Twenty-three years and multiple producers later, Gast finally edited his 300,000 feet of film into a taut and stirring 90 minutes, attesting as much to his own tenacity and perseverance as his star’s.

The New York Times dubbed painter Jack Whitten as “the father of new abstraction” in 1994. He speaks to Kenneth Goldsmith about his southern sensibility, the spirit of the ’60s, and the keys to artistic survival.

Sarah Schulman, author of Empathy, speaks of the separation of activism from writing and the consequences of being assigned a marginal identity.

Writer Thulani Davis has achieved something that many writers strive for. Davis has been able to stretch her talents across many forms of writing. She is known for her work as a journalist, poet, novelist, and librettist.