WNYC News

New York, NY —

At the tip of lower Manhattan, David Byrne has turned the inside of 19th century ferry terminal into a giant musical instrument. The former Talking Heads frontman has set up a retro-fitted, antique organ and wired it to the pipes, beams and plumbing of the ...

New York, NY —

New York and London have been connected by a "telectroscope" - a mystery machine that allows people in London and New York to see each other on glass screens and send messages in real time. It's the invention of London artist Paul St George. The ...

New York, NY —

Esopus is a New York-based literary and arts magazine that commissions an album of original music for every issue. Their latest issue is devoted to the theme of "good news." Their editor in chief, Tod Lippy, stopped by the studio recently to walk through some ...

New York, NY —

Frost began writing poetry while still a schoolboy in New England, where he stayed for college and most of his life. He published his first poem, "Butterfly" in 1894 and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times. In the recordings below, ...

New York, NY —

Maya Angelou, the Grammy-nominated author, actor, teacher and activist, enjoys a lifetime position as the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University. She is only the second poet, after Robert Frost, to be invited to read poetry at a Presidential inauguration; Frost ...

New York, NY —

Baruch “Baba” Israel has taken his Hip Hop performance across the USA, Europe, Japan, Brazil, New Zealand, S.E. Asia and Australia. He is an emcee, producer, poet, theater artist, and beatboxer. He co-founded the Playback NYC Theater Company, and recently debuted his new solo piece ...

New York, NY —

Illinois-born Carl Sandberg was one of eight children in a Swedish immigrant family living in Galesville. Carl worked as a jack-of-all-trades after graduating from eighth grade. He delivered milk, laid bricks and shined shoes before setting out to ride the rails as a hobo in ...

New York, NY —

The Tribeca Film Festival gets underway tomorrow. This year, its hosting 120 features selected from over two thousand submissions from 41 countries. Bilge Ebiri covers film for New York Magazine. He came by the studio to discuss this year's offerings.

See trailers and ...

New York, NY —

As crowds lined 5th Avenue awaiting the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI, Mayor Bloomberg welcomed some 3,000 people who came to hear the pontiff say mass at Saint Patrick's Cathedral.

REPORTER: Bloomberg said the pope couldn't have picked a better time to come to the city.

BLOOMBERG: ...

New York, NY —

Tomorrow, Pope Benedict the Sixteenth will become the first pope ever to celebrate mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. But as he enters and approaches the altar, it will be the second time a piece of processional music has been played for a pontiff here in ...

New York, NY —

It’s now 60 years since the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, and this month in New York, many events will be held in his honor, with plans to explore his ideas of social change through non-violence. Last night at the cathedral of St. John the Divine, ...

New York, NY —

Aracelis Girmay writes poetry, fiction, & essays. Her book of poems, Teeth, was published by Curbstone Press in June, 2007, for which she was awarded a Pan African Literary Forum Fellowship. Girmay's collage-basedpicture book was published by George Braziller in 2005. Her work has also ...

New York, NY —

Micheaux has been a guest poet of the LouderArts Project, The Church of St. John the Divine, the Publishing Triangle and City X-Posed. He is a member of the John Donne/George Herbert Poetry Society and his work has appeared in various journals and anthologies. His ...

New York, NY —

Valentine brings more than forty years of experience to the role of New York State Poet Laureate, an office she will hold until 2010. Her curious, intimate and dreamlike verse usually begins with a feeling, as she explained in an interview with the Poetry Society ...

New York, NY —

Self-proclaimed nerd-poet Shappy (Jeff “Shappy” Seasholtz) recalls ugly moments of fourth-grade dodge ball that he overcame when he discovered the power of language. A stint as class president in 9th grade and success on the speech team solidified this future poet’s interest in the spoken ...

New York, NY —

The New York City native spent almost a decade teaching everything from English to SAT prep before dedicating all his time to being a poet. Mali made it to the National Poetry Slam Finals seven times, winning four of them, and appeared on two seasons ...

New York, NY —

After Cabico graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, he headed a few blocks east to explore the 1990s poetry scene in Alphabet City. A gay, Filipino man, he says he looks for sincerity in the poetry world. Cabico is the recipient of the ...

New York, NY —

Poet, teacher and occasional actor, Rich Villar performs in English and Spanglish. Villar’s poetry is published in several journals, including the new Achiote, and was nominated by Rogue Scholars for a Pushcart Prize in 2005. He curates poetry showcases for the five-year old Acentos, the ...

New York, NY —

Poet, performer and musician David Gonzalez takes a global village approach to his art. The musician-poet grew up in the Bronx and creates musical and dramatic works about frog brides, ceiba trees, Cuban refugees, Latin music and passengers on the Underground Railroad. For 8 years ...

New York, NY —

In the new millennium, religion, its relation to the state and mutual respect are hot-button issues across the globe. In Flushing, Queens, this conversation started 350 years ago with a document called the Flushing Remonstrance. Now, the Queens Museum has a whole new take on ...