Jersey Arts Podcast

The Two River Theater Company in Red Bank is hot. New artistic director John Dias has moved quickly to bring new artists and new plays to the stage. His 2011-2012 season was just announced, including everything from “Much Ado About Nothing” to the new academic sex comedy “Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England” (developed at Two River). Dias talks to Susan Wallner about his almost mystical passion for the theater, and why he thinks New Jersey is on the cutting edge.

Thanks for listening!

• Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player.

The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature Stories on Discover Jersey Arts (jerseyarts.com), where articles and videos also cover New Jersey’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene.

Discover Jersey Arts is presented by ArtPride New Jersey. The program was co-founded by, and is currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

• Subscribe to the Discover Jersey Arts' weekly e-newsletter to have stories delivered to your inbox.
• Follow and contact us @jerseyarts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

Artist Joan Snyder has been widely celebrated for her vibrant expressionist prints and paintings and her leading role in feminist art. Producer Eric Schultz spoke with the 2007 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius award,” as the Zimmerli Art Museum mounts the first major retrospective of her prints: “Dancing with the Dark: Joan Snyder Prints 1963-2010.”

Thanks for listening!

• Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player.

The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature Stories on Discover Jersey Arts (jerseyarts.com), where articles and videos also cover New Jersey’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene.

Discover Jersey Arts is presented by ArtPride New Jersey. The program was co-founded by, and is currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

• Subscribe to the Discover Jersey Arts' weekly e-newsletter to have stories delivered to your inbox.
• Follow and contact us @jerseyarts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

The TromaDance Film Festival is returning to Asbury Park – April 22nd and 23rd at the Showroom Theater. In this podcast, Christopher Benincasa talks with the man behind the festival, Lloyd Kaufman. Kaufman is perhaps best known for introducing us to The Toxic Avenger – a mutant super-hero character he created that has come to symbolize independent, do-it-yourself filmmaking – just the right mascot for a festival like TromaDance.

Thanks for listening!

• Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player.

The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature Stories on Discover Jersey Arts (jerseyarts.com), where articles and videos also cover New Jersey’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene.

Discover Jersey Arts is presented by ArtPride New Jersey. The program was co-founded by, and is currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

• Subscribe to the Discover Jersey Arts' weekly e-newsletter to have stories delivered to your inbox.
• Follow and contact us @jerseyarts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

Producer Eric Schultz talks with renowned New Jersey-based choreographer Carolyn Dorfman. She founded her modern dance group, the 28 years ago. Dorfman discusses her latest work and collaborative approaches to creating dance. She also talks about growing up with parents who were Holocaust survivors. Her parents, she says, told her everything, and that has profoundly shaped her entire being and artistic life. She talks about how motherhood later transformed her understanding of the horrors she had so often heard about as a child. Carolyn Dorfman has choreographed dozens of high-energy and technically demanding works that use movement as metaphor, often with the ingenious use of props. One reviewer described dances as "intellectual and emotional journeys."

Thanks for listening!

• Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player.

The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature Stories on Discover Jersey Arts (jerseyarts.com), where articles and videos also cover New Jersey’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene.

Discover Jersey Arts is presented by ArtPride New Jersey. The program was co-founded by, and is currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

• Subscribe to the Discover Jersey Arts' weekly e-newsletter to have stories delivered to your inbox.
• Follow and contact us @jerseyarts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

“Black is Beautiful” - Deborah Willis, artist, historian, and curator, explores the history of this idea, from early slave images to an iconic 1970s photo of model Suzanne Taylor. “Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present,” will be at the Newark Museum through April 28th. Willis, a MacArthur “Genius,” has a new book out as well: “Michelle Obama: The First Lady in Photographs.”

Thanks for listening!

• Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player.

The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature Stories on Discover Jersey Arts (jerseyarts.com), where articles and videos also cover New Jersey’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene.

