Search results for

A new exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library offers a glimpse at correspondences four centuries old. "Letter Writing in Renaissance England" includes letters penned in invisible ink, sealed in wax and silk, and sent to and from some of the most famous figures in history.

Melissa Block talks with John Beatty, who teaches a course on Shakespeare's Macbeth at Brooklyn College, about his efforts to rehabilitate the Scottish king's image. Macbeth is portrayed in Shakespeare's play as bloodthirsty, but Beatty says history suggests he was a respected king.

There's a clever new adaptation of the play Cyrano de Bergerac now being performed at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington D.C. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with the playwright Barry Kornhauser about the show, and they talk about the history of the classic French play.

The parade of big-budget summer movies is under way with The Day After Tomorrow, and true to form, special effects play a big role. NPR's Scott Simon talks with Allan Magled, visual effects supervisor for Soho VFX, about the history and magic of his craft.

Poet Billy Collins shares memories of his father's puckish spirit as part of the StoryCorps national oral history project. Hear Collins' conversation with friend Nancy Cobb, recorded in a booth at New York City's Grand Central Terminal.

The Colorado Rockies are going to the World Series for the first time in the team's history, after completing a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks last night. The Rockies will face the winner of the Red Sox/Indians series.

The small town of Cambridge, Md., went up in flames 40 years ago this summer. A speech by black activist H. Rap Brown helped incite unrest there. But the town's problems were rooted in a painful history of racial discrimination.

The new welfare bill, signed by President Clinton last month, requires states to terminate financial assistance to welfare recipients after five years. NPR's Cheryl Corley reports that one of the biggest obstacles to implementing the new bill is the lack of a computer network that would allow states to readily share information about recipients and their work and welfare payment histories.

NPR's Mara Liasson reports that Hillary Rodham Clinton is at the center of controversy in today's report released by teh Senate Whitewater committee. The Republicans' report says she and White House aides showed a pattern of concealment and obstruction that continues to this day. Democrats say the investigation found no wrongdoing on her part. But never before in history has a congressional committee taken on a First Lady so directly.

Every Monday this month we offer one of a series of audio diaries from teenagers across the country. Today's story is from Randy Cooper, an 18-year-old from rural Holmes County, Mississippi, which is one of the poorest counties in the nation but one with a rich history from the civil rights era. The series producer is Joe Richman.