Big House Books.  Big House Books is a non-profit, volunteer organization that sends free books by request to prisoners in Mississippi correctional facilities in order to promote literacy and be a vehicle of change for prison reform.

Big House Books would appreciate your paperback books - westerns, fantasy novels  and science fiction are genres often requested.  Books can be shipped through media mail.  More information on the Big House Books website. 

Shower Power. Shower Power is more than a shower. They believe that through faith and serving others they can transform people and the world. They bring  hospitality to the streets by delivering hygiene services to people experiencing homelessness.  It's about taking time to show people you care and restoring their dignity by providing them with the resources they need for self care.  We love people back to life!  

Lemuria Bookstore  This year celebrating their 50th anniversary, Lemuria has formed valuable relationships with authors and their readers.  Lemuria believes in the value of the physical book, whether you're a collector in search of a literary gem or you are looking for the latest bestseller. In a digital age, Lemuria is areal bookstore with floor-to-ceiling shelves, that quintessential book smell, and a little bit of Southern hospitality, you’ll feel right at home.  It is beloved in Jackson, Mississippi.  One of the many reasons to visit Jackson.

The Short Fuse Podcast  is hosted by Elizabeth Howard. She talks with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change through their art, music, ideas, and performances. James Baldwin reminds us that "artists are here to disturb the peace."  Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016).    @elizh24 on Instagram

Gerald Kent

Gerald Kent is the producer and editor of the Short Fuse. Based in Cape Town, South Africa. Gerald is a talented musician and audio engineer who has been releasing his own music independently since 2021. Alongside his artistry, he’s built up experience working with multiple clients in the podcasting space, from editing through full-scale production. 

Hannah Brueske, manages social media and marketing for the Short Fuse. She is a senior journalism student at Emerson College, with a special interest in feature stories, arts reporting, and documentary filmmaking. She is active in campus publications as a reporter for The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson’s only independent student newspaper, and the editor in chief of The Independent, an arts magazine that covers independent art.

Evelyn Rosenthal, copy edits the Short Fuse. She is a singer specializing in jazz and Brazilian music, a freelance editor, and the former editor in chief and head of publications at the Harvard Art Museums. She writes about music for the Arts Fuse and copy edits the magazine

The Arts Fuse 

Bill Marx, is the editor in chief of The Arts Fuse. For over four decades, he has written about arts and culture for print, broadcast, and online. He has regularly reviewed theater for National Public Radio Station WBUR and The Boston Globe.He created and edited WBUR Online Arts, a cultural webzine that in 2004 won an Online Journalism Award for Specialty Journalism. In 2007 he created The Arts Fuse, an online magazine dedicated to covering arts and culture in Boston and throughout New England

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

The goal of The Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The magazine’s motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.” 

The Arts Fuse has published over 10, 000 articles and receives 80,000+ visits a month. This year the magazine is celebrating its 18th birthday - a milestone for a small, independent magazine dedicated to covering the arts.

Assist Arts Fuse in its mission:  keep arts and culture hale and hearty through dialogue, and not just marketing.  

Serious criticism, by talking about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts, plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations need a response. When they are ignored as they are by the mainstream media, they fail to gain an audience. And without an audience, they fold, further weakening the entire ecosystem.

SUBSCRIBE to the weekly e-newsletter

LIKE The Arts Fuse on Facebook, FOLLOW  on Twitter

HELP  The Arts Fuse thrive by providing underwriting for the magazine. Even better — make a tax deductible donation.

Studio Rodrigo

A design, branding, identity and produce design consultancy designed to make life better. 

Academy Awards 2026

The 98th Academy Awards ceremony is being held on Sunday, March 15, 2026.

In the conversation Elizabeth and Aldo discuss three of New York City's independent cinemas that offer  films that are curated and screened in intimate spaces.

Film Forum

Metrograph
Quad Cinema

The Short Fuse Podcast  is hosted by Elizabeth Howard. She talks with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change through their art, music, ideas, and performances. James Baldwin reminds us that "artists are here to disturb the peace."  Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016).    @elizh24 on Instagram

Gerald Kent is the producer and editor of the Short Fuse. Based in Cape Town, South Africa. Gerald is a talented musician and audio engineer who has been releasing his own music independently since 2021. Alongside his artistry, he’s built up experience working with multiple clients in the podcasting space, from editing through full-scale production. 

Hannah Brueske, manages social media and marketing for the Short Fuse. She is a senior journalism student at Emerson College, with a special interest in feature stories, arts reporting, and documentary filmmaking. She is active in campus publications as a reporter for The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson’s only independent student newspaper, and the editor in chief of The Independent, an arts magazine that covers independent art.

Evelyn Rosenthal, copy edits the Short Fuse. She is a singer specializing in jazz and Brazilian music, a freelance editor, and the former editor in chief and head of publications at the Harvard Art Museums. She writes about music for the Arts Fuse and copy edits the magazine

The Arts Fuse 

Bill Marx, is the editor in chief of The Arts Fuse. For over four decades, he has written about arts and culture for print, broadcast, and online. He has regularly reviewed theater for National Public Radio Station WBUR and The Boston Globe.He created and edited WBUR Online Arts, a cultural webzine that in 2004 won an Online Journalism Award for Specialty Journalism. In 2007 he created The Arts Fuse, an online magazine dedicated to covering arts and culture in Boston and throughout New England

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

The goal of The Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The magazine’s motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.” 

