Tag Archives: Arts Express

The Voyage

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“Why I came here? Start the machine. I’ll tell you everything…Because the olive trees were bare, because the date trees gave no fruit…”

For the week of Father’s Day, A Fathers Day Fatherly Story. Performed by myself and Linda Shalom, as adapted from my novel, The New World, which begins with a Syrian-Jewish immigrant’s journey to this country at the turn of the 20th century.

Click the triangle or mp3 link above to hear our tale, as broadcast today on Arts Express on WBAI FM NY and Pacifica stations across the nation.

Memoirs of a Misfit Ruler

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Wherein we make like Marcel Proust and recall our humorous encounters with the trappings of power and authority in my local elementary school.

Click the triangle or mp3 link above to hear our tale, as broadcast today on Arts Express on WBAI FM NY and Pacifica stations across the nation.

Mike Nichols, A Life: Part Two

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Here’s Part Two of our Mark Harris interview about his wonderful new biography called Mike Nichols: A Life. In this part we focused on the director’s eclectic and fabled film career, including Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Graduate and Angels in America.

Click the triangle or mp3 link above to hear part one of the interview Mark gave on Arts Express, as broadcast yesterday on WBAI FM NY and Pacifica stations across the nation.

Part One is here:

Mike Nichols, A Life by Mark Harris: Part One

Mike Nichols, A Life by Mark Harris: Part One

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The Graduate, Angels in America, The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park, The Gin Game, Hurley Burley, Silkwood, Postcards From The Edge, Heartburn, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Streamers, The Real Thing, Spamalot, Working Girl and more were all directed by the same man–Mike Nichols. In a career that spanned over fifty years simultaneously in both film and theater, Mike Nichols proved that he was one of America’s best directors. Now Mark Harris has written a comprehensive new biography of Nichols, which provides great insight into Nichols’ life and career. I had the pleasure of having a very enjoyable conversation with Mark about Nichols, who Mark knew well.

Click the triangle or mp3 link above to hear part one of the interview Mark gave on Arts Express, as broadcast yesterday on WBAI FM NY and Pacifica stations across the nation.

Part Two is here:

Mike Nichols, A Life: Part Two

Everybody by Olivia Laing: Part Two

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Last week in Part 1, we spoke with Olivia Laing about her fascinating new book Everybody. It’s a book about the work of psychologist Wilhelm Reich and the expanding influence his ideas had, especially that of “character armor,” that is, the idea that our emotional memories are physically retained within the musculature of our bodies.

We ended by my asking Olivia Laing whether Reich had gone over the deep end in his later years. This week we talk about the wide range of artists and thinkers that Reich influenced, including Andrea Dworkin, Nina Simone, Lorraine Hansberry, and James Baldwin.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear my conversation with Olivia Laing as broadcast yesterday on WBAI and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Part One is here.

Every Body is Everybody: Part One

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Everybody has a body and Everybody is the name of a new book by art and social critic Olivia Laing, which takes off from the ideas of Wilhelm Reich. It’s a  book about bodies in peril and bodies as a force for change and what are the limits of pleasure and freedom.

I had a fascinating conversation with Olivia about her book. Click on the grey triangle or mp3 link above to hear Part One of our conversation, as broadcast today on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Part Two is here: https://jackshalom.net/2021/05/16/everybody-by-olivia-laing-part-two/

May Day’s Magnificent Manuscripts

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Happy May Day!

Another great issue of the Arts Express newsletter!

Get your free subscription by sending an email with the word “subscribe” in the subject line to:
artsexpresslist@gmail.com

Inside:

**Prairie Miller Challenges Ken Burns on his Politics-Free Hemingway
**The Paintings of Iraqi/Palestinean artist Thaer Abdallah
**Dennis Broe on Depictions of Middle Class Drug-Dealing in Modern TV As A Marker of Class Anxiety

and much more!

Click here to view online:  

May 2021 Newsletter

If you enjoy it, you can get your free subscription by sending an email with the word “subscribe” in the subject line to:
artsexpresslist@gmail.com

Frida Kahlo

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Frida Kahlo: The Last Interview And Other Conversations is a new collection of several of Kahlo’s magazine and newspaper interviews. As a bonus, art historian, critic and author Hayden Herrera provides within an excellent introduction to the life and work of the extraordinary Mexican artist and activist. I was happy to interview Hayden for Arts Express.

To listen, click on the triangle or mp3 link above and listen to the interview as broadcast today on WBAI FM radio and Pacifica stations across the country.

Who Wrote Shakespeare’s Plays?

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This April is the 457th Anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth and I have to admit that everything I thought I knew about William Shakespeare’s life may well be wrong. My faith was recently shaken by both the film Last Will and Testament and the book North by Shakespeare. Both works posit that heresy of heresies that William Shakespeare of Stratford-Upon-Avon was not the fellow who wrote the 37 plays usually attributed to him.

