COVER STORY
Darkness
Kurt Andersen and artist Kara Walker talk about creative darkness -- from literal shadows to conceptual creepiness.

Death Metal
Most musicians are drawn at some point to write about angst, melancholy, pain. And many are known for it. Think of Tori Amos, The Cure, Billie Holiday, Robert Schumann. Most of those artists add some brightness for contrast, but not Death Metal bands. These musicians and their fans bask in darkness -- pounding, unrelenting darkness. Produced by Sarah Lilley.
Go to Mortician's official site
Go to the official site for Drew Daniel's band Matmos

Lanford Wilson
The great director Federico Fellini once said that a dark theatre is like a womb--safe, self-contained and life nourishing. The playwright Lanford Wilson toys with that safe feeling. His plays expose what's in the dark, both good and bad. Caitlin Shetterly spoke to Lanford Wilson about how darkness shapes his creative vision.
Go to a bio of Lanford Wilson
Go to a page on the works of Lanford Wilson

House of Leaves
In the book House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski it seems like almost every word has a triple meaning. The story is told from a variety of perspectives in several different typefaces with many footnotes and a 200 page appendix complete with fake critical essays. But the core of "House of Leaves" is about a family who moves into a small country house in Virginia, where, Mark Danielewski explains, things go wrong. Produced by Jonathan Mitchell.
Go to Salon's page featuring audio links for the book
Go to an interview with author Mark Danielewski

Concerto in Black and Blue
The artist David Hammons once said, "The less I do the more of an artist I am." His latest exhibition "Concerto in Black and Blue" lives up to that statement. Hammons filled 10,000 square feet of New York's Ace Gallery with . . .nothing. He simply turned off the lights, sealed it off, and let people in with tiny, blue L-E-D flashlights. We followed one group as it navigated through the pitch-black rooms. Produced by Ave Carrillo.
Go to an MIT Press page on David Hammons

SPECIAL GUEST
Kara Walker
Artist Kara Walker is best known for cut-out silhouettes based on highly charged images of slavery and its legacy. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Tang Museum at Skidmore College, and is the subject of the book "Narratives of a Negress," published by MIT Press. She received the MacArthur Foundation "genius" award in 1997.
Go to the Brent Sikkema Gallery page on Kara Walker
Go to the Barbar Krakaw Gallery page on Kara Walker 

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Now Playing
During and after the war in the Gulf in 1991, more than 30,000 Iraqis fled their country for the United States. Among them was Rahim AlHaj, who is one of Iraq's premier musicians and a master of the five thousand-year old stringed instrument called the "oud". He's also one of many Iraqi emigres who watch their country at war again, but this time from afar. Deborah Begel spoke to Rahim AlHaj about his journey from Bagdad to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Go to a page on Rahim AlHaj
Go to this page to hear Rahim AlHaj's CD

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