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The Magic of Meshell Ndegeocello
There's an exquisite, life-affirming quote by Audre Lorde in which she says, "I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even...
View ArticleThe 10 Best Short Stories You've Never Read
One thing that's great about short stories is how quickly they can ruin your life. Maybe you start reading one over your lunch break and, if it's the right one, before that peanut butter cup you...
View ArticleHead-on Collision with a Ford
It was one of those puff-piece New York Post assignments that landed in my lap once in a while back in the day, and that was fine by me -- no crime, no chalk outlines on the street, no survivors to...
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Schools of Hard Knocks
If there's one part of my education in which I consider myself to have been extremely fortunate, it's the fact that I've had some wonderful teachers and professors -- inspired educators who could...
View ArticleLife Interrupted -- My Experience at the Jerusalem Film Festival
As Director of Film Programs at The JCC in Manhattan, one of the most important festivals for me to attend is the Jerusalem Film Festival, Israel's leading film festival. I not only get to spend a week...
View ArticleKeeping Cinema Alive By Restoring Older Films
I've been going to the Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna for four years, and it's always a treat. There's the joy of discovering newly restored old films that are often better than most new...
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Repurposing With a Passion
In 2011, when I was writing for the now defunct Shanghai-based publication Public Art and Ecology, I wrote an article about the global trend toward repurposing materials in the fine arts. The article...
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Will HBO Give Platform to Racist Australian Brownface 'Mockumentary'?
It's not often you see a new form of racism being created. But, if HBO goes ahead with its planned screening of Jonah from Tonga, that's exactly what's going to happen. And the lives of a whole lot of...
View ArticleThe Nuevo South: A Changing Landscape
Having arrived in Pelham, Alabama, several years ago and establishing a construction business, Joel Rivera walked into a small Mexican grocery store looking for a specialty item. "Necesitaba nopales y...
View ArticleFirst Nighter: Robert Boswell's The Long Shrift, John Banville's Love in the...
The last 10 minutes or so of Robert Boswell's play The Long Shrift, at the Rattlestick, are richly dramatic. During them Richard (Scott Haze) and Beth (Ahna O'Reilly) finally get to the confrontation...
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Men in Big Wigs
Seth Tucker, Marty Thomas, Alex Ringler, Curtis Wiley, Nic Cory, and Nick Cearley in Pageant, photo by Jenny Anderson Pageant -- the 1991 off-Broadway hit about a beauty contest, with the six...
View ArticleI'm Not a Tart: The Feminist Subtext of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
"Jesus, what a tramp!" George of the famous duo leading John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men exclaims with disdain after first meeting Curley's wife, the newly married young woman living on the ranch. The...
View ArticleKimberly Brooks on the ImageBlog
"The Banquet" 48 x 60 in. Oil on Linen 2014. From her exhibition I Notice People Disappear at ArtHouse429 in Florida Feb 6 - March 6. I became obsessed with this image of a banquet. Capturing a sense...
View ArticleBrando v. Coppola: Debunking the Myth of Apocalypse Now
It was the late 1970s and one of Hollywood's hottest directors had undertaken an incredible challenge: to make cinematic sense of America's devastating war in Vietnam. The film shoot was wildly out of...
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Henry Miller, Watercolorist
Henry Miller was one of those rare artists, like the English Romantic poet William Blake, to have achieved mastery in two media: language and paint. Though better known for his novels and essay...
View ArticleWhat Happens When an Artist's Own Work Is Stolen
In the "Selected Collections" of his resume, Irvine, California artist Jeffrey Frisch lists a variety of private buyers of his work and one "Anonymous Thief," referring to the person who stole one of...
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Despite Fiscal Setbacks Philadanco Dances on
Joan Myers Brown (photo courtesy of Philadanco) Joan Myers Brown is a Philadelphia legend as founder and artistic director of Philadanco and establishing her school of dance, just for starters. Brown...
View ArticleArtists Deserve Royalties Too
In 1958 my father, Robert Rauschenberg, painted Thaw, which he later sold to an art collector for $900. Fifteen years later, that collector sold the painting at auction for $85,000. My father was...
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Creative Resistance: A Study of the Free Southern Theater
As the country marks the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, the landmark voting rights initiative that took place throughout the state of Mississippi in 1964, it's important to note the key but often...
View ArticleSummer in New York City: Keep Cool With Brazilian Music
The World Cup is over but Brazilian music has an extra period for fans in New York. For the multi-venue Brasil Summerfest, one of the headliners is Bebel Gilberto, who plays Celebrate Brooklyn at the...
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