BASQUIAT: The Price of Fame w/ Author DOUG WOODHAM - Highlights

BASQUIAT: The Price of Fame w/ Author DOUG WOODHAM - Highlights

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A Conversation with Author DOUG WOODHAM
Managing Partner, Art Fiduciary Partners

All of the great artists are there for a reason: because they rebelled in some way. They created a visual vocabulary that felt fresh and new, which excited people. So, the great artists are not built on sort of anthills of sand. They're built on things of substance and of meaning. Though this is not a sufficient condition to become an icon, it's a necessary but not sufficient condition. I think you have to have an interesting and vivid personality or personal narrative that makes you interesting for people to talk about and want to learn about. I think you also have to have a support network of galleries, curators, and collectors who are excited about your work and want to push it forward, not wanting it to be forgotten. Basquiat's visual vocabulary is distinctive and stands out relative to what was being done in the 1980s. That's the sort of strong hill on which his reputation is built. Basquiat benefited from being the first black artist of note who got pushed forward. As in many things, the first benefits.

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: The Making of an Icon with DOUG WOODHAM, Fmr. President of Christie's Americas

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: The Making of an Icon with DOUG WOODHAM, Fmr. President of Christie's Americas

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A Conversation with Author DOUG WOODHAM
Fmr. President of the Americas at Christie’s · Managing Partner, Art Fiduciary Partners

All of the great artists are there for a reason: because they rebelled in some way. They created a visual vocabulary that felt fresh and new, which excited people. So, the great artists are not built on sort of anthills of sand. They're built on things of substance and of meaning. Though this is not a sufficient condition to become an icon, it's a necessary but not sufficient condition. I think you have to have an interesting and vivid personality or personal narrative that makes you interesting for people to talk about and want to learn about. I think you also have to have a support network of galleries, curators, and collectors who are excited about your work and want to push it forward, not wanting it to be forgotten. Basquiat's visual vocabulary is distinctive and stands out relative to what was being done in the 1980s. That's the sort of strong hill on which his reputation is built. Basquiat benefited from being the first black artist of note who got pushed forward. As in many things, the first benefits.

On Mind Games, Power & Obsession - Showrunner HOWARD GORDON & Writer DANIEL PEARLE - Highlights

On Mind Games, Power & Obsession - Showrunner HOWARD GORDON & Writer DANIEL PEARLE - Highlights

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Starring CLAIRE DANES & MATTHEW RHYS
A Conversation with Showrunner, Exec. Producer HOWARD GORDON & Exec. Producer Writer DANIEL PEARLE

And I think there's also just something about an unfettered or uncensored id that is so captivating. We all have that fantasy of doing exactly what we want with no consequences and sort of letting that go. I think when you see an athlete at the peak of their game, doing that embodied thing and living that dream, or when someone has actually done horrible things that you would never allow yourself to do, there is a fascination there. I had one teacher who said, "Anyone who drives you crazy or that you just cannot stand in life, put them in a play or put them in a scene, and the audience will love them." If someone has really gotten under your skin and you just cannot stand them, and you have a visceral reaction—like, "I just hate this person"—make them a character, and the audience will make them everyone's favorite character. There is something to that.

The Beast in Me starring CLAIRE DANES - Behind the Scenes w/ HOWARD GORDON & DANIEL PEARLE

The Beast in Me starring CLAIRE DANES - Behind the Scenes w/ HOWARD GORDON & DANIEL PEARLE

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Starring CLAIRE DANES & MATTHEW RHYS
A Conversation with Showrunner, Exec. Producer HOWARD GORDON & Exec. Producer Writer DANIEL PEARLE

And I think there's also just something about an unfettered or uncensored id that is so captivating. We all have that fantasy of doing exactly what we want with no consequences and sort of letting that go. I think when you see an athlete at the peak of their game, doing that embodied thing and living that dream, or when someone has actually done horrible things that you would never allow yourself to do, there is a fascination there. I had one teacher who said, "Anyone who drives you crazy or that you just cannot stand in life, put them in a play or put them in a scene, and the audience will love them." If someone has really gotten under your skin and you just cannot stand them, and you have a visceral reaction—like, "I just hate this person"—make them a character, and the audience will make them everyone's favorite character. There is something to that.

Listening to the Planet - Writers' Perspectives on Nature, Place & Interconnectedness

Listening to the Planet - Writers' Perspectives on Nature, Place & Interconnectedness

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Katie Kitamura, Eiren Caffall, Jay Parini, Irvin Weathersby Jr., Natasha Hakimi Zapata, Audrea Lim & Dr. Bayo Akomolafe share their stories

How do our environments shape who we are and how we care for the world and each other? There are many solutions to climate change, inequality, and poverty around the world. How can we learn from them and transform our society?

