Heather A. Davis

On a recent Friday night, with a light drizzle falling, my friends and I stood in line at the gate of Eastern State Penitentiary to sign waivers proffered by actors in gory makeup. Though it’s standard procedure at the crumbling historic site, it was faintly alarming still.

  Top Stories Living between the covers

When the nonprofit organization Online Computer Library Center called up William Kopycki and asked him to lead a training session for Iraqi librarians in Amman, Jordan, the Middle East Studies librarian didn’t hesitate.

  Top Stories Stem cell debate hits Penn

Small technology is big this October. It’s been designated as Nano Month, and a host of activities has been designed to get the Penn community and Philadelphia audiences excited about, well, the small stuff.

Sometimes Cecilia Paredes is an octopus. Sometimes she’s a skunk. Last summer, at the 2005 Venice Biennale, she was a macaw. “I interpret animals, basically,” says Paredes, an internationally renowned artist who is also associate faculty master at Hamilton College House. “I put make-up on and transform myself into animals. It’s a kind of metamorphosis.”

New Orleans native and former mayor Marc Morial C’80 has been though a few hurricanes in his day. As a boy, he rode out Hurricane Betsy at his grandmother’s house in 1965 and as mayor, led the first evacuation of the city for Georges, which grazed New Orleans in 1998.

When “Treasures of Tutankhamen” landed on American shores in the late 1970s, crowds eager to see the boy king’s tomb waited in line for hours. It was the first “blockbuster,” and it inspired a nationwide interest in Egypt. Even comedian Steve Martin was stirred by the exhibition, penning “King Tut,” a humorous ode to the mysterious boy king.

  Top Stories

Philadelphia is full of firsts—from the nation’s first public school to the first lager beer. It’s also home to the country’s first botanical garden.