This and That by JL

Vinnie Bagwell is finally coming into her own, and all her admirers (I am one of them) couldn’t be happier. I might even be bold enough to say that this may be her year. On April 7, ArtsWestchester will bestow upon her its Artist Award, given annually to an extraordinary artist who has created a significant […]

ArtsWestchester announced a major new competitive artist grant program, which will award three artists with $10,000 each to propose and actualize new works related to social justice.

ArtsWestchester CEO Janet Langsam is commemorating President’s Day with this blog about a founding father.

During this week, I have chosen to reread many of the words of wisdom of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. These are words that resonated with me as a youth in the sixties. For example, it is true today as it was then that: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We were […]

One of the things we miss the most during this Covid nightmare is teachers. They have always been the unsung social workers of the neighborhoods.  As a kid growing up in Far Rockaway, I learned that from my mother, a fifth-grade teacher who practiced her own version of tough love both in the classroom and at […]

Polio was all around me as a kid growing up in Far Rockaway. It was in every whisper, every newspaper, every mother’s nightmare—the idea that the simple act of going to a swimming pool or a movie could cripple you for life. Those were the stark choices we had to make as kids growing up […]

The rhythm filled the Tarrytown Music Hall on a recent Saturday night as the Tom Chapin family took the stage to celebrate the music hall’s 135th birthday. It was a gala occassion, on Zoom of course, and the chat room was spinning. This venerable old theater started life as a venue for classical music. The […]

Dear Friend of ArtsWestchester, We are reaching out to you because you have been a friend to the arts in Westchester and we need your friendship now more than ever. Community support has enabled us to keep the arts alive and vital in Westchester in good times—and in not so good times. Right now is […]