Crossing that Line to Freedom: Heart on the Wall, African American Art Songs, by Louise Toppin and the Dvorak Symphony Orchestra; and the anthology Sence You Went Away

What poetry means is open to interpretation, but those lines suggest to me that memory possesses what the hand does not hold, and that there are different ways of gaining the world, a spiritual way beyond the material. That is also the realm of art, a form of beauty, craft, emotion, idea, memory, spirit, and thought.

Nature, Spirit, Love, and Protest: Wild Songs, classical soprano Polly Butler Cornelius’s performance of songs by Steve Heitzeg and Lori Laitman

On Polly Butler Cornelius’s album Wild Songs, the use by composer Lori Laitman of Emily Dickinson’s “Will there really be a morning?” becomes an expression of more than spiritual doubt, but a recognition of the possibility of real world cataclysm.  The high long notes can be beautiful but nearly blur the sense of the words.

A Musician’s Musician and a Pervert’s Pervert: Here’s Little Richard

A man who wears glass suits would not throw stones, but he sure can throw light and plenty of shade. Little Richard has been a legend for decades; and there is no one who speaks or sings like him. Little Richard had to be a force of nature: he had a lot of terrain to conquer and there was no established social infrastructure to help him; and he had only his charisma, energy, talent, and will.

An interview with Ceri Radford

The author of Constance Harding’s (Rather) Startling Year talks about her new book, about the blog that gave rise to it, about the relationship between journalism and fiction, between fact and fiction, about future plans, and more.

A Conversation with Danielle Trussoni

The author of Angelopolis talks about her new book, her favourite characters in the book, her writing schedule, her dream book club, her hobbies, her research, her relationship to Russia and Eastern Europe, her ideal reader, and lots more.   Which of…