Magnetic moments: “Eight years in the White House went by so fast,” says Barack Obama in the forward to Yes We Did, the new book by former official White House photographer Lawrence Jackson. (We feel you, Mr. President.) Jackson will tell stories about his work behind the scenes, snapping photos of Obama’s meetings with world […]
Magnetic moments: “Eight years in the White House went by so fast,” says Barack Obama in the forward to Yes We Did, the new book by former official White House photographer Lawrence Jackson. (We feel you, Mr. President.) Jackson will tell stories about his work behind the scenes, snapping photos of Obama’s meetings with world […]
Stanhope Spencer Johnson doesn’t pop to the top of the list for most architectural historians, but the Lynchburg-based designer was remarkably prolific in his seven-decade career, and some of his better work—including two buildings on the National Register of Historic Places—can be found in Charlottesville. No one knows Johnson’s work better than our own Carolyn […]
Cult of personalities: Almost 25 million people have visited Graceland since Elvis’ death in 1977; Beyoncé has 134 million followers on Instagram; and over 46 million adults read People magazine every week. Why do we care so much about famous people? In her new book, Sharon Marcus looks at The Drama of Celebrity, starting with […]
Digital strings: Reflecting on the 20 years since he co-founded the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, violinist Tim Summers hosts a discussion about the shifts that classical musicians and composers face in the digital age as streaming, electronic amplification, and computer-generated music take hold. Summers will play selections from Bach and Berio, and field questions about […]
By Benjamen Noble When Rachel Monroe began writing Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession, she had a driving question that fueled her—why are we, as a society, so enthralled by stories of true crime? “The book started with my own curiosity about myself, to be honest,” says Monroe of her literary […]
When word came out in early 2015 that Harper Lee was set to publish a sequel to the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, author Casey Cep was one of a number of reporters who traveled to Lee’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, to cover the book’s release. Despite Lee’s enormous popularity, Go Set a […]
For a university with such a dominant sports culture, it’s easy to forget that the arts community is thriving, too. UVA boasts over 100 visual and performing arts organizations, from aerial dance clubs to filmmakers’ societies. The vast majority of these groups are Contracted Independent Organizations. This lack of a direct university connection can spell […]
Leslie Jamison writes in the beginning of The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath, “I wanted to know if stories about getting better could ever be as compelling as stories about falling apart. I needed to believe they could.” The author of the New York Times bestselling essay collection The Empathy Exams struggled with alcohol dependence […]