Diane Arbus’s old contact sheets include images she never meant us to see, so would perusing them violate her rights as an artist? Photographer Benjamin Swett says he’d look at them with pleasure, and he makes a persuasive case that he’s not going to hell. Plus, the invention of the circular saw and celibacy reconsidered: surprisingly …
Nachshon was the first Israelite into the Red Sea – before God parted the waters. So, commited activist or blind follower? Much has been said about leaders, less about what we value in the rank and file. Ruth Messenger has thought about both, as a city council member, as Manhattan borough president, in her …
Dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, writer, she emerged in the early sixties with the Judson Dance Theater, a loose coalition of dancers and artists who moved gracefully – and angularly, and powerfully, and sinuously – between those two worlds. The dancers, that is; the artists moved…well, it was a time of heavy drinking. Presented in conjunction … Continue reading »
DJ Alan Freed, who might have coined the term “rock’n’roll,” was destroyed in the payola scandals of the fifties, but he was no more corrupt than his colleagues, says Kenny Vance. And Freed staged some of the first integrated rock shows. Does this mitigate his conduct? Sharp ideas about radio, rock, and the invention … Continue reading »
Some people who’ve profoundly affected our cultural life are esteemed by their colleagues but little known to us civilians. Actor Michael Urie, admired by both groups, reflects on one such person, James Houghton, founder of the Signature Theater. Plus transit tips and gift advice. With music from Patrick Farrell. A conversation in conjunction with the … Continue reading »
Much admired for her novels, essays, and poems, she currently lectures in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. During our conversation at the Brooklyn Historical Society, she spoke about “the Invisible College,” the mind-body problem, and her love of Virginia Woolf, despite Woolf’s lamentable ignorance of 17th century science. With music from Niall Connolly. … Continue reading »
Rabbi Ellen Lippmann and Muslim activist Debbie Almontaser are united by their work for social justice and their affection for Kahlil Gibran. “You can’t really tell if he’s writing from a Christian perspective, a Muslim perspective, a Jewish perspective,” says Debbie. “It’s just so universal.” A conversation about common ground and the difference between … Continue reading »
“Even when they won, they somehow inexplicably managed to lose,” he says of an outfit he’s supported all his life. Not the Democratic Party, the Boston Red Sox. Losing can teach relience and effort, he asserts, lessons he applies as head of the Anti-Defamation League. A conversation at JCC Manhattan about pursuing social justice in challenging … Continue reading »
Are some religions more upbeat than others? Zarin Hainsworth works for the rights of women around the world as did her mother, a true optimist. “Of course she was, because she was a Baha’i.” says Zarin, who also attributes her own optimism to her Baha’i beliefs. I find her outlook baffling but her accomplishments … Continue reading »
Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah elegantly summarizes the problem of human knowledge: “There’s nothing that you must know, and there’s too much that’s worth knowing.” So how do you decide what to read next? Or should you just grab a six-pack and head for the beach? A conversation at the Princeton Public Library, with songs … Continue reading »
Poet Sonia Sanchez and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates each love Howard University, but it’s a complicated relationship. “Howard didn’t really want me to teach there,” she says. And for him: “I was never a great student at Howard University, but I was a great student of Howard University.” Love: it’s never simple. Two writers, two … Continue reading »
Born in America, the daughter of immigrants, writer Gish Jen recalls that, “When we were growing up, people would often say: your father is very Chinese.” Not just a little Chinese – very Chinese. What did they mean by that? She answers astutely, with reference to her father’s unlikely memoir, the Tianamen Square tank … Continue reading »
This Lakota musician is a universalist, alert to the commonalities among religions, nations, people. In our conversation at the New York Baha’i Center, he notes that nearly every culture has some kind of flute and some form of fasting. Is the latter a protest against the former? Certainly not. He himself is a flute player … Continue reading »
A past president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, she has a chilling awareness of the harm that can be done by nincompoops in power, and yet she is surprisingly optimistic. We spoke at Planthouse Gallery about Rachel Carson, climate change, and the terrifying, if unlikely, prospect of being on a spaceship with Peter … Continue reading »