Christian Marclay can make music out of almost anything. He's composed scores out of found objects, clothing, record covers, and restaurant menus.  

When oil started gushing in the Gulf, Brooklynite Josephine Decker felt overwhelmed. She wanted to do something to call attention to the spill and start conversations about conserving oil. So she got a group of dancers together, dressed them in white, and had them balance small buckets of oil-like liquid ...

From rooftop films to free concerts in nearly every park, New York offers a bounty of reasons to leave the buzz of your apartment’s air conditioning this summer. One small, 55-person movie theater adds to the mix by bringing a wide range of documentaries and classic cinema to Harlem.

Artist Rob Swainston knows what it's like to face eviction. For almost 13 years, he has been living illegally in a loft apartment on the 10^th floor of an old pasta factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Even though about 200 people live in the towering waterfront building at 475 Kent Avenue, the owner does not have a certificate of occupancy and the residents have commercial leases.

With the World Cup heading into its final two weeks, all eyes are set on host nation South Africa. Sixteen years after the election of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid, it's an opportunity for South Africa to show the world the vibrant, multi-racial democracy it has become.

But for South African artists both white and black, the traumas of apartheid are never far away. From the Afrikaner novelist to the young black photographer, learning to cope with that past continues to shape the way they make art.

The Civilians joined WNYC live at the Greene Space on Monday, June 28 to share your divorce tale contributions and to perform excerpts from YOU BETTER SIT DOWN: Tales From My Parents' Divorce.

In case you missed it, you can now watch the entire performance.

Tri-Centric Modeling: Past, Present and Future

Legendary experimental jazz musician, composer, and multi-hyphenate Anthony Braxton, was honored last week on his 65th birthday. The two-night celebration, produced by the non-profit Tri-Centric Foundation, featured an array of contemporary jazz music’s leading lights, including John Zorn, Steve Coleman, Dave Douglas and Nicole Mitchell. “If it weren’t for Anthony Braxton,” exclaimed a clearly humbled Zorn said from the stage, “we all wouldn’t be standing here.”

A work of fiction, a work of non-fiction, and a collection of short stories that you shouldn't miss.

Pride parade revelers scream, cry, and weigh-in on Civil Rights. Then they scream some more.

When a disgruntled cast member of P.S. 122's Octoroon sent out an email trashing and satirizing the very show he was a part of ("I would like to invite you to a train wreck," the missive began), and the Village Voice posted it online, the downtown theater community responded. And they were not pleased.

"It’s an apocalyptic summer,” Jason Boog says about the publishing industry. Boog, the publishing editor of mediabistro.com, is referring to the fact that this is the first summer e-books have impacted the market in a big way. With three e-reader devices — the Kindle, Nook, and now the iPad — becoming ubiquitous, publishers are taking this new market very seriously.

It's Gay Pride month in New York, and some of the city's LGBTQ youth celebrated with a ceremony of their own at the Hetrick-Martin Institute's annual Dameon Awards ceremony.

Peter Martins, New York City Ballet's ballet master in chief, talks about his off-stage interests for a behind-the-scenes moment at the WNYC studios.

From baby dolls in storefronts to the corner Walgreen’s drug store – you name it and it was covered in a flag this morning in Newark’s Ironbound district.

Our selection of road trip–themed stories, books, and shows to get you started on your own soul-searching adventure.

Summer is a perfect time to stay inside and get lost in a novel. Just kidding.

Get out into the sunshine, and take those bookworm tendancies to an area book fair or literary festival. Here are a few we recommend to get you mingling with other well-read folks.

Memphis-bred bassist and composer Stephan Crump is a rising star on the New York music scene and a member of the Vijay Iyer Trio and other ensembles.

Rising pop star Ke$ha was slated to perform at the South Street Seaport later this summer, but the concert was canceled by Seaport property managers, General Growth Properties.

It's about time we give our cities a makeover.

With 60% of the world's population projected to live in urban areas by the year 2030, city officials and urban planners the world over are talking about how to redesign for a more crowded future.

Changing the way we get around is the key, according to the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), an organization that promotes sustainable transportation solutions for the world's burgeoning cities. The ITDP is sponsoring a project called Our Cities Ourselves, which pairs ten world cities with ten leading architects. Each has come up with a redesign of a public space, hand-tailored to the challenges presented by each city. These designs will be presented at an exhibition, opening on June 24, at New York City's Center for Architecture.

Last week, WNYC reported on Michael Sorkin's plan for New York, drawing impassioned responses from commenters. The proposal calls for tearing down the FDR interchange that connects the highway to the Brooklyn Bridge, freeing the waterfront to be developed into a riverside park, and discouraging vehicle traffic downtown.

The plans presented in Our Cities Ourselves focus on designs that reduce reliance on cars while encouraging bicycle use and public transportation. Many of the designs include provisions for Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT in urban planner parlance, high-speed bus lines with dedicated lanes and train-like stations for getting on and off. BRT has been a hailed as a success in developing cities such as Bogota and Quito, where it is prohibitively expensive to build subway systems.

Below, take a look at the designs.