All Culture
Baseball was honoring great Black players. Then it lost the greatest of them all.This week, baseball is celebrating the Negro Leagues legacy in Birmingham, Alabama. The death of hometown hero Willie Mays has underlined his own incomparable legacy and how his life intertwined with Birmingham, baseball, and Black America.
Colombian guerrillas often lure away children. Rugby offers youths an alternative.The Rugby 4 Chocó program has given children in Colombia a safe – and fulfilling – alternative to the violence roiling the region.
First LookWynton Marsalis and Bryan Stevenson fuse jazz, protest, and justice on Juneteenth albumCivil rights lawyer and jazz pianist Bryan Stevenson and Pulitzer-winning jazz artist Wynton Marsalis collaborated on a new live performance album of historic jazz records to honor Juneteenth and Black history.
Why I revel in the joyful sound of JuneteenthJuneteenth is an opportunity to educate Americans about Black history. But our columnist hopes that joy and community remain central to the holiday.
They came to the US against their will. Their descendants returned to Africa for them.The last enslaved people to arrive in the U.S. from Africa tried to get home after they were emancipated. More than 150 years later, their descendants make the journey for them – and consider the legacy they left.
‘Inside Out 2’ offers all the feels – and a great time at the movies“Inside Out 2,” the first box-office smash of 2024, offers a welcome return to form for Pixar.
First LookWoman-led productions and surprise guests make for a historic 77th Tony AwardsThe 77th Tony Awards recognized the best theater productions of the year and spotlighted female directors and scorewriters. “The Outsiders" won best new musical, Maleah Joi Moon won best leading actress, and Jeremy Strong took home best lead actor in a play.
The Sundarbans mangroves hold a treasure-trove of natureWe loved every second of our day trip to the world's largest mangrove forest, which straddles Bangladesh and India.
A visit to ‘Giants’ offers reflections on Black art – and livesOur cultural commentator tours a power couple’s art collection at the Brooklyn Museum to see what effect the exhibit, “Giants,” has on the understanding of Black art and everyday life.
A Civil War hero got a new statue. Her name is Harriet Tubman.Civil War statues have been in the news in recent years. But a new one in Beaufort, South Carolina, honors a different kind of military leader – and the story only starts there.
She needed a notary. How a Holocaust survivor became a friend.A routine notary task blossomed into a beautiful friendship with my neighbor Ann, a Holocaust survivor.
These English PhDs helped train Google’s AI bot. Here’s what they think about it now.Half a dozen English Ph.D.s who worked on Google Gemini share their experiences training AI with the Monitor.
This Namibian park has skyscraper-high dunes and a spectacular view of dawnA trusty guide in love with the smallest of beings draws attention away from the impossibly high mounds of sand in the Namib-Naukluft National Park.
In Big Sur, smaller wonders take the spotlightBig Sur’s nooks and crannies, the intricate details I would have missed had I gone looking for the “bigger” shots, spoke to me.
Ann Powers was writing Joni Mitchell’s life story. She found her own.With her new biography about Joni Mitchell, NPR music critic Ann Powers says she wanted to challenge the idea that there’s only one definitive story of a life.
Old-timey organ-grinders try to keep pace with modern Mexico CityThe music of organ-grinders is a “classic sound” of Mexico City. Despite these deep roots, today the tradition is at risk.
The grass wasn’t greener – turning my lawn into a garden ate my time and freed my mindSo what if my turf-free lawn is labor-intensive? The zen I find puttering in my garden is priceless.
Bangladesh’s cycle rickshaws bloom with bespoke designs. But for how much longer?On the streets of Bangladesh, designs once painted by hand to adorn the backs and sides of cycle rickshaws are increasingly printed by machine.
On D-Day’s 80th anniversary, volunteers knit for victory with ‘The Longest Yarn’The 3D tapestry – 80 panels stretching 80 meters – depicts scenes from D-Day and was completed by over 1,000 volunteers from the U.K., the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand.
This Boston artist creates murals that have a message: ‘We’re still here’With buildings as her canvas, Boston muralist Rixy explores the intersection of art and identity.
