All Of It with Alison Stewart

The application process for landing a coveted spot at a NYC High School opened up this week and families will have the next couple of months to navigate the often overwhelming system. We'll learn about the latest changes to the process with Chalkbeat's Julian Shen-Berro as well as how to avoid the doom loop of anxiety while doing it with consultant Elissa Stein, who runs a organization dedicated to helping parents apply. And, we'll take listener calls.

"Story Ave" is a new debut feature independent film from Bronx-born writer and director Aristotle Torres. The movie tells the story of Bronx teenage graffiti artist (played by Asante Blackk), who runs away from home and tries to rob an MTA worker (played by Luis Guzmán). The robbery doesn't go as planned, and the event changes the course of both of their lives. Torres and Blackk join to discuss their film, which is in select New York theaters now.

This film has received a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement so the cast are permitted to do promotion accordingly.

The work of artist Don Hershman has returned to the walls of Salomon Arts Gallery in Tribeca, this time centered around the idea of code switching, which Hershman experienced as a gay man living in the American South in the 1980s while completing his medical residency. That's right, on top of being a fine artist, Hershman is also a trained doctor, and still works as a podiatric surgeon in San Francisco. The Art of Code Switching is on view through October 15, and 10% of the proceeds of the show's sales will be donated to The Trevor Project, which support suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ+ youth.

EVENT: The gallery will be hosting an Artist Talk open to the public on October 12, when Hershman will be in conversation with Anthony Haden Guest.

Award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates is the current artist-in-residence at The Apollo and is curating the festival [at] The Intersection, running from October 6-8, a series of performances and panel discussions with cultural figures like Jordan E. Cooper, Bisa Butler and Salamishah Tillet. We preview the festival with Coates and speak more about his relationship with The Apollo. And, during Banned Books Week, we also speak to him about recent attempts to remove his book Between the World and Me from schools in South Carolina, Texas, and other states.

This year's Open House New York Weekend will feature behind-the-scenes access to everything from the Perelman Performing Arts Center to the Hip Hop Museum to the Hindu Temple Society of North America. OHNY executive director Pamela Puchalski will walk us through the offerings. Plus, we take your calls about your favorite NYC places.

"Merrily We Roll Along" has long been considered the biggest flop of Stephen Sondheim's career, even as it features some of his most ambitious musical work. Now, after a successful run at the New York Theatre Workshop, a new revival of the musical starring Daniel Radcliffe, Lindsay Mendez, and Jonathan Groff comes to Broadway. We speak with director Maria Friedman, who once starred in a Haymarket production of this musical, on how she made this notoriously difficult show work. "Merrily We Roll Along" is running at Hudson Theatre through March 24, 2024.

A new collection of Lenape folklore contains some stories published together in a book for the first time. Camilla Townsend, a professor of history at Rutgers, and Nicky Kay Michael, Interim President of Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and a member of the Delaware tribe, join us to discuss their work on the collection, On the Turtle's Back: Stories the Lenape Told Their Grandchildren.

Townsend will be speaking on Indigenous People's Day at the National Museum of the American Indian, for NYC's Indigenous People's Day Open House.

This weekend is the Coney Island Maker Faire, where tinkerers, builders, and other shades of 'do-it-yourself'er will gather to show off their latest projects. We'll speak with Becky Button, a musician and avant-garde engineer, who's leading a workshop at the Faire for a homebrew instrument effects pedal she designed. Plus, two members of Hack Manhattan, one of the city’s member-run year-round maker spaces, Michelle Gengaro-Kokmen, and Robin Wienands, talk about the group's educational programs, open houses and monthly do-it-yourself repair sessions.

[REBROADCAST FROM May 23, 2023] Ahead of our Get Lit, with All Of It conversation with R.F. Kuang about her her latest novel, Yellowface, we present a shorter discussion with Kuang about the book, which follows a young, white novelist who decides to steal her dead Asian friend's manuscript, and pass herself off as an Asian writer. 

Plus, All Of It producer Jordan Lauf talks about the upcoming event (sold out, free livestream available here) with Kuang, and singer-songwriter mxmtoon, and takes calls on what listeners are reading lately. Plus, Jordan and Alison discuss some other upcoming All Of It events, including "Listening Party Live: All Of It featuring Jon Batiste," live from the Greene Space on October 16 (free livestream here), and our upcoming Greene Space blood drive on October 30.

Author Walter Mosley joins us to discuss his latest novel, a sci-fi story called Touched. It follows a man who has a realization that humanity is a virus, and he has to provide the cure.

Event: Mosley will be speaking at P&T Knitwear on Sunday at 2 pm.