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2 episodes with new york times june
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New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie and political scientist Melvin Rogers, author of The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought, explore the ways key African American intellectuals and artists—from David Walker, Frederick Douglass, and W.E.B. Du Bois to Billie Holiday and James Baldwin—reimagined U.S. democracy. Thomas Donnelly, chief scholar at the National Constitution Center, moderates. This conversation was originally streamed live as part of the NCC's America's Town Hall program series on Nov. 14, 2023. Resources Melvin Rogers, The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought (2023) Melvin Rogers, The Undiscovered Dewey: Religion, Morality, and the Ethos of Democracy (2008) Kate Masur, Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction (2021) Jamelle Bouie, “How Black Political Thought Shapes My Work”, The New York Times (Feb. 11, 2023) David Walker David Walker, Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829) Jamelle Bouie, “Why I Keep Coming Back to Reconstruction”, The New York Times (Oct. 25, 2022) Martin Delany Jamelle Bouie, “What Frederick Douglass Knew that Trump and DeSantis Don't”, The New York Times (June 30, 2023) Jamelle Bouie, “The Deadly History of ‘They're Raping Our Women'”, Slate (June 18, 2015) W.E.B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903) Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate. Subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen. Join us for an upcoming live program or watch recordings on YouTube. Support our important work. Donate
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Friday June 28th, 2024
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Thursday June 27th, 2024
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Wednesday June 26th, 2024
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Tuesday June 25th, 2024
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Monday June 24th, 2024
Jerrell L. Henderson is a Theatre Director, Puppeteer, and African American Theatre Historian and Archivist. Through the mediums of theatre and/or puppetry and film, Jerrell seeks to disrupt generational curses of self-hate (i.e. racism, homophobia, religious intolerance, etc.). Intellectually curious and emotionally dexterous, Jerrell is at home in a number of wide-ranging genres including, but not limited to, American Realism, Magical Realism, Traditional and Contemporary Musical Theatre, Poetic Black-Queer Narratives, and Live Spectacle Events. Upcoming projects include directing Ragtime at Metropolis Arts Center this Spring. A recipient of a 2023 Henson Foundation Workshop Grant and the 2022 League of Chicago Theatre's Samuel G. Roberson Fellowship, Jerrell will present an original shadow play titled, AmericanMYTH: Crossroads with Free Street Theatre this Fall. Recent projects include directing Reverie by James Ijames (2022 Pulitzer Prize recipient for Fat Ham) with Azuka Theatre in Philadelphia, co-directing Marys Seacole by Jackie Sibblies Drury with Griffin Theatre in Chicago, and collaborating with The Classical Theatre of Harlem and St. Ann's Warehouse on: When The World Sounds Like A Prayer (https://www.cthnyc.org, walkwithamal.org) in Bryant Park in NYC. Other credits include Mlima's Tale with Griffin Theatre (Jeff Award nomination for Direction and Best Play), The River with BoHo Theatre, and Untitled with Inis Nua (Barrymore Award nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play). Puppet short films include a filmed version of his signature puppetry piece, I Am The Bear with The Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival. Other puppet short films include, Hamlin: La Revue Sombre with Heather Henson's Handmade Puppet Dreams and Diamond's Dream with Chicago Children's Theatre. His Juneteenth Puppet Protest: The Welcome Table was featured in the New York Times (June 2020) and his Fall 2020 puppetry celebration of the lives of John Lewis and C.T. Vivian titled, Black Butterfly was later expanded into an educational performance piece with Tria Smith of Guild Row and a student collective working with Urban Growers Collective on Chicago's South Side. He received his MFA in Theatre Directing from Northwestern University (2015), is an artistic associate with Black Lives, Black Words, is a member of Lincoln Center's Directors Lab (2012), and was a Henson Foundation sponsored participant at the Eugene O'Neill National Puppetry Conference (2020). He is on the board of Directors Gathering. (DG) is a national organization based in Philadelphia, PA which offers theatre directors consistent community, resources, and elevation. As a theatre historian and archivist, Jerrell contributed to Fifty Key Musicals (Routledge Press). He authored the chapter on Shuffle Along (1921) and co-authored the chapter on The Wiz (1975). He also serves as the creator and curator of black_theatre_vinyl_archive on Instagram. black_theatre_vinyl_archive is an extensive collection of vinyl albums which highlight the contributions of members of the African Diaspora in Theatre/Musical Theatre History.
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Thursday June 20th, 2024
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Monday June 17th, 2024
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Thursday June 13th, 2024
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Wednesday June 12th, 2024
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Tuesday June 11th, 2024
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Monday June 10th, 2024
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Thursday June 6th, 2024
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Wednesday June 5th, 2024
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Tuesday June 4th, 2024
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated Monday June 3rd, 2024
State-level officials in Arizona are getting more serious about water scarcity issues, despite the still-booming growth pressures that exist there. Some listeners may remember from a story we covered in July 2022 that rural areas outside of Phoenix, like the Rio Verde foothills, have found it almost impossible to drill wells and are now facing challenges from having their water delivered by truck. Now, the state has determined that there is not enough water for already-approved housing projects and will stop some developers from building if they rely too heavily on groundwater, given that it has become a finite resource. Arizona's allocation of Colorado River water is also being decreased due to drought, making alternatives quite limited. Still, the Arizona water agency has given permission to build 80,000 housing lots, and for the most part, construction is going to move forward on these lots. On today's episode of Upzoned, Chuck and Abby discuss why this development pattern in Arizona—and most of the Southwestern United States—is, as you might have guessed, unsustainable. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES “Arizona Limits Construction Around Phoenix as Its Water Supply Dwindles,” by Christopher Flavelle and Jack Healy, The New York Times (June 2023). Abby Kinney (Twitter). Chuck Marohn (Twitter). Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.
This past term, the Supreme Court handed down two major decisions about Native American law. In Arizona v. Navajo Nation, the Court ruled 5-4 that a treaty did not require the U.S. Government to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Navajo Nation; and in Haaland v. Brackeen, the Court upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). In this episode, Native American law experts Professor Marcia Zug of the University of South Carolina Law School and Timothy Sandefur of the Goldwater Institute join to help unpack these key Native American law cases. They also dive more deeply into one specific member of the Court—Justice Neil Gorsuch—and his unique stance toward how the Constitution applies to issues relating to Native American tribes—from his dissent in Haaland, to his majority opinion in the McGirt v. Oklahoma case from 2020, and more. Host Jeffrey Rosen moderates. Resources: Arizona v. Navajo Nation (2023) Haaland v. Brackeen (2023) McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020) Marcia Zug, “ICWA's Irony”, American Indian Law Review (2021) Tim Sandefur, Brief Amici Curiae of Goldwater Institute in Support of State of Texas and Brackeen, Haaland v. Brackeen Adam Liptak, “Justice Neil Gorsuch Is a Committed Defender of Tribal Rights”, The New York Times (June 15, 2023) John Dossett, “Justice Gorsuch and Federal Indian Law”, American Bar Association (Sept. 1, 2017) Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. Continue today's conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library.
In a 6-3 ruling at the end of the 2022-23 term, the Supreme Court handed down a major First Amendment decision about the intersection of free expression rights and anti-discrimination laws in 303 Creative v. Elenis. The Court held that Colorado could not force a website designer to design a site and create expressive designs that she disagreed with, which included creating a website for same-sex marriages. In this episode, host Jeffrey Rosen is joined by ACLU National Legal Director David Cole and New York Times opinion columnist David French to break down the 303 Creative decision, as well as review the 2022-23 term as a whole, other key decisions from this past year, and where the Court is headed next. Resources: 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (2023) ACLU (David Cole as Counsel of Record), “Brief for Amici Curiae American Civil Liberties Union and American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado in Support of Respondents”, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis David Cole, “The Supreme Court Picks its Battles” The New York Review (July 4, 2023) David Cole, ACLU, “Supreme Court Term in Review: Reconciling Our Losses and Wins” July 6, 2023 David French, “Brief of 15 Family Policy Organizations as Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioners”, 303 Creative LCC v. Elenis David French, The New York Times “How Christians and Drag Queens Are Defending the First Amendment” (June 30, 2023) David French, “Harvard Undermined Itself on Affirmative Action,” New York Times (June 29, 2023) David French, “The Supreme Court Just Helped Save American Democracy from Trumpism,” New York Times (June 27, 2023) Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. Continue today's conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly.
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 30th, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 29th, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 28th, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 23rd, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 21st, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 21st, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 17th, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 16th, 2023
Den stora migrationen av Svarta människor från södern till norr och väster under 1900-talet. Trump blir den förste ex-presidenten att ställas inför federalt åtal för sina stölder av hemligstämplat material. Pat Robertson och Daniel Ellsberg har gått ur tiden. Två diametralt olika män som båda påverkade Amerika mycket. Brandinferno i Kanada.Länkar och källorIsabel Wilkerson's Sweeping ‘Warmth of Other Suns' - The New York Times
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 15th, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 14th, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 10th, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 9th, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 8th, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 6th, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 2nd, 2023
A reading of articles and features from the New York Times dated June 1st, 2023
A quote from Batman, “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to become a villain,” echoes through a great discussion on this week's Upzoned. Host Abby Kinney brings “Twilight of the NIMBY,” a New York Times article by California-based housing and economics writer Connor Dougherty, to the table. Dougherty profiles retired teacher Susan Kirsch's two-decade battle to stop 20 condos from being developed in her neighborhood in the Bay Area community of Mill Valley. Kinney, a senior planner with Multistudio in Kansas City, was fascinated by this profile of Kirsch as a NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) American archetype, a suburban homeowner who runs a nonprofit that “pushes back against statewide housing policy measures intended to subvert local anti-development activism.” In the profile, Kirsch is cast as a crusader for local control of development, working to protect her single-family home neighborhood from a condo development on an empty lot at the end of her street. “She believes in slow growth as a perspective and it's partly reinforced by a distrust in large institutions…(a) ‘small C' conservatism that local government is better and more responsive to citizens than a bigger one that is further away,” Kinney says in her introduction. “So she represents one person in this longer movement, fighting development and campaigning for the right for local cities and suburban cities to have control over the built environment.” Kinney's guest, Strong Towns Senior Editor Daniel Herriges, recognizes the archetype Kirsch represents. Herriges is sympathetic to the idea that “neighbors who know the place best, who care about the place most…get the ultimate say in what happens around them.” The problem, however, is that Kirsch and many in her generation who seek local control of housing policy are eating from two plates. They are sitting atop a mountain of equity in their homes buoyed by a system of market supports in the form of government-backed mortgages and other state and federal development policies. Kirsch's home, a modest, single-family residence she bought for $100,000 in 1979, is now valued at almost $2 million. A state law intended to give homeowners protection from property taxes rising alongside astronomical home values, Proposition 13, keeps the taxable value of Kirch's home at $250,000. Herriges says, “The reality is that this whole cohort of people have been incredible beneficiaries of large institutional forces…massive subsidies for suburban homebuilding in the post-WWII era of billions and billions of dollars of investment in the interstate highway system, in freeways that opened up huge swaths of suburban land to development.” “We see it is unable to be replicated generation after generation, and so there's a whole bunch of younger people who would love to live Susan Kirsch's American dream, who can't dream of it. Middle-class, white-collar people in California who have given up on ever owning a home. That's the dissonance you have to reckon with.” Kinney agrees, but points out it's too easy to turn homeowners like Kirsch into villains, reducing people who are, in the end, our neighbors, into cartoon characters. Should we see NIMBYs as heroes or villains? Dig into this episode of Upzoned to hear how name-calling won't win any arguments, and the nuances of housing policy don't lend themselves to broad stereotypes. Additional Show Notes “Twilight of the NIMBY,” by Conor Dougherty, The New York Times (June 2022). Abby Kinney (Twitter) Daniel Herriges (Twitter) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.
