From the Poetry Center Archive: Discovering Mark Strand
Mark Strand’s first appearance at 92nd Street Y’s Unterberg Poetry Center took place back in April of 1965, when he was one of four winners (Robert David Cohen, Jim Harrison and Nancy Sullivan were the others) of that year’s “Discovery” poetry contest, which the Poetry Center continues to oversee to this day. That night, Strand was introduced by Robert Hazel, who praised his poems for “their urgency, released by forms unusually fanciful, unusually skillful. Grace and decorum are valuable qualities here, in their creation of dramatic effects involving a very considerable ironic wit. Best of all, it seems to me, is this poet’s dramatic insight—insinuating and mysterious and with a kind of ardent searching that is very important.”
Today’s featured recording is the entirety of Strand’s reading from that evening. You can download the MP3 here.
Mark Strand returns to 92Y Unterberg Poetry Center on January 30, for a reading with Susan Stewart. Stewart is making her Poetry Center debut, but Strand has been appearing here regularly for more than forty years—for readings with Borges, Paz and Brodsky (to name just a few), as well as Tributes to Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens and Zbigniew Herbert.
If dancing makes you smarter, the Dancing In The Cloud/Dancing For Small Screens panel discussion on January 27, with excerpts from Jacob Krupnick’s new video Girl Walk//All Day, will definitely make you a bit more intelligent than you were previous. Watch an early trailer from Girl Walk//All Day, above.
Dawn Paap, producer of the site VideoDanceTV, will join Richard Daniels, Peter Kyle, and James Garver on the panel, with 92nd Street Y’s Edward Henkel. They’ll discuss dance for small screens and how the forging of new collaborative territory can have a significant impact in creating uniquely personal experiences for the viewer.
In addition, Paap selected excerpts from Girl Walk // All Day for screening and discussion. Looking to “expand the boundaries around the idea of the traditional music video”, Girl Walk//All Day is a 71-minute dance music video of epic proportions, set to the tune of Girl Talk’s All Day.
The Julie & Julia Treatment For Francine Segan’s “Shakespeare’s Kitchen”
A blogger at Playing The Cook, “a PhD student specializing in Shakespeare and Renaissance literature in performance” and a “really bad cook”, writes:
For my birthday this year, my brother got me a cookbook - Shakespeare’s Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook, by Francine Segan. I’ve been trying to do more cooking recently, and hopefully progress a bit past the “throw together a stir-fry” phase that I’m currently in. In order to force myself to put in some time in the kitchen, I’ve decided to do the Julie & Julia thing, and attempt to make every single recipe in the book before the year is out.
We wish him the best of luck, and look forward to his updates. As he noted: “To successfully complete this project, I need to make an average of two recipes per week.”
If you’d like to try something as fun, but less ambitious, consider joining one of Francine Segan’s World of Tasting talks at 92nd Street. Programs include rich histories and delicious tastings. See all upcoming World of Tasting events.
92nd Street Y’s longtime archivist and librarian Steve Siegel passed away on Saturday. Steve had been at 92Y since 1979. He was the quintessential researcher’s friend, always willing and able to dig up dates and details on all things 92Y-related and beyond. Steve was always a welcoming presence in 92Y’s library; several collections of the library’s books – including Judaica, art, dance, poetry and children’s books – are now housed within those specialty areas in the 92Y building. Steve’s dedication to archival material lives on in the Virtual Poetry Center and in the wealth of material now available on our website.
We offer our condolences to his family and friends, remember his generosity and love of history, and bid a fond farewell to our colleague.
Do the cold, dark days of NYC in the winter bring you down? Beat those Winter Blues on January 28 at the Winter Vintage Ball. Dance your way into a different century and feel history come alive in our unique 1929 Buttenwieser Hall ballroom as you learn and enjoy social dances and music from the Victorian era.
Refreshments will be served. Period or formal attire encouraged. See you there.
Sweets Lover’s Tour of Italy with Francine Segan: Indulge in a fascinating talk about tiramisu, cannoli, gelato and other sublime Italian pastries and desserts.
Meredith Vieira with Dr. Gail Saltz: Meredith Vieira discusses her long and successful career in broadcast journalism and her experiences balancing work and family throughout her 20-plus-year career.
FREE: Fridays at Noon Dance Performance - Contemporary NYC Choreographers: Choreographers Lane Gifford, Sidra Bell and Nelly van Bommel will collaborate on one vibrant dance in three sections that shares one piece of music.
Dancing In The Cloud/Dancing For Small Screens with Richard Daniels, Peter Kyle, Dawn Paap and James Garver with Edward Henkel. Hear this panel talk about dance for small screens and how the forging of new collaborative territory can have a significant impact in creating uniquely personal experiences for the viewer.
Winter Vintage Ball: Dance your way into a different century and feel history come alive in our unique 1929 Buttenwieser Hall ballroom as you learn and enjoy social dances and music from the Victorian era.
Amy Chua with Dr. Gail Saltz: Amy Chua discusses the struggle to find balance between her dreams for her children and letting them succeed on their own, which she chronicled in her best-selling book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.
Over the last couple of decades, musicians have been reconstructing the legacy of composers who spent World War II in Terezin (also known by its German name, Theresienstadt), a garrison city near Prague that the Nazis turned into a concentration camp. About 140,000 Jews were sent there, starting in 1941, including an unusually large number of musicians, writers and painters.
The Nazis allowed these artists to create a cultural life and turned it into a propaganda tool. Terezin, as they presented it to visitors from the Red Cross, was a model camp: musicians gave concerts; children painted pictures and wrote poems. But behind that facade, Terezin’s inmates were used as slave labor in local mines and factories, and most — some 88,000 — were eventually sent to Auschwitz and other death camps.
