Category — In the Spotlight

Street photography was a realm of art in which I had never entered. It was completely foreign to me, I was aware of its existence, and that was pretty much the extent of my knowledge on the subject. So, any type of exposure to the subject of seeing any examples of it from any artist would have been an enriching experience. When I was told the prolific street photographer Jeff Mermelstein would be coming into our class to personally show us some of his work I figured it would be something I had never really seen before and it would be intriguing to hear about the photos from the person who actually took them. [Read more →]

Frances Richey seemed more like a peer than a superior, stylishly wearing a vivid purple knit cardigan with a matching shirt and a belt around her waist.  Even her ornate earrings seemed unexpected to me to be worn by a middle-aged woman.  Regardless, I immediately knew that she had flair and I hoped her personality matched her creative style that initially drew me in.  She created a humble and compassionate atmosphere by greeting students arriving late with a “Thank you for coming, I’m glad you made it.” Instead of feeling irritated or set back, she happily volunteered to fill them in on the material they had missed. [Read more →]

samuelfreedman.com

      We had all read his book, Who She Was: My Search for My Mother’s Life, and now we sat anxiously awaiting the man who dared delve into his mother’s life. Most of us are content with knowing only the information about our parents that we learned after we were born. We look at them as only “our parents” and find it hard to believe that they had a life before us, but even if we do take the time to realize this distinction, it may be that we do not really want to know what our parents were like before they had us. Just imagine your mother as an unruly teenager. However, Samuel Freedman dared to delve into this forbidden territory and the result was a success – both in the form of the popularity of the book as well as personal success. [Read more →]

I was very excited to have a chance to meet Jeffrey Mermelstein. I had never met a professional photographer before and the people who have this as their career have always fascinated me. I knew that he was very proficient in his field and I was glad to meet someone who has been a photographer for some time and knew all of the ins and outs of the job. His photos were very entertaining as were his stories. [Read more →]

The reading by Francine Prose was very beneficial for an aspiring writer like myself. She read her own short story and provided enlightening comments. Her relaxed demeanor struck me as she discussed the arduous task of writing a novel. I was also interested in the calm demeanor with which she read her work.  I tried to take cues from her poise as she spoke her own short story aloud because she seamlessly told the story and made me feel as though I was reading the work instead of simply listening to it. It seems to me that being able to do that is harder than it looks because you have to use your voice to transport the reader, rather than trusting the written text to do it for you. [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 →]

Frances Richey with son, Ben

Frances Richey is an author who writes poetry.  Her first book of poems was published for her father. The second book she promised to write to and for her son, Ben, who is in the army and who served two tours of duty in Iraq. He is an army captain and a Green Beret. Richey worked in business for two decades, and raised a child by herself, as a single mother. She started writing when she volunteered with people who had less than six months to live. This inspired her to write because these people told her to do what she wants to do, and not waste time, because in a single moment everything could disappear as if it was never there. [Read more →]

            Before an intimate group at the Macaulay Honors College on the Upper West Side, Frances Richey read from The Warrior, her second poetry collection.

           Beginning with a career in the corporate world, Richey saw that she lacked fulfillment and satisfaction in her life. This led her to volunteer at a hospice, where her relationships with patients brought her closer to “the reality of her mortality.” Business writing is permeated with “proposals, reports…you’re always making a case and asking for something. However, with poetry, “I could do something I love.”

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Frances Richey seems like the typical mother. She is the mother of a Green Beret and feels like most mothers would feel – concerned and distressed because her son’s life constantly faces perilous situations, especially during war time. After her son, Ben, decided to be a soldier and serve in Iraq, she filled the void in her life by writing a collection of poems that portrayed her feelings to his being a soldier in an attempt to reestablish the mother-son relationship. [Read more →]