Have you ever overheard such a riveting, witty conversation that you simply had to eavesdrop? Listening to Margaret Atwood and Valerie Martin quibble over every possible tangent to Atwood’s latest paperback The Year of the Flood felt much like playing the part of an enchanted voyeur. The incredible chemistry of these two old friends was stunning unto itself; the subject matter was a combination of defining dystopia and rabbit starvation, elucidating the mythology of bees, and examining city lights and migratory bird patterns. Even still, they were hilarious.
Coming up next in the Main Reading Series: An Evening of Gatsby with Elevator Repair Service and Oskar Eustis (Sep 27); An Evening of Madame Bovary with Lydia Davis (Oct 4); Rosanne Cash: The Lyricist’s Voice (Oct 7); David Grossman with Paul Auster (Oct 11); and Paul Muldoon and Don Paterson (Oct 14).
Reading volume upon volume of Jewish and American history and theology, several things became clear to us. The first, and most stunning, had to do with the notion of chosenness itself. Rather than an inherently arrogant invitation to exceptionalism, we realized, the idea of chosenness is a profound and perplexing mystery; and it has long been understood as such in the Jewish tradition.
At the pinnacle of the biblical drama—as the Israelites gather at Mount Sinai, awaiting their transformation from a gaggle of tribes into a nation—God delivers a cryptic command: “You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
The crowds congregated below are left to wonder just what he means. Why, the chosen people may be forgiven for asking, were we chosen? And what are we to do now that we’ve been singled out? How is a holy nation different from any other nation? Is the covenant with God eternal, or must it be renewed with each generation?
Todd and Liel will be at the 92nd Street Y on Monday, September 27, with Tablet’s editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse and contributing editor Jeffrey Goldberg to discuss how the idea of divine election shaped American and Israeli history and what challenges it presents for both contemporary nations.
Related: On December 20, they’ll be back at 92Y with Michael Walzer and Jackson Lears for The Chosen Peoples and Their Enemies to explore the bloody conflicts that unfold when the “chosen people” clash with the indigenous natives of their promised lands, and how these conflicts still impact American and Israeli foreign policy.
92Y Ford Fellow Niemat Adam Ahmadi, Darfuri Liaison Officer, Save Darfur Coalition
Great conversations continued today in the UN Week Digital Media Lounge, a place for bloggers to have exclusive in-person access to experts on issues like poverty, hunger, HIV/AIDs, women’s health and climate change while covering the events of UN Week and the Summit on the Millennium Development Goals. Video clips are below. Stay tuned to UNWeekMedia.com for ongoing coverage.
Oxfam Breakfast: Emma Seery and Gregory Adams of Oxfam bring us experts from around the globe to discuss the reality of issues on the ground.
UN Goodwill Ambassadors Launch the Digital Media Lounge with Craig David, Musician and UN Goodwill Ambassador; Lucy Chesire, TB/HIV patient and activist from Kenya; Lee Reichman, leading international academic authority on TB
ICT4D: Innovation & the Millennium Development Goals with Robert Kirkpatrick, Director, UN Global Pulse; Erica Kochi, Innovation Unit, UNICEF; Linda Raftree, Adviser, New Technology, PLAN, West Africa Regional Office; Jim Rosenberg, Head of Social Media, World Bank; Wayan Vota, Senior Director, Inveneo; Adam Hirsch, COO, Mashable
Disaster Relief 2.0: Collaborative Technologies & The Future of Aid with Oliver Lacey-Hall, Deputy Chief, Communications & Information Services Branch, UN OCHA; Patrick Meier, Director of Crisis Mapping and Strategic Partnerships, Ushahidi; Nigel Snoad, Microsoft and the ICT4Peace Foundation; Adele Waugaman, Senior Director, UN Foundation & Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnerships; Jim Luce, Founder, Orphans International Worldwide
Getting the Goals Back on Track: Health, Hunger, Water, & Nutrition with Martha Kwataine, Executive Director, Malawi Health Equity Network; Samuel Kargbo, Department of Health, Sierra Leone; Mariame Dem, West Africa Head, WaterAid; Steve Cockburn, Int’l Campaign Coordinator, End Water Poverty
A Movement to End Malaria Deaths with Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen CEO of the Group, Vestergaard Frandsen; Bishop Thomas Bickerton, United Methodist Church; Ruth Riley, WNBA Player and Nothing But Nets Champion; Elizabeth Gore, Executive Director of Global Partnerships, UN Foundation
Global Perspectives: Technology Today, Technology Tomorrow with Alison Gardy, Director of International Relations, 92Y; Niemat Adam Ahmadi, Darfuri Liaison Officer, Save Darfur Coalition; Adi Altschuler, President and Founder, Krembo Wings; Gerrit Beger, Chief of UNICEF’s Youth Section in New York; Liel Leibovitz, Tablet Magazine
UN Week continues here with the UN Week Digital Media Lounge. Beginning this morning, the lounge continues at the 92nd Street Y through the rest of the week. Watch the livestream here, and see the full agenda for UN Week Digital Media Lounge here.
