Issue 37

Editor’s note

When Walt Whitman wrote his poem, Manhattan, in the 19th century, New York City was as vibrant and alluring as it is today. A city of grit, survival and seduction, it throbs with your pulse as you walk the streets where once Whitman roamed. Writer-philosopher, Bronson Alcott once reported that Whitman “rode sometimes a-top an omnibus up and down Broadway from morning till night beside the driver and dined afterwards with whipsters [bohemians], frequented the opera during the season, and ‘lived to make poems, and for nothing else in particular.'”

Walt Whitman’s ancestors were Dutch and English, immigrants brought by the Atlantic Ocean to Ellis Island, New York, which had speedily become a nesting place for immigrants the world over: Holland, France, Italy, England, Ireland and of course, Africa, from where a slew of slaves were brought to toil the land with sweat and blood.

In this issue

  • NEW YORK STUDIOS THEN…… AND NOW By the Editor
    “Once upon a time, our big museums were the “quiet cars” of a fast-track American culture industry. Like libraries, they...
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  • MOVE LIKE A FLAME Michael Mao in conversation with the Editor
    Michael Mao performed for renowned Judson choreographers for over ten years before choreographing over 60 works, which have been presented...
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  • MUSIC AND METAPHYSICS Steve Coleman in conversation with Anil Prasad
    For Jazz composer and saxophonist Steve Coleman, physics, metaphysics, astronomy, numerology, history, the environment and spiritual studies play a dominant...
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  • MUSIC AND METAPHYSICS Steve Coleman in conversation with Anil Prasad
    For Jazz composer and saxophonist Steve Coleman, physics, metaphysics, astronomy, numerology, history, the environment and spiritual studies play a dominant...
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  • WHEN THE STREET SPEAKS By Cheryl Dunn
    “I was born in New Jersey. My ancestors are European and immigrated from Italy, Ireland and Germany at the beginning...
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  • BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL By Jamel Shabazz
    I was born and raised in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, New York, during a turbulent time in the...
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  • GIVE ME THE SPLENDID SILENT SUN
    Excerpted from ‘Leaves of Grass’ by Walt Whitman Keep your splendid, silent sun, Keep your woods, O Nature, and the quiet places...
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  • WE ARE LATINO.....WE ARE YOU. By Jose Redeiro
    The five primary themes of this unique exhibition are Latino immigration, Latinization, the current anti-Latino backlash, the rise of Pan-Latino...
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  • SEPIA STORIES By Vivek Bald
    More than fifteen years ago, the East Harlem actor and playwright Alaudin Ullah told me he wanted to make a...
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  • ISLAND CITY By Meena Alexander
    Newly arrived in New York City, I was trying to make sense of towers of glass, steel and brick, under-ground...
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  • HOUNDS OF HARLEM By George Nelson Preston
    In those days, poets and folksingers read their poetry or performed in Washington Square Park. But we played cat and...
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  • CITIES, BOOKS AND PROPHESIES
    A conversation between three authors: Amitava Kumar, Professor of English, Vassar University, Salman Rushdie and Suketu Mehta at the IAAC,...
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  • CINEMA NEW YORK Aseem Chhabra
    There has been a quieter, smaller but equally energised film industry in NY, where filmmakers made movies on their terms...
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  • FOREVER FEISTY– ERICA JONG
    Erica Jong novelist, poet and teacher, has written over 20 books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. In conversation with...
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  • A CROSSOVER SUBLIME. Geeta Mehta and Paul Miller aka D.J. Spooky in conversation
    Two very diverse New Yorkers, Dr. Geeta Mehta, Adjunct Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Columbia University and Paul...
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