NYPL Blogs: LIVE from the NYPL

When They Trod the Boards: John Lithgow

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:26:55 -0400

We hereby announce the new blog series When They Trod the Boards, designed to highlight notable film or television actors who have a substantial background in stage work as documented in the collections of the Library's Billy Rose Theatre Division. We launch the series with John Lithgow and his new memoir, Drama: An Actor’s Education, published this week. Traditional books and ebooks are now flying off the Library's shelves! We’d like to highlight some of his shining moments on stage as reflected in our vast collection of stage photographs.

While many will know Lithgow from his television work as the lovably neurotic alien in 3rd Rock From the Sun, from his movie work in Harry and the Hendersons and The World According to Garp, as well as from his memorable voiceover work, lovers of the stage have long enjoyed his presence on and off-Broadway.

According to Contemporary Theatre Film and Television (the go-to source for bios and performance histories), John Lithgow debuted on stage as Mustardseed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Antioch Shakespeare Festival in 1953, but readers of his new bio will learn that his acting debut actually started much earlier, at age 2. Lithgow's Broadway debut was in The Changing Room in 1973, for which he won both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award.

When Lithgow did picture research for Drama: An Actor's Education at the Library for the Performing Arts, he was thrilled to see LPA's wealth of photographs documenting his stage career. But he was also pleased as Punch to discover we had material on his father Arthur Lithgow, the director of the McCarter Theatre of Princeton University, and a central figure in his life story.

Lithgow is not only an accomplished actor, but also a poet, musician, and children’s book author. Check out the Library's ebooks and Tumblebooks site for any of these items.

For more depth on Lithgow's career, be sure to visit The New York Public Library's Articles and Databases page for early accounts of Lithgow’s years at Harvard and The McCarter Theatre, as published in such papers as the Boston Globe. More seasoned researchers may already be familiar with the Theatre Division's bound stage reviews dating back to 1917, which contain original Broadway and Off-Broadway reviews culled from a wide range of current and defunct newspapers and magazines, some of which are difficult or impossible to find online.

The Billy Rose Theatre Division also has clipping files on Lithgow, his father, and a majority of the shows they worked on, as well as posters, scrapbooks, original scripts, and even set and costume designs to round out our scope of documentation.

Last, but certainly not least, the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive has in their collection taped performances of A Memory of Two Mondays, Beyond Therapy, M. Butterfly, Secret Service, The Retreat From Moscow, Sweet Smell of Success, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and excerpts from Requiem For a Heavyweight and The Front Page.

We invite your feedback regarding this new "When They Trod the Boards" blog series, as well as your suggestions for future subjects.

Watch the recent the LIVE from the NYPL interview Conversations from the Cullman Center:John Lithgow and Bill Moyers from October 11, 2011.

LIVE from the NYPL, Richard Holmes: Post Event Wrap-Up

Ryan P. Donovan, Mid-Manhattan Library — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:24:59 -0400

The LIVE from the NYPL program featuring Richard Holmes in conversation with Paul Holdengräber was off to a rocky start last night; the technology controlling the microphones kept malfunctioning. Mr. Holmes joked that it probably had "something to do with homeland security." This prompted a few chuckles from the crowd. When the microphone started acting up again twenty minutes later, Richard commented, "this gives new meaning to [part of] the subtitle of the book; ‘the Beauty and Terror of Science.'" At this point, he had the audience roaring with laughter. On hand to talk about his new book, The Age of Wonder, two things could be gleaned from an evening listening to Richard Holmes. First, he's a brilliant biographer. Second, he really knows how to work a crowd.

Holmes, known for his biographies of literary figures, is doing something dramatically different with The Age of Wonder. In his new text, he tackles the world of science. His book features over 60 scientists and writers from the Romantic Generation. For his conversation with Paul Holdengräber, Richard focused on just a few of the scientists who emerge as something of main characters throughout the book. In particular, he talked about Joseph Banks, who he felt forms the "Greek chorus" of the book. When the book opens, Banks is a 25-year-old botanist taking a treacherous trip to Tahiti. This voyage, which lasts over three years, helps to embody a "theme of daringness" that permeates the entire book. During this expedition, Banks witnesses what is the first European account of surfing. It is through Banks and this incident in particular that Richard Holmes gets at the underlying themes in The Age of Wonder. Namely, the sheer delight that those in the Romantic Generation draw from nature and the idea that in science, one must ultimately give up a sense of control. These themes help form a sort of narrative structure which Holmes hopes will keep his readers engaged until the end of the story.

