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When someone yo-yos between government and commerce, the word “self-serving” hovers, but it is heartening when urban planner Marc Norman moves between academia and enterprise, between theory and practice, putting his ideas to the test.
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“I am Juan de Parejeo,” Ballet Hispánico’s artistic director says of the Afro-Spanish painter enslaved by Velazquez. Multiple identities? No. One artist fascinated by the life of another, the subject of Vilaro’s new dance work.
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Fernanda Chandoha will discuss the work and career of her father Walter Chandoha, the grand master of cat photography. “Growing up,” she says, “when you told somebody what your parents do, it was just like: what?” Chandoha also tells us about Loco the cat and a Bayonne grocery store.
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Goodman tells us about Bob Dylan and The Chelsea Hotel.
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Speaking at—and of— Gansevoort Plaza, a public space he designed, landscape architect Ken Smith considers the story of the past as well as the needs of the present: “Land has memory. It’s really a crime to erase the memory of a place.” Smith tells us about John Cage, Spiral Jetty and…acorns.
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Bruce Adolphe is celebrated as a composer and as the genial mastermind of “Piano Puzzler.” Adolphe joins us to speak about his several works based on writings by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, and his person, place and thing of choice.
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At 97, Alan Shayne can look back on at least two careers — as an actor and as the head of Warner Brothers Television. Shayne tells us about his people: Marlon Brando, Maureen Stapleton and Michael Shurtleff.
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Grammy-nominated musician Hubby Jenkins celebrated for his work with the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Rhiannon Giddens, sums himself up: “I play the banjo, talk about Black people, and really love Star Trek.” Jenkins tells us about Andy Kaufman, “Deep Space Nine,” and a “Choose Your Own Adventure.”
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Elizabeth Rush’s new book, “The Quickening,” recounts an Antarctic expedition to Thwaites Glacier, which contains enough ice to raise sea levels three feet. “It’s this powerful otherworldly being that has the power to shape us,” she says. But she urges: please avoid its nickname, “Doomsday Glacier.”
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Lifelong friends Lynn Nottage and Jonathan Lethem grew up on the same block. Lethem’s latest book is “Brooklyn Crime Novel;” and last season Nottage was the most-produced playwright in America.
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A friend of author Richard Russo’s wife gave his novel “Empire Falls” to Ivanka Trump. Her response: “This is a book about poor people. Why would I want to read a book about poor people?” Russo tells us about his father, Martha’s Vineyard and green pens.
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Poet and president of the Mellon foundation Elizabeth Alexander quotes her great hero June Jordan on the question artists and activists should ask: "Where is the love? What are we moving towards, not just what are we fighting against?" We’ll also hear about Watts Towers and home-cooked lasagna.