Confronting History
July 2012 |
When Salamishah Tillet befriended fellow student and now-popular R&B artist John Legend while studying at Penn, she couldn’t have known that one day she’d be writing the liner notes for his and the successful Philadelphia hip-hop crew The Roots’ collaborative Grammy Award-winning album, Wake Up! Now an Assistant Professor of English, Tillet’s involvement in the arts goes far beyond personal enjoyment. She is on a quest to examine African-American artists’ take on the sensitive topic of America’s history of slavery.
“John and The Roots were inspired by all the positive energy surrounding the election of Obama,” says Tillet. “Instead of just writing original material, they went back to the ‘60s and ‘70s and covered songs that were really political at the time, famous ones like “Wake Up, Everybody” that were really radical. I appreciated what they were trying to do with the album and I offered up my services. I’ve always been a fan of liner notes—a dying art!”
History of Art graduate student Alex Kauffman weighs in on the controversial Barnes museum. Tracey Quinlan Dougherty
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Professor of Music Emma Dillon discusses a lost, but not forgotten, musical style. Blake Cole
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Senior Lecturer and director of the Theatre Arts Program Rosemary Malague investigates women and the claim to authenticity in the acting classroom. Charlene Kwon
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Doctoral student Beth Blum examines a new take on the self-help genre. Blake Cole
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Film expert Karen Beckman helps bring animation to the forefront of cinema studies. Blake Cole
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Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. echoes the past in his latest musical projects. Rachel Witte
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Lily Applebaum gives a backstage look at the Brodsky Gallery. Brea Stover
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Marguerite Leone helps raise awareness for centuries-old Cherokee traditions.
Blake Cole
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Paul Hendrickson explores Ernest Hemingway‘s softer side.
Opinion by Peter Decherney
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Peter Decherney, Associate Professor of English and Cinema Studies, asks whether Congressional copyright law stifles the Arts.
Blake Cole
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Music graduate student Hanna Khoury turns Philadelphia into a locus for Arab music.
Priya Ratneshwar
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Religious studies professor Jamal Elias explores the culture of truck decoration in Pakistan.
Priya Ratneshwar
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New Penn Humanities Forum programming explores the topic of adaptation.
Priya Ratneshwar
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Grad student Jason Zuzga explores how art and science come together in molecular animations.
Priya Ratneshwar
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Toni Bowers follows historical literary heroines’ battles with seduction.
Blake Cole
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Jennifer Kyker transforms her love of Zimbabwean music into international outreach.
Blake Cole
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Historian Kathy Peiss' new book traces the turbulent history of the zoot suit.
Priya Ratneshwar
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David Wallace takes us behind the scenes at the royal wedding.
Blake Cole
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Graduate student Václav Paris explores Ulysses' battle with censorship.
Priya Ratneshwar
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Senior Valeria Tsygankova studies the Bishops' Bible as a material text to examine the relationship between religion and state in Elizabethan England. Priya Ratneshwar
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Graduate student Marie Grace Brown explores how women participated in constructing Sudan's national identity during the country's independence movement. Priya Ratneshwar
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