Shadow // Yaddo

John Kelly and Paul Lisicky on storytelling, subversion, and a voice that still breaks our hearts—Joni Mitchell. 

Composers Paul Austerlitz and Daniel Thomas Davis on voodoo pilgrimages, lake vibes, life as collaboration, playing the hurdy-gurdy, and more.

A.S.M. Kobayashi on hanging out with archivists, navigating space on wheels, playing with audio, finding transcendence in everyday objects, and more.

Ron Baron on limitless exploration, the history of the urn, hands as tools, and embracing brokenness. PLUS: Preview Laurie Anderson's Amelia.

Masterful novelists Rebecca Makkai and Porochista Khakpour on her latest, Tehrangeles, plus parodies, parables, short attention spans, diaspora drama, K-pop, and more.

Walk on the wild side, with two phenomenal biographers: Cynthia Carr on Candy Darling—dreamer, icon, superstar—and Brad Gooch on pop-art activist Keith Haring.

Revel in all things Carson McCullers, the wunderkind writer who catapulted to fame in 1940 with the publication of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. On tap: Mary V. Dearborn, author of the biography Carson McCullers: A Life; and Suzanne Vega. 

Audio from 1890, the symbolic power of pizza, blue suede shoes, thinking like a vulture, and more in our season roundup of favorite moments, with Nafis White, Chris Rush, Alexi Worth, Odili Donald Odita, Daron Hagen, Sam Lipsyte, Will Hermes, Lee Clay Johnson, David Gates, Brian Evenson, Ilana Boltvinik, Martha McPhee and Edgar Oliver.

Interdisciplinary artist Nafis M. White on unraveling history, finding resilience and beauty in loss, and enlisting raw materials like hair to explore power and identity.

Leonard Bernstein—the conductor and composer known globally for his charisma and style—comes roaring back into the public discourse. We celebrate Lenny's relationship with Yaddo via a conversation with one of his mentees, acclaimed composer Daron Hagen. PLUS: Edgar Oliver, “the poet laureate of New York's dispossessed” (The New York Times), performs an excerpt of his latest one-man show, Rip Tide, an ode to The Pyramid Club, which offered an early haven for artists and outcasts in New York City's downtown, late '70s scene. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Ned Rorem.

Art converges with nature, meticulous work that spans decades and continents, making the impossible possible and more, with a feature on internationally acclaimed sculptor Martin Puryear. PLUS: Preview Missy Mazzoli's “Dark with Excessive Bright”—nominated for a Grammy, fingers crossed!

Forest restoration, how families avoid reality, coming to terms with trauma, healthy ecosystems and more, with luminous storyteller Martha McPhee, author of five novels and the long-awaited memoir, Omega Farm. PLUS: A recap of the Yaddo Artist Reunion! Contributing artist: Joseph Keckler.

Ghosts, artificial intelligence, horror, estrangement and more, with acclaimed writers Vauhini Vara (The Immortal King Rao, This Is Salvaged) and Brian Evenson, author of a dozen books of fiction, including Altmann's Tongue and The Open Curtain. Contributing artist: Joseph Keckler.

On the Black roots of the banjo, the godfather of bluegrass, novelist as bandleader, and more, with a trio of talented musicians and writers: Celebrated author, bass player and literary outlaw Lee Clay Johnson in conversation with the incomparable David Gates, powerhouse on guitar, vocals, pedal steel, and author of several works of knock-out fiction. PLUS: Preview the new documentary featuring supernova Rhiannon Giddens.

Explore liminal worlds with three phenomenal Yaddo artists: Painter Elliott Green and the writer and artist Chris Rush on landscapes of the mind, blue suede shoes, outsider empathy and more. Plus: Eleni Sikelianos performs an excerpt of the title poem from her latest collection, Your Kingdom. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Last Train Home, Claude Debussy, Josef Sikelianos and Kat White.

On music, the '90s, and NYC cool: Bestselling novelist Sam Lipsyte (The Ask, Home Land, No One Left to Come Looking for You) in conversation with esteemed music critic, journalist and author of the forthcoming magnum opus, a biography of Lou Reed, Will Hermes.

