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"Jerry Saltz is one of our most-watched writers about art and artists, and a passionate champion of the importance of art in our shared cultural life. Since the 1990s he has been an indispensable cultural voice: witty and provocative, he has attracted contemporary readers to fine art as few critics have. An early champion of forgotten and overlooked women artists, he has also celebrated the pioneering work of African American, LGBTQ+, and other long-marginalized...
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"What good are the arts? Why should we care about the past? For millennia, humanity has sought to understand and transmit to future generations not just the "know-how" of life, but the "know-why"--The meaning and purpose of our existence, as expressed in art, architecture, religion, and philosophy. This crucial passing down of knowledge has required the radical integration of insights from the past and from other cultures. In Culture, acclaimed author,...
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Peruvians of African descent are a minority within their country, but their culture has had a tremendous impact. Even la Marinera, Peru's national dance, shows African influence. Using performance, historical photographs, and interviews, this program acquaints viewers with Afro-Peruvian music and dance. Host Eve A. Ma explains how these art forms were affected by the strictures of slavery in colonial-era Latin America, while dancer/percussionist/choreographer...
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"The New York Times bestselling author of Cork Dork takes readers on another fascinating, hilarious, and revelatory journey--this time burrowing deep inside the impassioned, secretive world of art and artists. An award-winning journalist obsessed with obsession, Bianca Bosker's existence was upended when she wandered into the art world--and couldn't look away. Intrigued by artists who hyperventilate around their favorite colors and art fiends who...
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This program marks the beginning of Michael Wood's quest as he ventures into the world of an exotic and mysterious woman of power. Immortalized in the Hebrew Bible, the Muslim Koran, and in many Christian traditions, the tale of the Queen's journey to meet King Solomon has been told and retold for nearly 3,000 years. Wood's fascinating voyage starts on Easter night in Jerusalem, taking him around the Red Sea to Egypt, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, and to...
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James Hilton popularized the tale of the magical hidden valley of Shangri-La in the 1930s in his novel, Lost Horizon. However, the story of a lost kingdom high in the Himalayas - a paradise free from war and suffering - is descended from a much older Indian myth. In this program, Michael Wood takes a thrilling trek through India, Nepal, and to Tibet's Mount Kailash, the sacred center of the world for all Hindus and Buddhists. After hundreds of miles...
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This episode of Ancient Mysteries brings us back more than 3,000 years to the legendary city of Troy. Scholars delve into the secrets of Troy by researching the Greek poet Homer, who related the city's history in The Iliad. Their discoveries are revealed and shed new light on the legends of the Trojan horse, Achilles, the abduction of Helen, and the fall of Troy.
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Historically, the arts in Africa were largely communal and unrecorded. But much has changed over the past century, and this program takes a look at art in sub-Saharan Africa as it exists today through profiles of Senegalese rap groups Alif and Wageble and the rap collective Fight and Forget, who use their music as a form of political activism; Senegalese sculptor Babacar Niang, whose workshop has trained artists who have found success in both the...
12) Paperback Writer
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As the paperback book democratized reading in the 20th century, cover art became a powerful marketing tool to sell books to the masses. The cover of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four changed over time, from its classic 1950s Penguin design to the latest artwork from Jon Gray, each iteration reflecting its respective decade's approach to selling the book to new readers. David Pelham's iconic 'cog eye' design for Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange...
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In this program, Michael Wood explores the greatest of British myths: the tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Traveling through the Celtic world from Cornwall and Wales to Brittany, Ireland, and Scotland, Wood uncovers the extraordinary story of how a shadowy Welsh freedom-fighter became a medieval superman, and eventually the model of a Christian hero. On the way we discover the real stories behind the Round Table, Excalibur,...
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On the Indonesian island of Bali, the arts permeate almost every aspect of daily life - attempts to please the gods and placate demons. Much of human effort is directed toward these attempts, and the pinnacle of such efforts is the ritual Eka Dasa Rudra, held once every hundred years and involving the entire population of the island. There is also a political dimension to Eka Dasa Rudra. In 1963, upon the urging of then-President Sukarno, Balinese...
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Spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles, this program recounts the remarkable saga of how a nursery rhyme sung by the Gullah people of present-day Georgia was confirmed to be of African origin. When 18th-century slavers sent human cargo from Sierra Leone to America's coastal South, they also sent a trove of cultural information that had been passed from Mende mothers to their daughters for generations-including a particular song that had...
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One of the world's most fascinating museums is by far one of the oldest. But can the paintings there really be called art? This program goes inside the Lascaux cave complex to examine the richest and most beautiful collection of Paleolithic cave drawings in France. Who were the artisans who rendered those arresting images, and how exactly did they do it? Different theories are presented as the cameras capture a site that never ceases to amaze and...
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Dark mysterious creatures, tales of vampires are told in many different cultures around the world. This revealing documentary explores the fear and intrigue that these undead beings stir. Origins of the Vampire also presents the surprising truth about real-life cases through history. From Vlad the Impaler's 16th century Transylvania to Bram Stoker's stories of the 19th century to today's movies and books, the lore of the vampire always thrills.
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If writing is the beginning of history, reading is the beginning of civilization. In this program, host Alberto Manguel traces the history of literacy via the Lascaux caves of prehistoric France; ancient Mesopotamia, birthplace of cuneiform and home to the Epic of Gilgamesh; and Egypt both past and present, with its monumental libraries at Alexandria. He then addresses the powerful benefits and dangerous drawbacks of personal interpretation of religious...
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This is the story of Samba and the legacy of the four braids, each representing one great truth. Captured and brought before the king, Samba resisted telling the secrets until he realized that the alternative was death. But when he revealed the last of his secrets, that a leader deserves no honor if he is not also a friend to his people, the king understood the message and made Samba his viceroy.
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This program explores one of the oldest stories in all of Greek mythology. Michael Wood traces the route of Jason and his famous boat, the Argo, from Greece to Turkey and modern-day Georgia. It begins in the town of Volos in Greece-where King Pelias feared Jason a contender to this throne and sent him on the impossible mission to the kingdom of Colchis on the Black Sea to retrieve the magical Golden Fleece. Similarly, Wood travels by boat to the Greek...