Arts & Entertainment

Dwight Montgomery was pulling himself out of the water when he looked up and saw the crowd was clapping and cheering for him.

Chrisette Michele laughs as she turns to her hit-making collaborator and confidant, Ne-Yo, who's seated nearby at Electric Lady Studios in the West Village.

These vivid scenes are on display at New York's French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF), part of a small show of Haitian paintings borrowed from the vast collection of acclaimed film director Jonathan Demme.

"Americans, we're getting better," says Alfre Woodard, sounding, well, presidential. "But it's hard."

Tim Brown played on a high school football team that won four games in three seasons and he went to Notre Dame thinking about a career as a computer scientist.

Even from a young age, author Alice Walker was keeping a record.

Women's college basketball is getting good marks in racial diversity for its coaching hires.

Stories of race and gender prevailed at this year's Pulitzer Prizes, with "Ruined," Lynn Nottage's harrowing tale of survival set against the backdrop of an African civil war, winning for drama Monday and books about slavery, civil rights and Andrew Jackson also receiving awards.

During a "Meet the Press" round-table earlier this month, NBC's David Gregory turned to Rutgers University economist William Rodgers for an assessment of President Barack Obama's overseas trip.