Marilyn Monroe centenary: What is beauty?

Available for 26 days

Marilyn Monroe was born June 1 1926. Inspired by the movie star, Words and Music explores the question, What is Beauty? Answers come in words from the Greek poet Sappho, Monroe's biographer Norman Mailer and Joyce Carol Oates, who wrote a novel inspired by Marilyn - Blonde. We will also hear about more everyday beauty from the writers James Baldwin and E Annie Proulx. And we will hear words in praise of the beauty of music from Pablo Casals and Haruki Murakami, Jane Austen in praise of poetry and Zadie Smith on art. And, of course, there will be music in all its glories, from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty to Kara Karayev’s Most Beautiful of All Beauties to Judith Weir's Still, Glowing. The readers are Ralf Little and Susannah Fielding. READINGS: She Walks in Beauty (extract) - Lord Byron Lament for Art O’Leary (extract) - Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill The Planter's Daughter - Austin Clarke Fragment 16 - Sappho translated by Anne Carson My Week With Marilyn - Colin Clark Marilyn Monroe, a life in 100 takes - Andrew Wilson The Leopard - Giuseppe di Lampedusa Persephone - Stevie Smith Giovanni’s Room - James Baldwin The Lowlands - Jhumpa Lahiri Marilyn Monroe in Mexico - FBI redacted files Blonde - Joyce Carol Oates Joy and Sorrow - Pablo Casals Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway Grace Jones - Irenosen Okojie Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami I said to beauty - Edna St Vincent Millay The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde In an Artist's Studio - Christina Rosetti Marilyn: An Autobiography - Normal Mailer On Beauty – Zadie Smith Gilead - Marilynne Robinson The Shipping News - E Annie Proulx Producer in Salford: Olive Clancy The BFI Southbank has a major two-month season of films this summer, Marilyn Monroe: Self Made Star, celebrating the centenary of the birth of cinema’s most enduring film star. And the National Portrait Gallery will present an exhibition, Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, looking at how she inspired photographers and artists.