Arts & Culture

NHPR presents a one hour music special celebrating National Women’s History Month hosted by NHPR Producer Emily Quirk. 

We’ll examine women’s history through the lens of roots, soul, Americana, and rock genres spanning the last 100+ years.

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This program aired Friday, March 29, at 8 p.m. and was rebroadcast on Sunday, March 31, at 6 p.m.

Missed the show?  You can listen now: 

Musician Snatam Kaur is preparing for the most high-profile performance of her career. This Sunday, the Wilton-based recording artist will take the stage at the 61st Grammy Awards ceremony.  Kaur will perform “Darashan Maago,” a song on her latest album Beloved, which is nominated for best album in the new age category.

On Beloved, sacred Sikh mantras are set to devotional music. Kaur’s parents embraced Sikhism when she was young, and she says that greatly influenced her career as a musician.

Online tools like Zillow’s ‘Zestimate’ can help potential buyers estimate a fair price for a house. Kelley Blue Book does the same thing for buying a used car.

Fine art, though, has always been more subjective, and more subject to huge price swings, making price valuations difficult.

When 24-year-old Brendan Hart was a teenager, he spent a lot of time at a skatepark his hometown of Meredith. It was (and is) a special place for him, because it’s the Glenn Hart Memorial Skatepark, built in memory of his father.

NHPR’s Peter Biello picks up the story.

U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith was awarded the Hall-Kenyon Prize in American Poetry at the Currier Museum in Manchester on Wednesday, December 12. We bring you an excerpt of her conversation with Peter Biello in front of a live audience, where she discussed being Poet laureate, the writing process, and poetry as social activism. 

Our indie bookstore owners are back for our annual Holiday Book Show to discuss the books that flew off the shelves in 2018, and which might make for great gift-giving or to keep for yourself!  Novelists tackled the idea of American identity, with characters who don't quite fit in, while history writers revealed hidden stories from our past, from code-breakers to the Korean War.  And non-fiction covered famous figures including Ronald Reagan and Michelle Obama.  Scroll down for the list of books mentioned on the show.

Gary Samson and David Putnam first came together over their shared love of photography about 40 years ago.

In some ways, their relationship is professional, a relationship between artists. They critique each other’s work, toss around technical questions. But in other ways, they are more like brothers, taking every opportunity to poke fun, to crack up at a shared joke.

“I always remind him to respect his elders,” Putnam says of Samson, two weeks his junior.

Editor’s note: We recommend listening to this story.

In March of 2018, Tom Devaney “turned off” a provocative work of art in downtown Concord - a video loop, projected onto a 6 foot wide sculpture - of his own blinking blue eye. 

Over its five year run, Concord’s enormous, creepy eyeball became something of a landmark, and when Devaney took the sculpture down people wondered what he’d do next.

NHPR’s Sean Hurley visited with the artist to find out. 

This past summer Tom Devaney began working on The Face of Concord in his gallery overlooking Main Street. 

The novelist Willa Cather was born in Nebraska, but composed much of her most celebrated work, including My Ántonia, in New Hampshire.

She is buried in Jaffrey, New Hampshire and that's where this weekend fans of her work will gather to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of My Ántonia.

This fall, Manchester's trees aren't just turning orange, red, and yellow - they're also turning blue.

With the help of local volunteers, New York City-based artist Konstantin Dimopoulos is coloring the trunks of about 100 city trees at the Currier Museum and Victory and Pulaski Parks.

On display right now at the Kimball-Jenkins Estate in Concord is a series of 12 murals. Each tells a story of a perfect day with mom or dad, and they were painted during a special summer camp for families dealing with incarceration. NHPR’s Peter Biello spoke with Kristina Toth, the program administrator for the Department of Corrections’ Family Connection Center.

[This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.]

Tell us about the summer camp portion, because it's different from what we normally imagine a summer camp to be. What makes it different?

This week, the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester is welcoming art-lovers to its gallery for a new show. Boston-based artist and Tufts Professor Ethan Murrow has created wall drawings and a sculpture honoring Manchester's working class roots. Last week, ahead of the show's opening, he and a team of art students put the finishing touches on the drawings.

