Person Place Thing
Fridays, 10:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Hosted by former New York Times Ethicist Columnist Randy Cohen, PPT features guests who talk about a person, a place and a thing they find meaningful. Randy pulls out the most interesting details from columnists to musicians, architects and ballerinas including Rosanne Cash, E. Jean Carroll and Gene Kohn. The results: surprising stories from great talkers.
To learn more about this program, visit presonplacething.org.
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Although utopia has not arrived, racial segregation has faded significantly since the reopening of the Apollo Theater in 1934, so is the place still needed? Absolutely, declares its Director of New Works, playwright Kelley Girod: “The Apollo will always be necessary as long as we have stories to tell.”
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President and CEO of American Jewish World Service Robert Bank esteems the International Declaration of Human Rights as a blueprint for humane, egalitarian, democratic societies, and for this: “Article 24 is the right to a vacation. There are some amazing things in here.”
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Esteemed musician Wynton Marsalis tells great stories, but are they strictly true? Marsalis tells us about Danny Barker, Lu & Charlie’s and an inscribed stone.
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Suzanne Vega is a singer-songwriter with a music career that spans almost 40 years. She is joined by composer Gene Pritsker, who has written over 800 compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music and songs.
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“New York Times” book critic Dwight Garner has many accomplishments: “Learning how to eat chicken feet and love them is one thing I’m really proud of.” The author of “The Upstairs Deli” expands our capacity for joy — in reading, in eating, in life.
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Magician Joshua Jay had mixed feelings when he figured out how a colleague performed an illusion. “It was no less amazing to me when I knew how it was done, but it was disappointing.”
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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.