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Posted by: Neely Tucker
Ned Rorem could never stop thinking. Or writing, composing or socializing. He kept datebooks, scrapbooks and diaries, the last of which went for thousands of pages over decades. He composed more than 500 art songs, three symphonies, four piano concertos, more than half a dozen operas and on and on. These fill volumes and folders …
Posted in: LGBTQ, Music, Performing Arts, Songwriters, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
—This is a guest post by Adam M. Silvia, a curator in the Prints and Photographs Division. As a photojournalist, Taro Yamasaki photographed at-risk children in the United States and around the world — Nicaragua, Bosnia, Rwanda, the Middle East. The Prints and Photographs Division recently acquired three collections that document such work by the …
Posted in: Asian American, LCM, LGBTQ, Music, Performing Arts, Photos, Prints and Photographs Division
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Bestselling author Louis Bayard has written nine historical novels over the past two decades and has researched them all at the Library, poring over maps, sorting through personal love letters, consulting societal details of the lost worlds that he brings to life. His latest novel, “The Wildes,” a fictionalized account of Oscar Wilde and his …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Capitol Hill, LGBTQ, Libraries, Manuscripts, Researcher Stories, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Viet Thanh Nguyen fled Vietnam as a child, escaping Saigon with his family the day before the capital city fell. They went to military bases in the Philippines and Guam, then lived in Pennsylvania for a few years before finally settling in San Jose, California, where he discovered the American dream was complicated. His literary work, most notably his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Sympathizer," (now an HBO series) explores the duality that he feels as a refugee and as an American writer. He spoke about his work at the National Book Festival, sharing stories of how his local library was his "salvation" as a child.
Posted in: African American History, Asian American, LGBTQ, Library Work and Employees, National Book Festival, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Stories can be a lot of things, as journalist and novelist Annalee Newitz writes in “Stories Are Weapons,” but in the end they are powerful instruments that can be used for good or evil, to comfort the afflicted or afflict the comfortable. “The thing about stories is that they are emotional and oftentimes appeal to …
Posted in: LGBTQ, National Book Festival, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The AIDS Memorial Quilt is often regarded as the largest folk art project ever created and the Library’s American Folklife Center has held the quilt’s archival collections since 2019. Parts of it are on display at the initial exhibit of the Library's Treasures Gallery, opening in June.
Posted in: American Folklife Center, LCM, LGBTQ
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Volunteers have been working over the past five years to transcribe the Library’s manuscripts of Walt Whitman, one of the nation’s most iconic poets, from three major collections. Can you help proofread the final 4,000 pages? This June, the Library is hoping you'll do just that as we celebrate Pride month.
Posted in: By the People, Civil War, LGBTQ, Manuscripts, Poetry, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin accepted the Library's 2024 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song during a tribute concert last night in Washington, as a star-studded lineup saluted them by performing some of their biggest songs. Garth Brooks and Joni Mitchell (both prior Gershwin honorees) performed, as did Annie Lennox, Billy Porter, Brandi Carlile and Charlie Puth.
Posted in: Concerts, Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, LGBTQ, Library Work and Employees
Posted by: Neely Tucker
A sizzle reel introduces the 25 influential films from the past 102 years have been selected for the 2023 Library of Congress National Film Registry, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today, inluding blockbusters such as "Fame," "Home Alone" and "Apollo 13," the popular romance "Love & Basketball," and influential feature films and documentaries such as "12 Years a Slave," "Matewan," "Alambrista!" and "Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision."
Posted in: Asian American, Film, Hispanic American History, Hispanic and Latino, LGBTQ, Library Work and Employees, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, National Film Preservation Board, National Film Registry, News, Performing Arts, Preservation, Preservation and Conservation, Technology, Video