She is the chair of the Bronx River Alliance. What the Mississippi is to Mark Twain, the Bronx River is to her, although with fewer good songs. She has a plan to cover the Cross Bronx Expressway, convert it to green space, and end its flow of pollution into the neighborhood. I can think of … Continue reading »
“Isaac Bashevis Singer called my mother the Sherlock Holmes of Yiddish songs,” says Zalmen. His family heritage and Steven’s splendid singing were big factors in the triumph of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish. Presented by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Continue reading »
Dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and a staff writer for The New Yorker, he says, “When people ask what I think is the foundational institution of democracy, I always say: ‘the public library.’” Enjoy it while we’ve got it. And what’s left of our democracy. Continue reading »
He wrote Ken Russell’s Women in Love, geeze, 50 years ago, then wrote plays (The Normal Heart) and novels (Faggots). Amidst the emerging AIDS epidemic, he helped found the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and Act Up. Accomplished, right? Not according to him. “I feel like I failed,” he says. A life examined. Continue reading »