Joe Donahue

E. R. Ramzipoor's debut novel "The Ventriloquists" is a work of fiction inspired by a little known scheme carried out against the Nazis by a small band of resisters.

Set in occupied Belgium, the saga resurrects and reimagines the story of men and women who laid their lives on the line to create a faux newspaper to mock the Germans and subvert the Nazis' own propaganda machine.

The Agricultural Stewardship Association will present its 18th Annual Landscapes for Landsake Art Sale & Exhibition October 12–14. 

The event is a fundraiser to support local farmland conservation, and the art show features artists whose work is inspired by the region's working landscapes. It takes place in the historic barn at Maple Ridge in the hamlet of Coila, just west of the Village of Cambridge.

This year's Landscapes for Landsake features the work of Virginia McNeice (1936-2019).

Teri Ptacek is Executive Director of the Agricultural Stewardship Association and she joins us for the preview this morning along with Leah McClosky, the curator of Landscapes for Landsake.

  The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond.

Today's panelists are WAMC’s Alan Chartock, investigative journalist Rosemary Armao, Siena College Economic Professor Aaron Pacitti, Albany County District Attorney David Soares, Counter-Terrorism Expert and MSNBC Contributor Malcolm Nance.

Revealing misconduct of the powerful is always dangerous. Whistleblowers, therefore, face a difficult choice: by challenging and exposing corruption, they perform a vital public service yet they historically suffer for it.

In "Whistleblowers: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump," author and scholar Allison Stanger frames whistleblowing as an important but unrecognized cousin of civil disobedience. She shows how its practice has held powerful elites accountable in America across the centuries.

She asserts its goal: to prevent the abuse of power by those who hold it; is rooted in the very DNA of America, dating back to the country’s founding. Allison Stanger is a Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College, New America Cybersecurity Fellow, and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute.

Berkshire Theatre Group presents "What The Jews Believe" at The Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, Massachusetts through October 20. The play is presented in association with The American National Theatre

Dave and his family still live in the old home built by his father in rural Central Texas, and they are still the only Jewish family in town. His son Nathan feels isolated attempting to understand the family’s beliefs, while his wife Rachel faces an even greater crisis of faith. Meanwhile, Dave struggles to maintain a sense of normalcy for his searching family.

Written and directed by Mark Harelik, "What the Jews Believe" is a poignant story about the loss of faith and the journey to find it.

        Shawn Stone joins us to talk about what he's seen lately and what cultural events are coming up this week in our region.

Seen: "Joker"

Upcoming:

• David Sedaris - The Egg, Albany, Thursday 10/10, 8 PM
• Paula Cole: Revolution Tour - Caffe Lena, Saratoga Springs, Friday 10/11, two shows: 6 and 8:30 PM
• COIN - Pearl Street Nightclub, Northampton, Mass., Friday 10/11, 8:30 PM
• Paul Taylor Dance Company - Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, Mass., Fri-Sat 10/11-12 at 8 PM; Sun 10/13 at 2 PM
• Kenari Quartet (music of Schumann, contemporary composers) - Friends of Chamber Music, Kiggins Hall, Emma Willard School, Troy, Saturday 10/12, 7:30 PM
• "Mamma Mia!" - Home Made Theater, Spa Little Theater, Saratoga Springs, opens Saturday 10/12 at 7:30 PM, through Oct. 27
• Martha Redbone - Massry Center for the Arts, College of Saint Rose, Albany, Saturday 10/12, 8 PM
• Chowderfest (with live music in Monument Square, DJs at select locations) - Downtown Troy, Troy, Sunday 10/13, noon to 4 PM
• The Fleshtones - Hangar on the Hudson, Troy, Sunday 10/13, 5 PM
• Justin Hayward - The Egg, Albany, Tuesday 10/15, 8 PM

New movies: "Gemini Man," "Lucy in the Sky," "The Addams Family"

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond.

Today's panelists are WAMC’s Alan Chartock, investigative journalist Rosemary Armao, Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web and Cognitive Sciences at RPI and Director of the RPI-IBM Artificial Intelligence research collaboration Jim Hendler, Siena College Professor of Comparative Politics Vera Eccarius-Kelly, and former Daily Freeman Publisher Ira Fusfeld.

LightField Arts aims to use the power of visual art to illuminate environmental and social issues. The organization mounts an annual exhibit in Hudson, New York that showcases the work of photographers and multimedia artists through exhibitions, moderated talks, and educational outreach.

