New Books Network
Performing Arts
Performing Arts November 30, 2020

Lot Six

A Memoir

David Adjmi

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Lot Six (Harper 2020) is a moving and hilarious memoir from playwright David Adjmi. The book traces Adjmi’s search for his identity, during which he becomes an observant yeshiva student …

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Performing Arts November 24, 2020

Martha Graham's Cold War

The Dance of American Diplomacy

Victoria Phillips

Hosted by Renee Garris
Dr. Victoria Phillips adeptly tells the story of Martha Graham's role as diplomat, arts innovator, and dancer. Her book Martha Graham's Cold War: The Dance of American Diplomacy (Oxford UP …
Sociology November 20, 2020

Can Music Make You Sick?: Measuring the Price of Musical Ambition

Sally Anne Gross and George Musgrave

Hosted by Michael Johnston
It is often assumed that creative people are prone to psychological instability, and that this explains apparent associations between cultural production and mental health problems. In their detailed study of …
Performing Arts November 16, 2020

One Dyke’s Theater

Selected Plays 1975-2014

Terry Baum

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Terry Baum’s book One Dyke’s Theater: Selected Plays 1975-2014 (Exit Press, 2019) collects plays and solo scripts from throughout the career of a “slightly world-renowned lesbian playwright.” The plays range …
Italian Studies November 16, 2020

Italian Neorealism

A Cultural History

Charles L. Leavitt IV

Hosted by Ellen Nerenberg
In Italian Neorealism: A Cultural History (University of Toronto Press, 2020), Charles Leavitt steps back from the micro-histories focusing more narrowly on, for example, Italian cinema so as to weave …
Latino Studies November 13, 2020

Latinx Art

Artists, Markets, and Politics

Arlene Davila

Hosted by David-James Gonzales
In Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, and Politics (Duke UP, 2020), Arlene Dávila draws on numerous interviews with artists, dealers, and curators to explore the problem of visualizing Latinx art and …
SSEAC Stories November 12, 2020

Southeast Asian Performance, Ethnic Identity and China’s Soft Power

A Discussion with Dr Josh Stenberg

Josh Stenberg

Hosted by Natali Pearson
From glove puppets of Chinese origin and Hakka religious processions, to wartime political theatre and contemporary choirs and dance groups, the diverse performance practices of ethnic Chinese communities throughout Southeast …
Popular Culture November 11, 2020

We're Not Here to Entertain

Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America

Kevin Mattson

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In his new book, We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America (Oxford UP, 2020), Kevin Mattson documents punk rock in …
Literary Studies November 10, 2020

The Black Radical Tragic

Performance, Aesthetics, and the Unfinished Haitian Revolution

Jeremy Matthew Glick

Hosted by Lee Pierce
What if the Haitian Revolution, perhaps the only “successful” Black revolution in history, weren’t over? On this episode of the New Books Network, Dr. Lee Pierce (s/t) interviews Dr. Jeremy …
Literary Studies November 9, 2020

That Middle World

Race, Performance, and the Politics of Passing

Julia S. Charles

Hosted by James West
In this chronologically and thematically ambitious study of racial passing literature, Julia Charles highlights how mixed-race subjects invent cultural spaces for themselves—a place she terms that middle world. Charles, an …
Literary Studies November 6, 2020

There Must Be Happy Endings

On a Theater of Optimism and Honesty

Megan Sandberg-Zakian

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Megan Sandberg-Zakian’s There Must Be Happy Endings: On a Theater of Optimism & Honesty (3rd Thing Press, 2020) makes a powerful case for “militant optimism” in an age of chaos …
Performing Arts October 28, 2020

The Great White Way

Race and the Broadway Musical, 2nd Edition

Warren Hoffman

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Warren Hoffman’s The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical, 2nd edition (Rutgers UP, 2020) explores the ways that race and racism have shaped the American musical from Show …
Performing Arts October 26, 2020

Radical Ritual

How Burning Man Changed the World

Neil Shister

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
Written from Neil Shister’s perspective as a journalist, student of American culture, and six-time participant in Burning Man, Radical Ritual: How Burning Man Changed the World (Counterpoint, 2019) presents the …
Music October 26, 2020

Augusta Browne

Composer and Woman of Letters in Nineteenth-Century America

Bonny H. Miller

Hosted by Kristen Turner
Born around 1820, Augusta Browne was a pianist, organist, composer, music pedagogue, entrepreneur, music critic, and writer. In Augusta Browne: Composer and Woman of Letters in Nineteenth-Century America (University of …
Literary Studies October 26, 2020

Transmedia Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century

Lissette Lopez Szwydky

Hosted by Miranda Corcoran
In this episode of New Books in Literary Studies we speak with Lissette Lopez Szwydky, author of the new book Transmedia Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century (Ohio State UP, 2020) …
Literature October 23, 2020

Underground, Monroe, and the Mamalogues

Three Plays

Lisa B. Thompson

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Lisa B. Thompson is equally renowned as a scholar of African and African-American studies and as a playwright. Her latest book Underground, Monroe, and the Mamalogues: Three Plays (Northwestern University …
Literary Studies October 21, 2020

Against Demagogues

What Aristophanes Can Teach Us about the Perils of Populism and the Fate of Democracy

Robert Bartlett

Hosted by Andy Boyd
With Against Demagogues: What Aristophanes Can Teach Us about the Perils of Populism and the Fate of Democracy (University of California Press, 2020) Robert Bartlett provides a stirring argument for …
Film October 20, 2020

The Films of Martin Scorsese

Gangsters, Greed, and Guilt

Eric San Juan

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Few mainstream filmmakers have as pronounced a disregard for the supposed rules of filmmaking as Martin Scorsese. His inventiveness displays a reaction against the “right” way to make a movie …
Performing Arts October 20, 2020

Exporting Jim Crow

Blackface Minstrelsy in South Africa and Beyond

Chinua Thelwell

Hosted by Amanda Joyce Hall
Exporting Jim Crow: Blackface Minstrelsy in South Africa and Beyond (University of Massachusetts Press, 2020) by Dr. Chinua Thelwell is a rich, well-researched, and sobering investigation of blackface minstrelsy as …
Performing Arts October 15, 2020

Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflict

Practicing Bharatanatyam in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Ahalya Satkunaratnam

Hosted by Preethi Ramaprasad
“How can dance be sustained by its practitioners in the unstable political and geographical landscape of war?” Satkunaratnam asks this through her text, Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflict: Practicing Bharatanatyam in …