Lifestyle
For painter Titus Kaphar, forgiveness is 'a weight lifted off of your shoulders'
Artist Titus Kaphar has a new film out called Exhibiting Forgiveness. He’s shown above with his artwork From Whence I Came, ahead of his 2022 exhibition at the Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill gallery in London.
Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
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Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
Contemporary painter, sculptor and installation artist Titus Kaphar is known for taking classical forms of art and deconstructing them to reveal hidden truths that challenge historical narratives. His 2014 painting, “Behind the Myth of Benevolence,” for instance, peels away a portrait of Thomas Jefferson to reveal the face of Sally Hemings, a woman who Jefferson enslaved.
Now, with his debut film Exhibiting Forgiveness, Kaphar deconstructs his own life story. The film centers on a celebrated painter whose world unravels when his estranged father, who struggles with addiction, suddenly reappears in his life.
Kaphar says he initially conceived of the project as a documentary. He was visiting his maternal grandmother in Kalamazoo, Mich., and was surprised to see his estranged father sitting on her porch: “Kind of on a whim, I said to my father, ‘If you want to talk, let me film you. There’s a lot to be accounted for.’ And I was hoping he would say no, but he said yes.”
Kaphar filmed their conversation, but the resulting documentary was unsatisfying: “I showed it publicly in the theater one time and decided I don’t want that in the world,” he says.
So he abandoned the documentary project and instead decided to make a feature film that would present his father as a character. The writing process proved to be surprisingly emotional. Kaphar says he had always seen his father as the villain, but writing the character forced him to consider what his father’s motivations might have been.
“I gained a compassion, a sympathy for my father that I never had as a young man,” he says. “The film, for me, is about generational healing, about how does this generation make sure that our children don’t have to carry the same wounds and baggage that we carry? Is there a way for us to leave it here so that they can go on without that burden?”
Interview highlights
On wanting to make a film so that his work would be more accessible to working class, poor and Black communities
I don’t question painting. I love that. That’s, like, in my heart. It’s one of the things that I know that I was made for, but the reality is … the place I grew up does not look like the place where I am now. And the people who engage with my work often don’t come from that world. And let me be clear here. I’m not just talking about race. I’m talking about class as well. I feel blessed to be able to do what I do every day. I mean, I make paintings and people pay me to do that. It’s kind of ridiculous. … Museums all over the country have my artwork. But the folks I grew up with, they don’t go to the Metropolitan [Museum]. Like, we don’t have a Metropolitan in our neighborhood. … So I felt like I wanted to find some other way to engage with my folks.
Film is a much more democratically accessible medium. You don’t have to be a rich man to go to a movie. And nobody makes you feel uncomfortable when you walk into a movie theater. You can just walk in, watch a movie, or eventually you’ll be able to watch it in your home. That was incredibly important to me because as I went into more gallery spaces, I recognize how uncomfortable they are. This beautiful, big white space where you are the only Black face in that building. There is some fancy person sitting at the front desk and you don’t know, Do I need to pay to get in? … And then you see these paintings on the wall and you’re like, These are interesting, but I don’t know anything about them. That kind of elitism that one feels when they’re in those spaces doesn’t help people connect to the art at all.
André Holland is a painter and John Earl Jelks is his father in Exhibiting Forgiveness.
Roadside Attractions
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Roadside Attractions
On seeing Black men emote and cry in the film
We weren’t told that it was OK, that we could cry. That was something that we had to suppress. That was something that it was necessary for us to hold in. We grew up in a kind of a rough spot. You didn’t want people to see you [as] weak. That meant you were vulnerable. And if you were vulnerable, the opportunity to take you was there. … That became another thing I began to understand is, like, … this was for our protection. And I don’t agree with doing that to your children. I have to believe that love and compassion and kindness and care, those things are the things that we offer to our children and that will bring them to a place of peace and wholeness. But at the same time, recognizing that the world that I grew up in, the neighborhood that I grew up in, was fundamentally different from the neighborhood that my children are growing up in.
