Category — Authors

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City Lights

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http://www.stevenkasher.com/

Rebellions against authority – government, parents, elders, and everything else were ubiquitous in the 1960’s. David Fenton, a teenager at this time, was an underground news photographer. He photographed the anti-war protests, civil rights rallies, and concerts. Now, forty years later, in the Steven Kasher Gallery on 23^rd St., these photographs are displayed in an exhibit called “Eye of the Revolution”. I found it interesting to see pictures from this time, when my parents were growing up, and to compare what they have told me to what I see in actual photographs from the period.

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“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”  – Anon

“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” – Aristotle

“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.”  – Anon

“If you have one true friend, you have more than your share.” – Thomas Fuller

“When it hurts to look back, and you’re scared to look ahead, you can look beside you and your best friend will be there.”

“A true friend is someone who knows there’s something wrong even when you have the biggest smile on your face.”
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The movie starts out with one of the characters being pursued by ravaging dogs racing down empty streets and alleys. As the dogs run, mothers cling to their children and people jump out of their way.  This is the recurring dream of a man who has been through war; he is pursued by every dog he shot at the entrances to the Lebanon villages. [Read more →]

Cuesta del plomo, hillside outside Managua-a well known site of many assassinations carried out by the National Guard

Susan Meiselas is a photographer best known for her committed coverage of political conflicts in Central America during the 1970s and 80s.  She was very concerned with issues of nationalism and identity.  Three of her most famous projects are Carnival Strippers (1972-1976), Nicaragua (1978-2004), and Kurdistan (1991-present).  Currently, her works from these projects are exhibited in New York’s International Center of Photography, to which we took a class trip.  [Read more →]

Lincoln Center Theater’s Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific is the first “Broadway” revival of the show since its opening nearly 60 years ago. As one enters the theater, there is a script spread across the stage, upon which are projected the first few sentences of James Michener’s “Tales of the South Pacific,” the book upon which the show was based: “I wish I could tell you about the South Pacific. The way it actually was. The endless ocean. The infinite specks of coral we called islands. Coconut palms nodding gracefully toward the ocean. Reefs upon which waves broke into spray, and inner lagoons, lovely beyond description. I wish I could tell you about the sweating jungle, the full moon rising behind the volcanoes, and the waiting. The waiting. The timeless, repetitive waiting.” [Read more →]

Tovah Feldshuh in Irena's Vow

When I read the script to “Irena’s Vow,” I imagined it produced quite differently.  Since the directors beamed it’s a “one person show,” I imagined it to be acted by only that one character. However, it was relatively different. “Irena’s Vow” is a play by Dan Gordon, produced in the Baruch Performing Arts Center. It is about a Polish girl who hides twelve Jews during the Holocaust in the house where she works, the house of the highest ranked Nazi general, Rugemer. [Read more →]

Jeff Mermelstein is a street photographer, who prefers the title photojournalist.  He is not comfortable with the title street photographer because it implies different things to different people. Since he was five years old, he had a strong and vigorous interest in colors.  When he was 20, he fell in love with color photography. “Working in color is an additional ingredient in the juggling act of making an interesting photograph.” He is very interested in surprise and what one cannot anticipate, or plan. The literal proximity in which he has made most of his work is on the streets of NY, although he was quite prolific outside of NY as well. The American social content in general interests him, but he “just happens to live in NY.” [Read more →]

Francine Prose

Francine Prose has enjoyed a long and accomplished career as an author of unique novels and short stories for adults and also for children. She writes fiction that blends elements of reality with elements of the fantasy. She is the current Sidney Harman Writer-in–Residence at Baruch College. She wrote over 15 books of fiction and many non-fiction books, including the most recent Reading Like a Writer. [Read more →]