Keith Haring, The Musical
The artist Keith Haring made his name in New York. He began with chalk drawings in the subways and gravitated to murals, political posters and T-shirts. His barking dogs, flying saucers and winged...
View ArticleRepertory Theater at BAM
The Brooklyn Academy of Music is into the closing stretch of an eight-week run, their longest run for a visiting company. They are presenting The Donmar Warehouse company form London directed by Sam...
View ArticleReactions to Broadway Strike Resolution
The Broadway musicals strike was settled this week. WNYC's Judith Kampfner spoke with one musician and one producer to find out what to listen for as the negotiated changes are put into play.
View ArticleThe Play What I Wrote
The time honored tradition of knockabout comedy is rarely seen on the Broadway stage. Now, a show from London's West End, called The Play What I Wrote , revives stock vaudeville routines. It also...
View ArticleDracula: Black and White and Red All Over
Not many modern independent film makers set out to reinvent the style of early cinema. Recently Canadian Guy Maddin set out to do just that. His black and white - and red - film version of the legend...
View ArticleFrom Brooklyn Heights to South Korea
For pictures and a weblog, click here.US officials recently announced that American troops will be withdrawn from the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, that narrow strip of land that separates North and...
View ArticleMermaid
Surrealist painter Paul Delvaux painted his own beach fantasy in 1942. It's called the Village of the Mermaids. The foreground tells one story, and in the distance there's a surprise. Judith Kampfner...
View ArticleKorean Music on Our Doorstep
This year, The Lincoln Center festival continues its exploration of world music with a focus on Korea. One New York-area performer who has been building an audience for Korean music is Jin Hi Kim....
View ArticleFlush In Brooklyn? Fughedaboudit.
The Cost of Living: Stories from the Front Lines in the Five BoroughsThe BronxStaten IslandBrooklynManhattanQueensAt Grand Army Plaza, the symbolic gateway to Brooklyn, are the borough's two main...
View ArticleCricket: The (Caribbean) American Pastime
John Adams once said that if president was a good enough title for the head of a cricket club, it was good enough for the leader of a country.Cricket has been around in America since the Founding...
View ArticleAfrobeat Music Gains New Audience
Nigerian Afrobeat music from the 1970's is gaining a brand new audience in New York. There are now a dozen young Afrobeat bands around town. Its creator Fela Kuti died in 1997. Judith Kampfner reports...
View ArticleTony Kushner's "Caroline, or Change" Coming Soon
Lead: A new musical with story and book by Tony Kushner called "Caroline, or Change" opens later in the month. It's the first time that Kushner has worked with director George C Wolfe since "Angels in...
View ArticleRussia Engages the World
The New York Public Library has one of the largest collections of Russian books, prints, maps and journals outside of Russia. Recently it opened a display of 230 written works they are complimented by...
View ArticlePoetry's Rock Star: Dylan Thomas
Listen to Dylan Thomas reading "On The Marriage of a Virgin"He had an appetite for women and drink but he said his chief love affair was with language. Described as the most musical poet of the...
View ArticleDutch Still Life
Visit Old Amsterdam/New Amsterdam at WNYCThe Dutch word for still life is "stilleven" which means arrested life - as if captured in a photograph. And in fact, modern food photography owes a great deal...
View ArticleDusting Off The Menorah
Preparing for the holidays means opening up cupboards, unearthing boxes from the basement and dusting off once a year decorations and family heirlooms. The menorah is one of these seasonal decorative...
View ArticleMermaid
Surrealist painter Paul Delvaux painted his own beach fantasy in 1942. It's called the Village of the Mermaids. The foreground tells one story, and in the distance there's a surprise. Judith Kampfner...
View ArticleFilms about Indigenous People Grab Spotlight
Feature films about indigenous people have been winning awards at film festivals over the last five years and are starting to become box office successes. The most recent of these was Whale Rider from...
View ArticleStill Life Sells
Home furnishings catalogs have evolved over the past couple of decades into glossy, sumptuous celebrations of domestic life (minus the mess). They're a far cry from the fuzzy line drawings of a Sears...
View ArticleGeorge Balanchine Centennial
Choreographer George Balanchine was born 100 years ago today. Judith Kampfner looks at the working methods of one of the great artists of twentieth century America. MusicKampfner: He had worked with...
View ArticleArtist Couples
Lovers who live and work together - that is common in New York City where many people meet through work. Such relationships have unique bonds as well as conflicts. With artists who live and work in the...
View ArticleClock Watching Artists
Many writers, musicians, and artists got their start in the office — the British novelist Anthony Trollope worked for the postal service and composer Charles Ives was a full-time insurance agent....
View ArticleGilbert & George
Britain’s most enigmatic artistic duo met at art school in 1967 and have been together ever since. They live and work in London's East End, named their house "Art for All," and declared themselves...
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Korean Sharing House
» Back to main page Cecilia Heejong Kim: I found myself interested in this issue – probably the most important issue that happened in Korean women’s history. Kampfner: An instrumental elegy recently...
View ArticleGovernor's Island Open to Public
After years of being off-limits, Governor's Island is now open to the public. However, the city and state have not decided what to do with the island that sits a half mile from Manhattan and Brooklyn...
