Columbia Classical Ballet’s new season arrives with a determined focus. This year’s programming will focus on female-driven productions, refle…

The work of Richard Samuel Roberts has long been thought to have given a voice to those who may not otherwise have been heard during their lif…

“Honesty is always my best policy,” South Carolina State Fair General Manager Nancy Smith tells Free Times brightly. The proclamation comes in…

The concept at the center of Visiones y Música, the upcoming season-opening Masterworks program by the South Carolina Philharmonic, is called …

There’s an enormous work of art under construction this week at Stormwater Studios on Pendleton Street, but no one — least of all the 10 artis…

There was a time when you could spot witches a mile away. The Weird Sisters from Shakespeare’s Macbeth were deliberate outsiders who wore chea…

John Gibson has booked and overseen the Cola Comedy CON for three years, spearheading the logistics of a three-day festival that puts more tha…

The word “genius” implies all-encompassing knowledge. When we use the word to describe an Albert Einstein or a Ludwig van Beethoven or a Vince…

In 2013, the award-winning and world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma released an album with the Silk Road Ensemble called A Playlist Without Borders…

Jocelyn Sanders has come full circle, and she acknowledges a pleasant sense of fulfillment and accomplishment. 

Stories of Dislocation, the new theatrical work by University of South Carolina professor Robyn Hunt, is not a traditional play in any sense o…

Tapp’s Arts Center, the collection of galleries, studios and performance venues that occupies its namesake former department store, will vacat…

Tapp’s Arts Center, the collection of galleries, studios, and performance venues that has occupied its namesake former department store, will vacate the building in November.

It’s a stark reality, but when you look on stage at most professional orchestras around the country, there’s a conspicuous absence of black an…

For Bill Morrison, the University of South Carolina’s Moving Image Research Collections are a gift that keeps on giving.

The first thing to say about The Supper Table is that it’s easy to understand but hard to describe.

In January 2018, two cousins, Julia Johnson and Anna Redwine, set out on a trip to Ireland. Johnson, a poet, and Redwine, an artist, were on a…

There’s something enigmatic about the way mixed-media artist Greyson Smith approaches gardens and flowers. 

There was a time when collecting comic books was seen as a low-brow investment. Now, though, not only has comics fandom reached an all-time hi…

Brooklyn's Stephen Brown still remembers the first time he seriously considered being a playwright. Even though he grew up doing community the…

Lexington County has seen a boom in residential and commercial development, population and political clout in recent years. The question, howe…

From October to March, Columbia enjoys a thriving dance scene, led most prominently by two professional ballet companies. 

“Few local arts leaders can work a room — or get things done — like Larry Hembree.” — Free Times, June 25, 2014

When Free Times reached out to Donald Brock, Jr., co-founder of the Soda City Comic Con, we wanted to know how he and partner Steve Powell do …

There’s a lot wrapped up in how we understand motherhood. It sometimes seems simple, sometimes complex. Its definition is sometimes biological…

This Friday, more than 30 people will walk across the stage at the Newberry Opera House, showing off a variety of outfits. But the clothes won…

Even if you weren’t a Twitter user, it was hard to miss the online explosion last week. Fans reacted to the freshly unleashed trailer for the …

Larry Lebby, the South Carolina artist known for depictions of African-American life and portraits of public figures, died July 21. He was 69.

A few years ago, Columbia artist Mana Hewitt had a modest idea to honor two women who made significant contributions to human progress. 

Just about every school kid ends up studying John Keats’ 1819 poem “Ode On A Grecian Urn.” It’s one of the best-known poems in literary histor…

It’s time again to harp on one of Free Times favorite harping points: The Harbison Theatre at Midlands Tech books far above what’s expected of…

Thirty-three years ago, a book was published in Columbia that had a wide-ranging effect in the fields of photography and African American stud…

Since Cirque Du Soleil was founded in July of 1984 in Quebec, the goal — per the group’s mission statement — has been to “invoke the imaginati…

On the surface, Tarot cards and black history don’t seem to have much in common.

Dewey Scott-Wiley, director of the upcoming Trustus Theatre production of Heathers, the Musical, jokes that she has no problem being an “emiss…

Germon “Mama G” Miller-Bey has one of the most varied and fascinating lives you’ll find. The 66-year-old has a PhD in urban anthropology. She …

Sometimes a comedy club isn’t the best place to see comedy. In fact, if a comedian chooses to work in a format other than standing on stage ho…

Mimi Kato and Jimmy Kuehnle don’t do anything small, or similar. 

As a filmmaker, Charleston’s Michelle Iannantuono readily admits that she’s “not the best case study.”

The University of South Carolina’s Southeastern Piano Festival, an internationally renowned celebration of some of the finest musicians in the…

The local art gallery Anastasia & Friends will come to an end soon — but not without a going-away party.

Chatting with Sean McGuinness the day before Godzilla: King of the Monsters opens in theaters and just over a week before the June 7 opening o…

Marina Alexandra is an accomplished classical guitarist who began playing at a very young age — but it wasn’t exactly her decision.

“We do a great disservice to people by making them read Shakespeare,” posits Tim Giles.