For the skinny, click on the triangle or mp3 link above and listen to the story as broadcast today on the Arts Express program on WBAI FM radio and Pacifica stations across the country.

Everyone Was Beautiful: Paul Hostovsky

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I first heard poet Paul Hostovsky reading in a poetry series out of Boston called Rozzie Reads. His poems immediately struck me as funny, closely observed crafted stories, the kind you come home and tell your intimate other about.

Paul’s work for the past decades situates him in a unique position with regard to language: Hostovsky is a sign language interpreter and a Braille instructor who has been a recipient of an award from the American Association of the DeafBlind “for being a devoted friend and ambassador by promoting the interests and well-being of DeafBlind Americans.”

Click on the triangle or the mp3 link above to hear the poems as broadcast yesterday on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica stations across the nation.

Paul’s website is www.paulhostovsky.com and you can get his latest book, Mostly, at: https://www.amazon.com/Mostly-Paul-Hostovsky-ebook/dp/B08Z4GYRBM/

The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are: Part Two

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Last week we brought you Part One of our interview with journalist Libby Copeland, author of The Lost Family: How DNA Testing has Upended Who We Are. We spoke about how the DNA tests offered by companies such as Ancestry and 23and me can have unintended consequences when people thought to be close biological relatives turn out to be no such thing. This week in Part Two we turn our attention to the larger societal issues including surveillance and privacy of genetic data.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear Part Two of my interview with Libby Copeland, as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Part One can heard here:

The Lost Family: Part One

The Lost Family: Part One

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With TV shows like Henry Louis Gates’ Finding Your Roots, and aggressive advertising of DNA testing by companies like Ancestry.Com, millions have spit into a tube to find the names of their particular ancestors and relatives, and more generally to confirm their ethnic heritage. But these appealing tests have some far-reaching consequences that most of us have not even considered. Award-winning Washington Post reporter Libby Copeland has written about the unforeseen consequences of these genetic tests in a beautifully structured and comprehensive book called The Lost Family: How DNA is Upending Who You Are.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear Part One of my interview with Libby Copeland as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

April Showers

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 In this issue:

** Comedian/actress Margaret Cho talks with Prairie Miller about Anti-Asian racism and more

** Paul Robeson re-imagined in an excerpt from actor/playwright Tayo Aluko ‘s Paul Robeson’s Love Song

** Poet Paul Hostovsky with his humorous and trenchant poems.

** Photos from the larger-than-life Garden of Sculpture

And much more!

Click here to view online:

April 2021 Newsletter

Get your free email subscription by emailing us at Artsexpresslist@gmail.com and put the word “subscribe” in the subject line

AMORALMAN: A True Story And Other Lies

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Derek DelGaudio, whose theater piece, In & Of Itself was an unlikely hit, has turned that audience-centric play into a film with the help of director Frank Oz. DelGaudio has just published a memoir of his life as a card mechanic, called AMORALMAN: A True Story and Other Lies and it continues with DelGaudio’s obsession with identity and reality.

Click the triangle or MP3 link above to hear my commentary on both the film In & Of Itself and AMORALMAN, as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI-FM NY and Pacifica affiliates across the country.

“Oh God, And This Is Only A Metaphor!”: Molly Peacock

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(photo by Candice Ferreira)

I was happy to become acquainted recently with Toronto-based writer Molly Peacock and to help produce a selection of her poems for broadcast, voiced by the always wonderful Mary Murphy.

Whether Molly is writing as a poet, biographer, essayist or novelist, we love how her multi-genre literary work is always infused with both playfulness and rigor.

Molly’s latest poetry collections are The Analyst: Poems and Cornucopia: New and Selected Poems published by W.W Norton and Company. She is a former President of the Poetry Society of America and Poet-in-Residence at the American Poets’ corner. She’s also the co-founder of Poetry In Motion on New York’s subways and buses and the founder of the series  The Best Canadian Poetry.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear a selection of Molly’s poetry as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

More Molly at Mollypeacock.org

March Madness

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In our latest Arts Express Newsletter:

*Erin Brockovich, the great environmental activist, talks about her new book on how to do grassroots organizing.

*American-Canadian poet Molly Peacock offers up a plateful of playful and provocative poetry

*Artist Vivienne Shalom mesmerizes with her mosaics and acrylic paintings.

and much more!

