Next week, many in the US will crowd around backyard BBQs or lay back in lawn chairs lit up by gaudy firework displays—all in the name of celebrating America. At a time when what it means to be an American is being bitterly contested, however, playwright Eve Ensler is planning on marking the 4th of July weekend in a very different way. She is calling on artists of all types to join an “Artistic Uprising” in El Paso in protest of the inhumane treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers.

As an urban economist, Matthew E. Kahn has found a way to blend two of his abiding passions: cities and data. For the past two decades, he's been a leading investigator of the causes and consequences of urban economic growth, whether in Chinese metropolises or Rust Belt cities.

"Cities fascinate me because the majority of people around the world now live in them, and they're our centers for social interaction, learning, and trading with each other," Kahn says. "But economists have long noted the challenges of high-density living—congestion, crime, and pollution—so to maximize the benefits of urbanization, we need to mitigate those quality-of-life challenges."

Eshy Gazit of Maverick Management, is a leading expert in the music industry and has worked as an A&R talent scout, a manager for a number of leading bands, including the K-Pop sensations BTS and Monsta X, a marketing specialist, and a music tech. His current clients include Monsta X, Tiffany Young, and Marcus and Martinus.

The 2019 season will also include a special reading of The Soap Myth by Jeff Cohen, directed by Pam Berlin, and starring 7-time Emmy Award winner Ed Asner ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show") and 2-time Emmy and 4-time Tony Award nominee Tovah Feldshuh(Golda's Balcony). It will be followed by a talkback with the playwright and cast, as well as Williams College professor and author of Living with Hate in American Politics and Religion, Jeffrey Israel.

Baton Rouge’s NPR News station, announced today that NPR political correspondent Mara Liasson will speak at the station’s fifth annual Founders Luncheon Sept. 13 at 12:00 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Baton Rouge. Liasson provides extensive coverage of politics and policy from Washington, DC, focusing on the White House and Congress; and political trends beyond the Beltway. She has reported on seven presidential elections since 1992. Liasson's reports are heard regularly on Morning Edition and All Things Considered on WRKF.

The drama which is already available via streaming platform Foxtel Now, dramatises the horrific 1986 nuclear accident and tells the story of the brave men and women who made incredible sacrifices to save Europe from unimaginable disaster, while battling a culture of disinformation.

The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas has announced that it will add artist Nicole Eisenman’s Sketch for a Fountain to its collection. Originally presented at Skulptur Projekte Münster in 2017, the playful work consists of five larger-than-life figures of indeterminate gender lounging and dozing around a basin of water. It was acquired through the Kaleta A. Doolin Acquisition Fund for Women Artists and a promised gift from the Green Family Collection.

From the early years of US involvement in Vietnam to the latter stages of the war on terror, the remarkable career of Richard Holbrooke spanned almost half a century before coming to a dramatic end just before Christmas 2010. Holbrooke was already something of a dying breed – a celebrity diplomat and hyperactive emblem of the Pax Americana that had emerged out of the Second World War but was already entering its twilight years.