This and That by JL

When I was a girl growing up in Far Rockaway, it was wartime. My parents worried that German submarines would be coming across the Atlantic Ocean to our beaches. They would sit for hours in front of the living room radio, hanging on every word from the frontline. Now it is wartime again in America. Only […]

When we asked Entergy whether we could honor them at our 2020 gala, they hesitated. When they finally accepted the tribute, they gave us another gift…They connected us with Wynton Marsalis, Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, who agreed to be the keynote speaker and a performer at the gala. Wynton and […]

“My guest blogger this week is my assistant Megan Thomson Connor. Megan is a gifted writer and arts administrator who has taken the lead on managing and promoting ArtsWestchester’s new Poet Laureate initiative, in partnership with Westchester County government. Her dedication in supporting our creatives and her reverence for both the written and the spoken […]

      The word “creative” used to belong predominantly to the right-brain arts community. Lately however, the word has wandered into the left-brain analytical zone.  Phrases such as “creative economy,” “creative industries” and “creative class” have crept into the business vernacular. So what’s going on here? Have the economists hijacked creativity? Not at all. […]

    The flu epidemic of 1918 was not a story that was taught in every classroom in America. But for me, it was personal. I was named Janet Frances after my father’s mother Frances, my grandmother whom I never met because she died tragically in the flu epidemic of 1918, long before I was born. Perhaps that […]

I have been trying to downsize. Not an easy thing to do. When you own a house, there’s always a place to squirrel away more stuff than you need. For years and years, I have surrounded myself with cherished objects, saved old birthday cards, photos, and stuff that I just couldn’t bear to throw away. […]

Recently there’s been a lot of talk about strong women. It keeps coming up—in conversation, on TV, in the news. Some of this chatter may be due to one man’s search for a competent woman who is “ready to take the reins on day one.“ The operative word here being “competent.“ As we celebrate the […]

For most artists, a grant is simply an opportunity to create a work of art. Ah, but once in awhile, it’s a chance to change the world. Yardena Youner wrote to me from Israel to remind me of a grant she received from ArtsWestchester (at the time Westchester Arts Council) some 23 years ago for […]