Ellen C. Caldwell | ECLAIRE.me

Rapper Jay Z recently released his 13th studio album 4:44. Could this be used in the classroom to enlighten and education English students? Brent McKeown says yes.

Cheng I Sao reversed many of the old, gendered notions about “female social mobility.” When she was ready to leave pirating, she negotiated skillfully and diplomatically with Chinese officials in Canton, ultimately granting her and her second husband Chang Pao 80 junks for personal use and an additional 40 for salt trade.

Last month, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled work from 1982 broke records as the highest selling US-produced artwork. Learn how Basquiat’s work gained its fame.

Like Disney’s “Moana”? Learn about the Polynesian origin myths that Disney consulted to create the demigod character Maui, played by Dwane “The Rock” Johnson.

Walker analyzes not just how Hartley’s movement and travel around the world influenced his style, but also how the art world changed its perceptions of Marsden Hartley as an innovator, imitator, experimentalist, or influencer. Perhaps Hartley’s life and changing artistic legacy tell us more about history-making and public memory than they do about his work.

As Ushiro describes the US-Mexico border, “This area is a very crazy area…This is the most important area to think about freedom—and it’s completely not freedom.” Chim↑Pom’s installations challenge viewers to look at this liminal space and reconsider the US-Mexico border.

One of the first artists to address the L.A. uprisings was the actor/playwright Anna Deveare Smith. In the summer of 1993, just one year after the Rodney King verdict, Smith opened her one-woman show “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,” at the Mark Taper Forum. Theatre Journal published seven reviews of “Twilight” in order to attempt to chronicle the diversity of reactions to Smith’s pioneering monologues.

Werner dissects the complex relationship that existed between Diego Rivera and Mexico itself, writing, “Not before setting foot in Mexico last summer did I feel that I had arrived at a real understanding of Diego Rivera’s work.” In this description, the reader can come to understand Werner’s experience of Mexico — that it exists as a palpable character and live influence upon Rivera’s work.

Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani use digital technology, geo-spatial mapping, and human testimonials to visualize human rights violations and to fight for migrant rights.

In this time filled with “alternative truths,” historian Marsha Weisiger argues for more sophisticated and multifaceted approaches to telling the history of the American West.