|
|||||||||
|
|
Recent Blog Posts |
By AMANDA GORDON The day The New York Sun published a letter to readers stating that the paper was in danger of closing, I was at the New York Public Library's flagship building. I had come to write, but all I could think about was the parties I had attended there on… Film Buffs Go Back to Class At Festival Opening At Hebrew University Gala, Ross Talks Peace All the Met's a Stage at 125th Season's Opening Night Gilda's Club Ball Shows Off Benefits of Seeing Red
Photos from the American Folk Art Museum Gala
Click here for photos. We were in luck at the Folk Art Museum gala last night when the first person we laid eyes on was its president, Laura Parsons (wife of Citigroup chairman Richard Parsons). Ms. Parsons was sitting with Raffaella Cribiore, a curator of papyri at Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscripts Library. We learned about two works in Ms. Parsons's personal collection: A self-portrait by Clementine Hunter and Hale Woodruff's "Cotton Pickers," which hangs in her living room. Over by the silent auction table, Barry Briskin, the chairman of the museum, was talking with Robin Schlinger. "This is a really great event. All the proceeds go to education, which is so important," Mr. Briskin said. We met Phyllis Kossoff and Jan Willem van Bergen Henegouwien (phew!). We admired the red ribbon on the lapel of Paul Baerwald, which he received, he said, for making a donation to the Actor's Fund at a performance that day of Manhattan Theater Club's "The Royal Family." "It's a great play," Mr. Baerwald said. We saw the guest everyone was referring to as both "the most handsome man in the room" and "Uma's guy." That would be Arpad Busson. Uma, as in Uma Thurman, was not present. Busson is tall with a serious yet boyish face and Calvin Klein model's haircut. Others we spotted and admired without taking a photograph: Gillian Miniter wearing the hot color for November, an emerald green; Dorothy Lichtenstein, and Taryn and Mark Leavitt, whom we know for their leadership at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires. Our lens caught up with the chairman of Yale University's corporation, Roland Betts, his wife, Lois, and friend Dianne Renwick -- right before Mr. Betts took his wife to the dance floor. Near the tables designated for the young professionals, we found Ashley Mohr and Matt Mitchell admiring the view from Tribeca Rooftop. Adam Gopnik told us that after recently giving a lecture about van Gogh, he still feels that "Starry Night" "looks like the greatest painting of modern times." Later, Mr. Gopnik and his wife walked over to the architects Billie Tsien and Tod Williams and posed for a photo. Ms. Tsien and Mr. Williams designed the American Folk Art Museum and are now working on the Barnes Foundation's downtown Philadelphia structure; they'll be attending a groundbreaking ceremony this Friday in Philadelphia, though Mr. Williams told us they started digging the hole in the ground yesterday. One of Mr. Gopnik's dining companions was the executive director of the museum, Maria Ann Conelli. Their meal: a poached pear salad with pine nuts, their choice of filet mignon with broccolini or grilled salmon with quinoa, and a baked caramelized apple tart. Yaz Hernandez introduced us to some of the guests at her table, including composer Marcos Galvany, who divides his time between New York and Washington, D.C. and is working on an opera that is set to premiere at Carnegie Hall on April 10, related to the story of Easter. He said he's heard the Vatican may be interested in hosting a performance. Alas we were not the ones who put in the winning $14,000 bid for a week's trip to Tuscany -- but we did get to watch the suspenseful auction. And we also got to share hellos and hugs with good souls we haven't seen in a while: pianist Bruce Levingston and American Folk Art Museum trustee Lawrence Benenson. All in all, a folksy night. By Amanda Gordon | Thu, 12 Nov 2009 at 12:57 AM | Permalink The Place to Be Tonight: Supporting Prison Writing
