Back in the early nineties, when other artists (and varying intelligence agencies) had more traditional ideas on their minds, Hanif Kureishi chose to focus on the “toxic fundamentalism bubbling away in Britain’s multicultural melting-pot.”

Inspired by the fatwa of 1989 against Salman Rushdie over the The Satanic Verses, The Black Album sets liberalism against fundamentalism through a Muslim central character. Fifteen years on, the book stands up as an eerie warning from history. Since those issues have become even more relevant, Kureishi’s now adapted his novel for the stage.

Revisiting this material in a post-9/11 and post-7/7 world is not only thought-provoking but necessary (especially when analyzing the start of the 21st century). It transports audiences back to the experiences of immigrants from the subcontinent, providing context for the birth of extremism as both a reaction to prejudice and an attempt by Anglo-Asians to root themselves culturally....

RICHMOND, Va. — His body may lie a-moldering in the grave, but in what form exactly does his soul go marching on? We may think we know something about John Brown, the abolitionist and stern Calvinist who 150 years ago this month led 21 followers to take over the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va., expecting to gather weapons to fuel a widespread slave rebellion. His self-proclaimed Provisional Army of the United States took hostages (including a great-grandnephew of George Washington) and killed four innocent citizens. Finally, after being captured by a detachment of Marines led by Robert E. Lee, and tried, Brown and six other insurgents were hanged for treason, though their cause ultimately triumphed.

But in two small-scale but heavily laden exhibitions — one at the New-York Historical Society, drawing on the extraordinary Gilder Lehrman Collection, the other at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond (the first show devoted to Brown in a city that was the capital...

ANCIENT stone monuments around the Aberdeenshire countryside are the focus of a new photography exhibition.

Dramatic black and white images depicting some of the region’s stone circles have gone on display at Westhill. Stone circles at Easter Aquorthies, Loanhead of Daviot near Inverurie and Tomnaverie near Aboyne feature in the show at Max’s Cafe on Ashdale Drive.

Westhill photographer Heather Maslen says her images are part of an ongoing project to record the region’s historic stone monuments.

“I like the mystery and the beauty of them,” she said.

“There is a fascination about them because we do not know exactly why they were put there.

“They are just such a part of this area. It’s a way of exploring the countryside. I am trying to find some off the beaten track that not everyone sees.

“I’ve been doing it for 18 months already but I’ve got so much more to do.”

Mrs Maslen, 53, specialises in black and...

Between the early 1990s and 2002, Florida Atlantic University's Wimberly Library acquired about a thousand recordings of Jewish music. In 2002 that collection became the foundation for the Judaica Music Rescue Project, founded by Nathan Tinanoff, with the goal of creating a central repository for Judaic sound recordings. In 2005 the project was renamed the Judaica Sound Archives, with Mr. Tinanoff as director. It now contains about 58,000 recordings. In the last half-decade, the project has been receiving material at the rate of more than 10,000 recordings a year. Mr. Tinanoff and the archives' assistant director, Maxine Schackman, jointly answered questions about about it via e-mail.

Q. What kinds of recordings do you seek out?

A. The JSA accepts any recording of Jewish music. The JSA collects recordings that reflect Jewish culture including: folk, cantorial, comedy, theater, Chassidic...

A bust of Caracalla, the notorious Roman Emperor who reigned from 211-217 and is remembered as one of the worst and cruelest rulers in the history of the Empire, will be auctioned at Bonhams Antiquities sale on 28 October in New Bond Street. It is estimated to sell for £150,000 - £250,000.

Edward Gibbon described him thus: "Caracalla was the common enemy of mankind," his reign characterized by "rapine and cruelty." (E. Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter VI).

Caracalla (A.D. 212-217) executed his brother and co-emperor Geta and massacred thousands of his brother's supporters, as well as his own wife and his brother-in-law (amongst other family members) in an effort to take sole control of the Empire.

'Caracalla' was born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, and as Roman emperor he became Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus. The nickname 'Caracalla' is thought to derive from the Gallic hooded cloak...

The exhibition will be the first in Europe focusing on the great age of Mexican printmaking in the first half of the 20-century.

Between 1910 and 1920 the country was convulsed by the first socialist revolution, from which emerged a strong left-wing government that laid great stress on art as a vehicle for promoting the values of the revolution. This led to a pioneering program to cover the walls of public buildings with vast murals, and later to setting up print workshops to produce works for mass distribution and education. All the prints in the exhibition come from the British Museum’s collection which has been acquired thanks to the generosity of the Aldama Foundation, Dave and Reba Williams and The Art Fund.

Some of the finest of these prints were produced by the three great men of Mexican art of the period known as ‘los tres grandes’: Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. The best-known print is Rivera’s Emiliano Zapata and his...

Based on new evidence about the systematic looting of art from Jewish owners in the course of hostilities in Europe during World War II, a pair of famous paintings on display at SMU's Meadows Museum created by Spanish master Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1618-1682) of Seville's Patron Saints Justa and Rufina, estimated to be worth more than $10 million, are believed to have been stolen from the Rothschild family in Paris in 1941. The Nazi ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg) code evidencing Rothschild ownership is still visible on the stretcher bar of one of the paintings; it appears to have been rubbed off the other. The Monuments Men Foundation, recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal for its work preserving the legacy of these unknown heroes, which it received from the President of the United States at a White House ceremony, is continuing its research to document conclusively whether both paintings were properly restituted to the rightful owners prior to donation to the...

Shannon Lee, the daughter and heir of martial-arts expert Bruce Lee, is trying to add some pow to the late movie star's legacy.

In a bid to tap into growing interest in Mr. Lee in China and to develop her father into a powerhouse global brand, Ms. Lee last year bought back the rights to his image from General Electric Co.'s Universal Studios, which had held them since the late 1980s. "They didn't put the effort behind it I felt should be put behind it," she says. Universal declined to comment.

Then she formed Bruce Lee Enterprises, a licensing company, and LeeWay Media Group, a production company, to raise his profile. Ms. Lee also consulted with the estates of other famous people, including Elvis Presley and John Wayne, to learn more about how to successfully revive a deceased icon's image.

In recent years, the Bruce Lee brand has brought in around $1 million a year, the estate says. With the new push, Ms. Lee hopes she can squeeze $5...

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- This was supposed to be the year that Barbie finally regained her tiara as the queen of the toy aisles.

After many false starts, Mattel Inc. thought it had found a way to make the iconic fashion doll once more a must-have for girls of all ages -- and to boost the company's flagging revenues as well. It is spending millions of dollars to promote its new "Fashionista" Barbies, even hiring a choreographer-to-the-stars to create a dance called "The Barbie" for a video that had its premiere on the "Today Show" and was posted on YouTube.

But the latest Barbie was beaten to the stores by two new dolls that could threaten her resurgence, industry insiders say. One comes from perhaps the hottest toy makers in North America, Spin Master Ltd. The other was created by designers with a grudge against Mattel, which wrested away their company's rights to the hit Bratz dolls.

And so a firefight is breaking out in...