What you'll learn in this episode: How Jonathan moved from sculpture to jewelry to drawing, and why he explores different ideas with each medium How the relationship between craft and fine art has evolved over the years Why people became more interested in jewelry during the pandemic Why jewelers working in any style benefit from strong technical skills How you can take advantage of the 92nd Street Y's jewelry programming and virtual talks About Jonathan Wahl Jonathan Wahl joined 92nd Street Y in July 1999 as director of the jewelry and metalsmithing program in 92Y's School of the Arts, the largest program of its kind in the nation. He is responsible for developing and overseeing the curriculum, which offers more than 60 classes weekly and 15 visiting artists annually. Jonathan is also responsible for hiring and supervising 25 faculty members, maintaining four state-of-the-art jewelry and metalsmithing studios, and promoting the department locally and nationally as a jewelry resource center. Named one of the top 10 jewelers to watch by W Jewelry in 2006, Jonathan is an accomplished artist who, from 1994 to 1995, served as artist-in-residence at Hochschule Der Kunst in Berlin, Germany. He has shown his work in the exhibitions Day Job (The Drawing Center), Liquid Lines (Museum of Fine Arts Houston), The Jet Drawings (Sienna Gallery, Lenox MA, and SOFA New York), Formed to Function (John Michael Kohler Arts Center), Defining Craft (American Craft Museum), Markers in Contemporary Metal (Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art), Transfigurations: 9 Contemporary Metalsmiths (University of Akron and tour), and Contemporary Craft (New York State Museum). Jonathan was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in recognition of "Outstanding Artwork," and the Pennsylvania Society of Goldsmiths Award for "Outstanding Achievement." As part of the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX, and The Museum of Arts and Design in New York, his work has been reviewed by Art in America (June, 2000), The New York Times (June 2005), and Metalsmith Magazine (1996, 1999, 2000 2002, 2005, 2009); his work was also featured in Metalsmith Magazine's prestigious "Exhibition in Print" (1994 and 1999). Jonathan's art work can be seen at Sienna Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts, which specializes in contemporary American and European art work, and De Vera in Soho, New York. His work can also be seen in the publications The Jet Drawings (Sienna Press, 2008), and in three collections by Lark Books: 1,000 Rings, 500 Enameled Objects and 500 Metal Vessels. Before joining 92Y, Jonathan was, first, director of the jewelry and metalsmithing department at the YMCA's Craft Students League, and later assistant director of the League itself. Mr. Wahl holds a B.F.A. in jewelry and metalsmithing from Temple University's Tyler School of Art and an M.F.A. in metalsmithing and fine arts from the State University of New York at New Paltz. He is a member of the Society of North America Goldsmiths. Additional Resources: Website: www.jonathanwahl.com Website: www.92y.org/jewelry LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jonathancwahl Instagram: @jonathancwahl/ Photos: Available at TheJewelryJourney.com Transcript: With more than 60 jewelry classes offered weekly, the 92nd Street Y's Jewelry Center is by far the largest program of its kind in the country—and it's all run by award-winning sculptor, jeweler and artist Jonathan Wahl. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the different relationships he has with jewelry and sculpture; why craftsmanship should be embraced by the art world; and what he has planned for 92Y in 2022. Read the episode transcript here. Interview with Jonathan Wahl 4/3/22 Sharon: Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. Today, my guest is Jonathan Wahl, Director of the Jewelry Center at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Jonathan was recently on the podcast, but we had to rush through the description of the many jewelry programs that are going on at the Y. So, I asked him back to tell us about the programs in more detail. Many of them are online and are recorded, so it doesn't matter where you are in the world. Jonathan, nice to see you again. Jonathan: Nice to see you, Sharon. Thanks for having me back. Sharon: You ran through it very quickly at the end because I didn't realize how much you had to say basically. So, tell us first about your interviews you have with sculptors and jewelers. Tell us about those. Are there any upcoming? Who are the next ones? Give us-- Jonathan: Sure, so the lecture series came out of the pandemic obviously. I think I've done about 25 or 30 lectures or interviews so far. The most recent series was a series of three talks about female sculptors who are jewelers or jewelers who are sculptors. As you could tell from our last conversation, I'm really interested in this line be-tween the fields of art, particularly between jewelry and sculpture or fine art and decorative art. So, I was really curious to talk to these three in particular New Yorkers who practice in both fields and it was Joe Platner who is a longtime jeweler in New York City, Michelle Okeldoner(?) whose work was primarily sculpture and also does jewelry and Anna Corey whose work also started in sculpture, but now is primarily a jeweler. So, it was really fascinating to talk to these women artists about how they practice and what inspires them in their practice. Sharon: And do you have series upcoming more in the spring or summer? Jonathan: Yup, I'm working on a series about enamel. Enameling seems to be having a re-surgence in our department and I think in jewelry in general, we're seeing a lot more enamel and a lot more color in metals. So, it will be with a contemporary artist, a historical collection and a contemporary fine jeweler. Sharon: It sounds very interesting and enamel, at least in the view I see now, is becoming much more popular. Jonathan: Yeah, yeah, I'm not exactly sure why. I'm really curious. I think maybe it's happy; it's colorful; it's as close to painting, I guess, as you can get in jewelry in a way. Sharon: It's such a skill if you do it right. It's an artistry. Jewelry is an art, but it's such an artistry within the art in a sense. Jonathan: Absolutely, you can, as we say, shake and bake and get color on metal pretty easily. So, you can get pretty direct results and get color on your metal pretty simply. Of course, to be an expert enamellist, to practice grisaille or cloisonne or brioche, you need to become master craftsman. So, there's a lot to dig into. Sharon: So, do we need to keep our eyes on the spring session, the summer session or when? Jonathan: It's going to be the summer session. I think it's going to take place in June. Sharon: O.K., I look forward to it. Jonathan: I'm not sure of the dates, but it's coming and you'll see it. Most of the talks so far are on our archives at 92Y.org in the jewelry center page. Sharon: Yeah, I know there are some that I'd really like to go look at that I missed. Jonathan: The previous three were with three Brazilian jewelers. Sharon: Now, you just had an interview with—I don't know how to say her last name—but she was talking about a Brazilian jeweler, Roberto Burle Marks. Jonathan: Uhum, correct. Sharon: But that was separate. Jonathan: It was part of the Brazilian series because Roberto Burle Marks was a Brazilian. Sharon: But it wasn't part of the Sculpture and Artist Series; it was a different series. Jonathan: Correct, right, they were three and three. Sharon: There's a lot going on. So, tell us about this jewelry residency. I was just looking at your Instagram and the ads for it. So, tell us about it. Jonathan: The Jewelry Residency Program, it would be its fifth year, but we took two years off because of the pandemic. The Jewelry Residence Program is something that I've always dreamed of doing and I'm so happy that it's back on. What it provides is a studio apartment here in our facility, 24-hour access to one of our studios and air-fare to and from New York City from anywhere in the world. Sharon: Are people applying now? When does it start? Jonathan: Yes, the applications are open until April 15. We extended the deadline. Sharon: Does it start in September-- Jonathan: Sorry, it's August 18-September 19, if I'm not mistaken. That's the residency program. Sharon: And you get applications from all over the world or what? Jonathan: We had applications from fifty countries in 2019. I would love to have applications from farther afield. Most of them come from western Europe. We're still trying to figure out how we reach populations in Asia or sub-Saharan Africa or Africa in gen-eral or even more in South America. It's been kind of hard to get to some of those areas. I'm working on a trip to Korea which you know about, so I sent it to all the artists that we're going to visit in Korea. So, I hope we get some applications from Korea and I also just was in contact with an artist who's a Ukrainian jeweler and she has started on Facebook to try and raise money and funds and help Ukrainian jewel-ers who've been displaced, so of course I've shared that residency with her and the opportunity. We would love to support a Ukrainian jeweler and have them here in New York City for a month, particularly if they're not in a studio, but I'm also looking forward to seeing how we can support a Ukrainian jeweler in general if they are here in New York City. Sharon: And so it doesn't matter, a male, female, anybody in between. Jonathan: It doesn't matter and it is open to Americans. It is an international jewelry resi-dency, but you are welcome to apply as an American. The reason for the residency is, as I mentioned, to expand New York City's access to jewelers who don't maybe normally get here and the type of work that isn't often shown in New York City, but it's also for an artist who might not normally be able to come to New York City to come to New York City, but it's also about why an artist needs to be in New York, what would New York City do for them and that could be for a whole host of reasons and there is a jury panel that I assemble every year that helps me decide who that next person should be. Sharon: Wow! That sounds pretty competitive, but it's sounds really worthwhile. Jonathan: Well, there's only one spot. Sharon, with funding, we could expand that. So again, if anyone wants to help support a residence. The residency program, I'm completely open to a conversation. Sharon: Well, I will suggest that people get in touch with you, O.K., or at least send the checks. O.K., so tell us about the travel program to Korea. Jonathan: I do a trip every other year to somewhere in the world and we have gone to Israel, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, India, Japan and this year hopefully to Korea. Sharon: Wow! That really sounds fabulous. Jonathan: Yeah, the trips are centered around historical collections and contemporary jewelers and if you're not familiar with the Korean jewelry scene, it's really vibrant and really robust. It has its roots in Europe and the United States as well as with Korean tradi-tion. So, I'm really excited to meet these artists who blend a lot of techniques and traditions and they're doing some really extraordinary work. Sharon: Well, the Korean artists who have exhibited at the international shows have really been creative and really amazing. Jonathan: Really strong work, yeah. Sharon: So, the last I talked to you, I just wanted to double check. Are you still thinking you'll be going October 6, whenever? Jonathan: Yeah, that's the tentative plan. The one thing. Korea has lifted quarantine restric-tions which is great, but groups are still restricted to six or fewer, so it's a bit of a problem for our group which is about fifteen people. So, I'm a little bit on edge about that. I'm waiting to see if that will change. Sharon: Wow! Six or fewer, that's pretty-- Jonathan: That would make going out to dinner a problem and just going to into groups and staggering them, it's like taking two trips frankly. Sharon: Yeah, no, it sounds like a lot of logistics. Jonathan: With that being said, I have a trip to the southwest in the wings for the end of October. If for some reason the gods are not with us to go to Korea, I'm putting together a trip to San Jose and Taos. Sharon: There's lots to see there. Jonathan: Uhum. Sharon: So, you also have a program for highschoolers to teach them about the jewelry industry. Tell us about that. Jonathan: Yeah, this is certainly a program that's been a dream of mine for a long time. It is a program that is offered to Title 1 art and design school in New York City and Title One schools tend to service underserve populations in general in New York City and most of those students wouldn't normally get access to a jewelry studio in high school. Most kids don't get access to a jewelry studio in high school in general. Particularly this population most likely wouldn't be taking a class at the 92nd Street Y as a fee-for-service program for obvious reasons. So, this is a program to get kids who would normally be in the studio into the studio and expose them to the tech-niques and materials and offer them a view into a possible career path, if that's something they would like to pursue. We're coordinating with New York City Jewel-ry Week who has organized wonderful guest speakers with these kids and with NYCJWM and the Department of Education, are able to offer paid internships this summer which is really exciting. It's the first year of this program, so we're still find-ing our footing and I know there are going to be some kids who decide to go into the next year and I think particularly the juniors and seniors will hopefully take advan-tage of some of these opportunities and perhaps go deeper into the field. Sharon: It sounds like a great opportunity, yeah. Jonathan: Even master soldering to a teenager, regardless of whether or not you go into the field as a career, it's a great skill to have. Sharon: I don't know that much about New York and the school system, but I would assume that there are not a lot of opportunities like this that are going on in New York. Jonathan: To my knowledge, there is not a functioning jewelry studio in any of the public high schools in New York City. Sharon: Now, that's really amazing to me. Would a shop class teach jewelry and metal-smithing? Jonathan: To my knowledge, there aren't any functioning jewelry programs classes in New York City public schools right now and we don't have trade schools for jewelry in America. There are art schools and we've talked about how that's always the best fit if you're going into the trade. Sharon: It sounds like a program that would really take off. So, what else should we know about—and what else is coming up? I know you have some great—you've had Tony Greenbaum teaching a class who teaches about modernist jewelry. Jonathan: Yup and Bella Neyman just finished a great series on costume jewelry that was really fascinating. Sharon: Uhuh, I do have to say it was great. I did listen to it. It was great because it was in Los Angeles and it was at seven in the morning which is usually not the time I'm up to watch class. So, I watched the recorded classes which was great to have. Jonathan: Yeah, and we're working on our fall programming, so I'm not exactly sure what the talks will be, but I'm sure there will be one. I'm working on another few initiatives—well, one initiative in particular that is not confirmed yet, but I would like to also create a younger designer's award or fund in which we would help support a new jeweler and help them with classes and to continue their education as well as men-torship through our faculty and through our connections. One of the huge leaps is to go from undergrad or grad in these very supportive environments and then to be let loose to fly free. Many people hone their skills while working for another artist doing benchwork, but I would like to help an artist or a young designer home their skills through our classes and through our faculty mentorship and our professional mentorship opportunities. So, I'm working on that. I would love to see it happen by the fall, but TBD. Sharon: O.K., well, you can keep us posted. I know you have so much going on, so thank you so much. I just envision you juggling so many balls. Jonathan: There's always a lot going on as well as continuing to support the programing that we do on an ongoing basis here. Every day, every week--there's a class going on right outside my office right now, one of three or four classes going on right now in the center. We do offer over fifty classes a week for jewelry alone, so that in itself is enough of a job-- Sharon: For hands-on jewelry. Jonathan: Hands-on jewelry, hands-on making. To my right, there's a wax covering class going on. To my left, there's a jewelry two class going on. Further down the road is a goldsmithing class and then—yeah, I can't remember what's in the fourth studio right now, but the most pressing thing is if you are interested or know someone who might apply for the Jewelry Residency Program, I'd strongly encourage them to do so. We've got some wonderful press from Town and Country Magazine last year and in the cut from New York Magazine, so there are some great opportunities. Sharon: It sounds like it and since the deadline is right around the corner, April 15, people need to get on it. Jonathan: But it's easy. It's a submittable application. You upload your images. You make the case for why you want to be in New York City and away you go. Sharon: I don't know. That still involves somebody sitting down and really putting their brainpower behind it. Jonathan: Get on it, people. Sharon: Jonathan, thank you so much for being here today. Jonathan: You're welcome. Sharon: And we'll keep everyone posted on what else is going on at the Y. Jonathan: Thank you, Sharon, it's always a pleasure. Hope to see you soon.