This year’s exhibition is “Photo + Synthesis” and for it, LightField Arts has chosen seven artists to make or exhibit work focusing on the Hudson River Valley and climate change. Alongside these works, LightField exhibits the art produced in its annual Young Photographers Workshop.

We are joined by LightField Arts Director and President Anna Van Lenten and Vice President Saskia Kahn. Kahn runs the Young Photographers Workshop.

LightField Arts “Photo + Synthesis” Opening is this Saturday, October 12 from 5-7pm at Hudson Hall in Hudson, New York. The exhibition is on display through December 21.

Founded in 2010 in Kingston, New York by a small group of artists-activists, doctors and a dentist, O+ is now a national nonprofit working in cities around the country.

The group builds long-term relationships between creatives and health and wellness providers to help strengthen local communities. Their year-round efforts culminate in one-day and weekend-long celebrations, during which underinsured artists and musicians create and perform in exchange for a variety of services donated by doctors, dentists and complementary care providers.

Dance-punk band !!! (Chk Chk Chk) will play the 10th annual O+ Kingston festival of art, music and wellness beginning October 11-13 along with folk-rocker Elvis Perkins, cabaret-punk band The World/Inferno Friendship Society, Tall Juan, neo-soul band Lady Moon & The Eclipse and 40 more solo artists, bands and ensembles representing a wide cross-section of musical genres and styles.

This morning we are joined by O+ Executive Director Joe Concra, RN and Artists’ Clinic Director Shannon Donnell, and co-chair of the O+ Kingston music committee Mike Amari.

  The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond.

Today's panelists are Times Union Columnist Chris Churchill, investigative journalist Rosemary Armao, SUNY New Paltz Communications Professor and former NYS Senator Terry Gipson, Dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany Robert Griffin.

Terry Tempest Williams is renowned for her singular body of literature on the environment and our experiences of home.  Her new book “Erosion: Essays of Undoing,” explores this connection, particularly to her home state of Utah, as an evolutionary process and how our undoing of the self, self-centeredness, extractive capitalism, fear, tribalism can also be our becoming, creating room for change and progress.

Grammy Award winner Paula Cole will be playing a pair of shows this coming Friday night at Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs, New York. Her tenth album “Revolution” came out last month.

Her 1994 debut, “Harbinger,” was followed up by a double-platinum second album, “This Fire;” her hit singles “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone” and “I Don’t Want To Wait”; her Best New Artist Grammy, an additional six Grammy nominations; and becoming a Grammy-nominated producer and founder of her own 675 record label.

With “Revolution,” Cole tells a story of those sidelined by gender, age, and race and speaks out for those who have been silenced. These songs explore familial and personal wounds and tell important, and sometimes terrible, truths.

    This week's Book Picks come from Connie Brooks and Kate Reid of Battenkill Books in Cambridge, NY.

List:
“Dutch House” by Ann Patchett
“Ninth House” by Leigh Bardugo
“On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey” by Paul Theroux
“How to Catch a Mole: Wisdom from a Life Lived in Nature” by Marc Hamer
“Marley” by Jon Clinch
“Home in the Woods” by Eliza Wheeler
“The Hundred-Year Barn” by Patricia MacLachlan, illustrated by Kenard Pak
“Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant and Artist” by Julie Leung, illustrated by Chris Sasaki

“Water, Water, Everywhere…” is the final production of Oldcastle Theatre Company's 48th season. The play is set in the office of a small town newspaper in the fictional small town of Walloomsac, Vermont as its reporters begin work on a story about a factory spewing (PFOA) from exhaust stacks that build up over years in the groundwater and soil.

Similar things happened in Bennington, Vermont and nearby Hoosick Falls, New York. But playwright and Oldcastle’s Producing Artistic Director, Eric Peterson, cautions that the play is fiction, not a documentary.

Much of the play revolves around the local newspaper which is facing a difficult financial situation and is in danger of closing. Two young reporters team up with a veteran editor to bring the story to their readers. Peterson, a former columnist for both the Bennington Banner and the Berkshire Eagle, has written often about Vermont themes in plays such as “Civil Union.”

  The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond.

Today's panelists are WAMC’s Alan Chartock, investigative reporter Rosemary Armao, former Associate Editor of The Times Union Mike Spain, political consultant and lobbyist Libby Post, and The Empire Report’s J.P. Miller.