Every art form has its own language, a puzzle to unlock. One of the great joys of life is having a conversation with an artist who can decipher the code for us and allow us to see paintings anew. For this episode, we visit art galleries with two phenomenal Yaddo artists: Odili Donald Odita—the Nigerian American abstract painter whose vibrant large-scale paintings and site-specific installations mirror the mixed realities of life—and Alexi Worth, the acclaimed critic and painter whose work explores what it means, in our digitally supersaturated environment, for pictures to be “mindmade and handmade.” Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Veterinarian, The Dave Brubeck Quartet. Special thanks to D.C. Moore Gallery and Jack Shainman Gallery.

Archival audio, a love story, new tech, and more! Hear some of the first sounds ever recorded: The New York Public Library (NYPL) digitized rare wax cylinders from Yaddo's archive and made them available for the first time in more than 130 years. We'll chat with the NYPL team who made this happen. PLUS: The Lazours will be headlining our Summer Benefit on June 22. Contributing artist: Joseph Keckler.

Shadow Yaddo hosted by Elaina Richardson is out now! Tres—Ilana Boltvinik and Rodrigo Viñas—is an art research collective based in Mexico City. They explore the implications of garbage on critical ecosystems, relying upon artistic inquiry, science, anthropology, and archeology, among other disciplines. Their exquisitely beautiful and challenging work ranges from tracking plastics in the ocean to mining for precious metals in abandoned electronic devices as well as the study of vultures and our reckoning with space trash. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Beck, New York Dolls.  

Celebrating the conclusion of Season 2, with a behind-the-scenes take on Shadow // Yaddo. Plus: A few of our favorite moments featuring Moby, Terry McMillan, Mark Morris, Elizabeth Strout and more dazzling talents. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, John Coltrane, Patricia Towers, Colm Tóibín, Dona Ann McAdams, Saudi Burton, Fred Hersch, Dean Haspiel, Pat Palermo, Danielle Spencer, Javier Barboza, Danyel Smith. Shadow // Yaddo is on a short winter break, returning early 2023. See you soon!

Inhabiting the space between two places, forms or cultures and exploring the tensions that dissonance creates: Celebrated author Gish Jen on post-Nixon China, finding humor in heartbreak, and her intuitive approach to writing virtuosic fiction. Syrian writer Ayad Awwadawnan on the hopes, dreams and humanity of refugees and his own journey to asylum. PLUS: New music from The Lazours! Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Daniel Lazour, Patrick Lazour.

Here are two of the hardest working artists we know: Sculptor Harry Leigh on the decades of discipline that saw him through more than half a century of making art, plus his new show in Berlin. And Acclaimed filmmaker Javier Barboza on growing up in East L.A., turning talent into gold, and building a better world. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Billy Strange, Kid Frost, Delinquent Habits, Eartha Kitt, Kinto Sol.

Boom, pow, bang! Nerd-out with the cool kids of comix: Emmy- and Ringo- award winning artist and writer Dean Haspiel in conversation with acclaimed painter and cartoonist Pat Palermo on the quotidian life, faux bravado, truth as prism—and all you never knew about Spiderman. PLUS: Superstar novelist and TV writer Victor LaValle on how his discovery of comic books led to, well, books in general, both reading and writing. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Prince.  

Patricia Towers—extraordinary editor, formidable poker player and supreme Virgo—in conversation with bestselling novelist Elizabeth Strout on process, persistence and her new novel, Lucy by the Sea, hailed by The Guardian as the “most nuanced and intensely moving Lucy Barton novel yet.” PLUS: A dip into the archive, celebrating “Yaddo firsts”—composer George Walker and poets Etheridge Knight and Gwendolyn Brooks. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Duke Ellington.

Banned Books Week: Let's celebrate and safeguard, come hell or highwater, our freedom to read! Bestselling novelist Colm Tóibín on Salman Rushdie's work and activism, the history of censorship in Ireland, and the slippery slope that is book banning. PLUS: Ariel Schrag, whose YA anthology Stuck in the Middle made the list of “Top 100 Most Banned Books of the Decade.” Contributing artists: Amitava Kumar, Joseph Keckler; Billy Bragg & Wilco; Tom Paxton, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer.