Up now is Disaster relief 2.0: collaborative technologies & the future of aid.
L-R: “Decadence #1” and “Decadence #2” by Angela Earley
The lovely and talented printmaker Angela Earley, a “metopolita-subaquatic anthromo-zoological art expert” and children’s art instructor at the 92nd Street Y, has two new woodcuts (seen above) with the legendary Cannonball Press, hot off the press. Take a peek and get em’ while they last!
It was a remarkable honor to co-host today’s Social Good Summit with Mashable in partnership with the United Nations Foundation. Inspiration was in no short supply. If you missed the opportunity to hear these amazing speakers live, you can view all the presentations archived on Livestream. Make sure to follow coverage of UN Week from our Digital Media Lounge all week.
Clip 1: Opening remarks by Sol Adler, Executive Director of 92Y, and Adam Hirsch, Chief Operations Officer of Mashable
Clip 3: Q&A with Susan Smith Ellis and Aaron Sherinian, Executive Director, Communications and Public Affairs, of the United Nations Foundation
Clip 4: Ray Chambers, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Malaria
Clip 5: Geena Davis, Academy Award-winning actor and founder, See Jane, in conversation with Soledad O’Brien, anchor and special correspondent, CNN/US
Clip 6: Adam Conner, Associate Manager, Public Policy, Facebook
Clip 7: A conversation with Sherri Rollins Westin, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Sesame Workshop, and Kami from Takalani Sesame
Clip 8: Judy McGrath, CEO of MTV Networks, overseeing MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and VH1 among other media brands, interviewed by Elizabeth Gore, Executive Director Global Partnerships, United Nations Foundation
Clip 9: Howard W. Buffett, Director of Agriculture Development, U.S. Department of Defense
Clip 10: Carrie James, Research Director, Project Zero, Harvard University
Clip 11: Sharon D’Agostino, Vice President of Worldwide Corporate Contributions and Community Relations at Johnson & Johnson
Clip 13: Jessica Jackley, Founder/CEO of ProFounder and Founder/Former CMO Kiva
Clip 14: Dr. Lisa Masterson, co-host of “The Doctors” and founder of Maternal Fetal Care International, interviewed by Rachel Sklar, Editor-at-Large, Mediaite.com
Clip 15: CNN Hero Doc Hendley, founder and president of Wine to Water
Clip 16: A conversation with Jack Leslie, Chairman of Weber Shandwick; Chairman of the U.S. African Development Foundation, and Bonin Bough, Global Director of Digital & Social Media, PepsiCo
Clip 18: Matthew Bishop, American Business Editor and New York Bureau Chief, The Economist and Edward Norton, Award Winning Actor and Founder, Crowdrise
Clip 19: Keynote interview with Ted Turner, Chairman of Turner Enterprises, Inc. and Pete Cashmore, Founder/CEO, Mashable with introduction by Tom Kaplan, President of the Board of Directors, 92Y
You’ve see them weekdays on TV hosting the Emmy Award-winning talk show The Doctors. Last night, all four hosts were here to discuss their first book, The Doctors 5-Minute Health Fixes, which address one of the biggest obstacles to better health—time.