Why We Need Stories in Times of Crisis: ETGAR KERET on Healing, Connection & Creativity in the Age of AI - Highlights

Why We Need Stories in Times of Crisis: ETGAR KERET on Healing, Connection & Creativity in the Age of AI - Highlights

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A Conversation with Author · Filmmaker ETGAR KERET
Winner of Cannes Film Festival’s Caméra d’Or · Charles Bronfman Prize & Sapir Prize

When I write my stories, I don't want to solve things in life. I just want to persuade myself that there is a way out. Maybe I am in a cell, maybe I'm trapped. Maybe I won't make it, but if I can imagine a plan for escape, then I'll be less trapped because at least in my mind, there is a way. I think that my parents are survivors. They always talked about this idea of humanity. My parents always said to me, when you look at people, don't look at their political views; that's not important. Look at the way that they look at you. If they see you, if they listen to you, if they can understand your intention, even if it's a failing one, they're your people. And if they can't, it doesn't matter.

I think that when I came with my mother and father, they thought there are people, there are human beings, and there are people who want to be human beings but are still struggling. And you go with humanity; you go with the person who can go against his ideology if his heart tells him something.

Finding Humanity Through Storytelling with Author & Filmmaker ETGAR KERET

Finding Humanity Through Storytelling with Author & Filmmaker ETGAR KERET

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A Conversation with Author · Filmmaker ETGAR KERET
Winner of Cannes Film Festival’s Caméra d’Or · Charles Bronfman Prize & Sapir Prize

When I write my stories, I don't want to solve things in life. I just want to persuade myself that there is a way out. Maybe I am in a cell, maybe I'm trapped. Maybe I won't make it, but if I can imagine a plan for escape, then I'll be less trapped because at least in my mind, there is a way. I think that my parents are survivors. They always talked about this idea of humanity. My parents always said to me, when you look at people, don't look at their political views; that's not important. Look at the way that they look at you. If they see you, if they listen to you, if they can understand your intention, even if it's a failing one, they're your people. And if they can't, it doesn't matter.

I think that when I came with my mother and father, they thought there are people, there are human beings, and there are people who want to be human beings but are still struggling. And you go with humanity; you go with the person who can go against his ideology if his heart tells him something.

Art, Empathy & Resilience with CADY McCLAIN, Actor, Director, Writer, Artist, Musician - Highlights

Art, Empathy & Resilience with CADY McCLAIN, Actor, Director, Writer, Artist, Musician - Highlights

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A Conversation with Emmy Award-winning Actor, Director, Writer CADY McCLAIN

I won my first Emmy when I was 21, which was the result of absolutely devoting myself day and night for two years to doing all the scene work. I attended classes simultaneously and did plays until my mother died. I studied with Michael Howard for eight years. Even when I was so tired I couldn't get up to do a scene, he would say, "Get up and do a poem." It helped me enormously; it saved me. The way I was trained and how I train others is that you know when you’re in the zone. Oh God, it feels so good. It feels like flying. And that's what you want. You want to be so unselfaware that you're on liftoff?

A Life in Acting with Emmy Award-winning Actor, Director, Writer CADY McCLAIN

A Life in Acting with Emmy Award-winning Actor, Director, Writer CADY McCLAIN

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A Conversation with Emmy Award-winning Actor, Director, Writer CADY McCLAIN

I won my first Emmy when I was 21, which was the result of absolutely devoting myself day and night for two years to doing all the scene work. I attended classes simultaneously and did plays until my mother died. I studied with Michael Howard for eight years. Even when I was so tired I couldn't get up to do a scene, he would say, "Get up and do a poem." It helped me enormously; it saved me. The way I was trained and how I train others is that you know when you’re in the zone. Oh God, it feels so good. It feels like flying. And that's what you want. You want to be so unselfaware that you're on liftoff?

To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other with Author VIET THANH NGUYEN - Highlights

To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other with Author VIET THANH NGUYEN - Highlights

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A Conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning Author VIET THANH NGUYEN

What I've discovered as a writer is that fear is a good indicator that there is a truth. To speak the truth in a society is oftentimes an act that requires some courage. Those processes of being an other for me in the United States were obviously very fundamental to shaping who I am as a person and as a writer. It was very difficult to undergo, but to become a writer who could talk about those issues was also a lot of fun. Writing The Sympathizer was a lot of fun, and I hope that the novel was enjoyable and humorous to read as well, despite its very serious politics. When I wrote The Committed, I also had a lot of fun as an outsider to France. In writing the novel itself, The Committed, there was a lot of humor, satire, and these kinds of tools to confront the tragedy of othering. This is very important to me as literary and political devices. I think I could do that in both The Sympathizer and The Committed because I had a lot of distance from the time periods that those novels described. My challenge right now is to try to find my sense of humor in describing what the United States is undergoing and doing to other countries, its own immigrants, and its own people of color, and minorities in the present. That's proving to be a little more challenging at this moment.