Time to get out of the hammock, and into the intellectual groove, with a discussion on narrative medicine, a field of study that applies skills used in analyzing literature to medicine, and the impacts of storytelling on our health, work and lives. Andrew Solomon is a writer and lecturer on politics, culture and psychology; winner of the National Book Award; and an activist in LGBTQ rights, mental health, and the arts. He is the author of several books, including The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression and Far from the Tree. He'll be in conversation with Danielle Spencer, scholar, writer, artist, and the author of Metagnosis: Revelatory Narratives of Health and Identity and co-author of The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, The Decemberists.

We're incredibly grateful to all who've listened and contributed to our “little podcast that could,” which began in September 2020 and now has listeners on every continent! Before we take a short summer break, we put together a highlight reel with a few favorite moments. See you in August for more Shadow // Yaddo! Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Sly and The Family Stone, Lauren Groff, Sheila Heti, Sarah Manguso, John Sims, Lynn Freed, Marianne Boruch, Doug Wright, James Lapine, Patricia Towers and David Sedaris.

Danyel Smith on her new page-turner, Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop. With a self-described “lust for loud,” Danyel has spent decades as a reporter and editor on the music beat at major publications. This is the book she was born to write, braiding her own stories of ambition, doubt and heartbreak with those of the Black female artists she heralded. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Whitney Houston, The Dixie Cups, Mary J. Blige, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton.

We're betting on these virtuosic minds to power a post-pandemic renaissance: Mark Morris, “the most successful and influential choreographer alive” (The New York Times), and “living legend” (The New Yorker) Fred Hersch, jazz pianist and composer, on primal improvisation, '60s tunes, the return to live performance, embracing the gay, and more.

As an antidote to Orwellian doublespeak, we're highlighting Yaddo artists whose work radiates authenticity: Bestselling novelist Terry McMillan on kicking booze to the curb, finding joy in a library, and writing clean prose with a clear head. PLUS: Theater superstar and songwriter extraordinaire Shaina Taub shares new music. Apocalypse party, anyone? Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Shaina Taub's new album, Songs of the Great Hill, comes out April 1.

Celebrating the return of live performance, with Pulitzer Prize-winning theater artists James Lapine—Sondheim-collaborator, director and screenwriter—and acclaimed playwright Doug Wright, whose Goodnight Oscar opens soon. PLUS: Mega-talented singer/songwriter Carol Lipnik shares music from her new album, Goddess of Imperfection. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Blossom Dearie, David Cale.

Conceptual artist, producer and activist John Sims on shredding confederate iconography, the power of Pi, quilting with the Amish, being handcuffed in his pajamas, the square root of love, and more. PLUS: Steve Buscemi reminds us why making art matters. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, John Sims Projects, Vi Hart; AfroDixie: The Rain Mix musicians, including Johnnie Barker, Thomas Bentley, Patrick Bettison, Tom Carabasi, Ally Couch, Scott Curts, Ann Declercq, Kenny Drew Jr., Richard Drexler, Al Fuller, Geno and Skunk Boogie, Steady Joseph, Nigel Lewis, Michael Mendez, Henry Porter Jr./The Assembly of the Young and Gifted, Michal Rizman, Sal Sax, Eddie Tobin, James Verano, Twinkle Yochim. Special thanks to The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Director Ian Berry and Associate Curator Rebecca McNamara: “Radical Fiber: Threads Connecting Art and Science” featuring John Sims' “The Hanging of Knots Up to 8 Crossing” is on view through June 12.

Ringing in the “Old New Year” with literary supernovas Gary Shteyngart (Our Country Friends) and Sloane Crosley, whose forthcoming rom-com thriller, Cult Classic, takes on metaphysics, modern love, memory and mind control. PLUS Emmy Award-winning film and television composer Nathan Barr on his Mighty Wurlitzer and the music behind The Great. Huzzah!

It's that time of year when many of us give some thought to our roots, our sense of home, where we belong. Travel is fraught, and the strain of the holiday season is real. Come share in a little insight and a few good laughs, with two of our favorite writers: poet and essayist Marianne Boruch, author of several collections including her latest, Bestiary Dark, inspired by wildlife in Australia, and novelist Lynn Freed (Home Ground, The Last Laugh, House of Women), brilliant expat and the Queen of the One-Liner. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Randy Crenshaw, Isabelle Boulay, Rufus Wainwright.  

