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The Next Big Thing

Sunday, August 18, 2002
  • Tony Amato

    Voice Tour of New York City

    The Next Big Thing invites out-of-towners and locals alike to take a voice tour of New York City. We go back-stage at the Amato Opera, which, it turns out, isn’t all that far from the back row. We follow playwright and poet Carl Hancock Rux down the hallway of one of his earliest memories. And we meet the changing characters of performer Sarah Jones.

House of Opera

NBT host Dean Olsher visits the Tony Amato and his Amato Opera Company in the Bowery. In a space that’s not much bigger than your average apartment, they’ve been gratifying opera lovers for over fifty years.

Death Becomes Her

Roberta Halporn has long been a student of death, first by chance and then by choice, establishing a career as a thanatologist. She takes host Dean Olsher on a walk through Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, a place that’s really for the living.

“Blue Candy”

Someone once said performance artist/playwright/poet Carl Hancock Rux has a voice like a wide tree trunk. It’s with that soothing voice that he guides us through his poem of memory and loss in a railroad apartment in Harlem.

A Distant Island

Cuba’s back in the news, with more and more high-profile Americans taking the trip south. That makes us wonder: What about those who moved in the other direction, leaving Cuba behind - how do they think about their home? We hear from Mario Grillo, bandleader of the Machito Orchestra; Mirta Ojito, New York Times reporter; and Dino Fernandez, architect.

Once Upon the Time...

From babushka to hip-hop emcee, a few of the many voices of poet and performance artist Sarah Jones.