During the event, they answered a number of questions that had been submitted in advance at their website, as well as from our online audience. The video clip above features some of those questions, as The Doctors reveal the small lifestyle shifts that can vastly improve your health.
Upcoming Lectures & Conversations in the To Your Health series include Update on Breast Cancer (Oct 7); Overcoming Your Sleep Struggles (Oct 26); Recipe for Healthier Skin (Nov 9) and The Changing World of Crohn’s and Colitis (Nov 16).
92Y Podcast: From the Poetry Center Archive: Margaret Atwood: Love & Destruction
The Unterberg Poetry Center’s 72nd season opens tonight with an appearance by Margaret Atwood, who will read from The Year of the Flood, her most recent novel. Ms. Atwood will be introduced—and then interviewed, after her reading—by Valerie Martin, her friend and fellow novelist.
Tonight is Ms. Atwood’s eighth appearance at the Poetry Center. Today’s featured recording is an excerpt from her very first, in March of 1975. That night, she read from a collection of poems, You Are Happy, and was introduced by Grace Schulman, then-Poetry Center director, with the following words:
Margaret Atwood’s poetry is remarkable for its wide range of tone, from whimsy to controlled panic. She writes with detailed accuracy of unfamiliar creatures—giant tortoises, pig-men—illuminated by radiant light and yet issuing from a dark center. Her poems embody a vision of the universe in which love and truth are weapons, and where impulses to murder and create are one impulse. She sees a world in which freedom for the hunter obtains death for the victim. Its people identify with gods they have endowed with brutality and endlessly repeat ritual acts without knowing why.... The poet explores love and destruction with first-hand immediacy.
The series of short poems in this excerpt tell the story of Odysseus’s visit to Circe—but from Circe’s point of view. “For me, poetry is a foray into the unknown,” Ms. Atwood has said. “And it sometimes opens up areas that I later go into with electric light and explore more thoroughly in prose.”
In an ongoing effort to share with our readers some of the great literary moments which the Poetry Center has presented across the decades, this blog has begun to feature regular postings of archival recordings. To purchase tickets to Ms. Atwood’s reading, please click here. To look at the rest of the season’s line-up, please click here. And for access to other recordings, please click here.
Unterberg Poetry Center webcasts and access to our archive are made possible in part by the generous support of the Sidney E. Frank Foundation.
You can also download the MP3. [23 MB]
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This Just In: Edward Norton Confirmed For 92Y Mashable Social Good Summit on Monday
Actor Ed Norton, who recently launched Crowdrise, a social good website that gives individuals and organizations the tools to organize grassroots activism campaigns and raise funds for their causes, has been confirmed to appear at Monday’s Mashable/92Y Social Good Conference. He joins Geena Davis, Soledad O’Brien, Ted Turner and more.
92Y Video: Tony Blair In Conversation With Katie Couric
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair sat down with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric on Tuesday for a spirited discussion about the war in Iraq (with Katie asking questions solicited from her Twitter followers), the Islamic community center planned for Park Row, his new memoir, A Journey: My Political Life, Blair’s Twitter habits and much more. The Daily Beast, Mediaite and the Guardian all reported on the evening, with the Guardian live blogging the live broadcast.
Below, we’ve included a short video from the evening highlighting discussion of Iraq and a humorous anecdote about the Queen.
Born in Brooklyn in 1911, Ruth Gruber became the youngest PhD in the world before going on to become an international foreign correspondent and photojournalist at age 24. She emerged as the eyes and conscience of the world. With her love of adventure, fearlessness and powerful intellect, Ruth defied tradition in an extraordinary career that has spanned more than seven decades.
