The Legendary Saloonkeeper Who Was the Real-Life Inspiration for Star Trek’s Guinan

Whoopi Goldberg’s Character Was Based on Texas Guinan, a Larger-Than-Life Texas Girl Turned Power Player in Prohibition-Era New York

The Legendary New York Saloonkeeper Who Was the Real-Life Inspiration for Star Trek’s Guinan | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

In an emotional scene, earlier this year actor Patrick Stewart stopped by “The View” to ask co-host Whoopi Goldberg to join the cast of “Star Trek: Picard” for its second season, and reprise the role she had played in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” back in the 1980s. Goldberg hadn’t been an original member of that cast either, although she was a longtime fan of “Star Trek.” In fact, she credited the series with sparking her interest in acting, mainly because it was the first time, she had not only …

by Carol Stabile | April 9, 2020

Can the North Acknowledge Its Own Role in American Slavery?

Historians and Activists Pushed Philadelphia and New York to Commemorate Places Where Enslaved People Lived and Died

by Marc Howard Ross | May 30, 2019

Soon after the American Revolution, Philadelphia was the temporary capital of the United States. From 1790-97, President George Washington lived in a large house a block from Independence Hall, in …

Why Don’t American Jews Search for Their Heritage in New York City?

Tourists Now See the Holocaust, Not the Lower East Side, as the Core of the Jewish Experience

by Daniel J. Walkowitz | January 8, 2019

While the Jewish heritage industry is booming in many places, it is struggling in New York.

This poses a problem not just for the city but also for those who …

There Is a Real Bedford Falls—It’s My Upstate New York Town

An Uncanny Physical Resemblance and a Frank Capra Visit Connect Seneca Falls to His Holiday Classic

by Frances T. Barbieri | December 6, 2018

Bedford Falls, the town that is the real star of the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, is a fictional place. But it closely resembles a real town.

I live there.

The evidence …

The Gilded Age Lives on in Manhattan’s Mansions

New York's Historic Dream Homes Reflect Changing Tastes and Economic Shifts

By Clifton Hood | March 14, 2017

Sixty-six floors above Midtown Manhattan, Donald J. Trump lives in a fantasy world copied from the French royalty of the 18th century. His residence, an enormous three-story penthouse that has …

The Mob, the Mayor, and Pinball

Why 20th-Century Law Enforcement Wielded a “Sledgehammer of Decency” on the Game Machines

By Michael Schiess | October 4, 2016

Soon after I founded the Pacific Pinball Museum, an ex-police officer contacted me, offering to sell a rare artifact that was once confiscated by the Oakland Police force. …

The Women Blowing Up Ethiopia’s Film Industry

Successful Female Writers, Directors, and Producers Set the Nation Apart From Hollywood, Bollywood, and the Rest of World Cinema

Why Do We Only Remember Bra-Burning?

Our Memory of the Women’s Liberation Movement Is Jarringly Incomplete

The Incredible Legacy of Newark’s Black Women Activists

Harlem Renaissance Writer Brenda Ray Moryck and a New Jersey Community’s Untold Century of Intellectualism and Artistry

God Calls My Name, but the Church Won’t Let Me Answer

The Roman Catholic Ban on Female Priests Is Leaving Women—and Thousands of Parishes—Idle and Powerless

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