Do What You Do, and Do it Well

Heather Cox Richardson’s rise to prominence is an “if you build it, they will come” story. The Boston College history professor (with a specialty in 19th century America) started posting informed political coverage on social media five years ago. Carefully written and loaded with relevant historical context, these dispatches were so well received that she […]

Not a Straight Line, More of a Curve

“At moments of historical crisis, when the necessity of choice generates fears and neuroses, men are eager to trade the doubts and agonies of moral responsibility for determinist visions, conservative or radical, which give them “the peace of imprisonment, a contented security, a sense of having at last found one’s proper place in the cosmos.” […]

Stories Within Stories: Romeo and Juliet at the American Repertory Theater

“We are building something immense together that, though invisible and immaterial, is a structure, one we reside within—or, rather, many overlapping structures. They’re assembled from ideas, visions and values emerging out of conversations, essays, editorials, arguments, slogans, social-media messages, books, protests, and demonstrations. About race, class, gender, sexuality; about nature, power, climate, the interconnectedness of […]

Intimate Infinities

Jane Deering Gallery 19 Pleasant Street (next to Cape Ann Museum) Gloucester MA 01930 Details: September 7 – October 6, 2024Opening reception: Saturday, September 7, 4-6pmClosing reception: Sunday, October 6, 4-6pm Gallery hours: Friday and Saturday, 1-5pm, Sunday, 1-4pm, and by appointment “Intimate Infinities delves into transcendence through the lens of contemporary art,” said Jane […]

Slanted Stories

The Winter’s Tale (Photo courtesy of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company) Tell all the truth but tell it slant —Success in Circuit liesToo bright for our infirm DelightThe Truth’s superb surpriseAs Lightning to the Children easedWith explanation kindThe Truth must dazzle graduallyOr every man be blind — This famous 8 line poem by Emily Dickinson is the […]

Ravenous for Living

We are living at a time when equality is an increasingly sacred value. While my political leanings are deeply aligned with that idea, it doesn’t apply to the world of human passions. I don’t want what I adore to be parceled out into equally sized lots. Because after all, we love what we love. “Even […]

Stories, Integrity and Horizontalities

Slow Muse has been a personal repository for my thoughts and feelings about art, art making and creativity for almost 20 years. As the landscape of creativity has constantly changed, I have frequently been surprised by what persists and what does not. At this particular moment in time artistic expression has become increasingly politicized, then […]