What you'll learn in this episode: How Jonathan moved from sculpture to jewelry to drawing, and why he explores different ideas with each medium How the relationship between craft and fine art has evolved over the years Why people became more interested in jewelry during the pandemic Why jewelers working in any style benefit from strong technical skills How you can take advantage of the 92nd Street Y's jewelry programming and virtual talks About Jonathan Wahl Jonathan Wahl joined 92nd Street Y in July 1999 as director of the jewelry and metalsmithing program in 92Y's School of the Arts, the largest program of its kind in the nation. He is responsible for developing and overseeing the curriculum, which offers more than 60 classes weekly and 15 visiting artists annually. Jonathan is also responsible for hiring and supervising 25 faculty members, maintaining four state-of-the-art jewelry and metalsmithing studios, and promoting the department locally and nationally as a jewelry resource center. Named one of the top 10 jewelers to watch by W Jewelry in 2006, Jonathan is an accomplished artist who, from 1994 to 1995, served as artist-in-residence at Hochschule Der Kunst in Berlin, Germany. He has shown his work in the exhibitions Day Job (The Drawing Center), Liquid Lines (Museum of Fine Arts Houston), The Jet Drawings (Sienna Gallery, Lenox MA, and SOFA New York), Formed to Function (John Michael Kohler Arts Center), Defining Craft (American Craft Museum), Markers in Contemporary Metal (Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art), Transfigurations: 9 Contemporary Metalsmiths (University of Akron and tour), and Contemporary Craft (New York State Museum). Jonathan was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in recognition of "Outstanding Artwork," and the Pennsylvania Society of Goldsmiths Award for "Outstanding Achievement." As part of the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX, and The Museum of Arts and Design in New York, his work has been reviewed by Art in America (June, 2000), The New York Times (June 2005), and Metalsmith Magazine (1996, 1999, 2000 2002, 2005, 2009); his work was also featured in Metalsmith Magazine's prestigious "Exhibition in Print" (1994 and 1999). Jonathan's art work can be seen at Sienna Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts, which specializes in contemporary American and European art work, and De Vera in Soho, New York. His work can also be seen in the publications The Jet Drawings (Sienna Press, 2008), and in three collections by Lark Books: 1,000 Rings, 500 Enameled Objects and 500 Metal Vessels. Before joining 92Y, Jonathan was, first, director of the jewelry and metalsmithing department at the YMCA's Craft Students League, and later assistant director of the League itself. Mr. Wahl holds a B.F.A. in jewelry and metalsmithing from Temple University's Tyler School of Art and an M.F.A. in metalsmithing and fine arts from the State University of New York at New Paltz. He is a member of the Society of North America Goldsmiths. Additional Resources: Website: www.jonathanwahl.com Website: www.92y.org/jewelry LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jonathancwahl Instagram: @jonathancwahl/ Photos: Available at TheJewelryJourney.com Transcript: With more than 60 jewelry classes offered weekly, the 92nd Street Y's Jewelry Center is by far the largest program of its kind in the country—and it's all run by award-winning sculptor, jeweler and artist Jonathan Wahl. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the different relationships he has with jewelry and sculpture; why craftsmanship should be embraced by the art world; and what he has planned for 92Y in 2022. Read the episode transcript here. Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. Today, my guest is Jonathan Wahl, Director of the Jewelry Center of the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The program is the largest of its kind in the country. In addition to his life in jewelry, Jonathan is an award-winning artist whose work is in the permanent collections of prestigious museums. Welcome back. When do you have time to work on your jewelry? Jonathan: I'm here Monday through Wednesday in the studio here. Then I'm in my studio the rest of the time, so Thursday, Friday, Saturdays and Sundays. Sharon: Your home studio or a studio at the Y? Jonathan: No, it's not here. It's in Brooklyn. I wouldn't be able to work here. People would be finding me. No, I maintain a studio in Brooklyn. That's where I've done all my work basically for the past 25 years. Sharon: Tell us about your work. I was reading about you. You have a whole series of different things, drawings, collections. Jonathan: Lest I forget, I have had a jewelry line. In 2005—and I'll get to the larger bodies of work—when I moved to New York, my work was primarily sculpture. It was the tinware. It became the oversize tinware. I got a Tiffany fellowship which gave me a nice chunk of cash, and I made a series of work based on Frederic Remington, a series called Cowboys and Unicorns. I made a series of tasseled heads for this exhibition. It took about a year. There were many bodies of work, like Aztec Astronauts, which is inspired by Jared Diamond's book, “Guns, Germs, and Steel.” There's no jewelry in it at all, but it was interesting. I had a wonderful Foundation for the Arts fellowship for Cowboys and Unicorns. I had this Tiffany fellowship. I thought I was hot to trot. I was an artist, but because I've also been very self-directed in my work, I have made choices on my own, and I certainly hadn't thought of the larger picture, like, “Who am I marketing to?” At one point, I felt like maybe I should do something different. I saw these people putting jewelry lines together and I thought, “Well, let me try that. I'm going to throw together a jewelry line.” I did put together a jewelry line in 2004 and 2005, and it got a lot of press. Barneys called and Bergdorf called. It was exciting and, true to myself, I looked at this opportunity and thought, “What they're asking for sounds like I'm going to have to start a real business.” Between my role here as Director of the Jewelry Center and my studio practice, I wasn't sure I wanted to run a full-time jewelry business. What this position here affords me is the time and space to work in my studio on what I want to make. I thought that if I put together a jewelry line, that was a different kind of hustle, and a hustle that was going to take over. As a consequence, I declined Barneys and Bergdorf. I did sell my line at De Vera in New York, which is a much more boutique, gorgeous store that has since moved. Interestingly enough, launching the jewelry line brought me to drawing. People who knew me and knew my work as a sculptor, when I said I'd launched a jewelry line, to put it politely, they looked confused. I've said this in many interviews: a jeweler in the art world, people don't really get. An artist who makes jewelry is different than a jeweler who makes art, may I say. Sharon: That's interesting. Jonathan: I think that has changed. It has changed to some extent, but it's different. It's a one-way street. A potter and a sculptor, interesting, particularly with clay being very hot right now. A painter and a bartender makes sense; people get that. Anyway, I found this look of confusion quite perplexing. I started these large drawings, renderings of jet jewelry. I was working on a series of drawings about jewelry, about history, about my love for history, and I happened upon jet jewelry. I thought it was so out of the ordinary: monochromatic, at times really epoch-shifting in terms of what it was. So, I decided to start drawing these objects to take them out of the realm of jewelry and present them to the viewer as an object. Rendered large, they took on a completely different identity. It paralleled my experience of having this conversation with people saying I'm a jeweler and a sculptor. I thought, “If I present them with these drawings that are straight-up portraits of jewelry, maybe they'll think differently about what those edges are about or what those lines are, what those determinations are.” Sharon: That's interesting about people not getting a jeweler as a painter or an artist. That's what you said, right? Jonathan: I wish I could deny it. Again, this is 20 or 15 or 17 years ago; I can't remember. Things have changed a lot in the art world. I'll probably get in trouble for this; I don't know if any of the Whitney curators are going to hear this, but the Whitney, one of my favorite museums, had an exhibition of artists who employ craft, I think. It was all artists who made objects or used material that represented craft in some way. It was such an artist's use of craft, and done in a way that was pure aesthetics and abstraction, which was such a different experience with respect to the materials that I think a craftsperson has. I also find that curators are really only looking at artists who use craft techniques or craft materials from this artistic, old-school, may I say modernist perspective. I truly mean that because it was fascinating to see how a fine art museum presented craft in this way. To me, it reiterated how these fields are viewed, certainly from each corner of the art world. I found the show at the Whitney really underwhelming in terms of how they represented craft. Just because you use yarn doesn't mean it's craft. That's the takeaway. I think that represents this weird, one-way street or one-way mirror of how crafts and art are viewed together. Martin Puryear was not in that show. Sharon: Pardon? Jonathan: Martin Puryear, whose work definitely involves craftsmanship. He wasn't in that exhibition. There were people who I thought could have been in that exhibition to represent how craft is employed in the fine art world and would have made the statement better. Sharon: So, what is craft? It always seems to me the question that's has no answer. How do you know, when you're looking at something, whether it's craft or fine art or jewelry made with yarn? What's the difference? Not difference, but how do you separate it? Jonathan: I think it's many times subjective. To that point, the curators at the Whitney could have put whatever they wanted and called it craft, but I think when you see craft, you know it. I think you really do. I think their lines can be crossed. I think there's craft that's art, and I think there's art that's craft, but for myself, I know it when I see it. I think it also depends on how you employ the materials and for what end. I've been thinking about this recently. Craft was never really thought of as espousing an agenda other than its function. That was how it started, but now in some ways, the art world is looking at craft that explores itself beyond its function. It's making social commentary and is actually functioning in the way fine art would have explained itself, as material subjugated to the thought process of the artist. Craftsmen can be both, explaining or using functional materiality. They can also use a fine arts strategy, if they're making a commentary or going beyond the object's functionality into a realm that makes you think about the object differently. That is more of a fine arts strategy. So, it gets really sticky. Sharon: It's one of those questions. I'm thinking about craft in jewelry. I'm thinking about when you were in camp, the lanyards you would make, the necklaces you'd make with plastics. I guess you could call it a type of craft jewelry. Jonathan: For sure. I don't think craftsmen should be offended by lanyard jewelry. That's how you start. It's weaving; it's one of the most basic weaving skills. Voice that history. Those are old skills. That's how we built civilization. Believe in that. We wouldn't be here without those skills. Don't be afraid of that. I think my own jewelry journey, if you will, has been influenced by these experiences. I love jewelry. I love objects. I love technique. I love skill. I'm so in awe of people who can make, who can really fabricate something. It takes skill. It takes work. It takes focus. I love jewelry. I wear one ring and a watch. I change my ring up whenever I feel like that. They're mostly rings I've made, but they're a specific type of ring. Apart from my look in the 