Success. Fallacy of the one who escaped. The roots of racism and more, with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Andrea Elliott on her new book, Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City, which offers an astonishing account of a homeless family in super-stratified New York City, where those grappling with extreme poverty live side by side with the very wealthy. PLUS: New music from mega-talented singer-songwriter and composer Gabriel Kahane. Contributing artist: Joseph Keckler.

Yaddo luminaries Brad Kessler and Uwem Akpan on empathy across boundaries, essential storytelling, the paradox of sanctuary, and the decade it takes to get it right. Kessler, “a consistently impressive writer,” (PW) is the prize-winning author of the memoir Goat Song and three novels—Birds in Fall, Lick Creek and his latest, North. Akpan, whose powerful bestseller Say You're One of Them covered human-trafficking, prostitution and genocide through the eyes of children, returns with New York, My Village, an exuberant, LOL-funny novel that follows a Nigerian editor to NYC's heart of darkness. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Damu the Fudgemunk.

Halloween, yes! Sweater-weather, dog costumes, candy discounts and more. Gather 'round for a good old-fashioned ghost story: Acclaimed actor Rufus Collins brings to life selections from “The Ghosts of Yaddo” by Allan Gurganus, author of several books of fiction, including Oldest Living Confederate Widow and his latest, The Uncollected Stories of Allan Gurganus. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Regina DeLuise.

When artists get together, conversation flows! Antics, disco, cocktails and more in this week's celebration of our upcoming Yaddo Artist Reunion. Three fantastic writers who met at Yaddo discuss how peers influence each other: Lauren Groff, the bestselling author of six books of fiction, including Fates and Furies, Florida and her latest, Matrix; the ever-brilliant Sheila Heti, author of the novels Motherhood, How Should a Person Be and her forthcoming book, Pure Colour; and Sarah Manguso, the luminous author of eight books, including her upcoming novel, Very Cold People. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Destiny's Child (“Independent Women,” the Charles J Remix). Special thanks to Glenfiddich for sponsoring our Yaddo Artist Reunion.

Celebrating the launch of Season 2 with Moby! We'll take you back to the beginning of Yaddo, with a live performance by director and Tony Award-winning actress Blair Brown and legendary artist John Kelly. PLUS the mega-talented photographer and activist Dona Ann McAdams offers a preview of “Hardboots & Legends,” her ongoing project on the behind-the-scenes backstretch workers at the oldest horse racing track in America—Saratoga Racecourse. Contributing artists: Hot Club of Saratoga, Patricia Highsmith, Sylvia Plath, Lionel Trilling on James Baldwin, Leonard Bernstein, Carson McCullers, John Cheever, Katherine Anne Porter, Leo Lerman, Saul Bellow, Flannery O'Connor, Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker, Michael Cunningham, Amy Tan.

Celebrating the finale of our first season with two of our favorite humorists and radio stars: Elna Baker, writer, comedian, producer for “This American Life” and author of the “wickedly funny” (People) memoir The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance in conversation with Negin Farsad—comedian, director, panelist for “Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!” and author of How to Make White People Laugh as well as the host of “Fake the Nation.” Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Modest Mouse.

Opera, voyages, battlegrounds and more: Playwright Sandra Seaton on how she came to be a librettist, why she's moved to reimagine the past and how she inhabits the nuanced hearts of historical figures. Radiant visual artists Alexi Worth and Joyce Kozloff excavate what lies beneath the surface of war cartography. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, William Bolcom, Joan Osborne.

Venture behind the scenes for a glimpse of Yaddo magic: Chef and writer Gabrielle Hamilton (Blood, Bones & Butter) in conversation with New York magazine's “bilious gourmand” Adam Platt on the tastes of summer and what the future might hold for NYC restaurants. Award-winning journalists Mark Binelli (Detroit City Is the Place to Be) and Julian Rubenstein—author of The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun, and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood—discuss life, work and moving back home to write a book. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Michael Harrison, Janis Joplin, George Michael.

With summer in full swing, we consider the triumph of light over dark. The luminous writer Jo Ann Beard discusses her new book, Festival Days, with revered editor Patricia Towers. And we'll share some news about a very special Yaddo event coming up this fall: “Art Saved Us—Let's Save Art,” with singer-songwriter and mega-talent Shaina Taub, who gives a preview of her performance. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Ylvis.