View ArticleConey Island Art Invasion
Since the construction of KeySpan Park for the Brooklyn Cyclones, there have been several plans to draw more visitors to Coney Island. But many of the small family businesses have not had the funds to...
View ArticleThe Theater Art of Paul Davis
Click here to see the postersMentally conjure up posters for Broadway musicals and symbolic images come to mind. Little cat's eyes, a half mask, a helicopter. But the theater posters of Paul Davis...
View ArticleStill Life Sells
Home furnishings catalogs have evolved over the past couple of decades into glossy, sumptuous celebrations of domestic life (minus the mess). They're a far cry from the fuzzy line drawings of a Sears...
View ArticleNew York Actors at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
New York actors at the Edinburgh Fringe FestivalIt's expensive to take a show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. It also takes guts and gumption to be part of the biggest and oldest fringe...
View ArticleTae Guk Gi
Mention a movie about the Korean War to Americans and they probably think of M*A*S*H. But while the most expensive film out of Korea is about the Korean war -its not about the experience of the US...
View ArticleA Number
When Dolly the sheep was cloned in Britain in 1999, it seemed human cloning might be right around the corner. After the media frenzy died down, British playwright Caryl Churchill decided to explore...
View ArticleA Number
Kids are prone to asking questions, like “where did I come from?” These become harder to answer when you’ve cloned your son, but no one’s really sure how many of them were made. In Caryl Churchill’s...
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Noguchi: Sculptor and Set Designer
The Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi was born a hundred years ago. He died in 1988 and left behind a museum in Long Island City to showcase the breadth and scope of his work. He had an...
View ArticleClock Watchers
Many writers, musicians, and artists got their start in the office — the British novelist Anthony Trollope worked for the postal service and composer Charles Ives was a full-time insurance agent....
View ArticleA day at the Rubin Museum of Art
Businessman Donald Rubin started buying Himalayan sacred paintings twenty years ago. Now over 900 works of art from his collection are on display in the new Rubin Museum of Art. The museum opened in...
View ArticleThe Flid Show
In the late fifties and early sixties, the drug Thalidomide caused birth defects in many parts of the world. Americans at the time were aware of the tragedy but the impact of thalidomide was not an...
View ArticleNew Burlesque
A few years on into the revival of Burlesque shows, there's a community of performers who have loyal audiences in clubs and bars. Increasingly dancers and performance artists are reinterpreting the...
View ArticleYour Truth, My Truth, The Truth
A new play at Columbia University is the latest work from British theater director Peter Brook. The work explores the life and teaching of a West African Sufi master. WNYC’s Judith Kampfner has more on...
View ArticleParty at Damaged British Consulate
There was a party last night at the British consulate on Third Avenue, just hours after the explosions yesterday morning. WNYC's Judith Kampfner reports that attendees were relaxed as they celebrated...
View ArticleBritish Memorial Garden
While debate continues over what will be built at Ground Zero, work has started this week on the construction of a new Memorial park the size of a city block in the historic Wall St neighborhood. It is...
View ArticleActress Anne Bancroft Dies at 73
Most remembered as Mrs. Robinson, film and stage actress Anne Bancroft has died.She won both a Tony and an Oscar for her role as Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller's teacher, in The Miracle Worker but she's...
View ArticleDancing in Bollywood Movies
Art house movie hits like Monsoon Wedding and Bride and Prejudice,, were intended for Western audiences. They featured some of the high energy music and dance numbers that you’d find in a pure...
View ArticleJudith and Artemisia
The Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi depicted the biblical story of Judith cutting off the head of Holofernes like no other artist. She painted it many times, in fact, almost obsessively. Judith...
View ArticleSilver Surfer
Spiderman, Superman ... do we really need another comic book action flick? Fans say the Silver Surfer isn’t your average superhero - he’s shinier. No one’s more excited about Fantastic Four: Rise of...
View ArticleMermaids
Surrealist painter Paul Delvaux painted his own beach fantasy in 1942 -- “The Village of the Mermaids.” The foreground tells one story, and in the distance there’s a surprise. Judith Kampfner went into...
View ArticleStill Life Sells
Home furnishings catalogs have evolved over the past couple of decades into glossy, sumptuous celebrations of domestic life (minus the mess). They're a far cry from the fuzzy line drawings of a Sears...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Holocaust Remembrance Day
It is April 19th, 1944. Thousands of mourners silently march from a service at the Warsaw synagogue on Rivington Street to City Hall. A few carry signs: "Save Those Jews in Poland Who Can Yet Be...
View ArticleIn Wartime '40s, America's First Taste of Rationing
During World War II, rationing became not only accepted, but a symbol of patriotism for most Americans. Listen to Oscar Brand in this never-broadcast documentary on how the government —and WNYC— helped...
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The day they dropped an A-bomb on the Bronx
We celebrate the end of the Cold War 25 years ago this year with Oscar Brand giving us a taste of 1950s civilian defense.This show, which never aired, was originally produced in the 2000s, using...
View ArticleDance Theater of Harlem
Black History Month in Britain began in 1987 - many years after it was launched in America in 1926 and though it is was inspired by the American model is has it's own character. When the Dance Theater...
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