Culture

The 8th annual Sarasota Improv Fest gets underway Thursday night at Florida Studio Theatre. Comedy troupes from across the U.S. and world are returning to Sarasota to perform and hold workshops.

Sunken Gardens is a lush, colorful and fragrant tropical oasis in the middle of St. Petersburg.

It's one of Florida’s original roadside attractions; WUSF's Florida Matters is taking a look at several classic attractions this week. 

Located about an hour north of Tampa at the crossroads of U.S. 19 and State Road 50, Weeki Wachee is more than just a mark on a road map. The state park is one of Florida’s oldest roadside attractions, and features a spring-fed water park, wildlife show, a river boat cruise and more. 

One of the oldest continuously operated attractions in Florida is an 11-acre oasis just minutes away from a busy strip mall.

At Sarasota Jungle Gardens, visitors can feed flamingos, stroll under a canopy of lush foliage and even see the occasional unicycle-riding cockatoo.

The Tampa Bay Lightning’s season ended prematurely with no Stanley Cup in hand. On Monday, a former Lightning captain was dealt a similar disappointing blow. After toiling for 23 years in the National Hockey League, Dave Andreychuk has been passed over, again, by the Hockey Hall of Fame.

It's been a little over a week since a gunman entered the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and killed 49 people. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. And in just a few days, the Tampa Bay area plays host to St. Pete Pride - Florida's biggest celebration for the LGBT community. 

What if you could head down to your local public library and check-out a sewing machine or a stand mixer?

The City of Temple Terrace is trying to make that a reality with donations from the community.

This Sunday (May 15), The Ringling Museum will open its new Center for Asian Art.

David Berry is the Ringling's Assistant Director for Academic Affairs and is one of the project managers for the Center. He said the time is right to open a new home for a permanent collection of traditional, modern and contemporary art from Japan, Korea, China, India and Southeast Asia.

A national tour of men dressed as women is coming to Ybor City this weekend.

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” is a reality television competition to crown "America's next drag superstar." The show is in its 8th season and is a popular download on iTunes.

As a former Tampa Bay crime reporter, Ace Atkins has seen the best in people and also, the worst. He folded that knowledge into his fifth Robert B. Parker novel, "Slow Burn," about the Private Investigator Spenser, which revolves around the Boston Fire Department.

MIT Electrical Engineering professor Harold Edgerton was trained in photography by his uncle. That uncle taught him how to take pictures and how to develop them. 

Edgerton's photographs ultimately stretched the limits of human vision by capturing images never before seen. That tick when a bullet hits an apple, that moment of impact before that apple disintegrates into a million little pieces. That Edgerton photograph is called "Bullet Through Apple."

 The Seminole Heights neighborhood, once dotted with car repair shops, has become a key player in the growth of Tampa's culinary and craft beer scene.

Greg Baker has been at the forefront of the transformation in the now-trendy historic neighborhood. And he recently brought an additional boost of national attention to the area by receiving his fifth nomination for a James Beard Award, the Grammys of the food business.

Garrison Keillor leaves Lake Wobegon for good this summer.

After 40 plus years, the long time host of public radio's "Prairie Home Companion" is in his final season.

Javier Burgos, General Manager of Habana Compas Dance, says you can't take the music out of Cuba.

It's as natural as a beating heart.

When’s the last time you received a personal, handwritten or typed letter in the mail – snail-mail that is? There’s a concern that emails have turned letter writing into a lost art and is going the way of typewriters.

Paula Poundstone has been finding the humor in everyday life at least since kindergarten. That's when her teacher Mrs. Bump noted in a summary letter sent home to her parents, in lieu of a report card: "I have enjoyed Paula's humorous comments about our activities." 

A copy of that letter lived near the doorway Poundstone would walk through to get to the set of her short-lived TV show. 

The Dunedin Highland Games & Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary this week. Thousands of people –many likely wearing kilts-are expected to attend Saturday’s main event in Dunedin’s Highlander Park.

  During his final Saturday Night Jazz broadcast on WUSF 89.7, Bob Seymour took us back to his small Illinois hometown.