Month: January 2023

Edgar Allan Poe Publishes "The Raven" (1845)

Like Poe’s other works, “The Raven” conveys the dreamlike and often macabre forces that pervaded the author’s sensibility. While his wife suffered from a protracted illness, Poe composed this poem, which became an instant sensation when it appeared in the Evening Mirror in 1845. In the poem, the speaker, who is mourning the death of his love, Lenore, is mysteriously visited by a talking raven and asks the bird a series of questions. What is the raven’s one-word response to each query? Discuss

Zora! Festival

The Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities (also known as the Zora! Festival) is an eight-day, multi-disciplinary event held every year in late January in Eatonville, Florida. The Zora! Festival was launched in 1990 to showcase her life and work, as well as to celebrate her hometown and the cultural contributions of people of African descent. It features a three-day street festival of the arts, art exhibits, literary readings, and academic presentations, conferences, and lectures devoted to Hurston and African-American arts in general. Discuss

Oprah Winfrey (1954)

The grand dame of television talk shows, Winfrey is a highly respected television host, actress, billionaire media magnate, and philanthropist. Early in her career, she hosted AM Chicago, which, following its early success, was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show and expanded to a full-hour format. In the mid-1990s, Winfrey adopted a less tabloid-oriented format and began covering important social issues like abuse, addiction, and depression. Why did Texas cattlemen sue Oprah in 1998? Discuss

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock formed when grains of sand have been cemented together by a material such as silica, iron oxide, or calcium carbonate. It usually consists mainly of quartz and can vary in color from yellow or red to gray or brown. Sandstone’s porous nature makes it ideal for aquifers, and it is also widely used in construction and industry. Why is sandstone commonly used for decorative features in buildings? Discuss

Space Shuttle Challenger Breaks Apart (1986)

Seventy-three seconds into its launch, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated, killing everyone on board. Investigators concluded that an O-ring—a rubber seal located in the right booster engine—had failed due to cold weather at the time of launch, causing a chain reaction that led to the orbiter’s ultimate disintegration. The tragic event was captured on film, and many children viewed the launch live because schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe was on board. Why was she on the shuttle? Discuss

José Martí (1853)

A poet as well as a man of action, Martí was a writer and revolutionary who dedicated his life to the cause of Cuban independence. At the age of 16, he was arrested for treason and eventually deported. He returned from exile in 1878, only to be exiled again the next year. Having made his way to the US, he founded the Cuban Revolutionary party, but he was killed in battle before seeing the fruits of his labors—Cuban independence. Martí’s “Versos Sencillos” serve as the lyrics of what famous song? Discuss