“Routing a racial justice revolution through Hollywood” (The New York Times): Brilliant filmmaker Shaka King, director and co-writer of Judas and the Black Messiah, discusses the difficulty of making meaningful films, New York vs. L.A., and the ebb and flow of social change with superstar Walter Mosley, celebrated writer and executive producer of Snowfall. PLUS: Photographer and veteran activist Dona Ann McAdams on a chance encounter that changed the course of her life and work: The day she met civil rights leader Harvey Milk. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Queen, The Illustrious Blacks.

Whether it's a creative pursuit, side-hustle or “real” job, work is at the heart of this episode featuring novelists Lisa Dierbeck and Jonathan Ames on his latest book, A Man Named Doll, the first in a new noir series set in Los Angeles. Plus: Spoken word artist and poet Hakeem Furious performs “Valero Valet,” a piece he wrote about working the graveyard shift at a gas station. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Damu the Fudgemunk.

Obsession, motherhood, long-held secrets and more in this week's exploration of family: Kirstin Valdez Quade on her new novel, The Five Wounds, in which multiple generations of family converge. Illustrator and writer Margaret Kimball, whose debut memoir Now I Spill the Family Secrets offers a riveting and layered account of divorce, mental health and coming to terms with family conflict, speaks with the wonderful novelist Charles Bock, author of Beautiful Children. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Peter Gabriel, Sister Sledge, Three Dog Night.

As arts venues reopen (hooray!), we asked two brilliant friends to imagine a new paradigm for concert classical music: Venezuelan/American composer, multimedia collaborator and Yaddo Board Member Manuel Sosa in conversation with Saratoga Performing Arts Center President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol on resilience, experimentation and turning our “lost year” into a boon for the next generation of performing arts. Contributing artists:  Joseph Keckler, Spike T. Jones, Will T. Bear, Michael Tilson Thomas & San Francisco Symphony, Tania León, Afro Cuban All Stars, Art Tatum.

Dig into the forensics of a new kind of noir, climate crime, with acclaimed novelist and nonfiction writer Nathaniel Rich, author of Second Nature: Scenes from a World Remade, and intellectual powerhouse Philip Gourevitch, longtime staff writer for The New Yorker. We'll also revisit the pioneering sonic composition about rewiring the earth's atmosphere: Landfall, the genius collaboration—and now a Grammy Award-winning album—between Laurie Anderson, icon, inventor, and NASA's first artist in residence, and Kronos Quartet. Contributing artist: Joseph Keckler.

Yaddo connections run far and wide! One of these circles is having a red, hot streak in the East Village scene in New York City, where a group of performers with talent to burn—many of them Yaddo artists—have found each other and are creating new, exciting work. Playwright, songwriter and performer David Cale (Harry Clarke, We're Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time, Lillian) and his friend and sometime-collaborator Sylver Wallace talk about pandemic projects and share new music, with nods to the East Village hotspot Pangea, Sade Adu, and… squirrels! Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Plastic Angel of the Month, Matthew Dean Marsh.

Work hard, play hard, and avoid the "tyranny of the early riser"—stay up late with Shadow // Yaddo! We’ll be delving into the ’70s, with New York Times features reporter Katherine Rosman, as she discusses the cult classic film "Dazed and Confused" with Melissa Maerz, author of "Alright, Alright, Alright." And the phenomenal writer, teacher and editor Beena Kamlani (who edited Saul Bellow, among other literary lions) shares a reading from Bellow’s Herzog. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Rick Derringer, Nazareth, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Time for some Big Sky! We’re headed out west with two incredibly talented Yaddo artists: Maxim Loskutoff on rural v. urban, guns, and his new novel, “a meditation on the cultural breaking-apart of the American West.” Photographer Peter Kayafas on his recent exhibition and book, a project that explores the dramatic and wide-open landscape of the Plains States as well as the heritage and traditions of people living in a region where —despite the tropes of cowboys, dust and tumbleweed—challenges are inherently layered and complex. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Greensky Bluegrass, Ry Cooder, Our Native Daughters.