Culture and Arts

Roberta McReynolds writes: My mother asked me, out of the blue, to model for a painting she wanted to do ... minus clothing. Ever so slowly I turned my head 90 degrees to peer at this strange woman who looked and sounded exactly like my mother. Yet how could this be? Once my mother had effectively shamed me to the core with a single laser-beam glare from across the room because I had shortened the hem of one of my dresses above the knees. All my friends were sporting mini-skirts while I wore clothes more appropriate for a middle-aged woman. So, who was this woman and was I even in the right house? more »

Joan L. Cannon reviews: Alistaire Horne is the author of over a dozen books of modern history. In this narrative, we realize that the half-century surrounding World War II has lost much of its impact, if only perhaps because of the wars that have succeeded it. A Bundle from Britain is a completely engaging account of Alistaire Horne's evacuation from England near the beginning of the Nazi onslaught on Europe and especially England. As it happened, he was sent to a section of the American world that can hardly stand in as typical of the USA. more »

A new exhibition at the New-York Historical Society examines three centuries of tattooing in New York, including the city's central role in the development of modern tattooing and the successive waves of trend and taboo surrounding the practice. Tattooed New York features more than 250 works dating from the early 1700s to today — exploring Native American body art, tattoo craft practiced by visiting sailors, sideshow culture, the 1961 ban that drove tattooing underground for three decades, and the post-ban artistic renaissance. more »

Sonya Zalubowski writes: We now have the largest immigration since the waves that brought my own family here back in the early 1900s. Talk now here and all over Europe roils about what to do about these huge movements of people. I found reassurance in thinking about my own family and how they lived and worked after coming here in the early 1900s. I share with you this little vignette I wrote in the voice of a ten-year-old in my memoir about growing up in the 1950s in Kenosha, Wisconisn, the grandchild of immigrants from Poland who through their hard work carved out their new lives in this country. more »