Arts
November 2024 • Arts
Orwell, 1984, etc.
Cambridge Forum is pleased to mark the 75th anniversary of the publication of 1984 with an in-depth discussion about George Orwell’s life, work, and legacy.
May 2024 • Arts
Why Do We Need Art Museums?
We will discuss this idea with Natalie Dykstra, the acclaimed biographer of Isabella Stewart Gardner, one of the first female art collectors in America.
December 2023 • Arts
Crushed Wild Mint: Language Rooted in Landscape
Explore some indigenous thinking mixed with a little magic as Jess Housty shares her debut poetry collection, Crushed Wild Mint.
April 2023 • Arts
Cartoonists, Racism, and Free Speech in a Threatened Democracy
What is the role of the cartoonist in the today’s convoluted world? Is it poking fun at the powerful, parodying the absurdities of life or acting as “a troublemaker”?
January 2023 • Arts
Why Do We Need the Humanities?
At a time when interest and investment in the humanities is plummeting, and enrolment in STEM subjects is flourishing, we consider the human consequences of such a shift in direction.
January 2023 • Arts
The Resurgence of the Independent Bookstore
More than 300 new independent bookstores have sprouted up across the country and another interesting development has accompanied this trend: the bookselling business has become much more diverse.
October 2022 • Arts
The Art of Resistance: Visions and Voices of Change
Art provides a powerful expression for resistance both in word and image, and Peter Sacks uses both to great effect in his latest works.
January 2022 • Climate
The Soundtrack of the World
For over 50 years, naturalist Bernie Krause has witnessed evidence of multiple environments being radically altered by human influence, and the resultant soundtracks or “biophonies” reflect chaotic alterations due to stress.
December 2021 • Arts
Art as a Prescription for Culture
Michael Bobbitt of the Mass. Cultural Council and Catherine Carr Kelly of Central Square Theater tackle the issue of whether or not the arts are a key asset? How much do they contribute to the economy?
December 2021 • Arts
The Art of Possibility
Benjamin Zander, renowned conductor of the Boston Philharmonic orchestra and Boston Youth Philharmonic orchestra, will discuss the everyday miracles that can happen despite catastrophe.
February 1999 • Classics
I’ll Make Me a World
Filmmaker and co-executive producer of the PBS television series, I’ll Make Me A World: A Century of African-American Arts, Sam Pollard talks about his dedication to chronicling the Black experience in America.
March 1998 • Classics
Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man
In this Cambridge Forum Classic, Paul Tucker, professor emeritus of art at UMass, offers a striking new view of Monet, the quintessential impressionist.
May 2019 • Arts
Poetry Fuels Democracy
Former poet laureate Richard Blanco reads from his new book How To Love A Country.
June 2018 • Arts
From Trump to the Pope: Inside the Mind of a Political Cartoonist
Political cartoonist Ted Rall talks about the besieged state of political cartooning in an America where the media landscape has evolved radically in a recent years leaving many artists, writers and cartoonists behind.
January 2018 • Arts
How Storytelling Shaped the History of the World
Stories are much more than entertainment—they shape our world. They’ve inspired the rise and fall of empires and nations, sparked our understandings of basic political and philosophical concepts, and have given rise to religious beliefs.
September 2017 • Arts
Cuz
Danielle Allen, Director of the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, discusses her new memoir Cuz.
November 2016 • Arts
Forever Young
Music and memories from the early days of the Harvard Square folk scene to the current state of the Americana genre.
December 2016 • Arts
The Cuban Connection
Richard Blanco is the first immigrant, the first Latino, the first openly gay person and the youngest person to be the U.S. inaugural poet.
October 2015 • Arts
Rise Again! A Sing-Along Concert
Cambridge Forum hosted a sing-along concert featuring Peter and Annie; Charlie King; the Nields; Kallet Epstein & Cicone; and Fred Small.
January 2015 • Arts
Pete Seeger Sing Out Tribute
We cannot replicate his voice, but we can keep his music and his spirit alive. Cambridge Forum celebrates Pete Seeger and the power of music with this tribute Sing Out concert.