Another main figure in the book is William Herschel, who Richard went back to time and again. He chose to highlight some lesser-known material about Herschel's sister Caroline, which for me was a personal highlight of his presentation. He describes her as the "heroine of the book." It is through Caroline that Holmes explores the role of women in science during this time period. Caroline received a salary from the British government as an observational astronomer, making her possibly the first paid woman scientist in British history. Richard read a small section of the book which chronicles Caroline assisting William in the building of a gigantic telescope with a 7-foot concave mirror. The process took 16 hours, and involved the mirror being cleaned with horse dung. This story is just one of many found in Caroline's intimate journal. This "diary" contained not just an account of her scientific life, but personal observations and feelings as well. Richard mentions that Caroline destroyed about 10 years' worth of her journal after William got married because she probably didn't want people to know how she felt about William's wife and their marriage. She ended up living to around 90 years old, and was instrumental in helping her nephew, William's son, become interested in science as well.

Paul asked Richard about his writing method, which Holmes alluded to throughout the conversation. Despite science being the backdrop of the text, Richard believes that in order "to hold your reader, you [must] create a storyline." None of the chapters in the book begin when the scientists are born. They actually begin at a key moment in the scientist's career, then go back and use their background to examine its significance on their contribution to the scientific community as a whole. He uses scientist Humphry Davy as an example of this. Davy was known for his prolific work discovering gasses. His story begins as he's doing dangerous self-experiments with nitrous oxide, a gas he's recently begun playing around with. Holmes attempts to delve into why Davy uses himself as an experiment model, and what shaped his personal and professional life to want to prove himself time and again as a great scientist. The many stories in The Age of Wonder attempt to answer the question: What is the role of science in society? This question was very relevant during the time that the text examines, but modern comparisons can be drawn to life today. Science is everywhere; should it be feared, or embraced? The ultimate conclusion that Richard would like us to draw from The Age of Wonder is that science should benefit humanity. That's a sentiment I can agree with.

LIVE from the NYPL, André Aciman: Post Event Wrap-Up

Ryan P. Donovan, Mid-Manhattan Library — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:09:54 -0500

At 7:00 PM in the South Court Auditorium of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, I had the privilege of attending the LIVE from the NYPL program hosting author André Aciman in conversation with Paul LeClerc. André was promoting his new book, Eight White Nights, which focuses on the seven-day romance of two strangers on the Upper West Side who meet on Christmas Eve.

Paul started off the program by asking André, “What is the meaning of literature?” André pointed out that every writer, intentional or not, makes assumptions before they start writing. His goal is always to “embrace the problem” of the characters. In his experience, “most of literature is about love.” He also spoke about the idea that books have lives. Just as you can grow to books, books can also grow to you.

André’s goal with this book was to portray a romance frozen in time for seven days. He wanted to show how the relationship between the characters was affected by slowness. He mentioned that he started the book, wrote Call Me by Your Name in between, then went back to finish Eight White Nights. André wanted to portray that both of the main characters were ambivalent, an essential theme throughout the title.

A discussion of the narrator ensued. The narrator has no name. Certain other biographical details, such as his profession, are omitted. André wanted to avoid “the Dickens thing” and give the reader the ability to fill-in-the-blanks about the narrator’s past. Paul asked about the narrator’s reluctance to take the next step in the relationship. He wanted to know if it was realistic to have “the man who says no.” André defended the decision, saying that sometimes in the relationship the man is not ready for sex. Paul asked if André considers the narrator neurotic. André replied, “not neurotic; doubtful.”

A short discussion of André’s writing process ensued. André was a fellow at The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars & Writers of The New York Public Library for over eight months, which aided in his ability to write the book. He also was quick to thank his President in the Graduate Center of CUNY and his family. Without their support, he wouldn’t be able to write. When asked by Paul if André sets a page limit for himself on a daily basis, André was quick to respond, “no.” He is often concerned with perfecting the sentence, asking himself such questions as, “What if I put a comma in the end?” Asking these questions, he warns, can take you in an entirely new direction.

