MEMETERIA by Thomas May

Arts & Culture Stories from NPR

• The rapper Coolio has died at 59
  The artist, one of hip-hop's biggest names of the 1990s with hits including "Gangsta's Paradise" and "Fantastic Voyage," died Wednesday at age 59, his manager said.
• Remembering Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize-winning author of the 'Wolf Hall' saga
  The British writer, who died Sept. 22, wrote a trilogy of critically acclaimed historical novels on the life of Thomas Cromwell, one of Henry VIII's most trusted advisors. Originally broadcast in '12.
• Oregon Shakespeare Festival focuses on expansion – but is not without its critics
  After two years of pandemic closures, audiences are back at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, to find a season of diverse plays. But for many, change has come too soon.
• Ned Fulmer's Try Guys cheating scandal, explained
  Ned Fulmer was an original member of The Try Guys, a group that attracted a large YouTube following by trying unusual antics. Now he has departed the group following revelations of infidelity.
• The death of a boy fractures a family in Namwali Serpell's 2nd novel 'The Furrows'
  NPR's Juana Summers talks with Namwali Serpell about her new novel — The Furrows: An Elegy.
• Brandon Kyle Goodman embraces their authentic self in new book
  NPR's Ailsa Chang chats with Brandon Kyle Goodman about their new book You Gotta Be You: How to Embrace This Messy Life and Step Into Who You Really Are.
• How to fit a top-tier HBCU marching band and the gospel tradition onto one album
  The massive sound of The Aristocrat of Bands, a highly respected HBCU marching band, and the overflowing history of gospel combine on a single album (with a great title) — 'The Urban Hymnal.'
• In 'Intimacies, Received,' moments of intimacy come tangled with moments of violence
  Taneum Bambrick's second collection of poems portrays how moments of intimacy can represent moments of violence – and how difficult it can be to untangle the two from each other.
• Law professor unearths cases of racial violence from the Jim Crow era
  In her new book, By Hands Now Known, Margaret Burnham reports on little-known cases of racial violence in the Jim Crow era, including crimes that went unreported and murderers who were never punished.
• Las Vegas mass shooting survivors tell their own story in '11 minutes' documentary
  The new four-hour Paramount+ documentary is told mostly through cellphone videos and police body cams. It is surprisingly not gruesome — the visuals are selected and edited very judiciously.