How do some classics become CHALLENGED?
John Steinbeck. Maya Angelou. J.K. Rowling. All three authors are on the list of the most frequently banned and challenged authors of the last 15 years, according to the American Library Association.
John Steinbeck. Maya Angelou. J.K. Rowling. All three authors are on the list of the most frequently banned and challenged authors of the last 15 years, according to the American Library Association.
A dream came true. Money was raised for Hurricane Katrina refugees and a jazz great displayed his pupils' talents in an all-star cast Monday night at "A Benefit for New Orleans: The Cradle of Jazz." The concert was not only a big hit with attendees, but it was a wonderful display of compassion and a tribute to a city in need by a world-class music institution.
The Bloomington Area Arts Council elected seven new trustees and appointed two new board officers at its annual meeting last week at the John Waldron Arts Center.
Sisters Abigail, Hannah and Sarah Biddle go to church at Martinsville Baptist Tabernacle and are enrolled in IU's pre-college music program. Abigail, 17, plays the harp and sings in church choir. Hannah, 15, plays the cello and piano and wants to become a musical score composer. Sarah, 13, plays the harp and the piano and is the baby of the family.
NEW YORK -- "The Color Purple," a musical based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, will have Oprah Winfrey as a producer and investor when it opens on Broadway in December. In Winfrey's first Broadway venture, she will contribute more than $1 million of the musical's $10 million production cost, The New York Times reported Sunday on its Web site. The musical, which has been revised since receiving some bad reviews when it opened in Atlanta last year, will be called "Oprah Winfrey Presents: 'The Color Purple.'"
FAIRMOUNT, Ind. -- Nearly 50 years after his death, some of James Dean's former classmates are counting on his enduring fame to help save their decaying alma mater. Fairmount High School alumni gathered Saturday in a 1950s-era gymnasium behind the decrepit, 103-year-old building for their sixth annual reunion. Inevitably, talk turned to their movie star classmate. Wilma Jean Underwood Soultz-Brown, a classmate of Dean's, said she and others don't remember him as a Hollywood legend but as someone who "was just like the rest of us." "He drove the tractor when we had class parties out at the Winslow Farm -- and we always had a hay ride," she said. Soultz-Brown supports the idea of saving the original school building, which includes the auditorium where Dean first gave speeches and performed in plays overseen by the school's drama teacher, Adeline Nall.
The intersection of Washington Street and Kirkwood Avenue was ablaze with color Friday and Saturday as community members gathered for this year's LotusFest.
Musical worlds are about to collide. The world of bebop and boogie and the classical world meet for "A Benefit for New Orleans: The Cradle of Jazz" at 8 p.m. tonight in the Musical Arts Center. IU jazz legend David Baker will direct the IU Jazz Ensemble and welcome special guest soloists Sylvia McNair and distinguished professor of music Timothy Noble. "Two worlds will meet in an effort to help another part of the world," Baker said.
TOKYO -- The makers of Japan's favorite instant ramen noodles will soon be airing a commercial that's truly out of this world.
An interfaith group released a new textbook Thursday aimed at teaching public high school students about the Bible while avoiding legal and religious disputes.
Guest conductor Randall Behr passed away unexpectedly at a Bloomington hotel Sept. 8, but his legacy lives on as Mozart's "Così Fan Tutte" comes to the IU stage.
IU isn't the only commodity to call international attention to Bloomington. The annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival is an important event that brings in dozens of world musicians to Bloomington streets every September. It is a highly anticipated gala that makes a statement about the diversity in town and beyond.
NEW YORK -- John Brunious flew in from an evacuation center in Arkansas, wearing donated clothes and carrying a borrowed trumpet, his voice shot from swallowing polluted floodwater.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Lolita was 12 when Vladimir Nabokov brought her to life as the obsession of her stepfather, a middle-aged man who calls her "light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin. My soul. ... Lo. Lee. Ta."
Hundreds of IU students lined the corridors of the Indiana Memorial Union Monday night in hopes of getting a sneak peek at the newest creation from the mind of acclaimed film director Tim Burton. Most of the crowd arrived well in advance of the 8 p.m. screening time to grab a good seat.
IU students might not have a chance to watch films in a different country, so two culture centers are doing the next best thing and bringing the films to the students.
CLEVELAND -- Some aging rockers -- yes, the Rolling Stones are on another tour -- just keep on rockin'. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, 10 years old this month, still rocks, too, but in a much quieter way.
A skinny Polish peasant plays the fiddle and rocks a fat old man to sleep. The fat man slouches in a rocking chair, he has a single medal pinned to his torn and tattered suit. He orders the peasant about, and the peasant cheerfully complies, until he is chained to a goat. "The Fat and the Lean" was among a collection of films by Roman Polanski, Academy Award-winning director of "The Pianist," shown by the Underground Film Series.
FORT WAYNE -- With a stark light illuminating the darkness of her living room, Mary Hilger kneels before a black canvas. As a medley of Christian songs plays in the background, her left hand feverishly scrawls white chalk across the board, seeming to form an outline of a skull.
Union Board gave patrons a chance during the weekend to step into a completely different environment -- the brothels of Calcutta, India. For the Academy Award-winning film "Born Into Brothels," Zana Briski -- the director, narrator and one of the film's main characters -- journeyed to Calcutta in order to live with the women of the city's red light district. Once there, she found herself bombarded with children.