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WPS1 Art Radio is the Internet station of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, a MoMA affiliate, featuring an MP3 stream of music, talk, and historical recordings and a free on-demand archive of over 1200 programs.
Channel 192 is curated by Jack Macrae, editor of the Henry Holt imprint
Jack Macrae Books,
who says that most bookstores, especially the leviathan Borders and Barnes and Noble, are not interested in books. So he and his wife, gallerist Paula Cooper, opened their own, 192 Books on 10th Avenue in Manhattan. Like bookstores of old, 192 houses a collection that is a very personal reflection of its owners.
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Volume 22: Night Wraps the Sky: Ethan Hawke and Clement Joseph and Val Vinokur listen |
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First broadcast June 16, 2008
Ethan Hawke, Clement Joseph and Val Vinokur reading from Night Wraps the Sky: Writings by and About Mayakovsky was recorded May 28, 2008. One of today’s most prominent and exciting stage and film actors reads work from the leading poet of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and of the early Soviet period. Mayakovsky was one of the founders of Russian Futurism movement. Originally Mayakovsky planned to become an artist, and his early poems have strong painterly visions and sequences in many of his works recall film techniques. He was imprisoned on three occasions for subversive political activities, but being underage, he avoided transportation. During a period of solitary confinement in Butyrka prison in 1909, he began to write poetry, but his poems were confiscated. On his release from prison, he continued working within the socialist movement, and in 1911 he joined the Moscow Art School where he became acquainted with members of the Russian Futurist movement. He became a leading spokesman for the group Gileas.
Richard Price, the brilliant writer of Clockers, Freedomland, The Wanderers, Bloodbrothers, the screenplay for The Color of Money and Sea of Love and the television series The Wire, makes his first appearance at 192 Books. In Lush Life, Price tears the shiny veneer off the "new" New York to show the underground networks of control and violence beneath the glamour, in this novel that reads like a movie in prose" ("New York Times").
Tobias Wolff's latest work, which includes both new and selected stories, reminds us once again that we are in the hands of an artist. Influenced by Chekhov but thoroughly American, Wolff presents ordinary people in extraordinary situations. As Wyatt Mason wrote in the London Review of Books, "Typically, his protagonists face an acute moral dilemma, unable to reconcile what they know to be true with what they feel to be true. Duplicity is their great failing, and Wolff's main theme." And in Wolff's own words: "I believe that the short story is as different a form from the novel as poetry is, and the best stories seem to me to be perhaps closer in spirit to poetry than to novels. They have to be; there just can't be any kind of relaxation of the narrative. Everything has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be really of the first order. And you can't do that with a novel."
Ecologist and author Carl Safina reads from and discusses his 2006 release, Voyage of the Turtle: Search for the World's Last Dinosaur (Henry Holt & Co.). The book follows a global journey on oceans and coasts in pursuit of Earth's last warm-blooded monster reptile. Safina is also Co-Founder and President of Blue Ocean Institute, an international nonprofit conservation organization headquartered in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, with an office in Hawaii. Recorded May 25, 2006 at 192 Books in New York City.
