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Whether dancers, painters, or sax players, artists are a central part of American society.  When economic trouble hits, it’s good if the rest of us remember that.

Last week I mentioned that within the relief and recovery programs of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal during the Great Depression, there were measures specifically designed to help artists who needed relief as much as any American worker.  In helping artists, these programs also nourished American culture.

When you look over the roster of artists who were involved with the New Deal, you’ll find some names you’ve likely heard of.  People like Jackson Pollock, Marsden Hartley, Diego Rivera, Philip Guston, Mark Rothko, John Sloan, Stuart Davis, and  

Vocal powerhouse Inez Andrews was also one of gospel music's most gifted songwriters. 

Hear the full track "Lord Don't Move That Mountain" below!

On this week's episode of Conversations With Creative Waco, host Kennedy Sam is joined in studio by Fiona Bond to discuss Make It In Waco, the new local online marketplace, and tell us more about the Make It Through Corona Fund. Then she has a conversation with Beth Richards, owner and director of the Brazos Theatre. 

How do you help students maintain social connections and meaningful traditions amidst a time of social distancing? In this Baylor Connections, Dr. Matt Burchett, Director of Student Activities at Baylor, shares ways Baylor helped students stay connected to campus during the semester and honored the Class of 2020 during a different kind of Senior Week. Learn more about what Burchett and student life professionals have learned about interpersonal connections, the power of social media and other online tools, and ways these unplanned adjustments can shape future interactions.

M. L. Stedman’s first novel, The Light Between Oceans, is a novel I highly recommend.

Stedman begins this luscious and spell-binding novel with a sorrowful sound.  “On the day of the miracle, Isabel was kneeling at the cliff’s edge, tending the small, newly made driftwood cross.  A single fat cloud snailed across the late-April sky, which stretched above the island in a mirror of the ocean below.  Isabel sprinkled more water and patted down the soil around the rosemary bush she had just planted. For just a moment, her mind tricked her into hearing an infant’s cry.  She dismissed the illusion, her eye drawn instead by a pod of whales weaving their way up the coast to calve in the warmer waters, emerging now and again with a fluke of their tails like needles through tapestry.  She heard the cry again, louder this time on the early morning breeze.  Impossible” (3).

The story is then interrupted by a marvelous description of their island home.  Stedman writes, “From this side of the island, there was only vastness, all the way to Africa.  Here, the Indian Ocean washed into the great Southern Ocean and together they stretched like and endless carpet below the cliffs.  On days like this it seemed so solid she had the impression she could walk to Madagascar in a journey of

Early reports during the coronavirus pandemic suggest larger companies are gobbling up much of the aid, while many of the neediest ones aren’t benefiting.

Artists are not some kind of abstraction in our culture.  They are real people with real concerns.  It’s good for governments to remember that.

I have to admit, that when I taught the Great Depression this semester, both I and many of my students were struck by the parallels to today. Anyone who knows about American history in the 1930s knows the rough outline. And today, again, when we turn on the news or listen to the radio we’re met by headlines like an unemployment number that’s the highest it’s been since Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated.  Right now, the federal government is enacting economic assistance programs of the sort that were 

Shirley Caesar's "Life's Mountain Railway" is only one of dozens of memorable tracks by traditional gospel's most defiant - and last - remaining superstar!

Hear the full track below!

Dr. Daniel Romo, The Schotts Professor of Chemistry at Baylor, describes his lab’s role as “construction engineering at the molecular level” spurring potential drug leads for cancer, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, and more. In this Baylor Connections, Dr. Romo shares how he and his lab students go about that process through the synthesis of natural compounds, the innovation of new synthesis strategies and more.

On this weeks episode of Downtown Depot, host Austin Meek sits down with Ashton Gustafson, podcast host of Good, True, and Beautiful and the owner and broker of A.G. real estate in Waco. He also shines the small business spotlight on Danielle Young of Revival Eastside Eatery.

Gatesville High School seniors and families will celebrate a socially distanced graduation next week at the community’s 70-year-old drive-in theater.

When Amy Murray, a senior Film and Digital Media Student at Baylor University, was offered the chance to spend a semester working and studying in New York City, she thought it was a dream come true.

 I finally got a copy of the third volume of Hillary Mantel’s magnificent trilogy, The Mirror and the Light.  Her first two volumes—Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies—garnered well-deserved Booker Prizes.  Hilary’s incredible story—with nearly 1,700 pages—delves into the minutest details of the lives of the interesting family of Oliver Cromwell.

While reading her latest book, I took some notes of interesting passages.  I believe these tidbits will more than whet the appetite for those interested in the period.  Here we go!  Hillary writes, (Page 8) “‘Would that my niece had imitated Katherine [of Aragon] in other particulars’, Norfolk says.  ‘Had she been obedient, chaste and

The combination of jubilee, a cappella singing, and a first-rate band make the under-rated Gate City Singers' "Prayer Changes Things" a truly memorable 45.

Hear the full track below!