnificent Seven' Director On Staying True To The Original Film's Message

4:53pm September 21, 2016

Antoine Fuqua's remake of the 1960 Western centers on a band of men who have volunteered to save a village from a greedy mine owner. Fuqua says it's a "simple story of [being] in service of others."

"You can't have the modern American restaurant without Delmonico's," explains Yale historian Paul Freedman. The restaurant opened in 1837, setting the bar very high for fine dining. Above, a dinner in honor of an admiral held at Delmonico's in 1906.

Food For Thought: 10 Restaurants That Shaped America

4:30pm September 21, 2016

by Neda Ulaby

A Yale historian's new book explores America's changing tastes, and what they say about our culture — from class mobility to civil rights to women's changing status.