"Roscoe" Opera at Skidmore this Sunday

From today's Times Union:
Opera troupe workshops adaptation of William Kennedy's 'Roscoe'

Amy Biancoll, Times Union

By Amy BiancolliUpdated 11:29 am, Thursday, June 5, 2014

The souls peopling William Kennedy novels have always had an operatic streak about them: tragically flawed, larger than life, haunted by death (or dead already). And they have issues If, as W.H. Auden observed, opera is "an imitation of human willfulness," then the classic Kennedy protagonist is prime meat for operatic adaptation.

Consider Roscoe Conway, the complex and fleshy political insider at the heart of "Roscoe," a new opera scheduled for an Opera Saratoga workshop performance at 2 p.m. Sunday at Skidmore College. Adapted from the Kennedy novel by Albany composer Evan Mack and Tennessee-based librettist Joshua McGuire, the opera is about half-written: Only the 80-minute Act I will be performed in Sunday's unstaged concert rendering, sung by members of the company's Young Artist Program. "It's quite wonderful. It's thrilling to listen to it, and to hear these voices when they start taking off," Kennedy said. Opera struck him as a "very good form for Roscoe himself. As an individual, he has kind of an operatic life, and he is a creature of extreme habits and proclivities. And he reaches great heights as a politician and as a human being, and he has a great rise and fall of his emotions."

More in the Times Union:  http://www.timesunion.com/entertainment/article/Singing-his-praises-5528362.php

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New Event: Richard Ravitch Wednesday

Former lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch
April 23 (Wednesday)
Discussion — 1:00 p.m., Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government
411 State Street, Albany

Former New York State Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch will discuss his efforts to advance New York State Government through some of its most troubled times in a candid discussion with WCNY News & Public Affairs Director Susan Arbetter. The event is being held in connection with the upcoming release of Ravitch’s memoir, So Much To Do: A Full Life of Business, Politics, and Confronting Fiscal Crises.

More:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/ravitch_richard14.html

Free and open to the public.

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Carolyn Forche explains "Poetry of Witness"

Carolyn Forche, who opens our series on Thursday 1/30, elucidates the meaning of  "Poetry of Witness," a sub-genre of poetry about political violence that she named with the publication of her landmark 1993 anthology, Against Forgetting: A Poetry of Witness.

During her Albany visit, Forche will present the new sequel to that anthology, Poetry of Witness: The Tradition in English, 1500-2001 (2014).

My own journey began in 1980, upon my return from El Salvador, where I had worked for human rights, and led me through the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, and South Africa. Something happened along the way to the introspective poet I had been. My new work seemed controversial to some of my American contemporaries, who argued either against its "subject matter," or against my right as a North American to contemplate issues viewed as "foreign" to her work, or against any mixing of what they saw as the mutually exclusive realms of the poetic and the political. In attempting to come to terms with the question of poetry and politics, and seeking the solace of poetic camaraderie, I turned to Anna Akhmatova, Yannis Ritsos, Paul Celan, Federico Garcia Lorca, Nazim Hikmet, and others. I began collecting their work, and soon found myself a repository of what began to be called "the poetry of witness." In thinking about these poems, I realized that the arguments regarding poetry and politics had been too narrowly defined. Regardless of apparent "subject matter," these poems bear the trace of extremity within them, and they are, as such, evidence of what occurred. They are also poems as much about poetry as are poems that have no subject other than poetry itself.

More from The Writer in Politics. Ed. William H. Gass and Lorin Cuoco (1996) on the website of the English Department, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/forche/witness.htm

More about Forche's Albany visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/forche_carolyn14.html

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Carolyn Forche in the New Yorker

Carolyn Forche's new anthology of poems written by prisoners, slaves, victims of torture, and others testifying to conditions of political oppression, Poetry of Witness (2014), is featured in a capsule review in the New Yorker's "Books to Watch Out For." Forche visits the Institute on Thursday.

Reviewer Andrea Denhoed says, "The editors’ extensive and varied selection amounts to a reconfiguration of English literary history and a consideration of the purposes and achievements of poetry."

More in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/01/books-to-watch-out-for-january-1.html

Details of Forche's visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html#forche

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Carolyn Forche, Winner of 2013 Poetry Academy Fellowship

Carolyn Forche, the first guest of the NYS Writers Institute's Spring 2014 Visiting Writers Series, is the recent recipient of the 2013 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, awarded annually to an individual poet for "distinguished poetic achievement."

More:  Prestigious Poetry Prize Goes to Professor, Activist Carolyn Forché
http://www.georgetown.edu/news/carolyn-forche-wins-prestigious-poetry-fellowship.html

Forche will visit the University at Albany to present her new anthology of poetry written under duress by men and women as they face political violence and persecution, Poetry of Witness: The Tradition in English, 1500 – 2001 (2014), a sequel to her landmark anthology, Against Forgetting (1993).

More about Forche's visit here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/forche_carolyn14.html

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Senior Obama Advisors, Axelrod, Plouffe, Favreau to Visit UAlbany

The University at Albany will host the architects of Barack Obama's two successful presidential campaigns.

