Rich History, New Visions

At Penn Live Arts, the legendary Negro Ensemble Company is creating new work that explores this country’s racial tensions and challenges. A February world premiere, Mecca is Burning, brought together five playwrights to imagine how four Black families in Harlem might navigate a white-supremacist revolution.

At the Crossroads

The Penn Museum’s new Eastern Mediterranean Gallery casts the cradle of Abrahamic religions and alphabetic innovation as a cosmopolitan sphere—not just a conflict-ridden one.

The Lambs of War

Buzz Bissinger explores World War II through a group of football players pushed into the ultimate sacrifice. Daniel Akst probes the legacy of pacifist resisters.