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Laurie Handshu

Latest Blog Posts

For two nights in January 1972, Aretha Franklin joined voices with the Southern California Community Choir at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. The recording event was filmed and after thirty-plus years of legal wrangling, it is finally available to wow us all.

Philip Roth, America’s best-known writer of Jewish angst and second-best-known native son of New Jersey, died Tuesday evening at age 85.

Last week, libraries nationwide celebrated Banned Books week.
This week, Nashville Public Library uniquely celebrates BAND Books.

Glen Campbell died yesterday. While his death was not unexpected, it does give us pause to look back on his stellar career and graceful goodbye.

He wrote with Bob Dylan, played Dolly Parton’s husband, penned prize-winning off-Broadway plays and maintained a dignity to his work through the years that never betrayed his rough beginnings. When you consider a modern day Renaissance man, you could easily be referring to Sam Shepard. 

 

Jonathan Demme, Academy Award winner for Best Director for Silence of the Lambs, died today at age 73.

Yeah, cheesy title. We know. But, want to know more about the woman who set the standard for women's early roles in television? We've got you covered.

It's been a rough week: we've lost some talented people. Longing to know more about Gwen Ifill, Leon Russell, Leonard Cohen, or Janet Reno? We offer these selections.

Texas transplant, song-writer supreme Guy Clark died May 17 at age 74. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2004.

In anticipation of the release of the new Harper Lee title, Go set a watchman, you may want to visit the classic, the title by which all American modern fiction is measured, To Kill a Mockingbird. The new title was written before Mockingbird, remained unpublished and is a sequel to Mockingbird, telling the tale of the adult Jean Louise Finch Scout.

As baby-boomers redefine the cultural landscape, it is appropriate that we re-write the literature, cinema, and music of our time. That’s right, Stevie Nicks, it’s now the Edge of Seven-ty.