On Writing, America's Forever Wars & Challenging Power with Author VIET THANH NGUYEN

On Writing, America's Forever Wars & Challenging Power with Author VIET THANH NGUYEN

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A Conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning Author VIET THANH NGUYEN

What I've discovered as a writer is that fear is a good indicator that there is a truth. To speak the truth in a society is oftentimes an act that requires some courage. Those processes of being an other for me in the United States were obviously very fundamental to shaping who I am as a person and as a writer. It was very difficult to undergo, but to become a writer who could talk about those issues was also a lot of fun. Writing The Sympathizer was a lot of fun, and I hope that the novel was enjoyable and humorous to read as well, despite its very serious politics. When I wrote The Committed, I also had a lot of fun as an outsider to France. In writing the novel itself, The Committed, there was a lot of humor, satire, and these kinds of tools to confront the tragedy of othering. This is very important to me as literary and political devices. I think I could do that in both The Sympathizer and The Committed because I had a lot of distance from the time periods that those novels described. My challenge right now is to try to find my sense of humor in describing what the United States is undergoing and doing to other countries, its own immigrants, and its own people of color, and minorities in the present. That's proving to be a little more challenging at this moment.

On Borges, Gore Vidal, Robert Frost & The Writing Life with Author & Filmmaker JAY PARINI

On Borges, Gore Vidal, Robert Frost & The Writing Life with Author & Filmmaker JAY PARINI

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A Conversation with Author & Filmmaker JAY PARINI

Poetry is the prince of the literary arts to me. It's at the very top because it's language refined to its apex of memorability. I am interested in poetry as memorability and poetry as something you live by. These are the words you live by. These words stay in your brain and guide your life. That's what I am interested in. My memoir slash autofiction is called Borges and Me, and as you know, it's a story of my time in 1970 when my best friend Billy was drafted for the Vietnam War, and so was I. He went to Vietnam, and I went to Scotland to hide out and do my graduate work. I spent nearly seven years in Scotland, but I certainly spent the next five years definitely in Scotland. I was there before as an undergraduate for a bit, too. During that time, Billy was killed in Vietnam, and I was a nervous wreck. My memoir talks about my depression, my anxieties, and then, through my friend Alastair Reid, I met Borges, the great Argentine writer. We went on a little road trip through the Highlands, and this conversation with Borges really restored me back to myself and what was important in life. I felt that I owed a huge amount to that contact with Borges… I was lucky that suddenly, out of nowhere, came a wonderful director-producer named Mark Turtletaub. He had read my book and loved it, and he approached me. We had a conversation, and he said, "Look, I want to make this movie." So off we went.

THE DREAM HOTEL with LAILA LALAMI

THE DREAM HOTEL with LAILA LALAMI

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A Conversation with Author LAILA LALAMI
on Dreaming Beyond the Algorithmic State

What happens when the state, with the pretext of protecting public safety, can detain indefinitely certain individuals whose dreams seem to indicate they may be capable of committing a crime?  Set in a precarious world where sleep-enhancing devices and algorithms provide the tools and formulae for making one’s unconscious a witness to one’s possible waking life, this novel touches on a myriad of political, philosophical, and moral concerns as they particularly connect to issues of gender, race, ethnicity, privacy, and the security state.

In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art & Public Space with IRVIN WEATHERSBY JR.

In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art & Public Space with IRVIN WEATHERSBY JR.

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A Conversation with Author IRVIN WEATHERSBY JR.

One of the biggest symbols of America is Mount Rushmore. This monument, right? But I think most people fail to realize where it's located and why it's located there. Even more importantly, who did it? It's on a sacred Native American mountain, a place that was central to their creation stories. But then you think about who did it, and it was a Klansman. The guy who sculpted Mount Rushmore was a Klansman. People were like, "Wait, really?" Like, how is that a thing? But it seeps into our understanding and our embrace of white supremacy. This whole notion of us using Mount Rushmore as a metric of excellence is really sad. We are honoring slave owners and people who viciously killed natives, and those who pillage other lands in the name of capitalism. That's what America is, I guess.

I think there's such a disinterest in education in America that it is sickening. We can't even agree on facts. It's up to states' rights to decide. Really? States can say that this is true in one state, but it's not true in another? Although these states are united, it's very bizarre. I'm hopeful for revolution. I'm optimistic. I want radical change. I think we are repeating history. We are going through a cycle of fascism and greed, and I think we're going to see a lot of states collapse. As a result of that, I think people are going to be forced back to their primal needs and concerns, but I think they're going to be forced to think about what makes us human. How do we become more human? Because we've lost that. We've given it up to technology. How can we figure out what makes us a really powerful species again?