Overcoming obstacles such as sexism and discrimination by male artists, art critics, and art dealers, a group of fearless women including Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, and Joan Mitchell made careers for themselves by embracing avant-garde painting.

"Heroines of Abstract Expressionism," now open at Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York offers visitors a special glimpse of a one-of-a-kind private collection of paintings, works on paper, and sculpture by women artists who pioneered Abstract Expressionism in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s.

Organized by the Fenimore, this major exhibition consists of over 30 works from the Richard P. Friedman and Cindy Lou Wakefield collection featuring objects that are both visually mesmerizing and technically complex. Richard Friedman joins us this morning along with Fenimore Director of Exhibitions, Chris Rossi.

The conference “Migration & Mental Health” will be held at SUNY New Paltz on October 11.

The conference focuses on providing psychological and psycho-social support for immigrants, especially those living in extreme situations. The theme of this eighth annual conference is “Gender, Place and Identity.”

Director of Athena Network New York Maria Elena Ferrer and Athena Network New York member/part of the conference steering committee Gerry Harrington.

One year ago today, Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice by a 50–48 vote in the Senate. In September 2018, the FBI’s weeklong investigation of the sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, then President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, left millions of Americans feeling unsatisfied, even more questions unanswered, and a slew of testimonies unexplored.

Through fly-on-the-wall reporting and exclusive interviews with classmates, friends, and colleagues, New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly fill in the blanks with a deeply reported account of the events leading to the explosive confirmation hearing in their new book: "The Education Of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation."

Robin Pogrebin is a reporter on the New York Times' Culture Desk, where she covers the art world and cultural institutions, exploring the internal politics, finances and governance of museums, auction houses, galleries and performing arts organizations.

      The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond.

Today's panelists are WAMC’s Alan Chartock, Albany Law School Professor and Director of the Immigration Law Clinic Sarah Rogerson, former Times Union Associate Editor Mike Spain, Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web and Cognitive Sciences at RPI and Director of the RPI-IBM Artificial Intelligence research collaboration Jim Hendler, and Skidmore College Business professor and Brexit expert Peter Moloney.

The Passport Series brings Music Haven to Proctors and allows audiences to “travel the world one concert at a time.”

For 30 years, the Music Haven Concert Series has presented an amazing array of global sounds in Schenectady’s Central Park, transporting summer seekers to locales like Yemen, Ukraine, Louisiana, Ireland and Peru without ever having to leave their seats.

The Passport Series takes the same beloved world music that patrons of the park series have come to cherish and brings it inside so the party can go all year.

Mona Golub is the Producing Artistic Director of Music Haven.

The Grace Project is an empowering photographic project by fine art photographer Charise Isis that captures the courage beauty and grace of those who have had mastectomy surgery as a result of breast cancer.

The very act of standing in front of a camera revealing their scars, allows each of her subjects a transformative experience, giving them permission to step into self acceptance and the opportunity to share the story of the scars that have been written on their body.

The ultimate goal of the Grace project is to photograph 800 portraits, the approximate number of new breast cancer diagnosis in the U.S. every day. Thus far, Charise has photographed well over 400 portraits towards this goal.

The Grace Project exhibition “Broken is Still Beautiful” will be on display at the Idea Garden in Kingston, New York on weekends this month. The opening reception is tomorrow evening.

Roberto Tejada is author of the poetry collections “Full Foreground, Exposition Park” and “Mirrors for Gold.” He founded and co-edited “Mandorla: New Writing from the Americas,” a journal of poetics and poetry in translation.

He is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor at the University of Houston, where he teaches in the Creative Writing Program and Art History Department.

His new book, “Still Nowhere in an Empty Vastness,” is a collection of essays and manifestos engaging hemispheric desires and borderland eventualities in the geopolitical imagination of the Americas.

    The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond.

Today's panelists are WAMC’s Alan Chartock, Political consultant and lobbyist Libby Post, Siena College Economic Professor Aaron Pacitti, and Former Associate Editor of the Times Union Mike Spain.

The Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, New York and UPAC in Kingston, New York have a very exciting slate of events this autumn.

This coming Sunday, seven-time Grammy Award winner Gladys Knight and her band will perform at The Bardavon’s 150th Anniversary Gala.

Other events this season include: The Mystical Arts of Tibet: “Sacred Music Sacred Dance;” the stage musical “Once;” stand-up comedy from Jay Leno; David Bromberg Big Band with Los Lobos; Dino Light; a play starring John Malkovich; former White House photographer Pete Souza – and so much more.

