Ruby Dee was never too busy. That is how I remember her. Would she record a TV spot for ArtsWestchester? Happy to do so. Would she say a few words at a local school? In a heartbeat! A poetry reading with her family at ArtsWestchester? Of course! Accept an arts award? Yes…but…heaven knows she didn’t […]
I did not need anything when I walked into the holiday boutique at ArtsWestchester. But ogling all the great stuff, I hung closer to my wallet. Then I met artist Eva Olivia, an entrepreneur who makes organic beauty products with natural plant-based ingredients. She reeled me in to try out a frothy, vanilla mixture just […]
Is Westchester a “bedroom community”? I struggled with this question when I first came to Westchester from Boston some twenty years ago. Naysayers told me I was coming to a bedroom community. Obviously, a bedroom community is where you sleep…that’s all. What would I do at night or on weekends? The search committee at ArtsWestchester, […]
Like Ed Koch, I frequently ask the question, “How’re we doing?” Mine is not a personal question, not quite a global one, but more or less a national one. My yardstick is more moral than monetary. I tend to fall back on President Kennedy’s standard that, “This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.” […]
When people ask where I’m from, I most often say, “I’m just a kid from the Rockaway’s.” This used to evoke a querulous “Where?” But no longer. Unfortunately, the Rockaway’s are recently famous, but not for the charm and fun I knew riding my bike on the boardwalk on a brisk winter’s day from Beach […]
Beauty, we are told, is in the eye of the beholder. So for some beauty is a sunset. For others, it’s a sports car or a diamond. For Robert Wiener, Chairman of Maxx Properties and ArtsWestchester board member, beauty is a geode. For more than 40 years, Wiener has been collecting geodes, some 2,000 of […]
Years ago, when I was a kid, I received a gift of a handmade silk handkerchief case with my name hand stitched on it. At the time, I was disappointed that it wasn’t something store bought. But, truth be told, I remember that gift more vividly than any other I ever received. Funny the way […]
Frankenstorm Sandy came barreling into Westchester, very slow at first, but gaining velocity as it grew. Watching 40 and 50 foot high trees doing a ballet number behind my house was culturally beautiful, yet realistically scary. Any one of them at any minute could snap. Two actually did…one uprooted, the other was felled, missing a […]
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