An Actor Prepares - SHARON LAWRENCE on Crafting Complex Characters - Highlights

An Actor Prepares - SHARON LAWRENCE on Crafting Complex Characters - Highlights

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A Conversation with SHARON LAWRENCE

That transformation was key to my next step as an artist, to knowing that's what acting is. It isn't just posing; it isn't just being a version of yourself in a way that was free. Performing wasn't just performing; it was transforming. I think that artists find that in many different ways, and as actors, there are many ways into that.

SHARON LAWRENCE on Acting, Activism & The Art of Transformation

SHARON LAWRENCE on Acting, Activism & The Art of Transformation

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A Conversation with SHARON LAWRENCE

That transformation was key to my next step as an artist, to knowing that's what acting is. It isn't just posing; it isn't just being a version of yourself in a way that was free. Performing wasn't just performing; it was transforming. I think that artists find that in many different ways, and as actors, there are many ways into that.

Childhood, Creativity & the Stories that Define Who We Are with MEGAN ABBOTT - Highlights

Childhood, Creativity & the Stories that Define Who We Are with MEGAN ABBOTT - Highlights

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A Conversation with MEGAN ABBOTT
Author of Beware the Woman · You Will Know Me · Give Me Your Hand · The Turnout · Co-creator of Netflix’s Dare Me

I always say to young writers, you need to put your heart on the page. Don't worry about being like anyone else. I would say that foremost, in any of the arts, it is self-expression at its core… I think that it all goes back to childhood. I’ve always really been writing about family. I suppose we always are. I do think that it is the original wound, and it's where we are kind of wired and built from those early years. So I think every other relationship just replicates that. It's very natural for me to go there, I suppose because the feelings are most intense there. We just keep recycling these relationships and dynamics over and over again—until maybe someday we can catch ourselves and try to break the bad patterns. It feels the most visceral and real to me, always. You're always looking for that in writing. You want everything to be at this peak intensity, or at least I do. That seems the most natural place to start.

Exploring  Family Dynamics & Fierce Female Friendships with Novelist MEGAN ABBOTT

Exploring  Family Dynamics & Fierce Female Friendships with Novelist MEGAN ABBOTT

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Author of Beware the Woman · You Will Know Me · Give Me Your Hand · The Turnout · Co-creator of Netflix’s Dare Me

I always say to young writers, you need to put your heart on the page. Don't worry about being like anyone else. I would say that foremost, in any of the arts, it is self-expression at its core… I think that it all goes back to childhood. I’ve always really been writing about family. I suppose we always are. I do think that it is the original wound, and it's where we are kind of wired and built from those early years. So I think every other relationship just replicates that. It's very natural for me to go there, I suppose because the feelings are most intense there. We just keep recycling these relationships and dynamics over and over again—until maybe someday we can catch ourselves and try to break the bad patterns. It feels the most visceral and real to me, always. You're always looking for that in writing. You want everything to be at this peak intensity, or at least I do. That seems the most natural place to start.

"We're connected to the lives of every creature on the planet" EIREN CAFFALL - Highlights

"We're connected to the lives of every creature on the planet" EIREN CAFFALL - Highlights

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We are in a complex and delicately balanced relationship of connection to everything else on the planet. We begin to recognize, write into, and speak into the complex interdependence and interconnection of every gesture that we make on the planet. Most storytelling that I really respond to, whether it's from my own culture or from previous civilizations, acknowledges that we are in this complex relationship where every gesture we make is connected to the lives of every other creature on the planet. The more narratives we allow to be complex in that way and interconnected, the more we begin to change our brain chemistry around how we protect ourselves and everything that is in relation to us. The more that you have that evolving relationship with it, that's dynamic and alive to the moment you're in, and that's not afraid of the feelings of fear, hopelessness, grief, or pain that attend paying close attention to the world as it is evolving around you, the better we are able to be flexible in the relationship we need to form with fixing what we can and holding onto what we have.

All the Water in the World with Writer & Musician EIREN CAFFALL

All the Water in the World with Writer & Musician EIREN CAFFALL

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A Conversation with Writer & Musician EIREN CAFFALL

We are in a complex and delicately balanced relationship of connection to everything else on the planet. We begin to recognize, write into, and speak into the complex interdependence and interconnection of every gesture that we make on the planet. Most storytelling that I really respond to, whether it's from my own culture or from previous civilizations, acknowledges that we are in this complex relationship where every gesture we make is connected to the lives of every other creature on the planet. The more narratives we allow to be complex in that way and interconnected, the more we begin to change our brain chemistry around how we protect ourselves and everything that is in relation to us. The more that you have that evolving relationship with it, that's dynamic and alive to the moment you're in, and that's not afraid of the feelings of fear, hopelessness, grief, or pain that attend paying close attention to the world as it is evolving around you, the better we are able to be flexible in the relationship we need to form with fixing what we can and holding onto what we have.