Bar Crawl Radio

Once again BCR recorded on an UWS street; this time we were set up in front of the stoop where Humphrey Bogart played stickball as a kid -- W. 103rd Street -- just down from Broadway. It was an "Earth Day Celebration" organized by Lisa Orman of StreetopiaUWS. While musicians from the MET Orchestra performed, Jody Sperling's Time Lapse Dance gamboled, and the kids rolled hula hoops into our mics, we spoke with long time proponents of the open streets initiative -- including -- Henry Rinehart: former owner of the fantastically popular HENRY’s Restaurant / Jody Sperling / Robin Schatell a founder and director of Open Culture WORKS / Ken Coughlin a safe streets advocate and member of Community Board 7 / Mark Gorton founder of Open Plans, the non-profit home of Streetsblog, Streetfilms and Streetopia UWS / Sara Lind: a candidate for City Council in District 6 and a member of Community Board 7 / and, Christina Weyl a resident of West End Avenue and active supporter of the WEA Open Streets.  

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This BCR conversation was quite special for Rebecca and me. We had agreed at the beginning of 2020 to investigate how racism permeates our society, our values, and individual behavior. We continue to want to work on our own complicity in what J. Chester Johnson calls this country's "damaged heritage" which is also the title of his new book. "Damaged Heritage” looks deeply into the 1919 Elaine, Arkansas massacre, when over 100 Black Americans were murdered by White posses and soldiers of the U.S. Military. A central part of this story resides in the relationship Chester had with Sheila Walker; both had family members who were part of the massacre--Chester on the White side and Sheila on the Black. They became close friends. Sheila passed recently and Chester delivered the eulogy at Sheila's memorial. Here is the text of what he said.

Mr.  Johnson was educated at Harvard and the University of Arkansas. He was a financial specialist who served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Treasury Department under Jimmy Carter. An essayist and poet, Chester Johnson along with W. H Auden, retranslated the Psalms for The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. 

Last year “Damaged Heritage” was Amazon’s Best Seller for social activism biographies.

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Concert violinist Rolf Schulte describes pianist, Jeffrey Swann, as a polymath, speaker of several languages, and a magnificent musician. Mr. Swann has won several prestigious piano competitions – including the Queen Elizabeth Piano Competition in Brussels as a young man and then the Ciani Competition in Italy and a prize at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. The last few years he has run a music festival and teaches at a conservatory in Italy. 

Early in his career Mr Swann was also a composer and studied with Darius Milhaud. He has lectured on Wagner at the Bayreuth Festival. Presently, he teaches at NYU Steinhardt School of Music.

 A recording with Rolf Schulte and Jeffrey Swann performing Igor Stravinsky’s violin music recorded for the radio in Cologne, West Germany in 1979 is coming out any day now. 

After the recording I asked Jeffrey about his thoughts on the future of classic concerts post-COVID19, Here is his response:

NOTES BY Alan Winson

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PWIIGF podcast brings together two poets who have something in common read and talk about their work. For this episode we consider how word, image and mass interact within the creative artist. 

Rick Mullin’s poetry has been published in many journals and anthologies, including The Dark Horse, American Arts Quarterly, The New Criterion, and Rabbit Ears: TV Poems. His collection “Lullaby and Wheel,” was published in 2019 by Kelsay Books.  When he was in his mid-30s Rick visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and encountered paintings by Matisse, Braque and other Fauve artists that changed his life and he began to paint. Later, he became fascinated with the painter Chaim Soutine and wrote a biography of Soutine in poetry form. Thank you, Rick for joining us.

Sculptor Meredith Bergmann creates public monuments exploring issues of history, social justice, race, human rights, disabilities, and the power of poetry and music. Bergmann’s work is well known in New York City for the FDR Hope Memorial on Roosevelt Island unveiled in 2019 – the September 11th Memorial in Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 2012 – and most recently the “Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument” in Central Park. Meredith Bergmann is also an accomplished poet and poetry critic -- her writing has appeared in Contemporary Poetry, Hudson Review and The New Criterion and she was poetry editor of The American Arts Quarterly from 2006 - 2017  

CONTACT; [email protected]

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Were you bullied in middle school? Were you the bully? This BCR is for you. We talked with Simone Ellin – a journalist who sought out those in her middle school “cool girl clique” who befriended and then bullied her.  Now grown -- some would not talk to her but several did – and her recent re-telling of her experiences in Lilith magazine and the Huffington Post went viral; her Facebook creds skyrocketed. And as she writes in Jmore – “Finally I am the popular girl.”

Also, we spoke with Dieter Wolke, a psychological researcher at The University of Warwick near Coventry, England, who studies the long-term effects of bullying on the bully and victim. His findings may surprise you.

Contact BCR hosts -- Rebecca and Alan -- at [email protected]

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We live in Manhattan's Upper West Side and Rebecca wants her own car. She has wanted a cute little car -- a Fiat -- for since her "Ruby"-- the sporty plum colored Mercury--died of neglect shortly after we met. I oppose raising another car in our car-infested city and GHG choked world -- but I gave in -- she really, really wants a hunk of well-designed metal. My reasoning? -- If she experiences the trials of city-based car ownership, it will not be long before we will be car-free, once again.

So this BCR R & A is a debate on whether it is a good idea to own a car in the Big Apple. We sat outside 5 Napkin Burger off Broadway and 84th Street -- under a heat lamp -- surround by well-designed, hunks of metal.

Contact Rebecca and Alan at [email protected]

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Let it be noted that this Bar Crawl Radio conversation was recorded the day after a U.S. President was impeached for the second time. And for this episode our BCR producer Alina Larson brought together three musical minds who will recommend music you may have not heard of but great to listen to a presidential impeachment by. Jim Harrington is the Pop Music critic for the Bay Area News Group and he told us a story about Daryl Hall -- or was it John Oates? Dawn Sutter Madell just worked on the music for Netflix's recent release -- "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" -- and she told us an embarrassing story that involves Denzel Washington. And Harold Stephan who worked in the famous Unique Music Studio told us a story about John Lennon and Phil Spector.

This show is filled with musical snippets that will whet your taste and get you ready for the and Impeachment coming to a television near you.

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Your BCR hosts were surprised and honored when Catholic Worker, Bud Courtney, took us up the wooden stairs of Maryhouse to Dorothy Day's bedroom for our conversation on the Catholic Worker's soup kitchen feeding the the poor and homeless, We were joined by Joann Kennedy who heads up Maryhouse. They told us that Day had lived the last years of her life and died in the room in which we were recording. We talked about Bud's and Joann's commitment to serving their neighbors in need both with food and clothing, as well as humane and respectful moral support.

Early in this BCR episode, we caught-up with Corinne Low of UWS Open Hearts on the plight of the homeless men in the Lucerne Hotel on the UWS of Manhattan.

Email us with your comments at [email protected]

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