“I hope only to stretch myself to some how reach the light.” —David J. Lista “I chuff my way into another day/as ice glints on the razor wire.” —Jorge Antonio Renaud “Today I ate BBQ chicken with a plastic spoon. Sound impossible? Well, eighteen hundred inmates did it. Usually we eat with a spork.” —John Yarbrough WNYC and the PEN America Center present a showcase of work written by participants in the PEN Prison Writing Program. The event, titled “Breakout: Voices from the Inside,” is a benefit with ticket prices starting at $50, to support a low-profile PEN project that certainly deserves a much higher profile. Excerpts from stories will be read (and streamed live on the wnyc.org Web site) by, among others, Lemon Andersen, fresh off the success of “County of Kings” at the Public Theater; John Turturro (most recently heard in the latest Transformers film), writer Mary Gaitskill, writer/actor Eric Bogosian, and Jamal Joseph, who wrote poetry and earned two college degrees while incarcerated for his participation in the Black Panther Party, and has since become a spoken-word artist on Def Jam Poetry, chairman of Columbia University’s Graduate film department, and artistic director of the New Heritage Theater in Harlem. For 28 years, working with bare-bone budgets, the PEN Prison Writing Program has guided thousands of people behind bars in the art of writing. This takes place through the distribution, to between 3,000 and 4,000 prisoners annually, of the “PEN Handbook for Writers in Prison,” with chapters on fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, drama, and rewriting. The program also runs a writing contest, and the most promising applicants — about a hundred a year — are paired with professional writers for mentoring through snail mail correspondence. About 70% of the mentorships last through three letter exchanges, and some last much longer. At various times, the program has narrowly escaped the chopping block. There have also been times when it has been able to do even more: A grant once made possible post-release programming, offering writing classes to people who had just gotten out of prison. “It’s a very troubled period of time, when they’re reintegrating back, so having a skill they’re practicing is a very important thing,” says the program’s director, Jackson Taylor, adding that education dramatically reduces recidivism. The program’s key achievement isn’t helping prisoners get published or mentored, but rather, quite humbly, to help them make writing a regular part of their lives, which brings its own benefits. “Writing is a skill that generates other skills,” said Mr. Taylor. The theory behind the program is that all prisoners can learn to write. “We believe very strongly that writing is a skill that can be practiced, and writing well is useful in almost every avenue of employment. Part of what our job is to teach them what to practice and how to practice.” Has a genre of prison fiction emerged from the program? Mr. Taylor, who also runs the New School’s Graduate Writing Program, answered that the fiction produced by prisoners covers a range of themes. Some express contrition; others proclaim their innocence; others “percolate with ideas about home life, family, and that’s when you sense that these 'prisoners' or 'inmates' are human beings who for some terrible reason have had something go wrong in their lives." Mr. Taylor notes just how important it is to have the stories of prisoners out in the open. “The system doesn’t want you to see. I tried to see a prisoner last year, Charles Patrick Norman, down in Florida. He’s entered our contest, I just love the guy. And even with PEN’s backing and going through all the proper channels, I wasn’t allowed to see him. I think that’s wrong, people need to have access. They’re already isolated enough,” Mr. Taylor said. The PEN Prison Writing Program is one way prisoners can gain access — and we can gain access to prisoners. “I’ve read pages and pages of human despair…all I can do is connect in this small tiny way,” Mr. Taylor said. Here is the excerpt that will be read from the writing of Charles Patrick Norman:
And so for one night, an audience in the studio and on the web will be invited into the world behind bars. “Breakout: Voices from the Inside” takes place tonight, November 9, 7 p.m., WNYC’s Greene Space, at the intersection of Varick and Charleton, tickets start at $50. On the web: http://bit.ly/cLeFD. Phone: 212.334.1660 ext 120. By Amanda Gordon | Mon, 9 Nov 2009 at 8:12 AM | Permalink Introducing the 'Human-Powered Search Engine'
Patience and fortitude are still keeping watch at the New York Public Library’s flagship Fifth Avenue entrance, but the world is changing around them, and so, in a fashion, are they. The Library has a new logo developed in-house and based on its iconic lion statues. It is a bold graphic inspired by the design of stained glass, complete with a circular frame. The former logo was also a lion, but with finer detail that apparently made it difficult to read in contexts like Twitter. The logo isn’t the only thing changing. At its annual gala last week, the library introduced new messaging in the official gala video (available on YouTube), this year produced by a new team of outside vendors: Mark Katz of the Soundbite Institute, Tim Miller