Zora Neale Hurston wrote short stories, novels, and plays. But she was also an ethnographic researcher, folklorist, and cultural anthropologist who published academic articles and taught at several universities. She was a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance – that period between the wars when music, art, dance, and literature flourished in Harlem – but whose works were forgotten for many years

The play has flaws, but it is a credit to the playwright that we want to know more about these characters.

This exhibition contains stories on video and artwork inspired by ancestors created and told by myself, and my family, friends, and neighbors. We all come with our personal stories. I began exploring my own story in my artwork through a 2024 project entitled The Little Red House.

Krapp’s Last Tape by  Samuel Beckett  is playing at NYU’s Skirball Theater, with the great Stephen Rea in the title role. Years ago, Rea rehearsed this play with Samuel Beckett himself and recorded Krapp’s early memories. It is those old recordings we now hear in this production—Rea, in the present, listening to the voice of his younger self.

Three short stories span the period from the Great Depression through the end of the 20th century. Though they have little in common, collectively they contribute an insightful portrait of life in a region intimately known and revered by the author.

Cybertruck represents an act of innovation. Tesla fans admire the Cybertruck for its distinctive engineering and technology. Despite (or because of) its critics, the Tesla Cybertruck continues to generate considerable curiosity and interest. I have never ridden in, driven, or even touched one. But I love the way it looks.

Distancing itself from apocalyptic rhetoric, the in\between reminds us that ends and beginnings coexist, ecologically. The exhibition brings together four artists — Johanna Hedva, CAConrad, Kelsey Shultis, and Bayo Akomolafe — whose work collectively moves across and between forms — drawing, painting, sculpture, poetry, sound — in an embrace of pluralities, thresholds, and portals.

The tale from the Bible is brought to the opera stage. The deceitful temptress Dalila seeks not love but destruction and revenge. Though she succeeds, Samson will have the last word.

We found a place—Le Paradis Mandarin—behind the Odéon metro station. Five francs, including bread and one Tsingtao beer, and the bottles were bigger than the French ones. Sunday Chinese dinner became a ritual where we solved the world’s problems, including those about art, women, love.

Before the world awakens with its noise and expectations, there exists a profound stillness. To be an early riser is to claim this sacred time for yourself. In the pre-dawn quiet, you can experience a solitude that is not lonely, but deeply nourishing.

Shakespeare & Company hosted “Celebrating Jewish Plays” from October 10 to October 12, showcasing a weekend of staged readings and a special literary event. We attended Roz and Ray by Karen Hartman. Directed by Daniela Varon it was brilliantly performed by John Douglas Thompson and Abigail Rose Solomon.

Mannes, the most interesting and daring music school in New York, presented Kaija Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone at the Nagelberg Theater, just steps from its usual home in the Tishman Auditorium. At the Tishman, works were often presented catwalk-style, the action taking place on a narrow strip in front of the orchestra. At the Nagelberg, director Emma Griffin finally had space to mount the first fully staged chamber version of Saariaho’s oratorio.

Greg was gregarious while Rafael was reticent. In the Switch Greg got to tend bar and chat up the clients. Rafael was in the kitchen with the solitude of making salads and washing dishes. The scheme worked before reverting back to usual roles. While not talking much Rafael was better at making cocktails.

Jeremy Denk performs the six Bach partitas for keyboard in the Officer’s Board Room of the Park Avenue Armory. We all come back to Bach.  Jeremy Denk never left him. And Denk's insights have expanded over the years. The joy, the sense of humor and the play have always been there.  Denk makes Bach clear and present.

The Guggenheim New York announces its 2026 exhibition calendar, a milestone year featuring major shows that celebrate the creativity and global reach of American modern and contemporary art.  Solo Rotunda exhibitions by artists Carol Bove and Taryn Simon, along with a survey of Pop art, will spotlight the innovations and impact of American art.

Ruckus Manhattan was constructed at a time, 1975-78, when New York City was going to hell.  The city was bankrupt, crime exploded, homeless people were sleeping in subway corridors, and there was a failure of leadership in City Hall.

An equity touring production of The Wiz is playing an engagement in Miami through Sunday before heading north. The production is high-tech with an Afrofuturist flavor without sacrificing genuine emotion. The Wiz is a 1975 award-winning musical that features an all-Black cast. \

For the final production of the season Berkshire Theatre Group is hosting a pool party at the Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge. Based on Ovid, Isadora Wolfe is directing eleven actors in Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphosis. This lively and inventive production makes a splash

I do recall making Sidecars, Whisky Sours, Brandy Alexanders, Manhattans, Tequila Sunrises, Blue Lagoons, classical Martinis, Gin Fizzes, and there was the artichoke liqueur Fernet Branca, vile stuff, but good for hangovers, and the poetically named feuille morte, made of pastis and grenadine, never liked it myself, and the kirs, champagne with crème de cassis was called kir royal, with white wine simply kir, and with red wine un carabinier.

We are at a very dangerous turning point in this country, and I feel any and every form of protest is not only appropriate but necessary if we are to regain any semblance of a democracy.                                                  

New City Players impresses once again with a hilarious and energetic production of 'The 39 Steps.' Under Ali Tallman's brisk, precise direction, the production whizzes by like a bullet train, but allows us to savor the comedy.

The theater calendars are filling up in both Connecticut and New York. Looking over the planned productions for the fall, a number of them jumped out as being particularly interesting.

Park Avenue Armory is hosting 11,000 Strings, a trsnsportting soundscaoe creaated by composer G. F. Haas. The work is a play on sounds created by the space between two notes.

A full-length play-within-a-play has a cast endure zany pratfalls. Unpreparedness, dipsomania, love triangles, antagonisms, prop misplacements, and more produce endless farce.

The first band to sign with MASS MoCA Records is The Kasambwe Brothers, a multi-generational band who has been making music together for almost 40 years and are grounded in the rich, musical heritage of Malawi, Africa.