On Saturday, Sept. 28, the school's "World Within Reach" speaker series will host David Axelrod [pictured here], David Plouffe and Jon Favreau for a night "Inside the Obama Campaign." Axelrod is Obama's former senior advisor, Plouffe was his campaign manager and Favreau is former director of speechwriting for the president.

Students are allowed to ask questions, but they will be filtered through the school's Student Association, which is now gathering them ahead of time.

The event will be held on the same day Robert Jones will be installed as the school's 19th president.

8:00pm

World Within Reach Speaker Series SEFCU Arena Hosted by the Student Association, University Auxiliary Services, and UAlbany Alumni Association. Free and Open to UA faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends (not the general public).                     Registration required. Contact: Student Association

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Kennedy Novel to Become an Opera

"William Kennedy finds it fitting that his novel Roscoe, a fictional reconstitution of Albany's legendary Democratic political machine, is going to be turned into an opera by local composer Evan Mack."

"'I think Roscoe would approve because he led a grand, operatic life,' Kennedy said of the title character, Roscoe Conway, the machine's fixer and bagman who wants to quit politics after 26 years of carrying out its chicanery."

"The novel is set in Albany on V-J Day, 1945. The New Yorker praised it for being 'thick with crime, passion and backroom banter.'  The novel was published in 2002 and reached the New York Times bestseller list."

Read Paul Grondahl's article in th Times Union:  http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Kennedy-novel-to-become-an-opera-4580309.php#ixzz2VSxVbCpw

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Bring Your Questions for Gail Collins Tonight

Don't miss influential New York Times political columnist Gail Collins tonight at Page Hall, 8PM,
University at Albany downtown campus.

April 30 (Tuesday)
Reading — 8:00 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
One of the most recognizable names in American journalism, Gail Collins served as the first female editor of the New York Times Editorial Page (2001-2007), and has contributed an influential biweekly column to the Times Op-Ed page for most of the past decade. Her column is distinguished by its fondness for humor and storytelling, its attention to political absurdity, and its championing of women’s rights. Her newest book is As Texas Goes... How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda (2012). MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said, “Gail Collins is the funniest serious political commentator in America. Reading As Texas Goes... is pure pleasure from page one.” Publishers Weekly said, “Collins revels in the state’s 10-gallon self-regard, Alamo-inspired cult of suicidal last stands, and eccentric right-wing pols... she slathers plenty of wry humor onto a critique that stings like a red-hot brand.” Her previous books include When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present (2009), and Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity, and American Politics (1998).

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Gail Collins in the Times Union

Gail Collins, who visits UAlbany tomorrow, is interviewed and profiled by Leigh Hornbeck in the Times Union:

Early in her newspaper career, Collins founded the Connecticut State News Bureau, in 1972. It was around then she made a choice to write about her subject "in a way that wouldn't make readers want to shoot themselves." The result was a mix of insightful, wry commentary that might zing, but never crushes, its subjects. She seems fully aware of the absurdity of political scandal at the same time she observes how what happens among our elected representatives will ultimately affect ordinary folk. She frequently calls out to the reader directly with a "people," the literary equivalent of a lapel grab.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Political-observer-4463679.php#ixzz2RsuHySXz

More on Gail's visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/collins_gail13.html

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Gail Collins on Political Corruption in New York

Gail Collins, New York Times columnist who visits this Tuesday, 4/30, writes about political corruption in New York.

"The charges involve politicians acting in such an insanely stupid way, it shatters our longstanding confidence that taking money was the one thing they know how to do well."

More:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/opinion/collins-a-new-era-in-political-corruption.html?_r=0

More about her visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/collins_gail13.html

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Insight into How We Pick Our Visiting Writers

A couple of years ago we were approached at an event by James Mann's mother (an Albany resident who is now 92 years old). She told us in no uncertain terms that we needed to feature her son in our series.

Since that time, we have been trying to work out a suitable date with Mann, who was born and raised in Albany, and who attended the Albany Academy.

Mann visits this coming Tuesday. His mother plans to attend both events.

James Mann, journalist and nonfiction writer
October 9 (Tuesday)
Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus
Reading — 8:00 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus
Born and raised in Albany, NY, journalist James Mann is a sought-after authority on the behind-the-scenes deliberations over foreign policy within recent American presidential administrations. His newest book is The Obamians: The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power (2012), an insider’s guide to the events, ideas, personalities, and conflicts that have defined Barack Obama’s foreign policy. In a New York Times review Michiko Kakutani said, “Drawing upon some 125 interviews…Mr. Mann writes with shrewdness and insight about the evolution of the president’s thinking, tensions among his staff…and contrasts and continuities between his conduct of foreign policy and that of the previous two presidents.” Mann achieved international renown with Rise of the Vulcans (2004), a revelatory and much-cited study of George W. Bush’s war cabinet. A former Beijing Bureau Chief for the L. A. Times, Mann is also the author of three award-winning books on America’s evolving relationship with China.

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Doris Kearns-Goodwin's Lincoln on Big Screen

Doris Kearns-Goodwin, a repeat guest at the Institute, is the author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, which will coming to theaters in November 2012 as a movie directed by Stephen Spielberg, and starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln [pictured here].