of Big Chief Entertainment, and James Percelay of Get Real Productions. The goal, Mr. Katz said, was to position the library as “an unrivaled ‘human-powered search engine,’” in an age of Google, Yahoo, and Monster.com. Three librarians appear in the video to tease out the point. After Mayor Bloomberg describes a librarian's human touch, career specialist Janice Moore-Smith says, “Online job sites, they can’t do that.” Reference librarian David Smith says helping writers requires creativity and “if you’re pro-active, you anticipate what their needs are." And children’s librarian Julia Chang explains the difference between her and an Internet search engine: “Even though Google will give you the thousand hits that they give you, a children’s librarian can always refine your search and always track the right sources for you and be able to analyze those sources.” It's the last minute of the video, though, that feels ready to be repurposed into a primetime public service announcement. It begins with a question that makes a great tagline, “What are you searching for?” Cue the inspirational music, and watch more than a dozen people of diverse ages and ethnicities answer: “A job in fashion,” “a really good mystery,” “references for my thesis,” “my family tree..." Mayor Bloomberg’s answer is, “What’s going to take this city forward” Hilary Knight, Eloise’s illustrator, says, “New ideas.” One of the antique expert Keno brothers answers, “The next great treasure.” The author E. Annie Proulx says, “Information on the kauri trees of New Zealand in the 19th century.”
The video ends with a woman’s voice repeating “What are you searching for?” with a black screen showing a skinny white rectangular box, mimicking search boxes on Web sites. This minute has emotional impact and captures the incredible range of ways people use the library. It's about time it got its own fancy commercial. I’ll be searching for it, along with those snappy new lions. By Amanda Gordon | Mon, 9 Nov 2009 at 8:04 AM | Permalink The Place to Be Tonight: Art @ New York City Opera
Good morning! A great event to get to tonight is the free, public opening of the contemporary art installations presented by New York City Opera in its renovated house. The setting is the very, very special Promenade, with its Elie Nadelman sculptures. And since there's no performance tonight, it is your prerogative to dwell luxuriously here instead of worrying about getting back to your seat. What you'll see: In addition to E.V. Day's manipulations of City Opera costumes, suspended in air, City Opera is presenting photography exhibitions along the perimeters of the red-carpeted balconies. Make sure you ascend to the first balcony, for the display of work by Rachel Papo, who is among The New York Sun's distinguished photographers (see some of those assignments here), and who last month won the Lucie Award for the International Photographer of the Year - Deeper Perspective Award. Who you'll see: In addition to the artists -- both Papo and Day are strong, intelligent women who will invigorate you in a moment -- you'll likely hear from the guy in charge of making City Opera matter: George Steel. An elegant man, and one to pay attention to especially in the next few weeks. And then there's E.V. Day's husband, Ted Lee, author with his brother Matt of a new cookbook on Southern cuisine. What does this have to do with opera? The photograph above is part of a series that has thematic resonance with the first opera of City Opera's season, "Esther." As City Opera's press department advised us, "Drawing from her experience as a teenager serving in the Israeli Air Force, Rachel Papo depicts the subject’s negotiation of the often contradictory roles of soldier and adolescent girl. The image echoes the struggle of Esther, who was also a teenager at the time she was called to risk her life to save her people from annihilation." Dress: Make some effort! Color would work well here (remember, you'll be on a red carpet!) Details: The preview takes place tonight from 5 pm to 8 pm at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, to the left of the fountain. "Esther," by the way, premieres on Sunday. By Amanda Gordon | Fri, 6 Nov 2009 at 10:05 AM | Permalink Benefit Preview: A PEN America Program Teaches Writing to Prisoners
