Arts

The former New Jersey poet laureate, born LeRoi Jones, died Thursday at age 79. Much of his work — including well-regarded poetry and plays — reflected his commitment to Black Nationalist ideals. He co-founded the Black Arts movement, and wrote poems that were as controversial as they were influential.

Relevents Wind Quintet is the faculty ensemble in residence at High Point University. What began in 2008 as a group of professional Greensboro musicians who clicked as musical colleagues and friends quickly turned into one of the Triad's premiere chamber ensembles. Since then they've toured throughout Florida, Virginia, the Carolinas, and southern Germany. On Friday night, January 17^th you can hear this remarkable quintet live in concert right here in the Triad compliments of Music for a Great Space. The concert series brings only the finest musicians to the Piedmont, where they perform in great spaces. The Relevents performance is no exception. It'll be held in St. Pius Catholic Church in Greensboro, 2210 N. Elm Street.  It'll be a dynamic program too with virtuoso music for winds by American composer Samuel Barber, a living composer inspired by his work, and two other living composers forging new musical paths of their own. Oboist Thomas Pappas and flutist Laura Dangerfield Stevens spoke with David Ford about the program.

When it came to turning her children's book into a movie, Thompson says, P.L. Travers was patronizing, demeaning, rude, and "reminded me of Margaret Thatcher." Thompson plays the acerbic author in Saving Mr. Banks.

The Espresso, a San Diego newspaper for "cafe society," documents the local coffee shop scene with juicy vignettes in a gossip column. Publisher John Rippo says he's inspired by European periodicals written for the cafe intelligentsia.

Once people figured out how to roast the seeds of the Coffea plant in the 1400s, coffee took over the world. In doing so, it fueled creativity, revolutions, new business ventures, literature, music — and slavery.

Delurk means to participate in something you only previously spectated, and the artist run Delurk Gallery invites the passive observers among us into the conversation with fresh new bodies of work exhibited every month. They're submitted by guest artists and members of the current Delurk Collective. Zac Trainor is one such artist. He's also taught a variety of courses at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art.

Sue Monk Kidd, the author of the best-selling The Secret Life of Bees, takes on both slavery and feminism in her novel The Invention of Wings. It's a story told by two women: Hetty, a slave, seeks her freedom, while Sarah, her reluctant owner, rebels against her family to become an abolitionist.

Fresh Air TV critic David Bianculli says two new miniseries this week are worth special mention — and couldn't be more different. The Spoils Of Babylon is a miniseries soap-opera spoof on IFC; True Detective looks like the best HBO drama since The Wire.

According to Russian journalist Masha Gessen, the 2012 arrests were the start of a campaign by Vladimir Putin and his supporters against government critics. Gessen, who is also an LGBT rights advocate, recently moved to New York with her partner and their children in response to the anti-gay laws Russia passed in June.

The famous sleuth has discovered that U.S copyright law is anything but elementary. A federal judge recently ruled that elements of the Sherlock Holmes characters are now both licensed property of the Doyle estate and in the public domain. The Doyle estate plans to appeal the decision.