Paul finished up his questions by asking André about his presence on Facebook. André was quick to point out that he doesn’t update it on a regular basis, but it is a wonderful experience to have interactions with his fans from all over the world. For example, Call Me by Your Name has increased his online following from a large part of the Italian gay community, something he never expected. He gets a lot of messages through Facebook and e-mail, averaging up to four or five a day. He said, “It’s wonderful being an author [online]. It’s like throwing your business card to the wind.”

LIVE from the NYPL and BOOKFORUM present CULTURAL OBITUARIES: The Death of Black Nationalist Culture?

Meg Stemmler, LIVE from the NYPL — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:26:03 -0400

TA-NEHISI COATES, BAZ DREISINGER, PENIEL E. JOSEPH & VICTOR LAVALLE in conversation at LIVE from the NYPL
Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 7:00 PM in the Trustees Room (Rm 206)
of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 5th Avenue and 42nd Street
Tickets www.smarttix.com or 212 868 4444

Making Sense of Black Nationalism in the Obama Era
With an African-American president in the White House—and the first black chairman voted to head the Republican National Committee—has black nationalism become irrelevant? Novelist Victor Lavalle explores the personal and political valences of the nationalist idea, and makes a case for embracing a more ecumenical view of black experience—including the freedom to move beyond traditional conceptions of blackness. Baz Dreisinger, author of Near Black: White to Black Passing in American Culture; Peniel E. Joseph, author of Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America; and Atlantic Monthly contributing editor Ta-Nehisi Coates respond.

This event is co-presented by: BOOKFORUM

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a contributing editor for The Atlantic. He lives in Harlem with his partner and his son.

Baz Dreisinger is the author of Near Black: White to Black Passing in American Culture. She teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Together with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Peter Spirer, she produced and wrote the documentary Black & Blue: Legends of the Hip-Hop Cop which investigates the New York Police Department’s monitoring of the hip-hop industry.

Peniel E. Joseph is associate professor of Afro-American Studies and history at Brandeis University. He is author of Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America. His book Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama will be published in 2010.

Victor LaValle is the author of Slapboxing with Jesus and The Ecstatic. His novel, Big Machine, will be published in 2009.

Our participants recommend...

These sites: TheRoot.com, DailyBeast.com, Racialicious, An overview of Drug Policy in the United States, WNYC interview with William Julius Wilson, NPR interview with Peniel E. Joseph, Black Power: Inside The Movement Debrah Dickerson's website, and Melissa Harris-Lacewell's website.

These articles: "The End of White America?" by Hua Hsu,"Passing and the American Dream" by Baz Dreisinger,"Beyond the Skin Trade: How does black nationalism stay relevant in the age of Barack Obama?" by Victor Lavalle and "Black Power" by Phillip M. Guerty in the Magazine of History.

And, these books: Hip Hop Revolution by Jeffrey Ogbar, Color Conscious by Anthony Appiah, Black on White: Black Writers on What it Means to be White by David Roediger, The Great Negro Plot by Mat Johnson, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 by Jeffrey B. Perry, Black Politics / White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power and the Black Panthers in New Haven by Yohuru Williams, Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama's Black Belt by Hasan Kwame Jeffries and Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North by Thomas J. Sugrue.

LIVE from the NYPL, REMIX: Post Event Wrap-Up

Meg Stemmler, LIVE from the NYPL — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:35:16 -0500

Opening night at LIVE from the NYPL kicked off with a sold-out event featuring Lawrence Lessig, Shepard Fairey and Steven Johnson discussing Remix. Check it out!

Watch the full length version of the LIVE from the NYPL program here.

Before the conversation in Celeste Bartos Forum got underway on Thursday, lawyer and renowned copyright expert Lawrence Lessig launched the evening with his erudite Remix / Copyright presentation. Lessig also exhibited several Barack Obama photographs, pointing out that they too could have been versions referenced by the artist Shepard Fairey when designing the iconic "Hope" image. After Lessig's impressive case against (old) IP law, Shepard Fairey took the stage and shared work from his collection, spoke about the Obama poster (acknowledging Mannie Garcia) and the significance of its creation and elaborated on phenomenology, a philosophy with which he identifies much of his work and creative process. Read Shepard Fairey's Manifesto.

