Brontë hair in Texas

Alcalde features the hair collection at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas.

In some cases, even more interesting to a librarian or researcher is the documentation that comes with the hair to authenticate it. According to Garver, dealers would scam collectors with inauthentic locks. The final owner of the Charlotte Brontë piece sought to prove its actual value. A card presented with the donation, reads, “from E. Nussey.” Below that, simply: “the above is Miss Ellen Nussey’s handwriting.”
“Nussey is one of Brontë’s best friends,” Garver says. “We have a chain of authentication here,” Kuhn says. There’s another notable reason people wrote on the backs of envelopes containing the flowing locks of a vaunted poet or the first president. It’s the same reason that the selfie has replaced the autograph (and the lock of hair) as the de-facto celebrity get.
With multiple people writing on the packaging, Kuhn says, “it’s not just to authenticate it; they’re adding their own identity. It’s also their brush with greatness.” (Chris O'Connell)

The Yorkshire Post is excited about the upcoming Northern Ballet performances of Jane Eyre:

 It is one of Yorkshire’s most famous novels. Now Sarah Freeman discovers how Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre has been given the Northern Ballet treatment.
There is a slight sense of déjà vu in the studios of Northern Ballet. Choreographer Cathy Marston is leading rehearsals, Javier Torres is channelling his best Mr Rochester and Hannah Bateman is perfecting her portrayal of Jane Eyre.
It was almost two years ago that Marston unveiled her dance adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel. Back then it was part of the company’s mid-scale touring programme, which meant in Yorkshire it was only seen by audiences at Doncaster’s Cast theatre.
Such was the production’s success, the company was keen to include it on its main touring schedule and now with week-long runs at both Leeds Grand Theatre and the Lyceum in Sheffield it should be one of the highlights of the current season.
“Working with Cathy, I helped to create the role of Jane and it has been really good to revisit it,” says Hannah Bateman, who is one of Northern Ballet’s stalwarts, having joined the company in 2002. “It is familiar to many of us, but some of the cast are new to this production so we have had to work out how all the pieces of the jigsaw fit together again.
“I’ve always loved Jane Eyre. It is a fantastic story, one which has so many layers to it. I think that’s why so many people have read the original novel again and again. Each time you see something different and I think Cathy’s choreography really explores that.” (Sarah Freeman)

Times Herald-Record features Cornerstone Theatre Arts' programme of dramatic readings Tolle Lege: Take up and Read, conceived, created and directed by Jacqueline Dion.

Ten selections from books of the last two centuries are brought to vivid life by 14 talented actors. [...]
The next set of three stories goes back a century to the Bronte sisters and the Romantic era. Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” finds Jane (Heather Roland-Blanco) facing Mr. Rochester (Al Snider) in the climactic scene when his bumbling confession of his love for her sounds like an effort to dismiss her from the household. The two actors expertly pace the dialogue so it does a perfect turnaround.
Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” features the doomed passion of Heathcliffe (sic) (Ben Hudson) for Catherine Earnshaw Linton (Jess Beveridge). He is angry at her for marrying someone else while she from her sickbed lashes out at him for his hostility as the maid Nelly (Jessica Markman) listens to their misery.
In Anne Brontë’s “The Tenant of Wildfelll Hall” another couple also quarrels. Helen Huntington (Evelyn Albino) accuses her husband Arthur (Drew Nardone) of drinking and infidelity. He defends himself by attacking her verbally as he swallows one glass of wine after another.
The three dialogues spell out the trials of male-female relationships. (James F. Cotter)

Study Breaks has selected '5 Classics That Are Freshly Relevant to the #TimesUp Conversation', including

2. “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte
“It is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal—as we are!” Go, Jane, go!
Though some critics have denied a feminist link to the character of Jane in “Jane Eyre,” there’s no denying that she enters a relationship with Mr. Rochester (and refuses a loveless one from another man) on her own accord. Jane not only insists on marrying her way, but on marrying as equals, making her an early trailblazer for equal treatment in a male-female relationship. (Carli Scalf)

Le Temps (Switzerland) broaches a similar subject:

Malheureusement, en voulant expurger les grandes œuvres ou les faire disparaître des programmes scolaires sous prétexte qu’elles ne conviennent pas à notre vision moderne des relations entre hommes et femmes, nos autodafés modernes brûleront aussi bien la languissante Madame Bovary que la courageuse Antigone, autant la légère Manon Lescaut que la fidèle Roxane, autant la vertueuse Henriette de Mortsauf que la Chimène exaltée, autant la libertine marquise de Merteuil que la raisonnable Jane Eyre… De fil en aiguille, c’en sera fini des grandes œuvres et de la liberté d’expression car, un combat chassant l’autre, de nouvelles raisons de censure apparaîtront. (Marie-Hélène Miauton) (Translation)

Lawrence Public Library comments on the new TV show Atlanta.

The show could be described, in part, as a Gothic family drama; Earn and his girlfriend Vanessa are in a precarious on-again-off-again relationship while attempting to raise a child together. Their romantic posturing and conflicts, while sometimes darkly funny, never let the audience forget that a young life hangs in the balance. Earn’s mix of money problems and interpersonal shortcomings result in a family fighting the urge to crumble, not unlike Emily Brontё’s "Wuthering Heights" or Nathaniel Hawthorne’s "The House of Seven Gables." The streets of Atlanta are certainly a big, but very welcome, shift from the estates and manors of the classics.

Music OMH describes the albums by Swedish singer and organist Anna von Hausswolff as follows:

Imagine if Kate Bush had swapped Brontë for Baudelaire and you’re going in the right direction, but still some way off. It’s a gloriously macabre elegy for something we probably will never understand. (Steven Johnson)

While Soundblab reviews The Wind-Up Birds' album Desire Paths:

Desire Paths may be a dark album in many ways but humour is never far away. The brief ‘Ghost Based Love Song’ opens with a confession of sorts, “Here’s my latest attempt at a ghost-based love song/ like ‘Wuthering Heights’ or that other one”. What follows is, unsurprisingly, nothing like Kate Bush but is great nonetheless. (Andy Brown)

Pictures from the recent 54 Sings Jane Eyre in New York can be seen on Broadway World and Times Square Chronicles. The Brussels Brontë Blog shares 'The Brontë Brussels Calendar: March 1842'.