80s, I'm a relatively conservative-looking guy, so I wear jewelry that reflects the aesthetics of myself. It tends to be kind of traditional, so I have no problem with great jewelry that has a great stone, that's made well, that some would consider traditional. I'm O.K. with that. You know what? Wear whatever kind of jewelry makes you feel right. I love art jewelry and I think it's important in pushing the boundaries or the materiality of the field. I'm happy to see and support that. I love going to SCHMUCK. I'm always blown away when I see what's happening in the world of contemporary jewelry. I think contemporary or art jewelry, the field is also changing. I have to say everything's moving more towards the middle in a way, whether it's contemporary jewelry, studio jewelry or art jewelry. When I look at work today, it's all moving a little bit towards the middle, which is fascinating. But when it comes to jewelry, I don't have any problem with good jewelry, period. I love good jewelry. Sharon: Big stones are nice. Jonathan: I'm just saying good jewelry, however you classify jewelry, I like jewelry. Sharon: Why are things moving towards the middle? Why do you think that? Is that part of the ethos of the country, or that people don't want to be extreme? They don't want purple hair anymore? Jonathan: With all that being said, the generation that's coming up now wants to have purple hair, absolutely. I look at the trends that are going on right now, and I think of myself in art school in the high 80s with my hoop earrings and my dyed red hair and my capri pants and my corny shoes and my vests and yada, yada, yada. I look at this younger generation thinking, “Wow, it's coming back around again, interesting.” Maybe I talk out of two sides of my mouth, but I think in general, the bulk of those fields are moving a little bit closer together. I think there's an appreciation in the art jewelry world for techniques and processes that might not have been so accepted 10 or 20 years ago. I think there's an appreciation all around. I think I see contemporary jewelry making gestures that might have only happened in the art jewelry world 10 or 20 years ago. Sharon: You also talk about the rift between fine art and jewelry. Can you talk a little bit about that? Jonathan: I've got to say, I've met some great fine art collectors in New York and their jewelry has really stunk. I find it really funny when I see people who've got a great dress on and have a great art collection and mundane jewelry. It's the last thing that people think about sometimes. Although, the one person I'll say that always bucks the trend is Lindsay Pollock, who has great jewelry and has great art and knows great art. Sharon: Who? I'm sorry; I didn't hear. Jonathan: Lindsay Pollock, who used to be an editor at Art Forum. Now she also works for the Whitney Museum of Art, I think, as Director of Communications. I'm not sure, but she's a wonderful collector. Sharon: And she has great jewelry. Jonathan: Yes, and she knows the art world really well. Your question; please repeat it. Sharon: The rift between fine art and jewelry. Is there a rift? Jonathan: There's a difference. I think for so long people were trying to justify themselves, so people got defensive. Now people are starting to own what they do and who they are without the defense: “I'm not an artist, I'm a craftsperson” or “I'm a craftsperson, not an artist.” I think there's less apprehension about that now in terms of owning those fields. This is a conversation had by many people, but when modernism took its toll on craft, it stepped up its identity in many ways. I think since then, craftsmen and jewelers have been trying to figure out their way back to be on par with the rest of the arts. I think for a long time, because it wasn't modern art or contemporary art, there was a real apprehension about how we define artwork. I think about how jewelry was, for a long time, just photographed on a white background so it reads as an object, like you're presenting it like a little sculpture. For many years, that's how it was presented. I find that representative of how we explain the work we were making. When you saw it, you generally saw it sitting on nothing except white, in a void, outside of any wearability or reference to the person, which I get. But when you think about that, for me, it has resonance. I also think that's kind of who we are and what we do. I think that's changing to some extent, but the art world and the craft world have been trying to figure out the relationship for a while. Sharon: Do you make jewelry now? Jonathan: I do. I just made a ring for myself with a beautiful piece of lapis that I came across. It's very plain and modernist. I had an old necklace from my former landlord who passed away and left it to me. I melted down this necklace, I milled the jewelry, I rolled down the sheet and I made a half-round wire that I put through the mill again so it was more like a trapezoid and set it again. Man, I was a jeweler for a day. I love good jewelry, and I like to represent. Sharon: You like to represent? What do you mean? Jonathan: I like to represent the field with a good piece of jewelry. Sharon: Wow! You made the sheet metal and then you rolled your wire. The first time I saw somebody rolling wire, I thought, “You could buy wire. Why would anybody roll it?” Jonathan: One great thing is I didn't have to buy new gold. Another great thing is I'm recycling the gold. I recycle, recycle, recycle whenever possible. I worked it all the way down, but I do not have a jewelry line. I rarely make jewelry on commission. Most of my studio practice is focused in other ways, although as I've been drawing for the past 12 years, I recently picked up my tin shears again. I have actually been making more tinwork, which is also reflective of our current state of politics and our country again. It's been fascinating to work in metal again, so stay tuned. Sharon: How does it reflect where we are as a country or politically? Jonathan: I'm making tinware again, and I think a lot of what's in question right now in our country is what is traditional? Who are Americans? There's a lot of questioning about do you fit, do you belong, what are those parameters, how are you judged as an American or not as an American. The painted tin I'm making right now is so understood as a traditional object and a traditional way of making. Mixing and presenting that work within this very traditional material and history of making is, again, a metaphor for traditionality. The viewer automatically looks at this thing and things it's an original object. It's meant to look very traditional, although right now I'm working on a six-foot-by-four-foot painted stenciled decal tray, which, after a few minutes of looking at it, you will know is definitely not from the 19th century. But again, the techniques and the feeling and the look are traditional, I find that that's what we're questioning right now. We're questioning what is traditional. What are these traditions? The more I dig into these traditions, particularly in painted tinware—Japanware is what it was called. It was meant to imitate Japanese lacquerware. It had nothing to do with America. Another iteration is painted tinware that comes from a German and Scandinavian aesthetic, also not traditional American. So, these objects that you'd see in a folk museum and be like, “Yeah, Ohio, 1840, I got it,” these traditions and materials were not traditional until they became traditional. There's a lot of this material culture history that I find fascinating. It's very layered for me. I hope it's as interesting to the viewer. I have never really found the right format for many of my ideas or questions that fit into jewelry, and that's one of those cruxes. I've never found the right way for me to use jewelry or engage in jewelry with the same intents that I have in other materials or formats. Sharon: What do you mean exactly? It doesn't fit into a category? Jonathan: No, I can be really political with this tinware. I've never figured out how to get the same effect, with the same feeling, in jewelry. I find, for me, the wearing of jewelry is the great part of it, and I don't want my jewelry to say the same thing as my tinware. This is personal: I don't want my jewelry to work the same way as this giant tinware piece does, because I like this ring that fits on my finger. I love it, and I love when I get compliments on it. I think jewelry is special. It's great because we wear it. As a sidenote, it was fascinating that during the pandemic, jewelry took off. Sales of jewelry took off. All my friends in the field of luxury jewelry and studio jewelry, they had great years. Jewelry is the stuff you take with you. Jewelry is the stuff you wear. Jewelry is the intimate stuff, and I think it was fascinating to know that in this time of extreme stress and trouble, people were going to jewelers to buy these things they could hold and keep and literally run with it if they had to. There is this intimacy of jewelry that people sought out, and that's special. It doesn't exist in other places. Those are the kinds of things, the resonance, that I want to embrace and love about jewelry and that I will not run away from. One of the reasons why I started even playing around with images of jewelry, which led me to the drawings, is because I did this class at the Met called Into the Vaults. We went through all these different departments of the Met, jewelry and old jewelry. I came across the story of the Hannebery Pearls, which were pearls that were given to Catherine de Medici from her uncle, who was the Pope. This string of pearls went through the Hanoverians and then eventually into the British Crown Jewels. I thought, “Wow, if this string of pearls could talk, what we would know. What has it seen?” I was fooling around with this image of a gem, a ring that I had Photoshopped a historical scene from a movie on top of, so it almost looked like this gem was reflecting what it saw. I thought, “Wow, wouldn't it be amazing if there was a ring from ancient Greece that was passed down every generation until now, and that ring was held and worn by 200 generations?” I don't know how many generations that would be. That intimacy and history of an object doesn't exist in other places in the same way, where it's worn and carried with it. There's something about the intimacy of jewelry and the history that it can be embraced in a specific way that I really love. Sharon: It's something very different and novel. I don't know if it's been done already. Jonathan: I have an idea for a novel. I'll talk about it off-camera. We should talk about it. It's about that same kind of story, a will to survive. Sharon: All right. Jonathan, thank you so much for talking with us today. Jonathan: You're welcome. Sharon: I expect an invitation to the opening of the 92nd Street Y in Los Angeles. I can't wait. Jonathan: In the meantime, I hope you can come with us to Korea. As you know, I do trips around the world. South Korea is on the books, and there are a number of other wonderful things happening. The only residency for jewelry in New York City, called the JAIR, Jewelry Artist in Residence, that's happening this summer. Applications are open on our website. We had applications from 50 countries in 2019. It has been suspended since the pandemic. Another little sidenote: I'm excited about a program called Team Gems, which is a fully-funded program for high school kids in New York City, Title 1 high schools in New York City. It's a fully-funded program for kids to get experience in jewelry that they wouldn't normally have, and will maybe create a pathway for a career in jewelry outside the academic model. I hope I'm going to be able to tell you more about it, but it's the first year and it's very exciting. Also, keep your ears open for my new series of talks coming up. I think this topic is going to be about enamel, and then hopefully a series in June in honor of Pride Month. A lot's going on at the Jewelry Center. Sharon: Well, thank you for being here. We want to hear more about it in the future. Thank you so much, Jonathan. We greatly appreciate it. Jonathan: Thank you, it's such a pleasure. Be well. Sharon: You, too. Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.