Lawrence Lessig and Shepard Fairey took their seats next to moderater Steven Johnson and the three delved into a discussion that examined remix culture (both modern and of days passed), the concept of originality, copyright laws, the alleged infractions of sampling work, intellectual property rights, and played several clips of remixes -from Beyonce's Single Ladies' music video and its parody on Saturday Night Live to a piece created by Filmmaker Andrew Filippone, Jr. titled "Charlie Rose by Samuel Becket." Filippone, present at the program, contributed commentary.

Just before opening the conversation up to the audience, Steven Johnson read selected questions that had been submitted by the public via e-mail, like this one from DJ Spooky (aka Paul Miller):

Do you think technology has democratized the creative process and made it more of a social process? Can people ever be original again, or will everything be about sampling - graphic design material, video material, and sound?

Hear the answer, and the live audience Q&A here.

For more extensive recaps on the evening, check out: The New York Times, Blackbook, PSFK, Fast Company, Cause Global, X Reference, Public Library Association, Consumerist, WebMetrics Guru, Kenyanthropos and Time Out Magazine. Watch a pre-event interview filmed with the participants in the Green Room by WNYC.

Among the diehard fans of Shepard Fairey at the program, this guest takes the cake. And, yes Shepard Fairey signed her back (which she will make permanent with her next tattoo). See photos of Fairey's work on Flickr by HARGO.

Special Thanks to the Brooklyn Brewery for generously sponsoring the public reception at this LIVE from the NYPL Remix evening. LIVE from the NYPL would also like to thank our bookseller,192 Books, photographer, Peter Foley and our Artist in Residence, Flash Rosenberg.

Continue the conversation! Please post your commentary and questions. You can also direct questions to Lawrence Lessig, Steven Johnson and Shepard Fairey on this blog.

Photo of Leigh Bond taken by Peter Foley

Shepard Fairey's Tour de Force

Meg Stemmler, LIVE from the NYPL — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:25:34 -0500

At the LIVE from the NYPL sold-Out event on Thursday, February 26th, the artist Shepard Fairey will be in conversation with Lawrence Lessig and Steven Johnson about Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. He'll speak specifically about his extensive body of work and share highlights of his collection with the audience.

Fairey, known for his influential street art and strong political messages, has been drawing even more attention recently for frequenting the headlines. The core of a swirling controversy is Fairey's battle with the Associated Press over the AP's claims of copyright infringement connected to Fairey's iconic Obama image, of which Fairey immediately responded to with a countersuit. The dispute continues to garner reactions from the press, where every facet of interpretation seems to be covered. Writer Robert Pincus examines the issues with his piece, An artist turns a photo into an iconic image- but is it fair use? and the public is summoned to weigh in on the issues with their comments and arguments on Lawrence Lessig's blog.

Shepard Fairey's first retrospective exhibition, Supply and Demand opened on February 6, 2008 at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. On the same day of his ICA kickoff, things for Fairey were stirred up with an arrest made by the Boston PD who presented him with warrants accusing him of tagging and graffiti. The art critic, Peter Schjeldal, wrote his response to the exhibition in the article "Hope and Glory" printed in the New Yorker this month.

Join in on the Fairey Frenzy by posting your comments here, on the LIVE from the NYPL blog. And, OBEY by making a Shepard Fairey portrait of YOURSELF.

REMIX re • mix Pronunciation v. ree-miks; n. ree-miks verb, -mixed, -mix ing, noun –verb (used with object) 1. to mix again. 2. to mix and re-record the elements of (a musical recording) in a different way. –noun 3. a remixed recording. Origin: 1660–70
— Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.

