Soprano performs Aretha Franklin’s hits
Nova Y. Payton’s first exposure to musical legend Aretha Franklin was as a child, when her mother would sing along to Franklin’s songs on the record player. The first song she remembers hearing was Franklin’s powerful 1967 cover of Otis Reddings’ “Respect.” “[Franklin’s music] always felt like church to me,” Payton, 46, said. “Her voice always just screams church,... READ MORE
Caroline Bock champions local writers
Raymond Carver used to tell his students at Syracuse University, “Make sure you’re never boring. Get right to the emotional truth. Cut everything else out except the heart,” former student Caroline Bock recalls. “That was one of his favorite quotes.” Carver and his wife, Tess Gallagher, made a big impression on Bock in the 1980s, sending her letters to encourage the young ... READ MORE
Go back to school with Mean Girls
American audiences have long been drawn to comedies about high schools — from the 1940s radio and 1950s TV show “Our Miss Brooks” to Archie comics to the 1970s sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter.” In the early 2000s, we had the film Mean Girls, which was so popular that it became a Broadway musical (and another movie two years ago). Now the musical is on stage at Toby’s... READ MORE
Veterans History Project collects stories
Major historical events like war or military service make a lasting impact on family identity, values and traditions, often reverberating across multiple generations. Throughout the 20th century, entire families felt the effects of war firsthand, with multiple generations serving. Brothers enlisted together. A father’s military legacy inspired his children to join up. Sweethearts met... READ MORE
Come on, were you really at Woodstock?
You know what they say about death and taxes, and they’re right. But two other things are inevitable for we graybeards of today. We will meet someone who claims to have been at Woodstock in 1969. And we will meet someone who claims to have attended the perfect game that Don Larsen pitched in the 1956 World Series. The other day, I notched a two-fer — a guy with a badly receding ... READ MORE
Books illuminate America’s 250 years
Both by design and by accident, error and ignorance have skewed our understanding of America’s past. On our nation’s 250th anniversary, these books correct distortions, dispel myths and fill in gaps. A Terrible Intimacy: Interracial Life in the Slaveholding South, by Melvin Patrick Ely, MacMillan 2026, 368 pages For more than 100 years the Lost Cause myth of Civil War history... READ MORE
Pippin shimmers at Signature Theatre
In Signature Theatre’s current production of Pippin, the actors are so near that you can feel a breeze when they execute their death-defying choreography. Directed by Matthew Gardiner, Signature’s lauded artistic director, and choreographed by Rachel Leigh Dolan, the Tony Award-winning musical takes on a magical intimacy. The 1972 Broadway musical Pippin is a medieval play within a... READ MORE
Ann Patchett publishes new feel-good novel
At 62, Ann Patchett is the rare and fortunate writer whose words resonate among friends and strangers alike. She owns one of the country’s signature independent bookstores, Parnassus Books in Nashville, with customers ranging from local book lovers to Tom Hanks. She’s also a popular and prize-winning novelist whose new books are inevitably among the year’s most anticipated, and whose ... READ MORE
We can learn about resilience from three books
These days, some of us may find ourselves increasingly overwhelmed, trying to keep our families secure, economically and perhaps even physically. Three recent books — two memoirs and a history — show that with luck, pluck and collective imagination, we can prevail. Misunderstood: A Memoir, by Allen Iverson and Ray Beauchamp, 352 pages, Gallery/13A, 2025 Local basketball fans remember ... READ MORE
When adult children can’t let go of grief
There was Doug, at a charity golf event, whacking woods off a practice tee. His shots looked great. He did, too. He smiled broadly when I shook his hand. He said his business was in fine hands — those of his adult sons. At 65, he told me, his health was excellent, his bank account was stuffed and his house was paid for. And then, the bomb: “I’m seeing someone,” Doug said. Until... READ MORE
