Culture

What do Last Tango in Halifax, the Brontë sisters, the Wars of the Roses, cute terriers, and Downton Abbey have in common? They're all grounded in the north English region of Yorkshire. Explore the outsize influence of Yorkshire on culture and history.

In Scandinavia and especially Sweden, the feast day of Saint Lucia is an important celebration of light during the short days of winter. How do Swedes, Chicagoans, and Nobel Prize winners enjoy the feast day?

Beginning December 11, WTTW Prime will broadcast the global affairs interview program Amanpour on PBS, hosted by CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. Look back on some of Amanpour's major exclusive interviews and accomplishments.

The approach of the holidays means you'll probably be spending time with your family. Need a pleasant soundtrack? A festive portrayal of a loving but difficult family? A little-known story that has nothing to do with the holidays? See our picks. 

The Holiday Train is now in its 25th year, while the bus is in its fourth. Both offer photo sessions with Santa, colored lights, and bright decorations. Find their schedules here. 

"When you're born into this world it's very hard to realistically change your life," says the director of the newly updated Frontline: Poor Kids. "Kids can escape into their dreams; adults escape into alcoholism or drugs. They didn't choose that."

Freedom of speech is a fraught topic these days. Explore six infamous cases of censorship in the United States, from landmark court decisions on obscenity to the advent of parental advisory stickers to two examples of controversy from this year.

Although it's now a cherished holiday tradition, The Nutcracker didn't arrive in Chicago until almost 50 years after its premiere. Numerous favorite productions have visited or made their home in the city, all with their own staunch partisans.

The Joffrey Ballet's new Nutcracker is set at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. How was the Joffrey's creative team inspired by the epochal World's Fair, and what aspects of the real-life Fair made it into their new production?

In his work at the TODAY show, Mike Leonard says that "not one place I went to or person I met was what I thought it would be. So at a time when so many generalizations are being made about groups of people, it’s important to hear stories of people who aren’t being heard from.”

Articulate with Jim Cotter is a new arts and culture show airing on WTTW Prime that spotlights everything from a maker of extravagant hats to a 92-year-old pianist who studied with Rachmaninoff. Explore some digital highlights from the show. 

Despite difficulties involving its creation and lukewarm reviews at its premiere, The Nutcracker has become perhaps the most popular ballet in North America. Its path to success on this continent runs through Disney, San Francisco, and CBS.

In the Joffrey Ballet's new Nutcracker,  the main characters aren't wealthy but instead are working class immigrants living on the grounds of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair before it opens. How did the Joffrey reinvent a holiday classic?

November is packed with local productions about Chicago. Check out our highlights, from a new Geoffrey Baer tour to a national show looking inside the creative process of making a new Nutcracker, not to mention three other Chicago programs.