What you'll learn in this episode: How Jonathan moved from sculpture to jewelry to drawing, and why he explores different ideas with each medium How the relationship between craft and fine art has evolved over the years Why people became more interested in jewelry during the pandemic Why jewelers working in any style benefit from strong technical skills How you can take advantage of the 92nd Street Y's jewelry programming and virtual talks About Jonathan Wahl Jonathan Wahl joined 92nd Street Y in July 1999 as director of the jewelry and metalsmithing program in 92Y's School of the Arts, the largest program of its kind in the nation. He is responsible for developing and overseeing the curriculum, which offers more than 60 classes weekly and 15 visiting artists annually. Jonathan is also responsible for hiring and supervising 25 faculty members, maintaining four state-of-the-art jewelry and metalsmithing studios, and promoting the department locally and nationally as a jewelry resource center. Named one of the top 10 jewelers to watch by W Jewelry in 2006, Jonathan is an accomplished artist who, from 1994 to 1995, served as artist-in-residence at Hochschule Der Kunst in Berlin, Germany. He has shown his work in the exhibitions Day Job (The Drawing Center), Liquid Lines (Museum of Fine Arts Houston), The Jet Drawings (Sienna Gallery, Lenox MA, and SOFA New York), Formed to Function (John Michael Kohler Arts Center), Defining Craft (American Craft Museum), Markers in Contemporary Metal (Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art), Transfigurations: 9 Contemporary Metalsmiths (University of Akron and tour), and Contemporary Craft (New York State Museum). Jonathan was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in recognition of "Outstanding Artwork," and the Pennsylvania Society of Goldsmiths Award for "Outstanding Achievement." As part of the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX, and The Museum of Arts and Design in New York, his work has been reviewed by Art in America (June, 2000), The New York Times (June 2005), and Metalsmith Magazine (1996, 1999, 2000 2002, 2005, 2009); his work was also featured in Metalsmith Magazine's prestigious "Exhibition in Print" (1994 and 1999). Jonathan's art work can be seen at Sienna Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts, which specializes in contemporary American and European art work, and De Vera in Soho, New York. His work can also be seen in the publications The Jet Drawings (Sienna Press, 2008), and in three collections by Lark Books: 1,000 Rings, 500 Enameled Objects and 500 Metal Vessels. Before joining 92Y, Jonathan was, first, director of the jewelry and metalsmithing department at the YMCA's Craft Students League, and later assistant director of the League itself. Mr. Wahl holds a B.F.A. in jewelry and metalsmithing from Temple University's Tyler School of Art and an M.F.A. in metalsmithing and fine arts from the State University of New York at New Paltz. He is a member of the Society of North America Goldsmiths. Additional Resources: Website: www.jonathanwahl.com Website: www.92y.org/jewelry LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jonathancwahl Instagram: @jonathancwahl/ Photos: Available at TheJewelryJourney.com Transcript: With more than 60 jewelry classes offered weekly, the 92nd Street Y's Jewelry Center is by far the largest program of its kind in the country—and it's all run by award-winning sculptor, jeweler and artist Jonathan Wahl. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the different relationships he has with jewelry and sculpture; why craftsmanship should be embraced by the art world; and what he has planned for 92Y in 2022. Read the episode transcript here. Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. Here at the Jewelry Journey, we're about all things jewelry. With that in mind, I wanted to let you know about an upcoming jewelry conference, which is “Beyond Boundaries: Jewelry of the Americas.” It's sponsored by the Association for the Study of Jewelry and Related Arts, or, as it's otherwise known, ASJRA. The conference takes place virtually on Saturday and Sunday May 21 and May 22, which is around the corner. For details on the program and the speakers, go to www.jewelryconference.com. Non-members are welcome. I have to say that I attended this conference in person for several years, and it's one of my favorite conferences. It's a real treat to be able to sit in your pajamas or in comfies in your living room and listen to some extraordinary speakers. So, check it out. Register at www.jewelryconference.com. See you there. This is a two-part Jewelry Journey podcast. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it comes out later this week. Today, my guest is Jonathan Wahl, Director of the Jewelry Center at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The program is the largest of its kind in the country. In addition to his life in jewelry, Jonathan is an award-winning artist whose work is in the permanent collections of prestigious museums. It has been exhibited nationally and internationally. We'll hear more about his jewelry journey today and how art fits into that. Jonathan, welcome to the program. Jonathan: Thank you, Sharon. It's a pleasure to be here. It's a pleasure to see you. Sharon: It's nice to see you. Hopefully next time, it'll be in person. Jonathan: I would love that. Sharon: Jonathan, tell us about your jewelry journey. How did you get to jewelry? Was that where you originally started out? Jonathan: Recently I've been doing a lot of interviews myself with artists around the world—virtually since the pandemic—as Director of the Jewelry Center, and one of the questions I always ask them is “How did you find your way to jewelry?” It's one of the questions I love to be asked because, at least for myself, it was interesting. I think all of us start out as artists, unless we're born into a jewelry family. Everyone learns how to draw. Everyone paints on their own. Maybe they have classes in high school. If you're lucky, you have a jewelry class in high school. I didn't, so like many people, I discovered jewelry in college at Tyler School of Art, which has one of the best jewelry programs in the country, but I didn't know jewelry existed until I went to art school. When I went to art school, I thought I was going to be a graphic designer. Being the son of a banker and coming from a prep school, I figured I was going to be an artist, but I had to make a living. I wasn't going to be a painter, so I was thinking I was going to be a graphic designer when I grew up. At the college, I discovered jewelry in my sophomore year. Stanley Lechtzin said to me—I'll never forget it—“After you graduate you could design, if you wanted, costume jewelry in New York City,” and I thought, “That sounds kind of exotic and fun in New York City.” That's how my jewelry journey really began, in an elective class as a sophomore at Tyler School of Art. Sharon: Where is Tyler? I'm not familiar with it. Jonathan: In Philadelphia. It's part of Temple University. Sharon: And Stanley Lechtzin, is he one of the professors there? I don't know that name. Jonathan: Stanley Lechtzin really put the program on the map. He's in collections internationally. He pioneered the use of electroforming in individual objects. Electroforming was a commercial process used throughout the country for many different industrial applications, but Stanley figured out how to finetune it for the individual artist. His work has recently had some new-found appreciation because of the aesthetics from the 60s and 70s that are also coming back into vogue. His pieces are extraordinary. Sharon: Before you came to the Y, did you design jewelry? Did you do art? Did you come home from your banking job and work on that stuff? Jonathan: My father was a banker. I was not a banker. The closest I got to banking was working at a casino in Atlantic City one summer. My family has a house in Ocean City, New Jersey, so I could get to Atlantic City. I had to count a bank of anywhere between $30,000 and $70,000 a night. That's the closest I got to being a banker. I quickly then moved to London. This was the summer of my senior year after Tyler. After I graduated from Tyler, I moved to London briefly and worked for a crafts gallery in northern London. Then I decided I wanted to go to graduate school. I came back for about a year to work towards applying to graduate school, which ultimately became SUNY New Paltz. I graduated Tyler in 1990, so most of my undergraduate years were in the 80s. If you're familiar with 80s jewelry, it was no holds barred. It was any kind of jewelry you wanted. My work—or at least my practice—quickly started to veer away from jewelry and towards objects and what I would call small sculpture. My choice to go SUNY New Paltz was specific because I didn't really want to make jewelry, but I was interested in the field and decorative arts, the material culture of jewelry and metalsmithing. That's what I pursued while I was in graduate school. I was recreating early American tinware about my experience as a gay American at that time. I wish there were visuals included, but that's what I was doing at SUNY New Paltz. Sharon: How did you find that material? Jonathan: The tinware was a metaphor for America, for traditionalism. The pieces were metaphors for the function or dysfunction of America. These objects were a little perverse, a little sublime and really honest about how frustrated I felt about being an American and growing up in Philadelphia during the bicentennial. I thought life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was for everybody, but I found myself not really able to access the full extent of that saying, like many people in our country even today. But I'm happy to report that a piece from that era was just acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I'm thrilled that the older work is getting some interest. There's some interest from the New York Historical Society, which is not finalized yet, but it's interesting to see that work with new eyes 20-some years later. Sharon: Congratulations! Jonathan: When I was in Germany, my partner at the time was finishing his master's degree, and I was an artist in residence there at the Hochschule der Künste, which is now the Academy of Art, I think it's called. That was an interesting experience because Europeans in general, and Germans in particular, approach craft differently. They have a much longer and supportive tradition of craft of all kinds, so when they saw my tinware, it was a little confusing to them. I ended up in a program called small sculpture as an artist in residence because there was no jewelry program at this art university. It was interesting. It was curious. Sharon: Tell us how you came to jewelry. Jonathan: Jewelry eventually gets into my story. After leaving Berlin, I moved to New York. I knew I wanted to be a New York artist. That's the place I had to go. That's the place I had to find my destiny. I was walking around looking for positions in a gallery, which was what I thought I was supposed to do. I walked into one gallery and the director there said, “I don't have any gallery work for you, but I'm on the board of a not-for-profit gallery at the YWCA. That's the home of the Craft Students League. They are looking for a program associate, which pays a ridiculously low hourly wage but has health benefits.” I thought, “O.K., I can do that.” That's when I found myself in the not-for-profit arts administration position that was developed into what I do now, at least part time. I was the program coordinator for the Craft Students League, which is unfortunately gone now, but had a wonderful ceramics, jewelry, painting, and book arts department. I ultimately became director of the jewelry studio and metalsmithing studio there, and then I became the assistant director of the whole program before I moved to the 92nd Street Y to become the director of the Jewelry Center here. Sharon: Did they have an opening? How did you enter the 92nd Street Y? Jonathan: Yes, there was an opening. There was John Cogswell. The Jewelry Center has some wonderful previous directors. It was Thomas Gentile from the late 60s to mid-70s, who really put this program on the map. He was followed by John Cogswell until the early 90s. Then briefly Shana Kroiz took over. She was between Baltimore and New York, and when she left the department, there was a call for a new director. That's when I joined the program here. Sharon: Wow! I didn't know that Thomas Gentile was one of the—I don't know if you want to call it the founders, but one of the names that launched it. Jonathan: Yeah. The program began in 1930 in its earliest form as a class in metalworking and slowly evolved into a few more classes. It became part of the one of the largest WPA programs in the country here at the 92nd Street Y, but it kind of floated along until Thomas came—and Thomas, forgive me if I get this wrong—in the mid-60s, I think, maybe later. He came in and really started to formulate a program of study here. He was the one who really created the Jewelry Center as a center. Sharon: Was he emphasizing art jewelry or all jewelry? Jonathan: There was a great book put out by the Museum of Modern Art in the 50s about how to make modern jewelry. Now, I don't know if the MOMA realized that they put out a book on how to make jewelry, but my point is in New York, I think there was still this idea of the modernist aesthetic and the artist as jeweler or jeweler as artist. I would say that Thomas was focused more on artist-made jewelry, the handmade, the one-of-a-kind object. It was still not looking in any way towards traditional or commercial jewelry. Sharon: Jonathan, tell us what the 92nd Street Y is, because people may not know. Jonathan: The 92nd Street Y is a 140-year-old institution here on the Upper East Side of New York City. It is one of New York City's most important cultural anchors. It has many different facets. We have a renowned lecture series. The November before the pandemic, I remember we had back-to-back Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Lizzo. Wednesday night it was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Thursday night it was Lizzo. Last night we had Outlander here, and I think we had a full house of 900 people plus 2,000 people online. We also have a world-renowned dance center that has a long history with Martha Graham and Bill T. Jones. In many ways, modern dance coalesced at the 