Max Roach: We Insist! Freedom Now Suite

In 1960, Max Roach and Oscar Brown, Jr. collaborated to write We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, an avant-garde jazz album about civil rights. Brown recalls, “We did it on the road, kind of; we really wrote it by telephone.” The album reflected the experiences of Black people and the need for Black civil rights movements …

Marc Bloch: An Expanded History

On March 8, 1944, the Gestapo arrested "an ageing gentleman, rather short, grey-haired, bespectacled, neatly dressed, holding a briefcase in one hand and a cane in the other"[1]. Under the pseudonym “Maurice Blanchard”, Marc Bloch, who became a leader in the French resistance in 1943, endured miserable conditions and torture at Montluc Prison. As the …

Why the 1st Great Awakening?

Everybody has a story.  I have a story.  You have a story.  The harried lady at the grocery store has a story. Every story is influenced by philosophy.  We often do not think of philosophy as the influencers of our stories.  However, many philosophies and movements influenced the First Great Awakening.  It only takes a single …

Introduction: The Enlightenment vs. The Great Awakening

"When God gets ready to shake America, He may not take the Ph.D. and the D.D. God may choose a country boy … God may choose the man that no one knows, a little nobody, to shake America for Jesus Christ in this day, and I pray that He would!"  (Billy Graham, 1949) Billy Graham’s …

Jan Van Eyck: The 1st of the Renaissance

Born in Maaseik between 1380-1395, Jan van Eyck created 25 paintings, a surprisingly low number for a long career.  All of them are dated between 1432 through 1439.   He signed only ten of his works.  He signed the the Ghent altarpiece, for example, with the date and a variation of his motto, ALS IK KAN …

Symbolism in Art: More than a Glance

Symbols are all around us.  They cover our flags, our countries, our conversation, and our art.  However, in the business of life, what symbols have we never noticed?  The Arnolfini Wedding by Jan van Eyck and Saint Jerome in his Study by Albrecht Durer hide symbolism throughout the layers of paint.  Three layers of the concept …

Intro to Renaissance & Baroque Art

What is the Baroque period of the arts?  You may have asked yourself this question at one point in your life.  And here is the answer: the ba-roke period is what needs to be fixed!  All kidding aside.  The Baroque period of the arts took place in the 17th and 18th centuries.  This period was …