In this Short Fuse conversation, Chris Thurman, a Shakespeare scholar and professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, talks with Elizabeth Howard about Shakespeare. Were his plays part of the colonial apparatus to impose British culture in South Africa, or a means of liberation? How is Shakespeare considered, discussed, and performed in a post-colonial, post-apartheid country? Did you know that there are published translations of Shakespeare's plays into at least eight of the twelve official languages?

This episode explores the opening of Mother Africa, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2025–26 season, celebrating South African Jazz and the African diaspora that brought it to life. Elizabeth Howard is in conversation with Seton Hawkins, the Director of Public Programs and Educational Resources at Jazz at Lincoln Center. He is a jazz advocate, educator, and producer with a specific focus on South Africa. Seton is joined by Marcus Printup, who plays trumpet in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and contributes regularly to the orchestra as an arranger and composer. He has recorded with many jazz legends. The story of jazz in Africa reflects the weight of resistance, identity, and hope and are expressions of the South African experience, resonating with themes of struggle, mourning and resilience.

In this episode, Mervin Sloman, founder of the beloved Book Lounge and the Open Book Festival in Cape Town, South Africa, is in conversation with Elizabeth Howard around the unique challenges of managing an independent bookstore, while navigating the complicated, ever shifting environment. What does it mean to manage an independent bookshop in South Africa? What are the challenges, the opportunities, and the importance of creating a space for writers and their readers to meet in community? The Book Lounge opened in 2007 and the Open Book Festival was launched four years later in 2011. It takes creativity, determination, resilience and a passion for books to survive and thrive. During difficult moments: "I have a copious amount of salt from which to pinch." Mervin Sloman

In this Short Fuse episode Elizabeth Howard is in conversation with actor, director, playwright, influential drama lecturer, and theatre administrator, Malcolm Purkey, who shares his personal journey through the world of theater during a time of political upheaval in South Africa. How did artists navigate censorship, embrace improvisation, and use their craft as a powerful tool for resistance and change, from the vibrant musical evenings of his childhood to the transformative plays of Athol Fugard. Malcolm raises the questions: "Where is South Africa going? How do we decolonize in a way that's for real? What does that mean? Does it mean that the 11 official languages are even given equal weight across the board? Those are hard questions. And I'm not sure if I can even yet understand." Elizabeth Howard is recording in South Africa, researching and listening to learn more about how the legacy of apartheid continues to shape the artistic landscape today.

In this conversation, Elizabeth Howard engages with Tyler Wetherall through her journey in connecting with the literary community in New York City through her newsletter, "Reading the City." They discuss the evolution of bookstores, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, highlighting how they have transformed into community hubs that offer a third space. The conversation emphasizes the importance of bookstores in fostering community, social justice, and the changing landscape of reading culture and the vibrant landscape of reading venues and community reading series. In their conversation they point out the challenges of promoting books in a crowded market, the importance of community support among authors and the role of independent bookstores in fostering literary culture.

Summary In this engaging conversation, Elizabeth Howard speaks with Sonya Chung, the director of Film Forum in New York, about the intersection of film and literature, the relevance of the Oscars, and the impact of independent films. They explore the evolution of Film Forum, the importance of documentaries, and how cinema can help audiences understand complex global issues. Sonya Chung shares insights on audience engagement and the legacy of risk-taking in independent cinema, emphasizing the power of film to convey human experiences.

In this conversation, Adam Kuper, a social anthropologist, and Elizabeth Howard, host of the Short Fuse, discuss his book 'The Museum of Other People from Colonial Acquisitions to Cosmopolitan Exhibitions.' Their talk ranges from the influence of African art on modern artists, the role of museums in archival history, to the challenges of repatriation. Adam Kuper also explores the need for museums to reassess their role in a post-colonial world, suggests the importance of temporary exhibitions and collaborative projects and defines what could be, in his mind, the "new, new museum."

The Swans of Harlem is the forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas: Lydia Abarça, Gayle McKinney-Griffith, Sheila Rohan, Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells, and their fifty-year sisterhood. Karen Valby, the author of The Swans of Harlem, and Lydia Abarca, a prima ballerina and one of the Swans, are in conversation with Elizabeth Howard to talk about their success on the stage, and the challenges they faced. Arthur Mitchell, the founder of The Dance Theater of Harlem, gave them the opportunity to perform. Their legacy had been erased. Until now.

In this Short Fuse episode Elizabeth Howard is in conversation with Jay Watson, a Faulkner scholar and chair of the Faulkner Yoknapatawpha Conference at the University of Mississippi. This year is the 50th Anniversary of the Conference at the University of Mississippi. Jay and Elizabeth explore the life and work of William Faulkner, with a focus on his home, Rowan Oak, his impact on Southern literature, Faulkner's early life and the historical context of his work. Jay discusses Faulkner's technique in representing marginalized lives, his influence on global literature, and the accessibility of his works through translation.

