Most people today (myself included) have an absence of ritual in their lives, and never is this more apparent than at this time of year–when Catholics worship in specifically orchestrated ways almost every day of the week and Jews observes a 3000-ye …Read more
Dance can be a powerful vehicle for storytelling, for expressing emotion, and for conveying truths that are sometimes difficult to articulate in words. If you need proof, go see J. Chen Project’s AAPI Heroes: Myths and Legends, currently playing at T …Read more
What kind of person can laugh amid the jaws of hell? One who knows his survival depends on it. In Cabaret in Captivity, we become those imprisoned in the Terezin Camp as, in commemoration—not celebration—of one year in residence, a group of performer …Read more
Identity is a tricky, complicated thing. That was the main idea I pondered as I left the theatre after Karl O’Brian Williams’ The Black That I Am: a pastiche of monologues, scenes, and movement that traces some of the struggles inherent in being Blac …Read more
Though it seemed a little counterintuitive to leave my Harlem apartment and trek down to the Lower East Side to watch a play about Harlem, I’m glad I did. In She’s Got Harlem on Her Mind, the Metropolitan Playhouse presents three one-acts by Eulalie …Read more
“You have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” If Calamity Jane was a character in Hamilton, I have to think she’d agree with General Washington—probably very vocally, uttering a curse and slamming a bottle of whisky on the table as …Read more
Photo Credit Monique Carboni I love comedians who are skilled at wordplay. Some relate stories; others deliver one liners, generally without the gratuitous use of foul language. They make you laugh and then give you something to think about after the …Read more
Ingrid Michaelson and Christmas were made for each other. The indie pop singer-songwriter proved this with the release of her wistfully gorgeous 2018 album Songs for the Season, and again last weekend at The New York Pops’ annual Christmas concert. I …Read more
‘Tis the season for one-person Dickens shows. While Jefferson Mays performs a one-man version of A Christmas Carol on Broadway, Eddie Izzard is performing her solo version of Great Expectations Off-Broadway at The Greenwich House Theater. Izzard, a d …Read more
Between 1910 and 1940, San Francisco’s Angel Island processed somewhere around 250,000 Chinese immigrants. Often detained in a prison-like environment for weeks, months, or even years, Chinese immigrants had to undergo a rigorous series of tes …Read more