Moderator's Notes: A Few Thoughts on Remix Culture (LIVE from the NYPL)

Steven Johnson, LIVE from the NYPL (speaker) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:40:36 -0500

Steven Johnson will be moderating next week's LIVE from the NYPL event, "Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy" — Thursday, February 26 at 7pm at the Celeste Bartos Forum at The New York Public Library

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The great thing about next Thursday's NYPL event on remix culture is the fact that the topic is at once incredibly timely, and yet at the same time it has deep historical roots. It's timely for the obvious reasons. We're going to be talking with the artist Shepard Fairey, whose work has explored the possibilities of remixing images and ideas, and pushed the boundaries of where exactly art is supposed to happen. I think many would agree that Shepard's Obama "Hope" image--which embodies so many of the values that we associate with the remix culture--became the defining image of 2008. And of course we're going to be talking with Larry Lessig as well, whose new book Remix is really the definitive study of both the legal and cultural issues at stake in this new paradigm. But I think the topic is timely in a broader sense as well -- not just that it's in the headlines and on the new non-fiction table at the bookstore. It's also timely because we seem to be at a turning point in the public discussion about the flow of ideas; that after years of emphasizing closed systems, proprietary data, and secrecy, there is a new sense that innovation and creativity and understanding are often undermined when we lock up ideas or artistic expression, when we put up walls and barricades instead of making new connections.

In a real sense, this faith in the power of open information networks -- where art and science are encouraged to mix and re-combine in all sorts of surprising ways -- is a core part of our intellectual roots as Americans. I've spent the last year or two tracing those roots in writing my latest book, The Invention of Air, which tells the story of the friendship between the British scientist and polymath Joseph Priestley, and Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson. What's so striking reading through all their correspondence is how committed they were to the open flow of information, and to the importance of allowing ideas and innovations to move across disciplinary and institutional boundaries. The Enlightenment happened in large part because the systems that we now use to police and regulate the flow of ideas simply hadn't been invented yet. I actually start the book with a quote from Jefferson that I first came across as an epigraph in another of Larry Lessig's books, The Future Of Ideas. It's a perfect introduction to the worldview that we'll be exploring next week:

"That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation." (source)

I look forward to mixing it up at the NYPL on Thursday!

LIVE from the NYPL presents "Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy" - Feb 26

Meg Stemmler, LIVE from the NYPL — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:36:03 -0500

What is the future for art and ideas in an age when practically anything can be copied, pasted, downloaded, sampled, and re-imagined? LIVE from the NYPL and WIRED Magazine kick off the Spring 2009 season on February 26th with a spirited discussion of the emerging remix culture. Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy February 26th, 7pm (buy tickets) Celeste Bartos Forum The New York Public Library 5th Avenue and 42nd Street (enter on 42nd St.) $25 general admission and $15 library donors, seniors and students with valid identification

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Our guides through this new world—who will take us from Jefferson's Bible to André the Giant to Wikipedia—will be Lawrence Lessig, author of Remix, founder of Creative Commons, and one of the leading legal scholars on intellectual property issues in the Internet age; acclaimed street artist Shepard Fairey, whose iconic Obama "HOPE" poster was recently acquired by the National Portrait Gallery; and cultural historian Steven Johnson, whose new book, The Invention of Air, argues that remix culture has deep roots in the Enlightenment and among the American founding fathers. Stay tuned for most posts about this event!

Shepard Fairey, often described as a street artist, first began to appear in the news for wheat pasting (adorning public spaces with the artist's own posters with a water and wheat mixture), sticker tagging, and the numerous accompanying arrests. His portrait of Barack Obama that came to symbolize the historic campaign of the president is now on display at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. His artwork is also in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. A retrospective of Fairey’s work opened in February 2009 at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art.

Steven Johnson is the author of The Ghost Map; Everything Bad Is Good for You; Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life; Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Cities, and Software; and Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate. He is also the founder of several influential websites, including FEED, Plastic, and, currently, outside.in. His most recent book is The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America.

Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the Center for Internet and Society. He writes in the areas of constitutional law, contracts, and the law of cyberspace, especially as it affects copyright. Lessig was named one of Scientific American's Top 50 Visionaries, for arguing "against interpretations of copyright that could stifle innovation and discourse online." He is the author of Code v2, Free Culture, The Future of Ideas, and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. His most recent book is Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. Photos of Shepard Fairey by Jill Greenberg and Steven Johnson by Nina Subin This event is co-sponsored by Wired Magazine. Buy Tickets: Smarttix or call 212-863-4444 Stay tuned for more posts!