By Victoria Charles, ’16            When onlooker Michael Phillips decided to capture and share a photo of Academy-Award winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis eating at a Richmond restaurant via Twitter he contributed to the ever-growing repository of user-generated content that is the substance of social media. Currently, consumers of media are also producers of media in a way that blurs the lines of distinction between mass … Continue reading Mr. Day-Lewis! Over Here…Over Here! Analyzing the Breakdown of Social and Traditional Media

By Katie Neatrour, ’16 Under the wings of Phineas T. Barnum, known as “the Greatest Showman on Earth”, the Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind created a musical sensation across America. Although he had never heard Lind’s voice before inviting her to America, P.T. Barnum was well aware of Lind’s international fame. With many other American tour offers on her plate, Lind was nonetheless intrigued by Barnum’s. … Continue reading Jenny Lind: An Angelic Icon Consumed by the American Public

By Karolina Castro, ’16            Stokely Carmichael was a Trinidadian-American revolutionary of the Civil Right era known for popularizing the term “Black Power.” Carmichael started his activist career as a student at Howard University in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).  He later became the prime minister of the Black Panther Party before moving in 1969 to Guinea and advocating for Pan Africanism as a … Continue reading Black Power, Kwame Ture, and College Activism in the 1960s and 1970s

By Caitlin McCallister, ’16 Former USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev visited Virginia the week of April 10, 1993, where he spoke at several colleges, including the University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Virginia. Coming about two years after resigning as Soviet president and six years after US President Ronald Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” speech in Berlin, Gorbachev was an intriguing guest … Continue reading Gorbachev: Giving and Gaining Legitimacy in Richmond, Virginia

By Brendan O’ Connor, ’16     For many people and places within the United States, the 1960s and 70s were transformational decades in American culture and politics–years of social reform, cultural creativity, and political conflict. In these years, rock music was undergoing constant redefinitions, as the emergence of top 40 pop radio was contrasted by the psychedelic movement and jam-bands of the later 60s, and … Continue reading Bruce, Rock & Roll, and Richmond: Times of Transition