Art & Culture

Temple, Texas – September 21, 2026 -- Historic dance halls across Texas continue to function as active community gathering spaces, according to insights from Lorinda Baum of Bos Barn Dance Hall in Temple, Texas.

Small towns built dance halls as shared community spaces

Many of these buildings were constructed when towns needed simple venues for families to gather. Dances, celebrations, and fundraisers held there gradually tied the structures to the people and towns around them.

Live country music keeps neighbors connected today

Residents still visit dance halls for live music while spending time with friends and neighbors. Baum notes that songs performed at these venues can bring back memories of earlier dances, family celebrations, and evenings spent with familiar faces.

Boston – September 21, 2026 -- Wayfair Inc. launched a new brand platform called "Wayfair Delivers," fronted by championship-winning quarterback Matthew Stafford, his wife Kelly, and their four daughters.

The campaign's debut ad aired during Monday Night Football on ESPN and ABC, showing the Stafford family navigating everyday home life with Wayfair's help. The spot will also roll out across CBS and NBC.

Wayfair boosts its football advertising spend fivefold

Wayfair is increasing its ad investment across networks airing football games to five times its previous spend. The company is sponsoring and outfitting the set for CBS Sports' Sunday morning football pregame show, which streams on Paramount+, CBS Sports HQ and YouTube.

Through a partnership with Bleacher Report, Wayfair will also sponsor B/R NFL Draft Live, scheduled to air in April 2027.

Beijing – September 20, 2026 -- Nearly 210 million people around the world are now learning or using Chinese, according to China's Ministry of Education, as the language moves from classrooms into everyday pop culture and career paths.

Ninety countries have added Chinese to their national school curricula

The Ministry of Education reports that 90 countries have incorporated Chinese into their education systems. In the first half of this year, 564,000 candidates worldwide sat for the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK), a 36 percent increase year on year.

Social media is turning Chinese habits into global trends

On TikTok, Chinese American creator Sherry Zhu built a following of 740,000 in months by posting videos about drinking hot water, wearing cotton slippers and brewing goji berries. One user reportedly memorized the character "呢" by breaking it into the sounds "o-p-t."

Kansas City – September 20, 2026 -- America Haunts, the national trade association for haunted attractions, has named its Top 5 Fan Favorite Haunted Attractions for 2026, spotlighting venues in Texas, Georgia, Missouri, Utah and New York that draw repeat visitors year after year.

Five attractions made the 2026 list

The honorees are Cutting Edge Haunted House near Fort Worth, Texas, now in its 37th season; NETHERWORLD Haunted House in the Atlanta metro area, marking 30 years; Beast Haunted Attraction in Kansas City, Missouri, in its 36th season; Nightmare on 13th in Salt Lake City, Utah, also celebrating 37 years; and Headless Horseman Hayrides and Haunted Attractions in Ulster Park, New York, now in its 34th season.

New York – September 20, 2026 -- YSL Beauty transformed La Esquina, the SoHo taqueria at the corner of Kenmare and Lafayette, into a one-night takeover for the New York edition of its global Block Party series, drawing Teyana Taylor, Lauryn Hill, Emmy Rossum, Karl Anthony Towns and wife Jordyn Woods, alongside YSL Beauty U.S. Makeup Ambassadors Amelia Gray and Laura Harrier.

Mark Ronson provided the night's soundtrack

Washington – September 20, 2026 -- The U.S. Postal Service released its Christmas Cookies Forever stamps today at a family-friendly event at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

The stamps come in booklets of 20 and are sold as Forever stamps, meaning their value always matches the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce rate. They are available at Post Office locations nationwide and on usps.com.

Four cookie designs anchor the new booklet

The set features a Christmas tree cookie decorated with red ribbons, yellow stars and silver ornaments on a blue background; a Santa Claus face cookie with a white beard, rosy cheeks and red cap on a red background; a blue present cookie with holly and a red ribbon; and a red stocking cookie with light blue and green stripes and white trim. The booklet's cover shows three of the four cookies -- the tree, Santa's face and the stocking -- above the text "Christmas Cookies" and "Twenty First-Class Forever Stamps."

Kunshan – September 20, 2026 -- The 2026 Cross-Strait (Kunshan) Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival opened on the evening of Sept. 16 in Kunshan, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, drawing visitors from both sides of the Taiwan Strait to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival together.

This year's festival spans two main lantern display areas, Huiju Square and Zhouzhuang, alongside a cross-Strait art exhibition, a traditional performing arts fair, and a forest-based "Moonlit Cultural Gathering."

Winners of a youth lantern design contest received their awards at the opening.

At the opening ceremony, organizers presented commemorative certificates to winners of the seventh "Kunshan Mazu Cup" Youth Lantern Design Competition. The evening also marked the premiere of "Crossing the Sea," an episode in the micro-drama series "Wait for Me to Come Home," based on a true story about returning a veteran's ashes to his hometown.

Nashville – September 20, 2026 -- Husband-and-wife music duo The Swansons have released their new single, "Hey God, It's Me Again," alongside four nominations at the upcoming Josie Music Awards. The duo will attend the ceremony at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville on Sunday, September 20.

The duo scored nods across four distinct categories

The Swansons are nominated for Album of the Year for "Seven," Song of the Year for both "Pray" and "Stick & Stones," and Duo of the Year. The nominations come from the Josie Music Awards, an annual event recognizing independent music artists and industry professionals.

Humble – September 20, 2026 -- The U.S. Postal Service has released Winter Wreath, a new Global Forever stamp that covers postage for a 1-ounce letter mailed to any country served by First-Class Mail International. The stamp was issued without a ceremony in Humble, Texas.

The design swaps traditional red and green for a softer palette

USPS art director Greg Breeding said two of the three previous Global holiday stamps featured wreaths heavy on red and green. For 2026, he aimed for a different mood using gentler wintertime colors, while still working within the wreath's round shape -- a format he called an interesting design challenge for fitting objects into a circular frame.

Los Angeles – September 20, 2026 -- Digital IP entertainment company IPX has launched the third MIGHTEEZ collection, a character line created with K-pop group ATEEZ, exclusively through LINE FRIENDS SQUARE US Online starting September 18.

MIGHTEEZ characters transform into rockstars alongside ATEEZ

The 'MIGHTEEZ Rock The Stage POP-UP' reimagines the superpowered fairy characters as they prepare for a rockstar debut, mirroring ATEEZ's own on-stage transformation. ATEEZ members took part in an exclusive photoshoot built around the 'Rock The Stage' concept, linking the artists directly to their animated counterparts.

The release follows ATEEZ's 14th EP reaching number one on the US Billboard 200.