“I hope only to stretch myself to some how reach the light.” —David J. Lista “I chuff my way into another day/as ice glints on the razor wire.” —Jorge Antonio Renaud “Today I ate BBQ chicken with a plastic spoon. Sound impossible? Well, eighteen hundred inmates did it. Usually we eat with a spork.” —John Yarbrough At WNYC’s Greene Space this coming Monday night, the PEN America Center has organized a showcase of work written by participants in the PEN Prison Writing Program. The event, titled “Breakout: Voices from the Inside,” is a benefit with ticket prices starting at $50, to support a low-profile PEN project that certainly deserves a much higher profile. For 28 years, working with bare-bone budgets, the PEN Prison Writing Program has guided thousands of people behind bars in the art of writing. This takes place through the distribution, to between 3,000 and 4,000 prisoners annually, of the “PEN Handbook for Writers in Prison,” with chapters on fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, drama, and rewriting. The program also runs a writing contest, and the most promising applicants — about a hundred a year — are paired with professional writers for mentoring through snail mail correspondence. About 70% of the mentorships last through three letter exchanges, and some last much longer. At various times, the program has narrowly escaped the chopping block. There have also been times when it has been able to do even more: A grant once made possible post-release programming, offering writing classes to people who had just gotten out of prison. “It’s a very troubled period of time, when they’re reintegrating back, so having a skill they’re practicing is a very important thing,” says the program’s director, Jackson Taylor, adding that education dramatically reduces recidivism. The program’s key achievement isn’t helping prisoners get published or mentored, but rather, quite humbly, to help them make writing a regular part of their lives, which brings its own benefits. “Writing is a skill that generates other skills,” said Mr. Taylor. The theory behind the program is, of course, that all prisoners can learn to write. “We believe very strongly that writing is a skill that can be practiced, and writing well is useful in almost every avenue of employment. Part of what our job is to teach them what to practice and how to practice.” We asked Mr. Taylor, who also runs the New School’s Graduate Writing Program, “Has a genre of prison fiction emerged from the program?” He answered that the fiction produced by prisoners covers a range of themes. Some express contrition; others proclaim their innocence; others “percolate with ideas about home life, family, and that’s when you sense that these 'prisoners' or 'inmates' are human beings who for some terrible reason have had something go wrong in their lives,” Mr. Taylor said. At the event, excerpts from stories will be read (and streamed live on the wnyc.org Web site) by, among others, Lemon Andersen, fresh off the success of “County of Kings” at the Public Theater; John Turturro (most recently heard in the latest Transformers film), writer Mary Gaitskill, writer/actor Eric Bogosian, and Jamal Joseph, who wrote poetry and earned two college degrees while incarcerated for his participation in the Black Panther Party, and has since become a spoken-word artist on Def Jam Poetry, chairman of Columbia University’s Graduate film department, and artistic director of the New Heritage Theater in Harlem. Mr. Taylor notes just how important it is to have the stories of prisoners out in the open. “The system doesn’t want you to see. I tried to see a prisoner last year, Charles Patrick Norman, down in Florida. He’s entered our contest, I just love the guy. And even with PEN’s backing and going through all the proper channels, I wasn’t allowed to see him. I think that’s wrong, people need to have access. They’re already isolated enough,” Mr. Taylor said. The PEN Prison Writing Program is one way prisoners can gain access — and we can gain access to prisoners. “I’ve read pages and pages of human despair…all I can do is connect in this small tiny way,” Mr. Taylor said. Here is the excerpt that will be read, written by prisoner Charles Patrick Norman:
And so for one night, an audience in the studio and on the web will be invited into the world behind bars. “Breakout: Voices from the Inside” takes place on November 9, 7 p.m., WNYC’s Greene Space, at the intersection of Varick and Charleton, tickets start at $50. On the web: http://bit.ly/cLeFD. Phone: 212.334.1660 ext 120. By Amanda Gordon | Thu, 5 Nov 2009 at 10:07 AM | Permalink Living Landmarks