92nd Street Y. The Jewelry Center has had a presence here at the Y since 1930. We have a wonderful ceramic center. We also have one of the most prestigious nursery schools in New York City. You name it. The 92nd Street Y is a Jewish cultural center. It's part of the UJA Association, but it's kind of its own thing. It's a whole other story about what Ys are and the difference between YWCAs, YMCAs and YM-WHAs, which is what we are, but the 92nd Street Y is really a cultural center. Sharon: When are you opening your West Coast branch in Los Angeles? Because you have such an incredible number of speakers and programs. Jonathan: Many of them come from the West Coast. We had Andrew Garfield here the week before last to talk about his amazing performance for a Reel Pieces program with Annette Insdorf. I think that was a full house of 900 people for a performance from “Tick Tick Boom,” which was great. I don't know when we're coming to LA. We're just reemerging from the pandemic here in New York. Sharon: This is not related to jewelry, but do you think that without the pandemic, you would have gone online to such an extent? Would it have been possible for people around the world, including on the West Coast, to see what's going on? Jonathan: The pandemic was the catalyst to do something we'd always thought about, but yes, the pandemic definitely forced us to do it. On March 13, New York City shut down. That Monday, we flipped all of our classes, every single one of our classes in the Art Center, which is about 200 classes, to be virtual. That worked for some classes better than others, obviously for painting and drawing. It was fine for jewelry. It's tough if you don't have a studio. What we did through the summer is offer online classes. We still offer online classes to some extent, but my focus is on building back our in-person class schedule, which we're doing. We're over about half enrollment now from the pandemic and moving quickly towards three-quarters. Sharon: Did the people who enrolled in hands-on jewelry classes, did that just stop with the pandemic? Jonathan: Yes, it stopped from March 2020 until September 2020. In September, we actually opened back up for in-person classes. We wore masks. We were socially distanced. We were unvaccinated. I was taking the subway and it worked. It was slow at first, but I think this process is a part of many people's lives and this program is so meaningful for so many people. Being in New York, access to a studio is important, and very few people have studios at home. This is not only an important part emotionally of their lives, it's also literally, physically, an important part of making jewelry their practice. Sharon: Since you started as director of the program, I know you've been responsible for growing it tremendously. Was that one of your goals? Did you have that vision, or there was just so much opportunity? What happened? Jonathan: All of the above. There was a lot of opportunity. Unfortunately, the Crafts Students League closed shortly after I left. Parsons closed their department. There were a number of continuing education programs that left Manhattan, and this is before the country of Brooklyn was discovered, even though I lived there. There were no schools in Brooklyn, really. The 92nd Street Y became one of the few places to study when I came on. Also, to my point about studying jewelry in art school, you're studying to be an artist generally in art school; you're not really studying to be a jeweler in the way most people understand jewelers to be. Although certainly at Tyler, it was a great technical education and I learned a lot of hard skills, many people, including myself, were not adept at those hard skills. We're not taught at a trade school, and I found that most of the people who were looking for jewelry classes wanted to make more traditional jewelry than the classes we were offering. Most of our faculty came from art school. There were some amazing people, Bob Ebendorf and Lisa Grounick(?) to name just a few, but as the 90s wore on and the aesthetic changed, I found that people really wanted to learn how to work in gold, how to set a stone. The aesthetics of jewelry shifted. You probably know yourself that the art jewelry world shifted a little bit too. For myself, I wanted to learn more hard skills, and I basically started creating classes that reflected my interests in how to make better wax carvings, how to set a brilliant-cut stone. I can then make that into what I want: studio jewelry, art jewelry, whatever, but those hard skills were lacking. I've said this many times: I don't know that this program would exist in another city other than New York because there was so much talent here. There were people from the industry here. There were artists who were studio jewelers and art jewelers all at my fingertips. I think that was one of the ways it grew, not because I reduced the perspective of what was being made here, but because I enlarged the perspective of what was being made here or taught here. Sharon: How did you do that? Did you do that by identifying potential teachers and attracting them? What did you do? Jonathan: I was lucky to have some wonderful people in New York City at that time. We had a wonderful faculty to begin with, but we also were able to expand the faculty with incredible people who had recently resigned. Pamela Farland, who was a master goldsmith and was the goldsmith at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for many years, was on our stuff. Klaus Burgel, who was trained at the Academy of Munich, was here in New York and came to us as a faculty member. Tovaback Winnick(?), who was a master wax carver and worked for Kieselstein-Cord for many years, came on as well. Some people work here for a shorter period of my time. My good friend, Lola Brooks, was here and taught stone setting. There was some really stellar talent around that helped me build this program. Sharon: That's quite a lineup you're mentioning. Jonathan: And a really diverse lineup. Sharon: Diverse in what sense? Jonathan: Klaus' work is pure art jewelry: the iconic object, incredibly crafted, but what one would consider as art jewelry in its most essential sense. Lola Brooks, her work crosses the lines of both art and jewelry, and she's got a beautiful studio jewelry line. Then there are people like Pamela Farland, who made very classical, Greco-Roman, high-carat granulated stones, classical goldsmithing. Then there was Tovaback Winnick who teaches carving, which is how the majority of commercial jewelry is made. We had real range as well as your regular Jewelry 1, Jewelry 2, Jewelry 3 classes where we're teaching the basics of sawing, forming and soldering. Sharon: You answered my question in part, but if somebody says, “I'm tired of working as a banker; I want to be a jeweler,” can you come to the Y and do that? Can you go through Jewelry 1, Jewelry 2, Jewelry 3 and then graduate into granulation? I don't know if there's a direct line. Jonathan: Absolutely. We don't have a course of study. We don't have a certificate, but you can definitely come here and put your own skillset together. That's also what I found strong about the program, that it gave people access to put their skillsets together without going through art school or going through college. You're able to learn those hard skills in an environment where it's no frills. Sharon: Are they mostly younger people, older people, people of all ages? Jonathan: It's people of all ages. When I joked about the country of Brooklyn not being discovered yet, I lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for my whole New York life, so I'm speaking the truth. There really wasn't anything out there. If you were young and hip and cool when I lived in Brooklyn, you had to come here. So, for a long time, we had a much younger population that was cool, hip. Now, everybody has moved to the country called Brooklyn. That demographic has aged a little bit for us. We have three classes during the day. We have a morning class, an afternoon class, a late afternoon class and then an evening class. If you're a younger person, it's most likely that you have a job, so you're going to come at night for our classes. That's only one-quarter of the population that can take a class here, because there's only one slot of night classes. There could be four classes happening at the same time, but all from 7:00-9:30. So, in general our population skews old because those are the people who are generally available during the day. That being said, it's New York City. There are lots of different ways to make a living here. There are definitely people who are actors or bartenders or artists or what have you who do have time during the day and come here. It really depends on what class, but absolutely; we have all ages for sure. We also have kids' classes in the afternoon from 4:00-6:30.
If you've ever felt old and uncool as an artist (like I have, and often), then this episode is for you. I set about to get hard data about when the artists that we revere in museums created their most admired works. What I uncovered will simultaneously astound and soothe you. Texts mentioned in this episode were: "Late Bloomers" by Rich Karlgaard "Old Masters and Young Geniuses" by David Galenson "A Letter from Mark Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb to the Art Editor of the New York Times" June 7, 1943 Also mentioned: "Slideshow at Free University" by Le Tigre Peps podcast tees are born! Check them out at https://amytalluto.bigcartel.com/category/peps Connect with Peps on Instagram and see more images illustrating this episode: @peptalksforartists --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/peptalksforartistspod/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/peptalksforartistspod/support
Bonnie Tsui is a journalist and the author of Why We Swim.“I am a self-motivated person. I really don’t like being told what to do. I’ve thought about this many times over the last 16 years that I’ve been a full-time freelancer... even though I thought my dream was to always and forever be living in New York, working in publishing, working at a magazine, being an editor, writing. When I was an editor, I kind of hated it. I just didn’t like being chained to a desk.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @bonnietsui bonnietsui.com 02:00 Why We Swim (Algonquin • 2020) 03:30 American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods (Tsui • Free Press • 2009) 10:30 The Deep (2012) 28:00 "With His Absence, My Artist Father Taught Me the Art of Vanishing" (Catapult • Feb 2019) 41:30 "After Fires, Napa and Sonoma Tourism Industry Is Getting Back on Its Feet" (New York Times • Oct 2017) 44:30 "Child Care: What — and Who — It Takes to Raise a Family" (California Sunday • July 2019) 49:00 "The Break: Female Big-Wave Surfers Prepare to Compete on Mavericks’s 50-Foot Waves for the First Time" (California Sunday • Aug 2018) 50:00 "Meet the Women Who Are Changing What it Means to be a Mom and a Professional Athlete" (Sports Illustrated • Dec 2019) 53:30 "You Are Doing Something Important When You Aren’t Doing Anything" (New York Times • June 2019) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This shocking story takes place at Six Flags Great Adventure Park in Jackson, New Jersey. Story written by: Mitchell and Lindsay Hall This series is being produced by Piccolo Podcasts: https://piccolopodcasts.com.au/ or https://twitter.com/piccolopodcasts & https://www.instagram.com/piccolopodcasts/ Keep up with the show at: https://www.instagram.com/fairgroundpod/ or https://twitter.com/fairgroundpod Producers: Andrew Menczel & Emily Middleton References Kathleen Robinson, “Haunted by Fire”, NFPA Journal – May June 2014 https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Publications-and-media/NFPA-Journal/2014/May-June-2014/Features/The-Haunted-Castle-Revisited?fbclid=IwAR0e9sTgTNPqYzYHrd1qIxU4qDJj9q47IVzRiZUx7wvoCAWeTWZRxZDy1Ts David Russell, “Anniversary of Fatal Haunted Castle Fire”, Queens Chronicle – May 2019 https://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/anniversary-of-fatal-haunted-castle-fire/article_d375bc78-46bd-5828-9f93-b4f0c44f604f.html?fbclid=IwAR0e9sTgTNPqYzYHrd1qIxU4qDJj9q47IVzRiZUx7wvoCAWeTWZRxZDy1Ts Brett Bodner, “Six Flags Haunted Castle fire remembered 30 years later” Ausbury Park Press, NJ– May 2014 https://www.app.com/story/news/local/2014/05/10/six-flags-haunted-castle-fire-remembered-30-years-later/8950291/?fbclid=IwAR0e9sTgTNPqYzYHrd1qIxU4qDJj9q47IVzRiZUx7wvoCAWeTWZRxZDy1Ts Bill Doyle, “The 1984 Haunted Castle Fire at Six Flags Great Adventure”, New Jersey 101.5 – May 2020 https://nj1015.com/the-1984-haunted-castle-fire-at-six-flags-great-adventure/?fbclid=IwAR0e9sTgTNPqYzYHrd1qIxU4qDJj9q47IVzRiZUx7wvoCAWeTWZRxZDy1Ts Donald Janson “Girl Tells Court About Escaping Fun House Fire”, New York Times - June 13, 1985 https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/13/nyregion/girl-tells-court-about-escaping-fun-house-fire.html Donald Janson “Park Fire an Accident Boy Testifies”, New York Times – June 12, 1985 https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/12/nyregion/park-fire-an-accident-boy-testifies.html Donald Janson “Closing Statements to Jurors are made in Park Fire Trial”, New York Times – July 19, 1985 https://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/19/nyregion/closing-statements-to-jurors-are-made-in-park-fire-trial.html “Father of Great Adventure Victim Says He’ll Reject Settlement”, AP News – December 24, 1985 https://apnews.com/b4cc5962f2aad462a0d9fe26df81e817 Haunted Castle (Six Flags Great Adventure) Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_Castle_(Six_Flags_Great_Adventure) Six Flags Great Adventure homepage: https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Megan Ming Francis, “The white press has a history of endangering black lives going back a century,” Washington Post (June 15, 2020).Dorothy Roberts, “Abolishing Policing Also Means Abolishing Family Regulation,” The Chronicle of Social Change (June 16, 2020).Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter From Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963).Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, translated by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd., 1962).Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, “The End of Black Politics: Black leaders regularly fail to rise to the challenges that confront young people,” New York Times (June 13, 2020).