Bardavon Presents Executive Director Chris Silva joins us.

Musicians of Ma’alwyck is a flexible-size chamber ensemble based in the greater Capital Region. The ensemble is celebrating the start of its 20th Season with a new commission based on ghost stories.

On Sunday, October 6, Musicians of Ma’alwyck will debut the “Hyde Sextet,” written by composer and pianist Max Caplan. The concert will take place in the drawing room of Hyde Hall in Cooperstown, New York and will also feature spooky works by John Williams, Arthur Foote, Richard Einhorn, Gerald Finzi, and Camille Saint-Saens to open the Halloween Season.

To tell us more about this concert – and other offerings this season – we welcome Musicians of Ma’alwyck founder and violinist - Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz.

      Shawn Stone joins us to talk about what he's seen lately and what cultural events are coming up this week in our region.

Seen: "Downton Abbey"

Upcoming:

• "Moby Dick," performed by Conor Lovett - Hudson Hall, Hudson, Friday 10/4 at 7 PM; Saturday 10/5 at 7 PM; Sunday 10/6 at 5 PM
• Paula Poundstone - Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy, Friday 10/4, 8 PM
• Artie Lange - Cohoes Music Hall, Cohoes, Friday 10/4, 8 PM
• James Franco’s "The Pretenders" - Palace Theatre, Albany, Saturday 10/5, 7 PM
• GWAR "Use Your Collusion" Tour - Upstate Concert Hall, Clifton Park, Saturday 10/5, 7:30 PM
• Kurt Elling - Academy of Music, Northampton, Mass., Saturday 10/5, 7:30 PM - The Egg, Albany, Sunday 10/6, 7:30 PM
• Laura Love - The Eighth Step at Proctors, Schenectady, Saturday 10/5, 7:30 PM - Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton, Mass., Sunday 10/6, 7 PM
• Kimbra, Emily Wells - MASS MoCA, Hunter Center, North Adams, Mass., Saturday 10/5, 8 PM
• Sergei Babayan & Daniil Trifonov, duo piano - Troy Chromatics Concerts, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy, Sunday 10/6, 3 PM

New movies: "Joker," "Britt-Marie Was Here"

    The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond.

Today's panelists are WAMC’s Alan Chartock, Vice President for Editorial Development at the New York Press Association Judy Patrick, Counter-Terrorism Expert and MSNBC Contributor Malcolm Nance, Albany County District Attorney David Soares.

Yankee Distillers is located in the heart of Saratoga County in Clifton Park, New York. They distill all of their products in small batches at their facility in custom Italian made copper stills where they use 100% unmalted New York State Grain for their Bourbon, Rye, and Vodka.

As we make our way from Summer to Fall – we think about great cocktails for this autumn season.

Yankee Distillers' Matt Jager joins us to talk about the distillery and fall cocktails.

This month, Drama Desk nominee Lori Wilner revisits her one woman show “Hannah Sanesh,” which she co-created with writer/director David Schechter in 1984.

It is an intimate account of a young Hungarian Jewish girl growing up in 1930’s Budapest. Not particularly religious, she is drawn to investigate her Judaism as she experiences increasing persecution and anti-semitism.

Originally performed Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theater, Lori received the Goldy Award, DramaLogue Award and Drama Desk nomination for her solo performance and went on to tour extensively in the states, Canada and Israel. Lori will perform the show on Saturday, October 5 at Unison Arts Center in New Paltz, New York.

Penned nearly 20 years ago and debuting off Broadway just prior to the 9/11 tragedy, Kenneth Lonergan’s "Lobby Hero" is rife with proto-memes of #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, police brutality, workplace harassment, bullying and the millennial urge to save the world without actually doing much about it. It is now running at Capital Repertory Theatre through Oct. 20th, directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian.

In the play: Jeff is a blabbermouth. He’s not a doorman he will repeatedly tell you, but a security guard. Your secrets are not safe with him. Just ask William, his superintendent whose brother has been accused of a heinous crime. Or Bill, the veteran beat cop who has a standing tryst with a fading flower upstairs. Or Dawn, the new rookie Bill is preening despite the fact that three months into her new gig she’s already been called up on assault charges.

Kenny Toll plays Jeff, the self-imagined lobby hero whose mouth can’t stop flapping long enough for his brain to take over.