This Sunday, more than a million spectators will turn out for the annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City. This year the celebration of culture and history will take on profound meaning in the wake of hurricane Maria which devastated the island. Puerto Rican Television Journalist Julio 'Gaby' Acevedo is this year's parade Ambassador, Acevedo has been covering the crisis in Puerto Rico for NBC and Telemundo, since the hurricane hit back in September of last year. WBGO's Alexandra

Living history at its best. On October 2015, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda; Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller, the Gilder Lehrman Institute, The Rockefeller Foundation and the New York City Department of Education, and announced an educational partnership that will provide 20,000 NYC Title I public school students with the opportunity to see Hamilton on Broadway, But before students get their shot to see the show, their teachers guide them through a hands-on classroom studies program using

Barbara Kukla has written seven books about the people of Newark including the latest, Newark Women: From Suffragettes to the Statehouse . Before her retirment from newspaper writing in 2004, Kukla spent 43 years as a journalist, most of the that at The Star-Ledger , where she first served as a general assingment reporter and Sunday city editor. Many of her books have been focused on the jazz scene in Newark. Kukla holds a B.A. degree in English from Bloomfield College, an M.A. degree in

Theater critic Michael Bourne goes off Broadway to review Paradise Blue, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Click above to hear Michael's review of the new jazz play.

When Songbird premiered Off-Broadway in 2015 to much critical acclaim, earning a New York Times Critic's Pick. Now the musical, written by Michael Kimmel with music and lyrics by Lauren Pritchard is gearing up for its run at Two River Theater in Red Bank Pritchard, who starred as Ilse in the orginal cast of Spring Awakening on Broadway in 2006 and performs now as LOLO, sat down recently with WBGO's News Director Doug Doyle to talk about Songbird and her career. In Songbird , fading country star

Of the hundreds of thousands of American student-athletes that hope to break into professional sports, about one-percent make a living out of it. “Out of all of the people in here, how many do you think will actually make it to the pros?” asked a student from West Side High School. New York Giants safety Michael Thomas told students it starts with a strong work ethic on the field and in the classroom. “It’s going to be up to you,” said Thomas. “Not even the pros, just college to get a

New York City is ranked 9 th on The Trust for Public Land annual ParkScore index. They rate park systems based on access, size, investment, amenities. “How many residents live within a ten-minute walk of a park, spending per resident, and a bunch of what we call amenities, basketball hoops, dog parks, playgrounds, recreation and senior centers, and splash pads,” said Adrian Benepe, Senior Vice President with The Trust For Public Land. Jersey City fell 13 spots to 53 rd . “Jersey City is not

WBGO film critic Harlan Jacobson has just returned from the 71st Cannes Film. It’s the highest platform for film art on Planet Earth. One of the films he saw there had some familiarity to it to say the least. Solo: A Star Wars Story is the 10th installment in George Lucas’ saga begun in 1977. Even the title is generic: Solo: A Star Wars Story. That’s like “Memorial Day Sale at General Motors: A Sedan!” I saw Solo at Cannes, where it had its world premiere, and from what I read in the trades

We recently told you about an archive in Massachusetts dedicated to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and the authors who relied on it. Their books are being published to mark the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's death, which will be marked early next month. A labor activist in Los Angeles who was wounded during the assassination remains a skeptic that Sirhan Sirhan was the sole assassin. Click above to hear WBGO's Jon Kalish's feature on Paul Schrade.

New York City is ranked 9 th on The Trust for Public Land annual ParkScore index. They rate park systems based on access, size, investment, amenities. “How many residents live within a ten-minute walk of a park, spending per resident, and a bunch of what we call amenities, basketball hoops, dog parks, playgrounds, recreation and senior centers, and splash pads,” said Adrian Benepe, Senior Vice President with The Trust For Public Land. Jersey City fell 13 spots to 53 rd . “Jersey City is not