On Demand
The Next Big Thing
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Cake Man Raven Confectionery
Hot, Hot, Hot
Some ways to beat the heat – with verse recommended by former Poet Laureate Billy Collins, romantic fiction from sound artist Miranda July, and a conversation in the hot kitchen of “Cakeman” Raven Patrick DeSean Dennis III. Also, André Aciman on writing in exile.
Beach Poetry
For poetry devotees who also happen to be dedicated to sunbathing and body surfing, former Poet Laureate Billy Collins offers these summer reading recommendations.
The Cakeman
Imagine baking a cake for 1500 people in your own modest kitchen – and the kitchens of all your neighbors…. That’s how Raven Patrick DeSean Dennis III, a.k.a. the Cakeman, used to do it, back when he ran his baking business out of a Harlem apartment. Today, he’s more comfortably situated in his cake shop in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. With tall orders coming from devotees such as Mary J. Blige and Lena Horne, he’s still got his hands full.
Walkman Busting
So a guy walks up to you on the street, and asks you what’s playing on your Walkman. You tell him. But he’s not through with you. Now he says he wants to listen too and before you know it, he’s plugged in a mini-disc and started recording. Gideon D’Archangelo invented what he calls “Walkman busting,” and today we plug into HIS player, to find out what he’s heard on the street
Celebrity Stash
These days, there seems to be a museum for everything – Barbie, sex, even mustard! The Next Big Thing’s “unreliable narrator” Alice Furlaud introduces us to the latest: the Museum of Celebrity Artifacts, whose attractions include discarded items from the likes of Jackie O. and Chairman Mao. Produced by Curtis Fox.
School of Romance
A big auditorium. Rows of stackable chairs. A collection of lonely people, sitting in the dark with napkins over their faces. Welcome to the School of Romance, as imagined by performer, audio artist, and now feature film maker, Miranda July. With music and sound design by Tim Renner.