The 92nd Street Y’s Will to Create, Will to Live: The Culture of Terezin, which opened on Tuesday evening, is an expansive monthlong series devoted to the camp, with concerts by the Nash Ensemble, the baritone Wolfgang Holzmair and the pianists Russell Ryan and Shai Wosner. It also includes panel discussions, readings, children’s programs, a film screening and an exhibition of posters, photographs, art and artifacts. If not for its subject matter, you would call it a festival.
92Y Video: Newt Gingrich On Citizens United: It Will Help Middle-Class Candidates
Today is the two-year anniversary of the controversial Citizens United ruling and demonstrators are planning protests at courthouses across the country. Occupy the Courts demonstrations, as they’re being called, are spearheaded by Move to Amend, who wrote on their website: “The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law.”
In light of this, we wanted to return to Newt Gingrich’s comments on the issue at 92nd Street Y, when he was here for In The News with Jeff Greenfield in 2010. In response to question about Citizens United, Newt explained: “I believe we need to recognize that the effect of virtually all efforts to limit political speech...have crippled middle-class candidates, helped the very rich, and helped big institutions.’ He continued, “I think you’d have a much healthier and freer system if you said any American can give any amount of after-tax income, as long a they report it every night on the internet so everybody else can determine who’s supporting who.” His answer drew applause from many in the audience, but moderator Jeff Greenfield pressed him further. Watch the video below.
Shababa™ The Concert Is Taking Over The Big Stage!
Shababa™ the Concert is taking over the big stage at 92nd Street Y!
Karina, Rebecca and a live band together with The Shababa™ Mamas and “The Miracle Makers,” a children’s vocal group directed by Rebecca and Mordechai, will perform in Kaufman Concert Hall on February 5! What’s more, the new Shababa™ CD will be released at the hour-long concert. And we’re giving away tickets!
Win 2 tickets to Shababa™ the Concert by visiting the Shababa Facebook page and sharing this poster by using the Facebook “Share” button. Everyone who shares the poster will have a chance at two tickets to Shababa™ the Concert, plus an invitation to the private party with Karina, Rebecca and Coco! Winners will be announced January 31, so get sharing!
‘Another Event I Won’t Soon Forget’: Sapphire and Sherman Alexie At 92Y
Today’s guest post on poetry readings at 92nd Street Y is by Billy Merrell, author of Talking In The Dark and co-editor of The Full Spectrum, which received a Lambda Literary Award. He serves as Web Developer for Poets.org, the website of the Academy of American Poets. Merrell visited the Unterberg Poetry Center on Monday, November 21, for a reading by Sapphire and Sherman Alexie:
Caution: video contains profanity
I’ve never seen so many young people at a 92Y event before. I’ve attended close to a dozen of them over the years, from readings to centennial remembrances to interviews with singer-songwriters and graphic designers. Not even at 2008’s sold-out tribute to Maurice Sendak, an event I’ll remember for the rest of my life, did I see as many kids as at the recent readings by Sapphire and Sherman Alexie.
Students from three different New York City high-schools were in attendance (part of the Poetry Center Schools Project), and their presence was felt throughout. When Bernard Schwartz, Director of the Unterberg Poetry Center, announced that the students had met with the writers earlier in the evening and would be receiving free copies of their books, there was a collective cheer. It’s rare to hear such enthusiasm at a poetry event—and this was before the authors had even taken the stage. At that moment, I knew something special was in store, and I was right.
92Y Video: 4 Things You Can Do Right Now To Prolong Your Life - Dr. David Agus with Connie Chung
Dr. David Agus, author of End of Illness, spoke Connie Chung at 92nd Street Y recently, and discussed four things you can do to prolong your life—take baby aspirin, a statin (like Lipitor), get your flu shot and wear better shoes. He also shared some information that some might find shocking: “If you look at the study on vitamins ... there has never been one to show a benefit with over a thousand people.”
If you liked this video, share it with your friends on Twitter and Facebook!
The talk with Dr. David Agus and Connie Chung is part of the 92YU series. 92YU unites the best minds from universities and organizations all over the world and welcomes them to 92Y! Up next on February 2 is The Greatest Physics Discoveries of the 20th Century with David C. Cassidy, PhD.
92Y Video: Donna Karan On Her Foundation Urban Zen
Donna Karan sat down with Fern Mallis on January 12 at 92nd Street Y, for the Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis series. In the video clip above, Karan talks about the inspiration and vision for her foundation, Urban Zen, founded to create, connect and collaborate in order to raise awareness and inspire change in Haiti. “It’s not about me,” she said, “it’s about the we.”
Win Tickets To See Woody Allen At 92Y - Tell Us Your Favorite Woody Allen Film!
What’s your favorite Woody Allen film? Let us know on our Facebook page to be entered into drawing for two tickets to see Woody Allen’s sold out talk and screening at 92nd Street Y on February 21. “Reel Pieces” Moderator Annette Insdorf will interview Woody Allen, with special guest Dick Cavett, before a screening of Radio Days, Mr. Allen’s classic depiction of the heyday of live radio. Enter here!
And don’t forget to share the contest with your friends on Twitter and Facebook!
Screening: The Music of Terezin. Simon Broughton introduces the first public screening in North America of his celebrated 1992 documentary film on the music created in Terezín. A Q&A with the director follows the screening.
Bash the Trash ‘n’ Dueling Duo Trumpets! In this fun and interactive hour-long workshop, Bash the Trash regulars Nadje Noodhuis and Matt Holman show off their trumpets with the rest of the “trashers.” Everyone builds their own trumpets and engages in a dueling fanfare free-for all!
