This and That by JL

Janet Langsam, ArtsWestchester’s CEO Emerita, reflects on the legacy of Joe Delfino, the former mayor of the City of White Plains who recently passed away.

This article was previously published in ArtsNews on January 30, but I wanted to share the wonderful news here on my blog, and take the opportunity to thank Westchester County Executive George Latimer and the Westchester Board of Legislators for their ongoing partnership and support. For years, Westchester County Government has matched vital funds for […]

For many years after my ex-husband Ed and I decided to go our separate ways, his brother Mort would pack his Volkswagen bus with his three children, his ukulele and harmonica, and various Chilean relatives whom he brought here after the fall of the Allende government in Chile. It’s heartfelt to note that back in the 70s, a call from my congressman was sufficient […]

When I was a little kid growing up in Far Rockaway, Queens, there was a war raging in Europe. As a toddler, of course I was too little to understand the gravity of what was going on. Or was I? Something about Ukraine brought me back some eighty years to a reoccurring scene in my childhood […]

For just a few moments, it felt much like a time warp, in which I was back in the Sixties in the East Village searching for some abandoned church or obscure place where there was an arts happening going on. It was always some hard-to-find place like the one in Verplank, NY, which just opened […]

Many Americans like myself have blended families. In this case, I am referring to families that have become multicultural through marriage and other means. The recent fervor to assist Afghanis to leave their country (not an easy thing to introduce strangers to a new life and certainly a traumatic circumstance) is an all too poignant […]

“My guest blogger this week is my assistant Megan Thomson Connor. Megan is a gifted writer and arts administrator who discusses the history of Juneteenth in the blog below. ” – Janet Langsam In 2020, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday for state employees. Westchester County officials decided […]

Americans seem to love symbols. It’s our shorthand or slang for announcing who we are or how we feel. So it’s no wonder that masks have become as popular as T-shirts, baseball hats or decals as a way of announcing an affiliation or a point of view. As a kid growing up in Far Rockaway, […]