Arts & Culture

When playwright August Wilson died in 2005, The New York Times writer Ben Brantley compared his writing to "the sweep of Shakespearean music," his plays "like grand opera rooted in the blues." Wilson won a host of awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes;  his magnum opus, now known as the Pittsburgh cycle, includes 10 plays, each set in a different decade of the 20th century, chronicling the lives of ordinary African Americans.

Benjamin Franklin’s many gifts to Philadelphia and the nation include free libraries, fire companies lightning rods, bi-focals, and the University of Pennsylvania. The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, is perhaps one of his lesser-known gems.

Despite the large statue of Franklin above the main entrance, many people may unknowingly walk right past the centuries-old Society, which is discreetly housed in a neo-classical building in Old City, Philadelphia.

The film Love Story was a massive cultural phenomenon in the early 1970s. Adapted by Erich Segal from his novel of the same name, the romantic tragedy starred Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw as two students from different social classes who meet at Harvard, fall in love, and wed. After which, personal tragedy strikes.

Pioneering 20th-century sculptor and furniture maker Wharton Esherick  lived and worked in Philadelphia and the surrounding countryside, where his onetime studio and home is now a museum.

WRTI’s Susan Lewis considers the life and influences of this artist who practiced a variety of artistic disciplines before achieving fame for his  curvilinear free-form sculpture.