In this episode Lars talks to Michelle Jones and November Pollack, respectively principal and founder, and a student at Wayfinding Academy in Portland, Oregon. Wayfinding Academy is an alternative, two year college that offers a different approach to higher education. Despite its small size, and short history (first cohort started in 2016), Wayfinding has already gotten some recognition, and recruits students from all over the US. We talk about how society is steering more and more young people towards college, what we hope to get out of school and studies, how curiosity often doesn’t survive the many years of formal schooling, and what the role of the teacher should be. Hear Michelle’s TEDx-talk from 2019, and read about Wayfinding in The Times Chronicle of Higher Education(Nov 2019) and The New York Times (June 2019). These are examples of the kinds of experiments and different ideas about learning we’ve been talking a lot about on the podcast. Books mentioned in the episode: John Holt, Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better, Sentient 2003 [1976] Derrick Jensen, Walking on Water: Reading, Writing and Revolution, Chelsea Green Publising, 2005 If you want to hear more about these topics, here’s an episode from Blake Boles’ podcast Off-Trail Learning (recorded at Wayfinding Academy last year), where Blake, Bill Deresiewicz (author of Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life from 2015) and Dev Carey discusses what it means to be educated, and the power and peril of self-education. We would love your feedback on this episode. What are your thoughts, experiences, counterarguments, and ideas about how to spread such ideas about education? Please contact us on the email address below. ---------------------------- Our logo is by Sveinung Sudbø, see his works on originalkopi.com The music is by Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen, see the facebook page Nygrenda Vev og Dur for more info. ---------------------------- Thank you for listening. You can contact us on our facebook page or by email: larsogpaal@gmail.com There is no better way for the podcast to gain new interested listener than by you sharing it with friends, so if you find what we do interesting and useful, please consider doing just that. The podcast is still most in Norwegian, but we have a lot of episodes coming out in English. Our blogs: https://paljabekk.com/ https://larssandaker.blogspot.com/ Alt godt, hilsen Lars og Pål
When Vox content creator Carlos Maza (Strikethrough) called out YouTube for allowing commentator Steven Crowder to use racially and sexually provocative language to describe him, it lead to a firestorm of online activity, and some ill-considered reactions from Team YouTube. What was Team YouTube's initial response to the controversy? Why was such response almost immediately deemed inappropriate by effectively both sides of the discussion? How do YouTube's terms of service work, and why does a "plain English" approach often lead to ambiguities like the ones seen here? How did YouTube almost immediately backtrack in its initial response resulting in national coverage by the likes of the New York Times and others? And why should all commentators and YouTube content creators, of every political and other persuasion, be wary of ambiguous rules and rulings from a company which itself admits it will punish folks even in the absence of true violations? Our rules are clear. It's time for Virtual Legality. CHECK OUT THE VIDEO AT: https://youtu.be/nuxEtUEkx_Q #Maza #Crowder #YouTube *** Discussed in this episode: "Thanks again for taking the time to share all of this information with us." Team YouTube Tweet - June 4, 2019 (https://twitter.com/TeamYouTube/status/1136055311486210048) "Harassment and cyberbullying policy" YouTube "Help Center" (https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2802268?visit_id=1-636215053151010017-1930197662&rd=1&hl=en) "Policies and Safety" YouTube Community Guidelines (https://www.youtube.com/yt/about/policies/#community-guidelines) "YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views" New York Times - June 5, 2019 - Kevin Roose and Kate Conger (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/business/youtube-remove-extremist-videos.html) "Our ongoing work to tackle hate" YouTube Official Blog - June 5, 2019 (https://youtube.googleblog.com/2019/06/our-ongoing-work-to-tackle-hate.html) "Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube" YouTube Official Blog - January 25, 2019 (https://youtube.googleblog.com/2019/01/continuing-our-work-to-improve.html) "Google is facing an imminent antitrust investigation from the US Justice Department" The Verge - May 31, 2019 - Nick Statt (https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/31/18648052/google-us-justice-department-doj-investigation-antitrust-search) REFERENCED: "Virtual Legality #50 - On the Tyranny of "Guidelines": A PlayStation Story (Hoeg Law)" (https://youtu.be/-ZPlpI1WeTQ) *** FOR MORE CHECK US OUT: On Twitter @hoeglaw At our website: https://hoeglaw.com/ On our Blog, "Rules of the Game", at https://hoeglaw.wordpress.com/ On "Help Us Out Hoeg!" a regular segment on the Easy Allies Podcast (formerly GameTrailers) (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZrxXp1reP8E353rZsB3jaA) Biweekly on "Inside the Huddle with Michael Spath" on WTKA 1050
WTMWM? – S2, E8: The Disability Trap Welcome to the Whats The Matter With Me? Podcast Season 2, Episode 8: The Disability Trap My name is John, I’m 39 years old, husband and father of two, small business owner, radio DJ, podcaster and I have multiple sclerosis (MS), so I made this podcast to share what I’m going through. The Whats The Matter With Me? Podcast is an MS podcast and it’s also about other things. I’m not a medical professional and you should not take this for medical advice. If you need medical advice, ask your healthcare provider. Find us on Facebook and please rate us. Download the Whats The Matter With Me? Podcast from Apple podcasts and Whatsthematterwithme.org Episode 7 Recap Last episode, I took MS medicine by infusion and it knocked me out and burned me up, complained about reddit, new brace, I can zip up my own fly, for now. Shoutouts Shout out to Patrick-- it turns out he found out about this podcast from the time I posted it on Reddit so in fact even though I thought it was disappointing, I got through to people even though I didn't see it at first. Patrick is a young father with MS like me. He told me that he was inspired by What's the Matter With Me? and started his own Ms blog on Facebook called Taking It Day By Day- Patrick's MS Story. Check it out and many thanks and shout outs to Patrick. I'm just going to keep it rollin' with the shout outs so shoutouts to Rocky. I know she listens because she responds to the episodes in text messages. She is a librarian and she is trying to get the American Library Association to divest from fossil fuels. She has started to reach out to divestment experts to help amplify her argument from an environmental as well as a financial viewpoint. It's very persuasive and I will put a link to it in the post on this episode on whatsthematterwithme.org. Shoutouts and thanks for listening Rocky. Click here to listen to her interview. The Disability Trap I watched an interesting short film called The Disability Trap by Jason DaSilva, the director of When I Walk, probably the foremost disabled filmmaker. He wrote an op ed in New York Times and as part of it included The Disability Trap, which raised some important questions. Before I get to that I noticed that the movie is about 13 minutes long, I think MS people make stuff that is about 13 minutes long and that's about right I guess. That's how I do it too. The film tells how in some states like New York, where Jason lives, the state provides one-on-one in-home care, so he live at home, be more independent and studies show he will have a longer life expectancy. His son lives in Texas, and in order for Jason to move there he will have to live in a home and he will lose a considerable amount of Independence and freedom. The point of his op-ed is that this creates an impossible choice whereby in order to gain proximity to his son he must relinquish his life as he knows it. It's from the New York Times June 24th edition, called The Disability Trap by Jason DaSilva. John's Birthday / Swimming It is so important tor me to be present as a father to my son, and I can’t imagine what Jason is going through. It's John John’s 5th birthday tomorrow and we are going to go to Santa Rosa to be with my parents. We will all go swimming in the pool. I might try and get into the pool it's kind of hard and I stubbed my toes a lot but I think I will try. I hope it is not too dangerous. Maybe I will try getting in on the deep end. I hope I can still swim. Hoppin Hot Sauce Movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1NqIaC1w_s I made the Hoppin Hot Sauce movie where I spoke about how I have MS but I didn't let it stop me from cooking. I put it on my Youtube channel, and my customer email, where this month it was the top item. I was nervous about it, but the response has been uniformly positive. The gears are spinning and I am working on a few more videos already. Hoppin Hot Sauce is good sauce and social entrepreneurship and I ...
Shabbat & Mindfulness Shabbat is called a day of מנוחה , “rest.” In the minhah prayer on Shabbat, we speak of this day being a time of מנוחה שלימה – “complete rest.” This includes both physical rest, a break from the hard work we do during the week, but also מנוחת הנפש – a state of emotional ease and serenity. The Saba of Kelm placed great emphasis on the importance of מנוחת הנפש , on living with a calm, serene feeling, rather than living with stress and anxiety. In one passage in his writings, the Saba specifies one particular factor as the most dangerous threat to a person's עבודת ה' (service of G-d): כאשר ראיתי שכל עיקר המבלבל בעבודה הוא פיזור הנפש...על כן תתיעץ להתלמד על זה, לתת מחשבתך תמיד בדבר אשר אתה עוסק בו ולא לחשוב כלל בדבר אחר, ולא תהיה יושב כאן ומחשב באספמיא... As I have seen that the main disrupter to the service [of Hashem] is the scattering of the mind…you are therefore advised to train yourself to always place your thoughts on what you are currently involved in, without thinking at all of anything else, and to not sit here and think about Aspamia [something unrelated]. The Saba proceeds to urge us to use prayer as the time to train ourselves in this vital skill. While we pray, we should make a special effort to focus our minds exclusively on the words of the tefilah , and not on anything else. Mindfulness has always been a challenge, but never more so than in our day and age. We live in a world of constant distraction and multitasking, when people actually pride themselves on performing numerous tasks simultaneously, and feel more productive and accomplished when they do so. I imagine that for many people living in the 21 st century, the words of the Saba of Kelm sound archaic and outdated. Modern life, it is commonly assumed, necessitates multitasking, juggling phone calls, text messages and emails at all times. Nobody today just drives anymore; people need to make phone calls while driving. Wherever we are, we are constantly checking our phones and other gadgets to stay connected. We eat in front of screens so that we don't waste time. We feel this desperate need to max ourselves out by doing as many things as we possibly can all at once. However, it is not only the Saba of Kelm who warned about the adverse effects of multitasking and a lack of mindfulness. A number of modern-day researchers have reached the conclusion that multitasking actually makes us less productive and more stressed. In an article published in Harvard Business Review entitled “How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking?” (May 20, 2010), author Peter Bregman writes: A study showed that people distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQs . What's the impact of a 10-point drop? The same as losing a night of sleep… Doing several things at once is a trick we play on ourselves, thinking we're getting more done. In reality, our productivity goes down by as much as 40% . We don't actually multitask. We switch-task, rapidly shifting from one thing to another, interrupting ourselves unproductively, and losing time in the process. You might think you're different, that you've done it so much you've become good at it. Practice makes perfect and all that. But you'd be wrong. Research shows that heavy multitaskers are less competent at doing several things at once than light multitaskers. In other words, in contrast to almost everything else in your life, the more you multitask, the worse you are at it. Practice, in this case, works against you. In an article in the New York Times (June 6, 2010) entitled, “Attached to Technology and Paying a Price,” Matt Richtel writes: Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information. These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — an adrenaline squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored. While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information, scientists say, and they experience more stress. “The technology is rewiring our brains,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse and one of the world's leading brain scientists. “We are exposing our brains to an environment and asking them to do things we weren't necessarily created to do,” It is true that modern life requires a degree of multitasking. I often find myself putting my phone on speaker during a conversation so I can go over my emails at the same time. To one extent or another, this is a reality of contemporary life. We must recognize, however, that this comes with a price, as it makes us less attentive to, and focused on, any given task. As an educator, I can attest that focus and attention has become an especially grave problem in today's day and age. And so while some multitasking is undoubtedly a necessity of life, we should try to minimize it as much as possible. We might draw a comparison to jogging on concrete. Especially in urban neighborhoods, many joggers jog on paved sidewalks and roads, despite the fact that the human knee was made to run on soft surfaces such as vegetation. In G-d's great wisdom and compassion, He gave us the miracle of knee replacement surgery to help those whose knees have been damaged by excessive jogging on asphalt. Running on concrete might be a necessity in the modern world for city folks, but they would be wise to try to minimize the adverse effects by jogging on softer surfaces whenever they can or to buy sneakers with special cushioning. The same is true about our multitasking habits. While this might indeed be an inescapable fixture of modern life, we should endeavor to minimize it to whatever extent we can, and endeavor to keep our minds exclusively focused on whatever individual task we are currently involved in. We might add that this point is relevant to both men and women. The following sentence appears on the Wikipedia page on the topic of multitasking: “Although the idea that women are better multitaskers than men has been popular in the media as well in conventional thought, there is very little data available to support claims of a real…difference.” It is true that the wide variety of responsibilities borne by women certainly requires a degree of multitasking, such as helping a child with homework while making a soup and making sure the chicken in the oven does not burn. But even for women, this should be seen as a necessity that ought to be minimized to whatever extent possible. This is one of the reasons why Shabbat, especially in our time, is an especially precious gift and special opportunity. With our computers turned off and all our gadgets put away for a full twenty-five hours, we are able to remain focused. The Shabbat table is the perfect opportunity to retrain our minds each week to give our full and undivided attention to people while speaking to them. We have a chance to talk to our family members and guests without interruptions, without shopping online or writing emails at the same time. Just as the Saba of Kelm spoke about utilizing the time of tefilah as an opportunity for mindfulness training, the 25-hour period of Shabbat is for us an invaluable opportunity. At least one day a week, we are able to focus on and enjoy what we are doing at the moment, without scattering our minds about. Rav Avigdor Miller would make a point of focusing on his food whenever he ate so he can enjoy the taste. Life becomes much richer and more fulfilling when we focus on and try to enjoy everything we do when we do it. A patient in a hospital was once visited at different times by two different Rabbis. He said that both Rabbis spent ten minutes with him, but “one of the two gave me all the time in the world for those ten minutes.” Focusing exclusively on the person we are with can make a world of a difference. Shabbat is the best opportunity we have to hone this precious skill. It is the time for us to work on achieving the מנוחת הנפש that so many of us lack, and which we so vitally need to live a truly productive, meaningful and fulfilling life.