"And contrary to the rumors that often follow the There Will Be Blood star's methodology, the director says that his lead wasn't pretending to be Lincoln for months at a time. 'Daniel was always conscious of his contemporary surroundings,' Spielberg says. 'Daniel never went into a fugue state. He did not channel Lincoln. All that stuff is just more about gossip than it is about technique."

More about the film in Entertainment Weekly.

Kearns-Goodwin last visited us in 2009 to share the stage with former Governor Mario Cuomo and celebrate the New York State Writers Institute's 25th Anniversary.

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Troy Street Kid

Bill Kennedy's talk in Saratoga next week:  “I’ll talk about John Morrissey, a Troy street kid and river rat, who rose in the world through his fists and his politics to become an exalted gambler courted by the New York elite and who brought the casino and the track to Saratoga. I’ll talk about latter day gamblers and mob figures who moved into Saratoga — Arnold Rothstein, Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano — how it was all linked to politics, and how a politician — Governor Thomas E. Dewey — closed it down,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy will talk about crime and gambling in early 20th century Saratoga in a one-hour moderated conversation with political talk show host Susan Arbetter at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 1 in the Canfield Casino. The program is free and open to the public.

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Gandhi: Was He a Spectacular Political Failure?

In a New Yorker review of Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India (2011), by Joseph Lelyveld (who visits today), Pankaj Mishra says:

"Mohandas Gandhi was the twentieth century’s most famous advocate of nonviolent politics. But was he also its most spectacular political failure? The possibility is usually overshadowed by his immense and immensely elastic appeal.... And yet the Indian leader failed to achieve his most important aims, and was widely disliked and resented during his lifetime." Read more.

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Writers Institute on C-SPAN This Weekend

C-SPAN came to Albany to film our evening event with Russian journalist Masha Gessen on Thursday, March 8th.

The show will be broadcast over the weekend on C-SPAN 2/BookTV.

Saturday evening, March 17th at 7pm (ET)

Sunday morning, March 18th at 4am (ET)

We don't expect too many of you to be watching at 4am on Sunday morning, but please tell us about it if you do!

Link to the C-SPAN website.

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The War on Science

Physicist and media star Michio Kaku, who visits this coming Tuesday 2/21, talks about the new war on science by scientifically illiterate politicians and their constituencies, and the obligation of scientists to speak out persuasively in favor of their fields.

The new 3-minute Big Think video is entitled "How Physics Got Fat (And Why We Need to Sing For Our Supper)."

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On the Front Lines with Her 10-Year-Old Daughter

Masha Gessen, who visits March 8, sends a dispatch from Moscow, where she participated in an unusual protest of the current Russian government on the highways that ring the city, with her ten-year-old daughter in the back seat.

"The occasion was a protest against the Russian government staged on the Garden Ring, the 16-kilometer-long road that circles central Moscow."

"As we turned onto the Garden Ring, we placed ourselves behind a compact Citroën while a Lexus SUV got behind us. Both were adorned with white ribbons, which have become the symbol of Russia’s protest movement. As more cars joined in the drive, our speed decreased, until we had white-ribboned cars in lanes on either side of us and the traffic had slowed to a standstill." More in the New York Times.

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Caro and Vonnegut Barefoot at the Beach



Caro and Vonnegut in Sagaponack.
 (Photo originally appeared in Hamptons Shorts, 1999)

One sunny day in Sagaponack, renowned political biographer and seasoned interviewer Robert Caro—who comes to Albany, NY on December 5, 2011—had the tables tuned on him by none other than Kurt Vonnegut.   Their conversation, with Vonnegut posing questions to Caro (though it was supposed to be the other way around!), delves deeply into the nature of political power, the shared qualities of great fiction and non-fiction, and the pros and cons of writing with typewriters or word processors.  And, by the end, they were both barefoot!



Robert Caro, biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, will receive the 2011 Empire State Archives and History Award of the NYS Archives Partnership Trust, on Monday, December 5, 2011 at 7:30pm at the Egg at the Empire State Plaza.  The event is co-sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute.

P.S.  This event costs $10. (All other Institute realted events are free!)

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The Woman Behind FDR, Friday, Nov. 18

Kirstin Downey, Washington Post reporter, will talk about her biography of Frances Perkins, the female architect of FDR's New Deal, a major historical figure now largely unknown to the public.

November 18 (Friday)Discussion — 4:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus

Kirstin Downey, Award-winning journalist for the Washington Post, will make an appearance at the 2011 Researching New York Conference to discuss her 2009 biography of Frances Perkins, The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience.

The nation’s first female cabinet secretary, Frances Perkins (1880-1965) was one of FDR’s chief advisors, and the principal architect of the most important social welfare legislation in U.S. history. Named one of the best nonfiction books of 2009 by the Library of Congress and the American Library Association, the book was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly said, “Downey provides not only a superb rendering of history but also a large dose of inspiration drawn from Perkins’s clearheaded, decisive work with FDR to solve urgent problems and to succeed in the face of insurmountable odds.”

Sponsored by UAlbany’s Department of History and the NYS Writers Institute.

For additional information on the Researching New York Conference click here.

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