The New York Landmarks Conservancy has a way of making the business of galas -- gathering people to eat smoked salmon and filet and cheer for some "honorees" -- fun. In fact, after sixteen years, the organization has it down to an art and science, as it proved tonight in the 16th edition of the "Living Landmarks" gala, held at Cipriani 42nd Street. The method relies on the queen of entertainment writing, Liz Smith, who knows a thing or two about entertaining. She is a gracious, intelligent, witty, warm, and multi-talented host. She makes the evening into an event. There are some celebrities involved -- Bill Cosby was on the premises to introduce honoree George Kaufman, who brought back Astoria Studios, and with it, a lot of film and television business, not to mention tourists. Part of the fun is that the honorees are asked to talk about why they love New York, and what New Yorker doesn't love that. Broadway star Tommy Tune said, "The creativity is so thick, you wake up in the morning and your brain starts going. It's fertile ground." Baroness Mariuccia Zerilli Marimò, in a charming Italian accent, said, "New York is so wonderful because it's not a city. It's many cities." Humor is always welcome at such affairs. Tonight it came from New York County's celebrated District Attorney, Robert Morgenthau, who is famously headed into retirement. He recalled having lunch with Sam Waterston, who plays a character on "Law and Order" based on Mr. Morgenthau. "I understood he was getting $25,000 an episode, so I said to him, 'When you're getting to retire, let me know, because I want your job.'" Watch out Mr. Waterston. Even the band leader -- that would be past honoree Peter Duchin -- brought levity to the most mundane proceedings. "Please find your seat and sit on them," he said before the lights went down and the hands started passing around the bread baskets. As for the photographer -- well, this year, that guy wound up as an honoree: Bill Cunningham of The New York Times became a "Living Landmark," described as "the Edith Wharton of photography." But he wasn't the only one snapping: Here are some photos we took. By Amanda Gordon | Wed, 4 Nov 2009 at 9:35 PM | Permalink Emma Bloomberg's Election Day Itinerary
When we saw Mayor Bloomberg's eldest daughter, Emma Bloomberg, last night at the New York Public Library's gala, we naturally asked her when and for whom she planned to vote today, Election Day. Ms. Bloomberg told the Sun she'd be up early to vote for her dad, the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, who is running for his third term. "I'm voting early because then I'm working subway stops to make sure everyone else does," Ms. Bloomberg said, specifying her territory as between Tribeca and Houston Street. In order to do so, she's taking half a day off as a vacation day; in the afternoon, she'll be back at work, the Robin Hood Foundation. Next, naturally, we asked her what she was reading. "I just finished 'In the President's Secret Service,' which you should read," Ms. Bloomberg said, addressing the recommendation to a friend, Jessica Tisch, who has worked in the counterterrorism unit of the New York City Police Department. Next? "Today I downloaded Joyce Purnick's new book," Ms. Bloomberg said. That would be: "Mike Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics." Guess it's always good to be informed about the candidate you're campaigning for. By Amanda Gordon | Tue, 3 Nov 2009 at 2:22 AM | Permalink Performa 09's 'Creation': A Family Affair
Jennifer Rubell pulled off her grand, biblical gastronomic art event on Friday night, galvanizing more than 500 guests to shell their own peanuts, choose their own glasses, mix their own drinks, and put together their own plates of ribs complete with honey dripping from a contraption hanging from the ceiling. For dessert, they got to pick apples (from felled trees) and take a hammer to seven chocolate bunnies constructed by Jacques Torres in the form of Jeff Koons's 'Rabbit' sculpture. Good thing he wasn't around to see guests a smashin'. Ms. Rubell said that Mr. Torres told her, "Never call me again," because the bunnies were so difficult to make. Well, Mr. Torres wasn't the only one who'd been put out to make this event happen. But wasn't it worth it, just to see Thelma Golden chowing down on ribs? ---- RELATED: A photo album from Performa 09's 'Creation' as well as an album from which to order prints ---- "Eating is an act of art," said celebrated chef Mario Batali as he dug deep into the peanut heap. "I love eating installations," said the editor in chief of Food and Wine, Dana Cowin. "The most thrilling, transgressive part of this is when you throw your peanut shells on the ground," Sarah Steel said. Don Mullins was intrigued with the choose-your-own-drink adventure: He made himself a rum and ginger ale, in a flute he selected because "it seemed like the weirdest glass with the least volume, so I'll stay sober." Cocktail hour was, according to the program notes, a reference to the creation of the Garden of Eden; the ribs served for dinner were meant to evoke