The first journalist to enter the Soviet Arctic in 1935, Ruth also traveled to Alaska as a member of the Roosevelt administration in 1942, escorted Holocaust refugees to America in 1944, covered the Nuremberg trials in 1946 and documented the Haganah ship Exodus in 1947. Her relationships with world leaders including Eleanor Roosevelt, President Harry Truman, and David Ben Gurion gave her unique access and insight into the modern history of the Jewish people.
Ruth is an inspiration not only for her ground-breaking career, but for her vitality and humor at 98 years old. The film interweaves verite scenes with never-seen-before archival footage.
Gruber, a real legend and past guest of 92Y, will appear at screenings of Ahead of Time tonight in New York at the Angelika Film Center and Sunday at the Beekman Theatre. Trust us, you don’t want to miss this.
Time Out New York said of Margaret Atwood, the Queen of Canadian Literature and their “Critic’s Pick” this week: “Her smile is so bright, yet her features are so dark. You can’t help but love her.” Karmen Lizzul at Examiner.com warned: “Prepare to be amazed by this artists’ prophetic vision.” (She’s also a prolific Twitterer!)
But don’t take their word for it. Check her out yourself next Monday, September 20, when Ms. Atwood opens the Unterberg Poetry Center’s 72nd season with a reading from The Year of the Flood, her most recent novel. As always, tickets are just $10 for those 35 and under. (See all discounted events here.)
“The Maine National Guard is giving life-size from-the-waist-up pictures of soldiers to the families of deployed guard members. Guard officials and families say the cutouts, known as Flat Daddies or Flat Soldiers, connect families with a relative who is thousands of miles away. The Flat Daddies are toted everywhere from soccer practice to coffee shops to weddings.”
Using these two-dimensional surrogates as a connecting thread, the documentary tells the stories of four such families, from suburban Minnesota, the Bronx, Las Vegas and rural Maine, as they unfold over the course of a year. Each family represents a unique perspective on the war effort and the difficulties of deployment; together, they weave a nuanced narrative of how military families are coping in post-9/11 America as combat operations enter their tenth year.
Directors Nara Garber and Betsey Nagler will screen their work-in-progress documentary, Flat Daddies, on September 29 at 92YTribeca. Both will be present for a post-screening discussion with IFP‘s Rose Vincelli.
Upcoming Film at 92YTribeca: Leonard Cohen, Songs from the Road (Sep 16); Tom Zé: Astronauta libertado (Sep 22); Irrational Reactions: The Animated Worlds of John R. Dilworth (Sep 23) and the New York City Short Film Festival: Program A, B and C (Sep 24, 25)
Anthony Bourdain (l) and David Chang (r) backstage with Budd Mishkin
Anthony Bourdain and David Chang were here on Monday night for a discussion moderated by NY1’s Budd Mishkin. NBC New York’s Feast blog was on hand to catch the talk and shared some key points. Such as Chang expressing his dislike of Saveur magazine and Bourdain confiding his fantasy is to come out of the kitchen, find out who ordered the well done steak, and then kick him out of the restaurant!
Both also offered picks for restaurants they consider hidden gems, which Luckyrice.com dutifully recorded. David Chang noted the East Village vegetarian restaurant Kajitsu, and Bourdain’s pick was the “lamb noodle place in the Flushing Golden Mall.” Luckyrice.com surmised Bourdain was referring to the “Xi’an Famous Foods which he featured on the New York Outer Boroughs episode of No Reservations.”
Related: Coming up at 92Y on October 10 is A Taste of What’s to Come: Locavore Tasting, Symposium & Keynote Panel. The day will include panels with chefs, restaurateurs, authors, food historians and more, including a screening of Fresh, a film by Ana Sofia Joanes, who will be present for a Q&A.UPDATE: The screening of Fresh has been canceled.
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Actor Ed Norton, who recently launched 
Time Out New York said of 