Gay Talese is an Italian American writer, who wrote for The New York Times and Esquire in the 1960s. He is often credited for inventing the genre of literary journalism, or revolutionizing what the genre meant. In the 1960s he wrote two famous pieces establishing the form for Esquire, on Frank Sinatra and Joe Dimaggio. His most recent work is an autobiography entitled A Writer's Life. On June 1, 2006, Talese read from A Writer's Life at 192 Books. (54 minutes)
Volume 17: Wayne Koestenbaum, Best Selling Jewish Porn Films listen |
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First broadcast October 9, 2006
Wayne Koestenbaum is a poet and critic whose work deals primarily with the social and mental conditions of gay Americans. He has written on subjects like opera, Jackie Kennedy, and Andy Warhol. On May 2, 2006 he read selections from his most recent work, a book of poetry with the whimsical title Best Selling Jewish Porn Films. Koestenbaum received his B.A. from Harvard University and his PhD from Princeton. Currently, he is a professor at the City University of New York. Recorded at 192 Books in New York City. (35 minutes)
This segment features a group of international writers chosen as part of the PEN World Voices Festival, the annual celebration by the PEN American Center. The festival showcases authors from around the world. Tonight's readers, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Felicitas Hoppe, Milton Hatoum, Lydie Salvayre, Eloy Urroz, and Ayu Utami read from selections of their works, both in their native tongues and in English translation. Channel 192 is hosted by Jack Macrae and 192 Books in New York City, where this event was held on April 29, 2006. PEN is an organization with a mission to promote internationalism through literature, by encouraging cultural exchange and literary translation. (72 minutes)
One of England's best-known literary figures, author and actor Alan Bennett reads and comments on his 2006 collection, Untold Stories (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) some of his finest and funniest writing that includes a poignant memoir of growing up in Leeds and bits from his celebrated diary. Other works by Bennett include Writing Home, Beyond the Fringe, and the play The History Boys. Recorded at 192 Books on April 28, 2006. (40 minutes)
William Benton reads and comments on his most recent book, the fictional novel Madly (Shoemaker and Hoard). He also delves into his poetry with Marmalade, published in 1997. His poetry has been featured in such publications as The New Yorker and the Paris Review. This recording is from April 11th, 2006, at 192 Books in New York City. (31 minutes)
Discussion and observations surrounding the book Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age which brings together interviews of master moviemakers from the American Film Institute's renowned seminars. The book is edited-with commentaries-by George Stevens, Jr. who is joined here by friend and critic Andrew Sarris for this event on April 17, 2006 at 192 Books in New York City. George Stevens, Jr., is an award-winning writer, director, and producer, and founder of the American Film Institute. Andrew Sarris is one of the most influential film critics of the last 40 years. He now writes for the New York Observer and is on the faculty of Columbia University. He is best known for his work as film critic on the Village Voice, the York City weekly newspaper, in the 1960s and 1970s. (1 hour 13 minutes)
Volume 12: Deborah Eisenberg, Twilight of the Superheroes listen |
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First broadcast August 7, 2006
Deborah Eisenberg reads and comments on her collection of stories, Twilight of the Superheroes. The stories reveal the abstract absurdity as well as the pain of human relationships and delve into the devastating truth that, even after an apocalypse, people still have to lie in the beds they've made, unable to sleep. Recorded at 192 Books in New York City, on March 27, 2006.
Born in 1945, Eisenberg grew up in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka. She is the author of an acclaimed monograph on the paintings of Jennifer Bartlett, Air: 24 Hours and her collections of short stories include Transactions in a Foreign Currency, Under the 82nd Airborne and All Around Atlantis. She has also written for The New Yorker, Bomb, and The Yale Review. She is currently a professor of Creative Writing at the University of Virginia.
From an event recorded March 16, 2006 at 192 Books, Mary Gaitskill, author of Bad Behavior (a collection of short stories including The Secretary, which was later a movie with James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal) reads and comments on her new book, Veronica. (33.5 minutes)
Bernard Cooper reads and comments on his 2006 memoir, The Bill From My Father (Simon & Schuster) in which he recalls his unique father who once sent him an itemized bill for the cost of his upbringing ($2 million). Cooper's 1996 Truth Serum is the funny, wise, and admired book that revolves around his effort to use sodium pentothal to suppress gay feelings. Recorded by WPS1 at 192 Books in New York on March 14, 2006. (33.5 minutes)
Two authors read from and comment on their work in a public event held at 192 Books on March 7, 2006. White Ghost Girls (Atlantic) by Alice Greenaway is a haunting story about two American sisters growing up in Hong Kong. Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss revolves around an orphaned teenage Indian girl living in Nepal. (36.5 minutes)
Author Patrick McGrath hosts a public interview and reading by Julian Barnes. The theme is Barnes' novel Arthur & George, a real-life tale of turn-of-the-century British crime and punishment featuring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Born in Leicester, England, in 1946, Julian Barnes is the author of two books of stories, two collections of essays, nine previous novels and other efforts. Barnes has also published four crime novels under the pseudonym of Dan Kavanagh. In France, he is the only writer to have won both the Prix Medicis and the Prix Femina. Patrick McGrath is the author of the stories Blood and Water and Other Tales, and six novels including The Grotesque; Spider, Asylum, and Port Mungo.
