Historic origins of A. Fool’s Day
April Fool’s Day originated among the French a few years into the Revolutionary War. Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin had been pleading with them for any sort of assistance. The […]
Events:
The Court: Art in Play
September 24, 2025 - April 26, 2026The Flower, The Labor, and The Sea
September 27, 2025 - June 28, 2026
Ken Burns brings his revolution to RI: Famed documentarian stumps for his new series on the American Revolution
Ken Burns made documentaries cool. His early work, spanning back to the ‘70s, inspired generations to engage differently with documentaries. Reenactments, slow-burn pans across historic documents and paintings, and comfortable […]
Rich Lupo: 50 years of RI music
In the living room of his childhood home, a young Rich Lupo would sit as if under a spell, transistor radio pressed to his ear while the television played in […]
ww2: The War at Home
Unique among all the states, only Rhode Island continues to observe “Victory Day” remembering the end of hostilities during World War II. At one point it was called “V-J Day” […]
Caribbean Heritage Month: Where the Islands Live in New England
By Cheikh Higgs June marks National Caribbean American Heritage Month, a time to honor the rich cultural tapestry woven by Caribbean immigrants and their descendants across the United States. In […]
Foreign Flavor: A brief history and sentimentality of the immigrants of PVD
The capital city of Providence is as “bustling” as it gets in tiny RI, and while far from a major metropolis, it does have a longstanding tradition of playing host […]
This is Uncle Tarzan: Getting to know the infamous runner Tarzan Brown
I won my only fight with “Tarzan” Brown. Or so my mother told me. I was only about three at the time, so I don’t really remember it. He was […]
A Rhode Island Origin Story: Tracing the roots of early colonization
Rhode Island may be the smallest state, but it has a grand story to tell. It wasn’t just shaped by Roger Williams; it emerged from the contributions of diverse thinkers […]
Are Libraries a Dying Breed?: A conversation with Rhode Island’s oldest library, and RI’s young students
Between paper-bound streets, a young man sits at a small desk. Around him are amassed towers of books, each title like a glowing yellow window in an elusive night. The […]
Autumn Blues: Rhode islanders’ bi-annual tradition of voting for the democratic party has origins almost a century old
Politically speaking, Rhode Island has always been a difficult place to pin down. Founded by Roger Williams, a radical Christian who was thrown out of the more respectable colony of […]