On chasing his dream to be a painter
There are definitely many times where I felt unwelcome. But … I wasn’t going to allow those feelings or those individuals to stop me from getting what I wanted. And what I wanted was the knowledge, this secret knowledge of how to paint like these people I was seeing in my books. I couldn’t figure out how that was happening. I got a brush, I got paint, I got oil — but it’s not doing that. So I need to sit at the feet of the masters and figure this out.
Titus Kaphar was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 2018. His paintings have been displayed in the Museum of Modern Art, the Seattle Art Museum and the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, among others.
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images North America
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Emma McIntyre/Getty Images North America
On a painting of his being sold for over $1 million on the secondary market
Most folks see those numbers and are like, “Man, Titus is doing really well!” I’m doing all right. But the reality is that secondary market people take those to auction houses. … The person who bought it [originally], that’s the person who makes the money from it. None of that goes back to the artists. None of it. Not a dime. So you might have bought that painting for … $12,000, which was not bad for me at the time. But I think something like five years later it was auctioned off for $1.2 [million].
On his TIME magazine cover, “Analogous Colors,” inspired by George Floyd calling out to his mother as he died
I was broken-hearted by the words of George Floyd. I was inspired by the words of my mother. And when George Floyd died, I felt like giving up, man. I didn’t want to talk to people. I was getting phone calls from folks, like “Come to a public talk here,” I said, “I’m not doing that. I’m not I’m not doing that because y’all want me to be, like, hopeful right now. I ain’t hopeful.” And so I called my mom and I was just talking to her and she wasn’t doing well. And my mom was just talking about how she has four sons and all of us have had some kind of run-in with police before that could have ended up exactly the same way. That was the thing that inspired me to make that painting. I was thinking about my mother and her fear of losing her boys.
On forgiveness and reconciliation
We use forgiveness and reconciliation as though they are synonyms. … They’re not synonyms. You may find yourself in a situation where you need to forgive somebody who is no longer alive. And in that case, how can there be a reconciliation? You can’t do that. …
I think it’s important that we recognize that forgiveness, most of the time, has more to do with us than it does to do with them. And so, for me, the kind of forgiveness that this film is talking about is a kind of forgiveness that allows you to unburden yourself and say, “I’m not carrying this anymore. It’s too heavy. I’m done with it. You had a debt. You owed me something. You don’t owe me no more. I’m good. I’m going to let that go.” And in saying that, there is freedom. There’s a weight lifted off of your shoulders.
The part that I think we get wrong is I think we assume that that means that you have to continue on the path with that individual. And we often have this idea about forgive and forget. I’m not sure that I believe in that wholly. I mean, sometimes it happens, I suppose. But the reality is oftentimes we are telling victims to forget for the sake of the perpetrators. We have these wounds. We have scars. … I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be telling people to forgive and reconcile … when it means that they are putting themselves back in harm’s way.
Ann Marie Baldonado and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
Entrepreneur David Huang tests out a VR headset while conducting demonstrations of the social dance lesson app Dance Guru at the Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, Calif., June 17, 2026.
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Chloe Veltman/NPR
Wedding season is in full swing, bringing with it a familiar sense of dread for anyone who fears the dance floor.
But relief may finally be at hand with the help of a new app, Dance Guru, and a virtual reality (VR) headset.
The social dance instruction app transports users to a spacious, digital dance studio. Waiting inside is a computer-generated coach: a handsome, male avatar wearing a shirt open to his navel. He speaks with a slightly gravelly English accent.
“Watch me now,” he instructs at the start of a waltz lesson — which NPR tried out at the Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, Calif., an annual conference showcasing the latest developments in virtual and augmented reality.
The avatar then demonstrates a basic box step.
From there, the lesson becomes interactive. The coach tells the user to hold his hand while an electric pinging sound tracks the student’s foot placement.
“One, two, three, four, five, six,” the virtual teacher counts down.
When the user stumbles, he remains remarkably patient. “Do not worry, foundations take time. Let’s try that again. Work on grounding your steps more intentionally.”
Solving the beginner’s dilemma
Dance Guru creator David Huang said he came up with the idea for the app a couple of years ago out of frustration.
“I always wanted to learn to dance and I was always terrible at it,” Huang said. “And I always ended up stopping midway through the lessons.”
