Help Support the NBN on Patreon | Visit New Books Network en Español!

New Books Network
Performing Arts
Critical Theory May 28, 2023

The Cultural Sociology of Art and Music

New Directions and New Discoveries

Lisa McCormick

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
How can sociology help us understand art and music? In The Cultural Sociology of Art and Music: New Directions and New Discoveries (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022), the editor Lisa McCormick, a …

Performing Arts

Subscribe:

Interviews with performing artists and scholars of the performing arts about their new books.

MIT Press Podcast May 25, 2023

Black Film, British Cinema II

Clive Nwonka and Anamik Saha

Hosted by MIT Press
Clive Nwonka and Anamik Saha discuss their forthcoming book Black Film, British Cinema II (publishing in March with Goldsmiths Press), a book which brings together scholars, thinkers and practitioners to …
Popular Culture May 25, 2023

Rude Girls

Women in 2 Tone and One Step Beyond

Heather Augustyn

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In her latest book, Rude Girls: Women in 2 Tone and One Step Beyond (Sally Brown Publishing, 2023), Heather Augustyn explores the ska revival in the UK during the lates 1970s and 1980s …
Performing Arts May 24, 2023

Why Do Actors Train?

Embodiment for Theatre Makers and Thinkers

Brad Krumholz

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Why Do Actors Train?: Embodiment for Theatre Makers and Thinkers (Bloomsbury, 2023) powerfully demystifies the actor-training process by focusing on acting as embodied cognition. In this framework, thought is action …
MIT Press Podcast May 24, 2023

The Place Is Here

The Work of Black Artists in 1980s Britain

Nick Aikens and Elizabeth Robles

Hosted by MIT Press
Nick Aikens and Elizabeth Robles discuss The Place Is Here (Sternberg Press, 2019) and the range of perspectives on black art in Thatcherite Britain offered by the collection of artworks …
Shakespeare For All May 22, 2023

Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" Part 1: The Story

A Discussion with Michael Dobson

Michael Dobson

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, telling the story of one of history’s most famous events. In this tense political thriller, the Roman senator Brutus must decide …
MIT Press Podcast May 22, 2023

Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden

A Girl's Life in the Incredible String Band

Rose Simpson

Hosted by MIT Press
Damon Kruskowski, author of Ways of Hearing and The New Analog, previously member of Galaxie 500 and currently a member of Damon & Naomi interviews Rose Simpson about her book …
Islamic Studies May 19, 2023

We'll Play Till We Die

Journeys Across a Decade of Revolutionary Music in the Muslim World

Mark LeVine

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In We'll Play till We Die: Journeys across a Decade of Revolutionary Music in the Muslim World (University of California Press, 2022), Mark LeVine, Professor at University of California, Irvine, dives …
Film May 17, 2023

The Cinema of Barbara Stanwyck

Twenty-Six Short Essays on a Working Star

Catherine Russell

Hosted by Daniel Moran
From The Lady Eve, to The Big Valley, Barbara Stanwyck played parts that showcased her multidimensional talents but also illustrated the limits imposed on women in film and television …
Shakespeare For All May 15, 2023

Shakespeare's "Othello" Part 3: The Language

A Discussion with Farah Karim-Cooper

Farah Karim-Cooper

Hosted by Zachary Davis
In Part 3, Professor Farah Karim-Cooper offers close-readings of some of the play’s most significant scenes. You’ll also hear a special commentary on Othello by actor Keith Hamilton Cobb, author …
Popular Culture May 12, 2023

Gathering of the Tribe

A Companion to Occult Music on Vinyl

Mark Goodall

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In his new series, Gathering of the Tribe (Headpress, 2022) Mark Goodall explores the mysterious power of sound and tone. Each book in the series is devoted to reviewing records …
Film May 12, 2023

The Wrong Kind of Women

Inside Our Revolution to Dismantle the Gods of Hollywood

Naomi McDougall Jones

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The Wrong Kind of Women: Inside Our Revolution to Dismantle the Gods of Hollywood (Beacon, 2020) by Naomi McDougall Jones is a brutally honest look at the systemic exclusion of …
Performing Arts May 9, 2023

Actresses and Mental Illness

Histrionic Heroines

Fiona Gregory

Hosted by Carmen Gomez-Galisteo
Actresses and Mental Illness: Histrionic Heroines (Routledge, 2018) investigates the relationship between the work of the actress and her personal experience of mental illness, from the late nineteenth through to …
Shakespeare For All May 8, 2023

Shakespeare's "Othello" Part 2: Characters and Questions

A Discussion with Farah Karim-Cooper

Farah Karim-Cooper

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Part 2 delves into the characters’ psychologies and how character is created by speech — how Othello’s language reflects his changing sense of self and how Iago carries out his …
MIT Press Podcast May 7, 2023

Saturation

Race, Art, and the Circulation of Value

C. Riley Snorton and Hentyle Yapp

Hosted by MIT Press
C. Riley Snorton and Hentyle Yapp read from Saturation, a book that offers an analysis of racial representation and controversy in the art world. Controversies involving race and the art …
French Studies May 6, 2023

Senegalese Stagecraft

Decolonizing Theater-Making in Francophone Africa

Brian Valente-Quinn

Hosted by Annie de Saussure
Brian Valente-Quinn is an Associate Professor of Francophone African studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. His book, Senegalese Stagecraft: Decolonizing Theater-Making in Francophone Africa, was published at Northwestern University Press …
Film May 2, 2023

Madness at the Movies

Understanding Mental Illness through Film

James Charney

Hosted by Melek Firat Altay
The study of classic and contemporary films can provide a powerful avenue to understand the experience of mental illness. In Madness at the Movies: Understanding Mental Illness through Film (Johns …
Shakespeare For All May 1, 2023

Shakespeare's "Othello" Part 1: The Story

A Discussion with Farah Karim-Cooper

Farah Karim-Cooper

Hosted by Zachary Davis
William Shakespeare’s Othello is the only one of his tragedies to feature a black male protagonist. Othello is a black general who elopes with a white noblewoman called Desdemona — …
Music April 30, 2023

Lady Gaga

Applause

Annie Zaleski

Hosted by Bradley Morgan
As one of the world's best-selling musicians, Lady Gaga has set the musical bar high. Since her debut album, The Fame (2008), she has sold more than 124 million records …
Literary Studies April 30, 2023

The Bard in the Borderlands

An Anthology of Shakespeare Appropriations en la Frontera

Katherine Gillen, Adrianna M. Santos, and Kathryn Vomero Santos

Hosted by John Yargo
First performed in the Milagro Theater of Portland, Oregon in 2014, Olga Sanchez Saltveit’s ¡O Romeo! imagines William Shakespeare, late in his life, writing a play set in Mexico about …