Siddhartha Mitter

Bruce with full gospel (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

Who knew Jon Bon Jovi had it in him? Color me impressed by the Jersey rocker's gorgeous duet with gritty soul veteran Bettye LaVette on 'A Change Is Gonna Come' - a song of incomparable beauty and also one that's easy to mess up, so indelibly delicate and haunting is the Sam Cooke original treatment. But they pulled it off, and so doing, provided the first emotional high point of the 'We Are One' mega-concert Sunday afternoon on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, before a crowd of - well, no one knows exactly how many, but certainly several hundred thousand freezing but happy people packing the Mall back to the hillock of the Washington Monument.

Manifest Hope exhibition entrance, Georgetown

Pulling into Washington, DC last night by my usual route - Bladensburg Road onto H Street NE - I saw little sign of anything other than a standard (if extra-cold) winter Friday evening in the imperial capital; at least not along the gas-station and fast-food arteries of Northeast, with their intimations of tumbleweed ghetto life in the streets behind. The tale-of-two-cities narrative is familiar and much-repeated in the District, with fairly acute poverty and dereliction stretching into the metaphoric shadow of the Capitol. There's high hope here that a president and first family who are non only African-American, but also longtime city folk, will invest themselves and encourage others to invest, economically and culturally, in these neighborhoods. For the moment, change is coming mostly through gentrification - the H Street corridor, a commercial thoroughfare of black DC before the 1968 riots, is starting to fill in with hipster taverns and yuppie markets - with all the complex issues that that raises.

Detail of a panel by Chicago's Ray Noland

Art played a bigger role in this presidential election than ever before. Especially that heroic red-white-and-blue image of Barack Obama. You know the one. It's by a street artist named Shepard Fairey. WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter talked to him and some other Obama image makers, who confessed ...

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Artists played a big part in the presidential election, and their images of Barak Obama made him a cultural icon long before he actually won the presidency. Now, with Obama on the threshold of power, the artists who supported him find themselves in an unusual ...

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For the last fourteen years, Russell Goings has been writing about big and small characters in African American history. Now, he’s created a long epic poem meant to match the Iliad, or the tale of Gilgamesh. WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter reports.

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INTRO: For many New Yorkers the presidential election is in the rear view mirror, but for a group of first-time voters at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, the revelations from that day keep on coming. WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter reports.

SUZANNE: Freedom from your parents...religious freedom...what ...

WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter looks at some of the cultural details emerging about Obama's swearing in ceremony.

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It keeps on getting worse. As the Dow Jones tumbles lower and lower, individual investors face mounting confusion and anxiety. And that’s not an ideal state of mind for decision making -- as one firm is trying to remind its clients. WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter reports.

REPORTER: ...

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"Neo-Hoodoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith" is the title of an exhibition that's running at PS 1 in Queens until January 26th. Poet Quincy Troupe is reading at the museum Saturday. Troupe says what was once forgotten is now remembered. WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter spoke with ...

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This morning in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn a long line stretched down Macon Street as residents waited one to two hours to cast their vote at P.S. 262, the El-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz elementary school at the corner of Malcolm X Boulevard.

Egypt Griffin was videotaping the scene ...

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The last few weeks of turmoil on the financial markets and all the talk of bailouts and rescue plans has brought government intervention in the economy to the forefront of debate in a way it hasn’t been in a long time.

But there are some who ...

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French athlete Zinedine Zidane is a star on the soccer field... and now on the big screen. "Zidane" the film is running this week only at BAM and at Anthology Film Archives.

WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter has these observations on the way soccer becomes a work of ...

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Gov. Sarah Palin arrives at the vice presidential debate tonight as a near-overnight celebrity. But with her interviews few and far between, a lot of what we know about her – or what we think about her – has been supplied by comedians. WNYC’s Siddhartha ...

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The Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who died in August, was considered the most distinguished literary voice of his community. So much so, in fact, that he received a state funeral from the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. Last week Darwish's New York admirers got together to ...

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"Democracy in America" — it's a big agenda and it's also the title of a show up this week at the Park Avenue Armory. There's work from more than 40 artists — taking on the political issues of our time. WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter checked it ...

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Muslims are midway through the holy month of Ramadan, with its obligation to fast every day from sunrise to sunset. This year Ramadan falls in a busy season, with kids going back to school and not much room for time off. WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter spent ...

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He's a legendary DJ from even before the days of disco. Now Brooklyn's own Nicky Siano has returned — on a mission — to bring the soul back to the dance floor. WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter reports.

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Even by Bloomberg Administration standards, rebuilding Willets Point in Queens is a massive development project. This summer, the city proposal to tear down the industrial district near Shea Stadium, known for its auto repair shops, and build housing, retail and a convention center has been ...

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With all the anxiety about mortgages and foreclosures, you might forget another part of the housing crisis: The need for affordable new housing in many parts of the country. A new exhibition at MoMA shows how some architects are working with prefabricated housing to come ...

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They used to be misfits, but now they're a flourishing cultural movement. A festival in Brooklyn showcases Afro-punk - the growing scene of mostly black young people who aren't afraid to rock out. WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter reports.