Centuries have passed since the Roman Catholic Church held inordinate power over the hearts and minds of its flock. Nevertheless, the idea of the church being answerable only to itself seems too deeply entrenched to be...

In the 21st century the term "landscape" has largely outgrown the classical contrivances and picturesque notions of the past. Nevertheless, an exhibit at UW-Milwaukee's School of Architecture and Urban Planning shows that alongside the significance attached to landscape in our age, some of its romantic and spiritual dimensions still prevail. The exhibition brings together study and sketch models...

The term “community leader” has gained added respect since Barack Obama’s presidential run, especially among the nation’s youth. However, it’s an organization named Public Allies, set up by two women in Washington, D.C., well before Obama’s political ascent, that has helped to turn community development...

Despite the prevailing notion that Alzheimer's only affects those of an advanced age, hundred of thousands of adults under the age of 60 are afflicted by the disease. As sufferers of early-onset Alzheimer's undergo a gradual regression into the dependence of infancy, their friends and relatives painfully witness their devolution from familiarity to estrangement. It's a torturous transition one rarely encounters in literary...

The use of multiple narratives has a history reaching back to the European epistolary works of the mid-1600s. Within the last century the device was memorably explored by authors like Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner to not only examine more fully the motives behind their characters' thoughts and actions in complex streams of consciousness but also, in Faulkner's case, to create an indelible impression of the environment that shaped them. In her debut novel, Mudbound, Hillary Jordan ventures...

John Gay's The Beggar's Opera has received numerous updates. Theatre Gigante's version of the 18th-century operetta, which ran this weekend at the Off-Broadway Theatre, provides up-to-the-minute comedic commentary on the hubris underlying our current economic downfall. Unlike the original, the financial predators in Theatre Gigante's production don't belong to a shady criminal underclass. Instead they're lawless finance...

Call me a contrarian, but when I perceive mass movement in one direction I usually gravitate toward the other. There's something eerie about public consensus. I hope (but am not entirely convinced) a similar streak of dissent broods beneath the self-consciously seditious surface of UW-Milwaukee Union's newest exhibit (through April 3). Without that glimmer...

Jane Austen remains one of the best-loved authors in the English language. Her novels possess a perennial appeal for anyone drawn to the quaint customs of Regency England, or seduced by Austen's indelible mix of refined badinage and blissful endings. Many Austen fans would give anything to enter the charming...