the creation of woman. Dessert was about the expulsion and fall -- a point tied to the location, which, the program stated, "was chosen mainly for the use it no longer has, as the Dia Center for the Arts. This seemed appropriate for what is fundamentally a story of exile by choice." Dia-philes may have seemed a bit nostalgic for their space, but then again, it was easy to get caught up in the moment. "I'm hoping there's going to be a food fight by the end of the night," Seth Unger, who runs the New York City Food Film Festival, said, sitting at a banquet table accomodating 100 guests. "The sheer scale is unbelievable. The brilliance is that it forces everyone to immediately drop their guard and interact with one another," Mr. Unger said. The director of Performa, RoseLee Goldberg, was pleased with the event. "I think in New York, we’re all so sophisticated, and the beauty here is to say we can go even beyond that, to use creativity to be able to seduce people with ideas, with intellect, with food," she said. "In New York, we see so much; there’s nothing we don’t see. You’re trying to trigger creative thinking in a whole new way, and that’s what’s thrilling, to see people responding to this. I’ve seen everybody walking around with big grins on their face. I hope that’s how performers measure their work. I always say, what I care about is that you feel something and that you never forget it. Someone said tonight, 'People are going to remember this for the next 10 years.'" Ms. Rubell didn't eat at the event, instead circulating among guests, carrying a bottle of water and Ricola cough drops. Finally, with the bunnies demolished and apple cores starting to dot the floor, someone brought her Champagne in a beer glass. The evening had been judged a triumph, and she was able to relax, for a moment or two. At least, until she gets her next catering-art-performance assignment. "You will never eat at Performa without Jennifer," Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, Performa's new chairman, promised during brief remarks. Next time, Ms. Rubell, please eat! By Amanda Gordon | Sat, 31 Oct 2009 at 1:09 AM | Permalink Art Escape: An Eye for Nature
Alan Gussow's "Surf/Monhegan" (1986) shows how the painter, born and raised in New York City, found a sense of the city's frenetic energy in the violent surf of the Atlantic Ocean, off the Maine coast. Gussow spent time on Monhegan, an artist's retreat where there are no cars and barely even roads. Instead, painters plant their feet and their canvases and get to work. It all seems perfectly natural. Perhaps it is only when these canvases, capturing nature, are imported into a midtown gallery that they start to seem strange and powerful. A Gussow show including 25 oil paintings is now on view at Babcock Galleries (724 Fifth Ave., Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.) in conjunction with the publication of the first monograph on his work, "Alan Gussow: A Painter's Nature." Those willing to travel to Old Lyme, Conn., can explore Monhegan further in an exhibition at the Florence Griswold Museum devoted to artist colonies of the New England coast, including those at Cos Cob and Old Lyme. It's striking how the colonies, all offering an escape from the city and access to inspiring light and scenery, have produced such different bodies of work. Old Lyme comes off as a picturesque place, whereas Ogunquit and Monhegan have produced a much wider range of responses -- pictures with working men (who were paid to pose with beer), abstractions, bolder colors. (See www.flogris.org for more information). By Amanda Gordon | Fri, 30 Oct 2009 at 10:40 AM | Permalink New York Opens Arms for 'Broken Embraces'
"Good evening, fellow elitists," Richard Pena, program director of the New York Film Festival, said tonight in Alice Tully Hall, addressing some of the criticism of this year's festival with good humor. The audience approved, and it was on to the highlight of the festival: Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces." Mr. Pena recalled that 22 years ago, the festival opened with the Spanish director's "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." "That was the film that brought him to a much larger audience, and made a household name of him, if your household was an art house," Mr. Pena said. Since then, Mr. Almodovar has returned to the festival several times. But after tonight, his next big New York night will likely be on Broadway: "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" is being turned into a musical, directed by Bartlett Sher, and is scheduled for a spring opening. By Amanda Gordon | Sun, 11 Oct 2009 at 10:13 PM | Permalink |
 |