Click here to view online:

March 2021 Newsletter

And if you like what you see, get your free subscription by emailing us at Artsexpresslist@gmail.com and put the word “subscribe” in the subject line

Art At A Time Like This: Ministry of Truth

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Enough! by Terry Berkowitz

At a time like this, when we are pretty much limited in our ability to see art in traditional indoor museum settings, I was happy to stumble over the website Art At A Time Like This. Created almost exactly a year ago, in March of 2020, a month I think we all remember, Barbara Pollack and Anne Verhallen set to work creating an internet art museum. One of their first projects was to document an outdoor billboard project called “Ministry of Truth” that addresses the increasingly authoritarian direction of our culture and politics.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear my interview with Barbara and Anne as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

You can visit Art At A Time Like This here: https://artatatimelikethis.com/

“Yer A Socialist”: Satirist Roy Zimmerman

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Roy Zimmerman has been described as “Lenny Bruce meets Stephen Sondheim meets Phil Ochs in Brian Wilson’s living room.” He’s a master of satirical political songwriting, the lyrical heir to Tom Lehrer, as well as a damned fine musician. I’ve been listening and laughing at his sharp wit for years, and I was very happy to do an extended interview with him.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear Part One of my interview with Roy as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Part Two is here: https://jackshalom.net/2021/02/23/who-wants-their-mind-changed-roy-zimmerman-part-two/

More Roy at Roy Zimmerman

Denial

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(“Enjoy Denial” by Tim Fenn is licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Here’s a re-working of an essay that I originally printed on this blog some time ago, and revised for radio broadcast.

“Well everyone’s all aflutter these days with our newly elected overlords, and far be it from me to burst anyone’s bubble.  I mean, what fun is it in having enemies if you can’t beat up on them and blame them for all the country’s ills? Of course our unelected overlords still continue apace, but today I want to talk about a different level of reality that remains largely unspoken...the one incontrovertible fact about life in these United States regardless of who is ruling is the following…”

Click on the triangle or link above to hear it as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

February’s Feast

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Celebrating our second year of publication!
Another great free issue of the Arts Express Newsletter

*Why was this Arts Express interview censored from YouTube with no explanation?…… An Arts Express Special featuring an extraordinary interview with Mike Africa Jr., member of the radical MOVE organization. He is also the subject of a new documentary about his parents, 40 Years A Prisoner.

*Art At A Time Like This presents a multi-borough billboard exhibition, “Ministry of Truth 1984/2020,” exploring issues of propaganda, censorship, and racial injustice in our present time.

*Dennis Broe on depictions of working-class families in recent television series.

*and much more!

Get your free copy and free subscription by emailing us at Artsexpresslist@gmail.com and put the word “subscribe” in the subject line

Outdoor Life

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Two weeks ago I drove down to the wonderful Garden for Sculpture, an outdoor sculpture museum in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, which features, among many others, the works of Seward Johnson and three-dimensional sculptural reproductions of paintings by Monet and Manet. I bought my timed tickets online, stuffed some COVID masks in my pocket, and jumped into the car. So come along with me on this little adventure, and you can join me virtually as I head down the highway and tour the Garden For Sculpture, on location.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear our report as broadcast today on WBAI FM NY and Pacifica stations across the nation.

David And The Recruiter

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I thought it would be fun to read an excerpt from my novel, The New World. It’s a tale set in New York City that follows the struggles and triumphs of four generations of strivers, lovers, and grabbers- of-life.

This excerpt focuses on 20 year-old David Walker who has just been discharged from the army in Iraq for trying to shoot up his sergeant. Fortunately for David, he was able to cash in some chips to get out from the brig and escape with only a dishonorable discharge. Now returned home to live with his mother, he wonders how he’ll survive, with his major skill being cheating at cards. And despite many attempts to track down the old love of his life, Jennifer, he cannot find her.

Click on the triangle or link above to hear the excerpt as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the country.

Dancing Through Tap History: Rusty Frank

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Our friend of the blog, Dennis Mayne, wrote me and said that since I like tap dancers so much I just had to read Rusty Frank’s book, TAP!: The Greatest Tap Dance Stars & Their Stories, where she interviewed all the tap dancing legends! Well, I got the book, and for the last month every morning with my coffee I have been delightedly reading these wonderful primary source interviews with Bunny Briggs, Jimmy Slyde, Hermes Pan, Shirley Temple, Ann Miller and so many more. Fortunately I was able to contact Rusty and we had a delightful interview about her book and she even gave me a little on-air tap dancing lesson!

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear my interview with Rusty Frank as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

January Jots

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Celebrating our second year of publication!
Another great free issue of the Arts Express Newsletter

*The Arts Express crew reveal their Favorite Films of the Year

*Featuring the new film about 1968 Olympic winner Tommie Smith who raised his fist in a Black Power salute

*Journalist/artist Liza Béar updates her extraordinary report on Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara

*and much more!

Get your free copy and free subscription by emailing us at Artsexpresslist@gmail.com and put the word “subscribe” in the subject line

Loving You Has Made Me Bananas

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Here’s an audio version of a piece I published here a while back about wrestling with a favorite fruit.

Click on the triangle or link above to hear the piece as broadcast today on The Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NY and Pacifica stations across the nation.