(“Shakespeare Considered Sepia” 2024 digital painting by Aberjhani based on original 1623 First Folio engraving by Martin Droeshout.)    “Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.” --  Stella Adler (from Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights) 1. Different Times and New Places     Have you ever noticed how that ultimate icon of English literature, William Shakespeare (1564–1616), sometimes pops up in places where you might least expect to find him? That was my experience twice in February 2024. The first instance occurred while I was conducting research online for a James Baldwin Centennial Project and received several Google search results referencing Baldwin’s essay, “Why I Stopped Hating Shakespeare.” The great “Bard’s” name had not been included with my query, while Baldwin (1924-1987) had recently been the subject of a Google Black History Month doodle, so the search result seemed odd.  The second instance woul...