Seattle Music and Arts Pioneer Interview starts at 9:38 and ends at 44:45 “There it was, the [Seattle] head tax. ‘We're going to do it, this is what we're going to do. It's going to address homelessness. We'll collect the money--we don't know how we're going to spend it yet, but we're going to hit these businesses with this tax.' That's just not the way to govern, in my opinion.” News Atul Gawande to head Amazon-Berkshire-JP Morgan health organization, as covered in The New York Times and The Washington Post Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande Amazon Prime Day 2018 will begin July 16, according to a Techradar scoop. TechRadar's Prime Day hub Supreme Court ruling allowing states to force online retailers to collect sales tax (Bloomberg and Recode) Alexa in hotels Google Home Hub by Amazon Tech Tip Fire TV Cube Interview with Ricardo Frazer Sir Mix-a-Lot (Wikipedia) Sir Mix-a-Lot web site Zaki-Rose Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) Seattle Theatre Group 4Culture “Amazon to Share New Building with Homeless Shelter in Seattle” by Nick Wingfield at The New York Times - May 10, 2017 Mary's Place “Jeff Bezos Wants Ideas for Philanthropy, So He Asked Twitter” by Nick Wingfield at The New York Times - June 15, 2017 Next Week's Guest Kathy Lynn Emerson, author of Crime & Punctuation (Deadly edits). Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD. Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads! Right-click here and then click "Save Link As..." to download the audio to your computer, phone, or MP3 player.
Author of “The List” in Amazon's The Real Thing Collection Interview starts at 13:23 and ends at 39:21 “I think we look at the Big Five publishers as being kind of set in their ways and really traditional, but I actually think that everyone is looking to try new things. I think everyone is realizing that just putting out a hardcover in the exact same way isn't going to always work in a way that they would hope. It's more that I'm just excited about different ways of approaching storytelling.” (Photo credit: Teresa Flowers) News Echo Look ($199.99) is now available to all U.S. customers (press release) - June 6, 2018 “Want to Read Michael Lewis's Next Work? You'll Be Able to Listen to It First” by Alexandra Alter at The New York Times - June 2, 2018 Amazon Fire TV Cube “Amazon's Fire TV Cube is an Echo, streamking box, and universal remote in one” by Chris Welch at The Verge - June 7, 2018 Interview with Jade Chang “The List” by Jade Chang in the Amazon Original Stories collection, The Real Thing The Wangs Vs. the World by Jade Chang “The Deceptively Simple Work of an Artist Who Hallucinated as a Child” by Tasos Gaintatzis and Marina Legaki at The Hundreds - December 19, 2014 “Love and Estrogen” by Samantha Allen in The Real Thing collection Content “What Books are Highlighted the Most Densely?” By Daniel Doyon at Readwise - May 10, 2018 Next Week's Guest Bradley Metrock, CEO of Score Publishing, which is the new owner of Digital Book World, scheduled for October 2nd through 4th in Nashville, Tennessee. Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD. Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!
For World AIDS Day, Greg Millett surveys where we are in the fight against HIV: the good news, the challenges & concerns, and the surprising news. Greg is the Vice President and Director of Public Policy for amfAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, and has previously held leadership roles at the White House Office of National AIDS Policy and at the Centers for Disease Control. A globally recognized advocate and researcher, Greg's work has fundamentally transformed how we understand the disparities of HIV infection for African American gay, bisexual, and other men who sex with men. This is a must-listen interview! Links • Linda Villarosa, "America's Hidden HIV Epidemic," New York Times (June 6, 2017) • Greg Millett, "Time to Close HIV's Racial Disparities," CNN (Feb. 7, 2015) • Tim Murphy, "HIV: Mystery Solved?" The Nation (Feb. 15, 2016)
Reader's Advisory Librarian at Seattle Public Library Interview starts at 12:20 and ends at 37:05 “The Seattle Library has seen an exponential growth in our e-book usage, which like elsewhere is not cutting into our print usage. It's additive, which is really interesting to say. Same with audiobooks. These new formats just seem to bring new people into reading and literature, so that's all to the good.” (Photo by John Lok, The Seattle Times) News “New findings suggest it might be better to read toddlers an e-book than a print book” by Emma Young at The British Psychological Society Research Digest - June 15, 2017 “Amazon's New Customer” by Ben Thompson at Stratechery - June 19, 2017 “In Whole Foods, Bezos Gets a Sustainably Sourced Guinea Pig” by Farhad Manjoo at The New York Times - June 17, 2017 “Open Road Integrated Media Newsletters Reach One Million Subscribers” - press release on June 22, 2017 Tech Tips “Introducing Smart Home Camera Control with Alexa” by Jeff Blankenburg at Alexa Blogs - June 22, 2017 Interview with David Wright Seattle Public Library Nancy Pearl on TKC 268 Books by Jerome Charyn and James Sallis The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Books by Joanna Russ Selected Shorts podcast Books by Richard Matheson Amazon support for Mary's Place - Seattle Times May 14, 2017 Internet Archive The Mysteries of Paris by Eugéne Sue The Collected Works of Jack London A Natural History of Hell: Stories by Jeffrey Ford (Includes “The Blameless”) Articles by and about David Wright: “Librarians of the 21st Century: Worst Story Time Ever? (Or Best?)” at LitHub - March 14, 2017 “Seattle library offers suspenseful story time just for grown-ups” by Nicole Einbinder at The Seattle Times - March 3, 2017 “Behind the Bookshelf: At home with a librarian” by Kelly Skahan at Seattle Refined Readings (mp3) by David Wright: Thrilling Tales events - a couple of ghost stories Jean-Ah Poquelin, an old New Orleans Horror story by George Washington Cabell - Some classic short-short stories: William Hope Hodgson's A Voice in the Night Nikolai Gogol's The Nose Love Poems, by Lon Otto (NPR) A pair of holiday tales (I read for NPR) Content The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future by Kevin Kelly George and Lizzy: A Novel by Nancy Pearl (Available for pre-order) Comment “Here's An Idea For Amazon Kindle Books” by Dan Barnett at Medium - June 21, 2017 Next Week's Guest Kevin Kelly, author of The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD. Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!
My Father and Grandson Interview starts at 23:32 and ends at 44:30 News Amazon Inspire press release - June 27, 2016 “Amazon Unveils Online Education Service for Educators” by Natasha Singer at The New York Times - June 27, 2016 “Amazon Inspire Removes Some Content Over Copyright Issues” by Natasha Singer at The New York Times - June 29, 2016 “Good News at The Washington Post” by Christopher Payne at New York Magazine - June 28, 2016 Amazon Dash Buttons press release - June 28, 2016 Amazon Prime Day - July 12, 2016 Tech Tip Page Flip, the reimagined Kindle navigation tool Interview with my father and my grandson Click here to order a Kindle cover with a photo The Boxcar Children Mysteries by Gertrude Chandler Warner – various prices for Kindle Books by Will James Two Little Savages by Ernest Thompson Seton Minecraft Books by Horatio Alger Next Week's Guest Mike Torres, Amazon's director of product management for the Kindle, who will talk about Page Flip. Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD. Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!
Margalit Fox is a senior obituary writer for The New York Times and the author of The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code. "You do get emotionally involved with people, even though as a journalist you're not supposed to. But as a human being, how can you not? Particularly people who had difficult, tragic, poignant lives. But there are also people that you just wish you had known. And, of course, the painful irony is that you're only getting to know them by virtue of the fact that it's too late." Show notes: @margalitfox The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code (HarperCollins • 2013) Fox's New York Times archive [4:15] "Lennart Meri, 76, of Estonia, Dies; President, Filmmaker, Writer" (New York Times • Mar 2006) [4:20] "Samuel Alderson, Crash-Test Dummy Inventor, Dies at 90" (New York Times • Feb 2005) [4:25] "Fred Morrison, Creator of a Popular Flying Plate, Dies at 90" (New York Times • Feb 2010) [4:25] "André Cassagnes, Etch A Sketch Inventor, Is Dead at 86" (New York Times • Feb 2013) [4:25] "John Houghtaling, Inventor of Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed, Dies at 92" (New York Times • June 2009) [9:45] "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" (Esquire • Apr 1966) [14:15] "Maurice Sendak, Author of Splendid Nightmares, Dies at 83" (New York Times • May 2012) [17:15] Alden Whitman Is Dead at 76; Made an Art of Times Obituaries (New York Times • Sep 1990) [22:15] "Nguyen Chi Thien, Whose Poems Spoke Truth to Power, From a Cell, Dies at 73" (New York Times • Oct 2012) [23:30] "Sy Wexler, Maker of Ubiquitous Classroom Films, Dies at 88" (New York Times • Mar 2005) [24:30] "Leslie Buck, Designer of Iconic Coffee Cup, Dies at 87" (New York Times • Apr 2010) [39:00] "Alice E. Kober, 43; Lost to History No More" (New York Times • May 2013) [40:45] "John Fairfax, Who Rowed Across Oceans, Dies at 74" (New York Times • Feb 2012)
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