The recent spate of anti-gay hate crimes has shocked many in the gay community. According to police, these crimes have more than doubled so far this year from 14 to 29, and most have been in Manhattan. But gay advocacy organizations say, and police acknowledge, that much of what happens never makes it into a police report. 

New plays are a risky proposition. While most theater companies avoid them, a tiny New York City organization called Clubbed Thumb has presented 80 new plays since it started 17 years ago.

The hardest-working maestro in show business returned to the podium on Sunday after a two-year absence. We look at why opera fans are so intrigued with James Levine.

Poetry in Brooklyn and a musical by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim are some of the cultural picks from WNYC's staff for this weekend.

There are thousands of artists is New York City. Some are famous internationally, while others are scratching out a living while perfecting their craft in basements or on stage. WNYC is bringing a few of them to the spotlight, in their own voices.

There are thousands of artists is New York City. Some are famous internationally, while others are scratching out a living while perfecting their craft in basements or on stage. WNYC is bringing a few of them to the spotlight, in their own voices.

The last full-time art critic in the city of Chicago was laid off by Time Out magazine last month. Now, there are fewer than ten full-time art critics employed by newspapers and magazines in the country.

New Yorkers can get a first peek at a new neighborhood being constructed on top of a rail yard on Manhattan's West side.

I’ve lived in the East Village, in lower Manhattan, for twenty years— in a narrow railroad apartment that I like to think of as quaint, where the living room is only eight feet wide. My walls are lined with bookshelves from the living room to the kitchen, because I’m a critic and a translator. If I’m home, which I often am, I’m either reading or writing. When Hurricane Sandy approached last October, and the skies darkened and the wind started howling, I rubbed my hands in anticipation, remembering the tornadoes of my Midwestern youth. This one, I thought, unlike Hurricane Irene, was truly going to hit.  Curling up in an armchair by the window, I started reading, listening as branches thrashed and trash cans clanged like cymbals on the sidewalk below. And then the power went out. It stayed out for five days.

Here’s the truth: I kinda sorta miss Sandy.  Not her destruction of beloved homes and property, no, of course not, nor the inconvenience of driving around an hour for a viable gas station.  And don’t get me wrong – I love hot showers.  And cable TV.  And the Internet.  Everything about the modern world, I love.

I was born and raised in the Red Hook projects and we’ve weathered a few storms. The last one — Sandy — has people pooling resources to brace us for future disasters.  I believe I know the biggest resource that should be in any storm-plans.

There are thousands of artists is New York City. Some are famous internationally, while others are scratching out a living while perfecting their craft in basements or on stage. WNYC is bringing a few of them to the spotlight, in their own voices.

There are thousands of artists is New York City. Some are famous internationally, and others are scratching out a living while perfecting their craft in basements or on stage. WNYC is bringing a few of them to the spotlight, in their own voices.

There are thousands of artists is New York City, some scratching out a living while perfecting their craft in basements or on stage. WNYC is bringing a few of them to the spotlight, in their own voices.

This Sunday, New York City Opera will perform at City Center on West 55th street for the first time since 1965. The homecoming happens as the company looks to forge a new identity.

Almost 90 percent of artists were killed in Cambodia in the 1970s, when the extreme communist group Khmer Rouge was in power.  Arn Chorn-Pond was a child then, and he survived in a labor camp, ironically, by playing music. "The Khmer Rouge asked, 'someone want to play music for us,' so I raise my hand, I know probably they will give me more food," he said.

There are thousands of artists in New York City, some scratching out a living while perfecting their craft in basements, or on stage. WNYC is bringing some of them to the spotlight, in their own voices.

The work of one of the visionaries of 20th-century music is being presented in an unusual setting in New York City.

There are thousands of artists is New York City, some scratching out a living while perfecting their craft in studios, basements and on stage. WNYC is bringing a few of them to the spotlight, in their own voices.

There are thousands of artists is New York City, some scratching out a living while perfecting their craft in studios, basements and on stage.  WNYC is bringing a few of them to the spotlight, in their own voices.