Discover Jersey Arts is presented by ArtPride New Jersey. The program was co-founded by, and is currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

• Subscribe to the Discover Jersey Arts' weekly e-newsletter to have stories delivered to your inbox.
• Follow and contact us @jerseyarts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

Christopher Benincasa interviews curator Angela Sergonis about a new show at the -- 50 photos of acclaimed African American artists -- from Lena Horne to Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston to Dizzy Gillespie. In the 1920s, Carl Van Vechten, critic, novelist, and chronicler of the Harlem Renaissance, began photographing black writers, musicians, and artists -- the result is the vivid portrait archive now on display at the museum.

Thanks for listening!

• Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player.

The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature Stories on Discover Jersey Arts (jerseyarts.com), where articles and videos also cover New Jersey’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene.

Discover Jersey Arts is presented by ArtPride New Jersey. The program was co-founded by, and is currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

• Subscribe to the Discover Jersey Arts' weekly e-newsletter to have stories delivered to your inbox.
• Follow and contact us @jerseyarts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

Christopher Benincasa talks with Dr. Rafey Habib, Professor of English at Rutgers University, author of many books on literary criticism – and a poet. His book Shades of Islam: Poems for a New Century has just been published. One of his passions is cultivating mutual understanding between the Islamic world and Western cultures – which includes working with colleagues at Rutgers University to establish a cultural diversity of courses, including Islamic literature in English translation. In this podcast, Habib reads some of his poetry, as well as his own translation from a passage in the Qur’an.

Thanks for listening!

• Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player.

The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature Stories on Discover Jersey Arts (jerseyarts.com), where articles and videos also cover New Jersey’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene.

Discover Jersey Arts is presented by ArtPride New Jersey. The program was co-founded by, and is currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

• Subscribe to the Discover Jersey Arts' weekly e-newsletter to have stories delivered to your inbox.
• Follow and contact us @jerseyarts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

"Black Nativity," by the great poet Langston Hughes, premiered in 1961 on Broadway. Since then, the gospel-inspired musical play has become a holiday favorite. This year, see it December 30th at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, in a production directed by Darrell Lawrence Willis of the Dunbar Repertory Company. Willis describes the production to Susan Wallner, and reflects on why it has become such a beloved tradition.

Thanks for listening!

• Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player.

The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature Stories on Discover Jersey Arts (jerseyarts.com), where articles and videos also cover New Jersey’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene.

Discover Jersey Arts is presented by ArtPride New Jersey. The program was co-founded by, and is currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

• Subscribe to the Discover Jersey Arts' weekly e-newsletter to have stories delivered to your inbox.
• Follow and contact us @jerseyarts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

Christopher Benincasa speaks with poet Amiri Baraka on his birthday. Which also happened to be the kick-off date of this year's Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. Which just happened to be taking place in his hometown - Newark. At the age of 76, Baraka has a long history of activism and controversy coupled with a vast catalogue of artistic output, and many awards to show for it. Being the first poet to hit the stage at the biggest poetry event in the country, just several blocks from his home, was a pretty nice birthday present.

Thanks for listening!

• Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player.

The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature Stories on Discover Jersey Arts (jerseyarts.com), where articles and videos also cover New Jersey’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene.

Discover Jersey Arts is presented by ArtPride New Jersey. The program was co-founded by, and is currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

• Subscribe to the Discover Jersey Arts' weekly e-newsletter to have stories delivered to your inbox.
• Follow and contact us @jerseyarts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

[Title of Show] is about two guys writing a show – Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen – who really did write and star (as themselves) in the show, which ended up on Broadway with 3 Obies! It’s a show about four friends taking risks, creating art, killing Vampires (the dream-destroying kind, not the Dracula kind) — and how relationships change when life happens. Now, [Title of Show] is at the George Street Playhouse from 11/16-12/12/2010. Susan Wallner talks to director Matt Lenz and to actor Tyler Maynard (Hunter).

Thanks for listening!

• Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player.

The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature Stories on Discover Jersey Arts (jerseyarts.com), where articles and videos also cover New Jersey’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene.

Discover Jersey Arts is presented by ArtPride New Jersey. The program was co-founded by, and is currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

• Subscribe to the Discover Jersey Arts' weekly e-newsletter to have stories delivered to your inbox.
• Follow and contact us @jerseyarts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.