MEMETERIA by Thomas May

Arts & Culture Stories from NPR

• 'Black Love In All Its Different Ways': Regina King On Her 'Beale Street' Role
  Barry Jenkins' adaptation of the 1974 James Baldwin novel If Beale Street Could Talk is now in theaters. It gives actress Regina King yet another complex character to inhabit.
• Not My Job: William Shatner Gets Quizzed On Cannes
  Sure, Shatner knows plenty about "the wrath of Khan" ... but what does he know about the Cannes Film Festival? We'll find out.
• In 'The Dakota Winters,' Finding A New Story To Tell About John Lennon
  Tom Barbash's new novel is set in the famed Manhattan apartment house where Lennon spent the last year of his life — and where, in this telling, he befriends a washed-up talk show host and his son.
• CBS Paid Eliza Dushku $9.5 Million After Alleged Sexual Harassment, Termination
  Days after confronting actor Michael Weatherly, a huge star for the network, Dushku was written off Bull. An investigation determined the company often protected itself at the expense of victims.
• Lin-Manuel Miranda On 'Mary Poppins Returns' And Writing His Way Onstage
  Though best-known for his auteur work, the mastermind of Hamilton and In the Heights says it was his dream to be offered a part in someone else's musical.
• Swahili Speakers Debate Disney's Trademark of 'Hakuna Matata' For T-Shirts
  The song title from the film The Lion King has been trademarked by Disney since 2003. In recent weeks, Africa media has launched a discussion on whether that's cultural appropriation.
• 'Beale Street' Is A Heart-Stopping, Beautiful Story Of Love And Injustice
  Moonlight director Barry Jenkins returns with a new drama about young lovers in 1970s Harlem whose lives are thrown into turmoil when one of them is falsely accused of a crime.
• Well-Versed: 'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' Is A Fun, Warm-Hearted Treat
  Many Spider-Men and -Women meet up in this "graphically dazzling, generously imaginative, nakedly optimistic, mercilessly funny" and refreshingly inclusive animated film.
• 'Mortal Engines' Internally Combusts
  Long on CGI but short on any real inspiration, this adaptation of a fantasy series about giant cities that roam a post-apocalyptic landscape quickly runs out of gas.
• In The Luminous 'If Beale Street Could Talk,' A Perfect Love Meets An Imperfect World
  Director Barry Jenkins follows up Moonlight with this exquisite film adaptation of James Baldwin's novel about the clash between love and racial injustice.