April 2001 • Arts
Folklore of Violence
Afro-American folk singer James Sparky Rucker talks about the glorification of the outlaw in popular and traditional folk music. Using songs and lyrics, he traces the tradition of celebrating outlaws from Jesse James to modern gangsta rappers.
April 2014 • Arts
Learning to Look
Boston Globe art critic Sebastian Smee and Paul Tucker, curator of the Monet exhibitions at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, discuss the ways that looking at a work of art can open it up to reveal a rich web of information.
April 2014 • Arts
Putting Together the Pieces: The Power of Narrative
Producer Mary McGrath and award-winning storyteller Jo Radner discuss their materials including facts, memories, voices, pauses, music, sound effects, and the ways they come together to create a narrative that inspires the imagination.
March 2014 • Arts
Why Doctors Write
Beacon Press director Helene Atwan explores the relationship between editor and author with Danielle Ofri, a practicing physician and the editor of the Bellevue Literary Review, a literary journal focused on illness, health, and healing.
February 2014 • Arts
Stolen Art
Art security expert Anthony Amore discusses the crime of art theft. Art conservator Ingrid Neuman joins the conversation to explore the threat that theft poses to the physical materials that artworks are made from.
January 2014 • Arts
Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books
In a culture that is increasingly visual and virtual in orientation, what role does old-fashioned reading play? Author and essayist Wendy Lesser discusses her latest book Why I Read with poet Robert Pinsky.
November 2013 • Arts
The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience
Musician and author Stephen Wade takes an in-depth look at the ordinary people who recorded live music for the Library of Congress during the 1930s and ’40s.
February 2013 • Arts
The Banjo Project
Television writer-producer Marc Fields and banjo virtuoso Tony Trischka explore America’s quintessential instrument, assisted by Darol Anger on the fiddle.
November 2012 • Arts
Censoring Children
MIT’s Noam Chomsky and Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children’s Alliance discuss A Child’s View of Gaza, the book of Palestinian children’s artwork slated for exhibition at the Oakland Museum of Children’s Art. The exhibition was canceled at the last minute without explanation.
April 2012 • Arts
Creativity and Stress
Actors from the Underground Railway Theater read a selection from But the Giraffe!, the curtain-raiser Tony Kushner wrote for the Broadway revival of Brundibar.
October 2011 • Classics
Bob Dylan in America
Historian and cultural commentator Sean Wilentz explores the place that legendary artist Bob Dylan holds in America.
October 2011 • Classics
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Author Gregory Maguire has re-imagined the stories of Oz beginning with Wicked, which took the viewpoint of one of the wicked witches. With the publication of Out of Oz, the final volume of the series, he looks back on his journey of imagination.
June 2008 • Classics
Imagination And Failure
In 2008, children’s author J.K. Rowling spoke at Harvard University about her own life story, as a lesson for young people looking for future success.
October 2011 • Climate
Writing and Civil Disobedience
Poet and environmentalist Wendell Berry is joined by journalist Bill McKibben in a conversation about writing and civil disobedience.
April 2003 • Classics
Descent Into Limbo: Maurice Sendak’s Life in Children’s Art
In this Cambridge Forum conversation recorded in 2003, Sendak traces his lifelong journey in children’s literature and art.
October 2010 • Arts
Phil Ochs Songs
Sonny Ochs, sister of the songwriter Phil Ochs, brings together a group of musicians, including Fred Small, to perform her brother’s songs and keep his music alive today.
September 2010 • Arts
Soul of a Citizen
Author Paul Loeb discusses his idea of citizenship. It’s more than political engagement, he argues, in his underground bestseller Soul of a Citizen.
October 2010 • Arts
The Freedom to Write
PEN-New England celebrates Howard Zinn and his support for the freedom to write with a panel discussion.
November 2007 • Classics
Musicophilia
The late essayist-physician Oliver Sacks memorably reflected at Cambridge Forum on music and its mysterious relationship to the brain.
April 2000 • Classics
Bob Dylan: Artist
Christopher Ricks, Professor of Humanities at Boston University, explores the poetry in Bob Dylan’s songs.