Culture & Innovation Writer
Rafael explores the intersection of creativity, technology, and culture — from art reviving communities to sports uniting nations.
Jack Goldfisher (left) and Henry Johnson.Photo courtesy of Jack Goldfisher Arts & Culture ‘Pop Culture Jeopardy!’ champs knew they had film covered. TV? Not so much. Jacob Sweet Harvard Staff Writer August 18, 2026 7 min read How former Harvard classmates binge-watched and buzzed their way to victor...
On August 11, 2014, the world lost one of its funniest people and brightest lights to suicide. On that day, Robin Williams’ social media pages went dark and remained that way for more than 12 years. On August 17, 2026, Robin’s adult children, Zak, Zelda, and Cody Williams, reopened their father’s In...
Editor’s note: This story is the latest edition of Link Rot, a new column by Shanti Escalante-De Mattei that explores the intersections of art, technology, and the internet. At the Palazzo Diedo, you can find a typically Venetian pleasure: seeing the sleek edge of contemporary art set against the ba...
MUSIC MONDAY: “The Ultimate Old School Cookout Playlist” (LISTEN) By goodblacknews on July 6, 2026 by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Threads: @stlmarlonwest IG: stlmarlonwest Bluesky: @marlonweststl.bsky.social Spotify: marlonwest) Happy Music Monday, you all. It’s your friend selector...
John Turturro (from left), Diane Paulus, Tatiana Maslany, and Paul Giamatti. Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer Arts & Culture Holding onto your humanity, against the herd Samantha Laine Perfas Harvard Staff Writer August 17, 2026 5 min read A.R.T. kicks off season with ‘Rhinoceros,’ starring P...
The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) has named two senior leadership appointments: Bryan Joseph Lee as deputy commissioner and Ryan Max as chief of staff. Their appointments, according to a release, “will help guide the agency as it rolls out ambitious new programs to deliver on t...
“The legendary actress visits Christie’s galleries at Rockefeller Center and finds herself captivated by the gilded sculpture.” Thus trumpets the tagline for Nicole Kidman’s assignation with Constantin Brancusi’s bronze and gold leaf Danaïde (1913), circulated online this past spring in advance of t...
Although Stuart Little (1999) was generally well-received by critics upon its release, it was far from the biggest or best-remembered movie of the year. Adapted from E. B. White’s 1945 book of the same name—with M. Night Shyamalan co-writing the screenplay and Michael J. Fox voicing the titular anth...
Australia close Day Three of the first Test against Bangladesh on 161-4, trailing the record-chasing tourists by 67.Spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz took the key wicket of Steve Smith to reduce Australia to 161-4 after the third day of the first Test in Darwin and move Bangladesh closer to a historic win....
Nine Moldovans are being investigated in connection with the theft.Italian police have recovered three paintings worth more than $10 million that were stolen several months ago.The chief of police in Parma, Andrea Pagliaro, told the AFP news agency on Friday that nine Moldovans were being investigat...
When French President Emmanuel Macron visited Damascus in early July, he pledged to support the country’s rebuilding efforts in the wake of former President Basher al-Assad’s overthrow 18 months prior. While the main focus of the visit was economic—Macron discussed reviving Syria’s banking sector an...
When I learned of an opportunity to interview Michael E. Smith—an artist I’ve long admired—my brain boomeranged: I was excited to hear from an elusive artist who seldom speaks, but also stumped as to what exactly I might ask the man. I intuited that direct questions—of the what does this mean, why d...
Written by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables is the heartwarming coming-of-age tale of a young orphan girl, the eponymous Anne Shirley, and the life she builds for herself with her new adoptive parents, the elderly siblings Marilla and Matthew Shirley, in the fictional town ...
Tanzid Hasan hits first Bangladesh ton in Australia as tourists close Day Two of first Test on 351-6, leading by 153.Tanzid Hasan became the first Bangladeshi to score a Test century in Australia as the visitors dominated to reach 351-6 at stumps on the second day of the first Test in Darwin.Inspire...
Tulsa, Oklahoma-based digital artist Lily Belmira has made a new, free video game allowing anyone to virtually visit Michael Heizer’s mysterious and radically difficult-to-enter land artwork in the Nevada desert, titled City. Only six people a day who are willing to pay the regular admission fee of ...
George Harrison first laid his hands on a sitar on the set of the film Help! That moment kicked off a lifelong love affair with Indian music for Harrison, who helped bring the instrument and its intricate, angular sound to the mainstream in the West after featuring it on the Beatles song “Norwegian ...
Parallel worlds are nothing unusual in pop culture. Most films and publications stem from the horror genre; portals into other worlds and dimensions usually portend nothing good for those who open them. One thinks of the "Upside Down" or shadow world in Stranger Things. Clive Barker’s Hellraiser als...
Mitchell Charbonneau’s studio is one of many among a warren of fabrication shops and ateliers at Permanent Maintenance, an artist-run space in the New York neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens. Upon entering, I moved to place my coat on a worn, half-open folding chair. Looking more closely, I reconside...
The United Arab Emirates landscape is expanding once again, with Sharjah set for the region’s first contemporary crafts museum. The Irthi Museum will open in Sharjah’s Creative Quarter sometime in 2029 and house a permanent collection of contemporary crafts from across the Gulf, the Irthi Contempora...
The third edition of the Atlanta Art Fair (October 1–4) will feature upwards of 67 galleries, convening at Pullman Yards, a 27-acre former rail works in the Kirkwood district. The fair is organized by AMP (Art Market Productions), which also organizes the Seattle Art Fair, Art on Paper, and San Fran...