As we slide down into the final hours of 2023, Elizabeth Howard, host and producer of the Short Fuse, and Alex Waters, technical editor of the Short Fuse, reflect on the year in an informal conversation at the Dell'Aria Cafe in East Harlem. They share a few of the moments from the conversations that seem particularly meaningful and "authentic" - the Merriam-Webster word of the year, in a year filled with "disruptions" - Elizabeth's word of the year. And the color of 2023: Pantone Viva Magenta.

In this episode of the Short Fuse, host Elizabeth Howard and Editor-in-Chief and founder of the Arts Fuse, Bill Marx discuss the vital role arts commentary and criticism play in nurturing an open and democratic society. Bill Marx founded the Arts Fuse in 2007 as a reaction to the precipitous decline of commentary on the arts in newspapers, However the continual whittling down of independent arts coverage over the past three decades has been passed over in silence. The goal of the Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The journal's motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.”

On Monday, 23 October, Elizabeth Howard was in conversation with Justice Malala, author of The Plot to Save South Africa, The Week Mandela Averted Civil war and Forged a New Nation, and Jonny Steinberg, author of Winne and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage. The event was held at Cafe Lafayette in New York City and this is a live, unedited recording. There is noise in the background.

In this episode of the Short Fuse, Elizabeth Howard is in conversation with Ann Kjellberg around reading and the importance of literary criticism and commentary. Ann is the founder of Book Post, a newsletter-based book review that publishes short book reviews by distinguished figures in literature, history, science, social sciences, and the arts. "To me the importance of literary criticism is to have magnitude of thought, sustained reflection and a kind of demonstrable argument. This is why I'm interested in book reviews, because commentary is a way of connecting written culture with something that is enduring." Ann Kjellberg

Jasmine Rice LaBeija the International Godmother of the Royal House of LaBeija, is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where she majored in opera, before becoming a Drag Queen. In this conversation she talks with Elizabeth Howard about what it means to perform in drag and why she is not on the opera stage. And, as drag has become emeshed in American culture, she questions why many lawmakers want to pass legislation to prohibit it. A conversation that is provocative and amusing.

in this episode, Elizabeth Howard is in conversation with Justice Malala about the nine days in 1993 when South Africa was on the brink of civil war, following the assassination of Chris Hani, a beloved Black leader and Mandela Protege. In his new book, The Plot to Save South Africa, Malala shares his perspective, thirty years later, of what it was like as a twenty-two-year-old rookie journalist, who was one of the first on the scene after Hani's murder by a white supremacist. An insightful conversation with lessons for contemporary leaders.

What is poetry for, who is a poet and how does one becomes a poet? Kyle Dacuyan, who writes poems, makes performances and is the executive director of the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church in the Bowery, reflects on these questions in a conversation with Elizabeth Howard. He reads two original poems: "Doesn't It All Go to Vinegar Margaret?" and "Music for a Small Group of People." This conversation was recorded in August, 2021 and celebrates National Poetry Month, launched by the Academy of American Poets in April, 1996.

Joshua Whitehead, a Two-Spirit, Oji-nêhiyaw member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1), is a poet, author and essayist. His prose has been described as evocative and sensual, unabashedly queer and visceral, raw and autobiographical. In this episode Elizabeth Howard reads from his essays in "Making Love With the Land" (University of Minnesota Press, 2022) as he reflects and illuminates the current moment in which both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people are rediscovering old ways and creating new ones about connection with and responsibility toward each other and the land. He writes of his devotion to the world in which we live and brilliantly—even joyfully—maps his experience on the land that has shaped stories, histories, and bodies from time immemorial.

In October ELIZABETH HOWARD was in conversation with VALENA BEETY, lawyer and advocate for TASHA SHELBY who for decades has been proclaiming her innocence in the death of her two-and-a-half-year-old stepson who had a seizure and fell out of his bed. Mississippi State Medical Examiner Dr. Leroy Riddick testified at her trial, in 2000, that “the child was violently shaken to death – that is undisputed.” In 2017, Dr. Riddick issued a statement saying he had made a mistake. Last week the Federal Magistrate Judge released a Report and Recommendation denying Tasha relief. The Judge said Tasha should have filed before her federal timeline expired in 2003 and dismissed Dr. Riddick’s findings as not strong enough to demonstrate actual innocence and get beyond the time bar. Tasha called us from the Mississippi Correctional Facility to talk about this news. She needs our help.

How have cities across the country used public art projects to approach the challenges their citizens face? In this episode of the Short Fuse, ELIZABETH HOWARD is in conversation with STEPHANIE DOCKERY about the power of Bloomberg Philanthropies' Public Art Challenge, that provides cities with grants of up to $1 million for temporary public art projects that address civic issues and foster community connection, dialogue, and conversation.

In September 1921 a young Inupiat woman named Ada Blackjack traveled to Wrangel Island, 200 miles off the Arctic Coast of Siberia, as a cook and seamstress, along with four professional explorers. The expedition did not go as planned and when a rescue ship arrived in 1923, Ada Blackjack was the only survivor. Diane Glancy discovered Blackjack’s diary in the Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth College and created a poetic narrative around her story. DIANE GLANCY reads from Ada's diary, and her own poetry, as she and ELIZABETH HOWARD engage in a conversation about how Ada Blackjack survived.