He soon realized that many beginners hit the exact same roadblocks.
“Private lessons are too expensive, and you feel like you’re always forgetting the dance steps,” Huang said. “You cannot find a partner to dance with. So I figured maybe I can create something like this.”
The Dance Guru platform currently offers tutorials in salsa, bachata, waltz, and cha-cha, in both lead and follow modes. To make the digital instruction feel authentic, Huang used motion-capture technology to record the movements of real-life dance teachers — with their permission.
Building on the legacy of online tutorials and video games
Dance Guru belongs to a small but growing wave of apps using VR to demystify social dance. At a nearby booth, conference attendee Victor Chen is testing out a competing app called Trip the Light. It currently offers salsa lessons, as well as freestyle options, where a user can dance with a partner without having to learn specific steps.
Trip the Light’s booth at the Augmented World Expo included posters of the app’s virtual instructors. Real-life performers, who gave Trip the Light permission to motion capture their movements, were used as a basis for these avatars.
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Chloe Veltman/NPR
“A lot of times when you’re trying to learn a choreography, it’s watching a YouTube video and you have to pause it, rewind, and play it,” Chen said. “If you were to have a virtual avatar dancing in front of you and correcting for any parts that you missed, it might be a lot easier.”
Interactive video games like Dance Dance Revolution and Just Dance, and YouTube tutorials have been helping people improve their skills in private for years. But those games are mostly aimed at solo players. Unlike the new generation of immersive VR apps, they cannot simulate the mechanics or confidence required for partner dancing on a live dance floor.
The reality check
But this kind of app won’t work for every dancer.
“Everyone learns a little bit differently. And so unless you have a game that has lots of different ways of teaching, you’re going to have things that work for some people and don’t work for others,” said Ariana Katana, a trained contemporary dancer and dance content creator who’s active on YouTube, Twitch and other platforms. “Also, it’s hard to dance with a headset on.”
And then there’s the issue of not being able to physically feel a virtual partner’s hand or shoulder while dancing with them. Patrick Ascolese, the creator of Trip the Light, said the experience could become more tactile in the future. “Haptic suits and wearables will be coming, but I think we’re a little away from that,” he said.
Ascolese said even with their limitations, immersive tools like Trip the Light have immense potential as judgment-free training grounds — giving reluctant dancers the baseline confidence they need to eventually step onto the dance floor with real partners in the real world, including at weddings.
“Just like anything else, practice makes perfect,” said Ascolese. “So the more time you spend in VR with a virtual partner, it works towards helping you get over that social hurdle. We are teaching you the moves that you have to do in order to go out and have fun.”
Jennifer Vanasco edited the broadcast and digital versions of this story. Chloee Weiner mixed the audio.
For half a century, Deidre Hall has taken on every kind of disaster in the drama-packed town of Salem, Ill., as a star of “Days of Our Lives.”
There was the time — actually, it happened twice — when her character, Dr. Marlena Evans, was famously possessed by the devil and even levitated.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
Or the time a serial killer, who was actually Marlena under hypnosis, seemed to kill several beloved characters. The long-running show’s storylines have become legendary, and in March, while promoting “Hail Mary,” actor Ryan Gosling even gave Hall a shout-out, admitting he was a fan, praising the hard work of soap opera actors and calling her an “OG acting inspiration.”
But Hall’s real life in Santa Monica is much quieter than her character’s, and she likes it that way.
“When I bought my house in Santa Monica, I didn’t realize how great it would be to live near Montana Avenue,” says Hall, 78, about the popular shopping spot. Every day, she walks to the main street with her golden retriever, Riley, and enjoys Pilates, art and good food along the way. “The owners of the Farms Market even keep dog biscuits, so guess where the dog wants to go every time we walk — the Farms, of course,” she says, laughing.
When she isn’t filming the daily soap opera, which airs on Peacock, Hall enjoys raising monarch butterflies, exploring the shops and restaurants on Montana, and hosting movie nights at home with her two sons.