[Editor’s note: We highly recommend listening to this story.]

The historical museum in Lyme is wrapping up a summer exhibit on wedding gowns. The exhibit offers insight into the evolution of women’s styles and it also shares some intimate stories of town residents.

Note: we recommending listening to this feature

The scene is one part Keebler Elves, one part Lord of the Flies.

A skinny kid with spaghetti arms swings a hammer, while another wields a blow torch. The nearby oven is cranking at nearly 1,000 degrees, when a collective urge to sing Led Zeppelin breaks out amongst the crew.

[Editor's note: we highly recommend listening to this story.]

The Summer Music Series swings through the Mount Washington Valley this week to visit the only music shop in New Hampshire that builds steel drums, the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago.

After a listener wrote us about it, NHPR’s Leila Goldstein visited the shop, Maccabee Panworks, in Conway.

The multi-talented musician Theo Martey has traveled the world with West African drumming groups. After settling in Manchester in 2001 he formed the Akwaaba Ensemble and they've been touring New England ever since.

While Martey plays traditional West African music, he also mixes contemporary recording effects and nontraditional instruments into his work. Martey spoke with NHPR's Peter Biello about his music.

(This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.)

Whether it's for a tablet, phone, or hardback, booklovers are always on the lookout for what to read when life slows down in the summer.  We hear what's new in fiction,  including a thriller co-written by a best-selling author and a former President.  For non-fiction fans, we review new works of History, Humour and Self-Help.  And as always, some N.H. authors make the list.  Get your pen and paper ready if you are looking for help with ideas for your reading list this summer! 

Just off busy Main street in Conway Village, George Wiese gives a tour of the inside what’s known as the Bolduc Block in the center of town.

Constructed in 1931 by local businessman Leon Bolduc, this batch of brick buildings has housed a department and grocery store, the post office and many other businesses over the years. And at the heart of the block, a theater: The Majestic.

Nori and Sarah Kozuma opened up the Horseshoe Cafe on Newmarket’s main drag last year.

The Bay Area-transplants, married and heavily tattooed, divide the duties: Sarah handles the baking, including fresh breads, spreads, and a few pastries. Nori is the one-man coffee department, doing everything from importing to roasting.

“So I’m still baby roaster. We normally say about 10 years to be called a roast master,” Nori says with a laugh.

While he may classify a novice, Kozuma knows more about coffee than he’s letting on.

Studies have shown that reading over summer vacation keeps kids' brains active and reduces stagnation or setbacks in reading levels (known as the "summer slide"). But how often do kids and teenagers read for pleasure these days? We talk with educators, librarians and authors about why independent reading is so important, what books appeal to kids nowadays, and what strategies help encouraage kids to open a book this summer.

Imane Naji Amrani is in total party planner mode. She wears a pink dress and matching pink headscarf. Focused and firm, she tells a group of teenage helpers where food should go and hurries to get everything done before sunset.

Every night for the month of Ramadan, families at the mosque in Manchester take turns cooking for the Iftar, the evening meal where Muslims break their fast each night during Ramadan. Tonight is Naji Amrani’s night to cook.

The interlude is polished and playful.

“I have something very special coming up here. I just kind of have to set the stage .... we have a giraffe that’s going to be performing with us out here.”

The audience laughs away.

This is the opening of a song track on one of The Shaw Brothers’ records. They’re playing live at Prescott Park in Portsmouth. And if you’ve ever enjoyed a concert at the Prescott Park Arts Festival, you can just imagine the giraffe was either a prop or a set painting for a youth theater act that used the stage earlier.

Tad Montgomery can still remember when he first discovered morels.

He was five years old, working in the garden with his mom and siblings, when a thunderstorm suddenly rolled in. They all ran under some nearby trees for shelter.

“Mom, what are these things? They’re really weird!” exclaimed his sister, looking to the ground.

His mom had no idea what to make of the brown, brain-looking things emerging from the soil. But, being an amateur naturalist, she piled all the kids in the car and drove them, soaking wet, to the local library.