This event, produced by 192 Books in New York City, took place around the corner from the 10th Avenue store at Paula Cooper Gallery, on Jan. 27, 2006. (41.5 minutes)
Volume 7: Verlyn Klinkenborg, Timothy, or Notes of an Abject Reptile listen |
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First broadcast May 1, 2006
Author Verlyn Klinkenborg reads from and comments on his book Timothy, or Notes of an Abject Reptile (Knopf 2006). With a naturalist's eye, Klinkenborg tells the story of a tortoise from the perspective of the tortoise himself. Or itself. A wry and carefully observed tale of eight adventurous days outside the safe confines of Klinkenborg's garden. Recorded at 192 Books on March 1, 2006. (42 minutes)
Author Siri Hustvedt reading from her collection of essays A Plea for Eros, followed by husband Paul Auster reading a short story that was published in The Red Notebook (and later reprinted in Collected Prose) and from The Brooklyn Follies. This event recorded by WPS1 at 192 Books in New York City on Feb. 14, 2006.
Author Caroline Burke reads from and discusses her book about the life and work of Lee Miller (1907-1977); the extraordinary and controversial beauty, fashion model, Surrealist muse, assistant and model of Man Ray, Vogue photographer, war photographer, sexual bohemian, and much more. Recorded by WPS1 during her appearance at 192 Books in New York on Jan. 17, 2006. (50 minutes)
Arthur Japin has acted on stage, screen and television for many years, at one point even singing as a soloist at the Dutch National Opera. He has also written award winning stage and screenplays, and has published books and two volumes of short stories. In this recording, introduced by 192 Book's Jack MacRae, Arthur Japin reads and discusses his latest work, In Lucia's Eyes. The inspiration for this perfectly plotted, wonderfully romantic historical novel lies in Casanova's memoirs, all seen through eyes of the woman who first broke Casanova's heart. Japin takes the reader on an entrancing journey from the canals of Amsterdam to those of Venice, painting a glorious portrait of the eighteenth century with all its contradictions of reason and instinct, wit and sensuality, head and heart. Recorded at 192 Books in New York on Jan. 19, 2006. (45 minutes)
Artist Vi
ja Celmins and the poet, translator and critic Eliot Weinberger
present their collaborative book entitled The Stars, devoted to
the night sky, with 3 prints by Celmins and an mythopoetic charting of
the night sky by Weinberger composed of a catalogue of descriptions of
the stars from around the world. Text appears in English, Arabic,
Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, and Maori. Recorded at 192 Books on Jan. 12,
2006. (30 minutes)
Author Salman Rushdie (The Satanic Verses, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, The Moor's Last Sigh) reads from and discusses his 2005 novel Shalimar the Clown. The book tells the story of Max Ophuls, his killer, his daughter, and a fourth character who links them all. It was shortlisted for the 2005 Whitbread Novel Award. Rushide also speaks about his process, his research methods and has a surpising explanation for his choice of the main character's name. This event was sponsored by 192 Books and held Nov. 4, 2005 at the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. Jack Macrae introduces the program. (1 hour)
Jack Macrae introduces Joan Didion
who reads from her newest book, The Year of Magical Thinking. Didion's most acclaimed works include the essay collections Slouching toward Bethlehem (1968) and The White Album (1979). She also published four novels, the first, Run River, in 1963, the same year she married her lifelong partner, writer John Gregory Dunne. The Year of Magical Thinking is Didion's collection of 88 days of grief-filled writing following Dunne's death in December of 2003 and the death of her daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne, a year and a half later.
Recorded Oct. 24, 2005 at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. (32.5 minutes)