Here’s what a perfect day in L.A. looks like for her.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
7 a.m.: Breakfast and dog walk
I usually kick off my day with a protein shake, feed our golden retriever and take her out for a walk. She’s a phenomenal girl. When we adopted her, her name was Riley, but I did think about naming her after Mrs. Hughes from “Downton Abbey.”
10 a.m.: Church and garden time
After I walk the dog and go to church, I like to spend some time in my yard. I’m not a natural gardener, but I really enjoy it. I started raising monarch butterflies because my identical twin sister, who played my twin on the show, planted a butterfly garden. Monarchs are amazing because they are transitional. Every year, they travel from Mexico to southern New England, but it’s getting harder for them. Their numbers have dropped by about 80%. To help, I plant milkweed, which is what they need to survive. I buy my milkweed from the Staghorn Garden on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica. Julie, who owns the nursery, is delightful and has a wide variety of milkweed. The monarchs always seem to find my garden. Julie was raising some caterpillars too, and she cared a lot about them. We talked about how important it is to help the butterflies. That’s why I do this. Sometimes I get milkweed with eggs already on it, and Julie knows her butterflies are going to a good home.
1 p.m.: Walk to Montana Avenue for some lunch
I live near Montana and love taking long walks, going to Pilates and trying out the great restaurants nearby, like R+D Kitchen and La La Land. I’m a big fan of the waffles at the Courtyard Kitchen. Just a few days ago, I had a chicken salad on raisin bread with an Arnold Palmer, and it was delicious. It is right on Montana and has a nice outdoor seating area. It’s one of my favorite spots. La La Land always has a long line in the morning, which is perfect if you want coffee. They serve coffee, doughnuts, croissants and avocado toast. There’s plenty of outdoor seating, and you can even bring your dog.
2 p.m.: Peek inside a clock shop
There’s a small clock shop on Montana Avenue that’s closed on Sundays, but if you walk by, you’ll see all kinds of clocks — standing, table and wall clocks. The owner is great at fixing them. Once, I bought a wall clock from MacKenzie-Childs, but it didn’t work. And I was really upset because it matched everything else on my countertop. I brought it to the owner and said, “I love this, but I can’t make it work.” He fixed it right away. His name is John, but I call him Geppetto. And we all know why. He really does have a magic touch.
2:30 p.m.: Visit a neighborhood art gallery
Ten Women Gallery is run by 10 artists, all of whom show their work there. I was drawn to some watercolors there, bought a few cards and spoke with one of the artists. She told me, “You seem to love watercolors,” and mentioned that the artist who painted them, Pamela Harnois, lives in Los Angeles and teaches nearby. I got Pamela’s name and found out she taught at the Brentwood Art School. I was so inspired by her gift that I started taking private lessons with her on Saturdays. That gallery is where I discovered my love for watercolor painting.
3 p.m.: Grab some ice cream at Rori’s
The other day, my longtime girlfriend wanted to get ice cream and told me, “We are walking to Rori’s Artisanal Creamery.” It’s a small shop on Montana near Lincoln. They make everything themselves, using local ingredients from grass-fed cows with no added hormones. The place is family-owned and probably has the healthiest ice cream you’ll find. They switch up their flavors often, but my favorite is the salted caramel.
6 p.m.: Family dinner and movie night at home
R+D Kitchen is always packed, so my sons, who are 31 and 33, do the cooking. They come over, and together we make salads and cook dinner. There’s a neighborhood grocery store called the Farms, off Montana, a small family-run place that has everything we need. Everyone knows each other there, and people bring their dogs. We try to have movie night every Sunday. Sometimes the day changes, but we always make sure to have one night a week where we cook a meal and sit down as a family. Keeping that tradition has become really important to us. My sons are great cooks, which is funny because they definitely didn’t get that from me. [Laughs]
9 p.m.: Take Riley for one last walk and visit neighbors
After dinner, I take my dog for a walk. It’s a great way to meet neighbors. We always go around the same block. We’ve met so many people, and since she’s a golden retriever, she loves meeting everyone.
10 p.m.: News, knitting and bedtime
I am a news junkie, so I usually watch whatever is on the news before I go to bed. I have a long-standing passion for knitting. Lately, though, the news would make me drop a stitch.
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