…Blake’s poem, London, doesn’t really paint the most beautiful nor flattering picture of urban life, and although we have certainly made progress in regards to the hygiene and health of our cities over the centuries, our current predicament illustrates just how short a distance we have come since Blake published this poem in 1794…
Read MoreWriting the other day, I noted that one of the most trying aspects of this extraordinary time of pandemic is not knowing when this period of sheltering in place will end. The not-knowing when we can resume outside life as a society and when it will be safe again to gather with loved ones can make this time feel as if it is suspended…
Read More…One of the major aspects that is so trying about this crisis is the impossibility of knowing when it will end. As the world shelters in place, time itself seems to have suspended, and it can often feel that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Personally, I find myself needing to be constantly…
Read MoreEven before beginning work on the Emerging Voices project a couple of years ago, I had a strong internal reaction whenever the subject of identity came up, especially in the way it has with the recent intense waves of nationalism and the racial bigotry often associated with it…
Read MoreThe United States underwent a radical cultural shift in 1917 when the nation decided to abandon its neutral stance and enter World War I on the side of Allies. America’s significant population of German immigrants and their descendants, which had been easily able to assimilate into American life…
Read MoreThe private salons of the Belle Époque presented important and serious music on a par with what could be heard at the larger public venues in Paris. These salon programs were not restricted to chamber music: they often included pieces on a much grander scale, at times with full orchestras and choirs and even operas…
Read MoreThe waves of nationalism that had surged throughout Europe during the years of the Belle Époque, and reached a peak of ferocity in World War I, came to a pivotal point with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. The division of Eastern Europe was one of the major topics of the treaty negotiations, as the three empires…
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