The Arts Fuse has published over 10, 000 articles and receives 80,000+ visits a month. This year the magazine is celebrating its 18th birthday - a milestone for a small, independent magazine dedicated to covering the arts.

Assist Arts Fuse in its mission:  keep arts and culture hale and hearty through dialogue, and not just marketing.  

Serious criticism, by talking about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts, plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations need a response. When they are ignored as they are by the mainstream media, they fail to gain an audience. And without an audience, they fold, further weakening the entire ecosystem.

SUBSCRIBE to the weekly e-newsletter

LIKE The Arts Fuse on Facebook, FOLLOW  on Twitter

HELP  The Arts Fuse thrive by providing underwriting for the magazine. Even better — make a tax deductible donation.

 Oarabile Ditsele is a multidisciplinary creative force whose work spans writing, acting, producing, and socially driven arts Innovation.  He is a graduate of University of Cape Town, majoring in drama. Ditsele gained international attention in 2016 as a writer-performer of the award-winning theatre production, The Fall, produced by the Baxter Theatre. The play toured globally to critical acclaim, with notable runs at the Royal Court Theatre in London and St. Ann’s Warehouse in New York. Ditsele’s transition into film began in 2021 with Blood Is Black, a project he both wrote and produced. In 2022, he continued expanding his performance repertoire by starring in the internationally acclaimed In 2023, Ditsele produced, wrote, and performed in Rapela: Speaking to the Unknown, which enjoyed a sold-out run at the Jo' burg Theatre. By 2025, he appeared in Paul Slabolepszy’s Bitter Winter (directed by Lesedi Job) while simultaneously directing and producing the short-film adaptation of Speaking to the Unknown, slated for release in 2026. Beyond his creative work, Ditsele is a committed social entrepreneur who leverages the arts as a catalyst for employment and community development. He founded annual visual-arts initiatives in the Free State, creating sustainable opportunities for young artists in marginalized communities. Currently, Ditsele is expanding his impact across the continent by establishing a film distribution partnership with Uganda. His first export to the African diaspora will be Some Mothers Son, an award-winning film adapted from Mike Van Graan’s acclaimed play Some Mothers Sons. Ditsele has a growing body of internationally recognized work, a strong storytelling voice, and a deep sense of the arts of the arts is shaping our world.  

Market Theatre

The Market Theatre, founded in Johannesburg in 1976 by Mannie Manim and the late Barney Simon, was constructed out of Johannesburg’s Indian Fruit Market – built in 1913. The theatre went on to become internationally renowned as South Africa’s “Theatre of the Struggle”.

The Market Theatre challenged the apartheid regime, armed with little more than the conviction that culture can change society. The strength and truth of that conviction was acknowledged in 1995 when the theatre received the American Jujamcyn Award. In providing a voice to the voiceless, The Market Theatre did not forego artistic excellence, but, rather, made a point of it. Its twenty-one international and over three hundred South African theatre awards bears eloquent testimony to the courage and artistic quality of its work.

Barney Simon

Barney Simon (13 April 1932 – 30 June 1995) was a South African writer, playwright and director.  He was the founder of the Market Theatre in Johannesburg

Albie Sachs 

A South African lawyer, activist, writer, and former judge appointed to the first Constitutional Court of South Africa by Nelson Mandela. 

On 7 April 1988, Sachs opened the door to his car and it exploded.Sachs lost his right arm and vision in his left eye, and a passerby was killed. He was stabilized in Mozambique, then flown to London to recover. There, he received a letter promising he would be avenged. Sachs decided to seek not revenge but "soft vengeance" which would take the form of getting freedom in a new non-racial and democratic South Africa based on human rights and the rule of law.

The Short Fuse Podcast  is hosted by Elizabeth Howard. She talks with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change through their art, music, ideas, and performances. James Baldwin reminds us that "artists are here to disturb the peace."  Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016).    @elizh24 on Instagram

Gerald Kent is the producer and editor of the Short Fuse. Based in Cape Town, South Africa. Gerald is a talented musician and audio engineer who has been releasing his own music independently since 2021. Alongside his artistry, he’s built up experience working with multiple clients in the podcasting space, from editing through full-scale production. 

Hannah Brueske, manages social media and marketing for the Short Fuse. She is a senior journalism student at Emerson College, with a special interest in feature stories, arts reporting, and documentary filmmaking. She is active in campus publications as a reporter for The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson’s only independent student newspaper, and the editor in chief of The Independent, an arts magazine that covers independent art.

Evelyn Rosenthal, copy edits the Short Fuse. She is a singer specializing in jazz and Brazilian music, a freelance editor, and the former editor in chief and head of publications at the Harvard Art Museums. She writes about music for the Arts Fuse and copy edits the magazine

The Arts Fuse 

Bill Marx, is the editor in chief of The Arts Fuse. For over four decades, he has written about arts and culture for print, broadcast, and online. He has regularly reviewed theater for National Public Radio Station WBUR and The Boston Globe.He created and edited WBUR Online Arts, a cultural webzine that in 2004 won an Online Journalism Award for Specialty Journalism. In 2007 he created The Arts Fuse, an online magazine dedicated to covering arts and culture in Boston and throughout New England

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

The goal of The Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The magazine’s motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.” 

The Arts Fuse has published over 10, 000 articles and receives 80,000+ visits a month. This year the magazine is celebrating its 18th birthday - a milestone for a small, independent magazine dedicated to covering the arts.

Assist Arts Fuse in its mission:  keep arts and culture hale and hearty through dialogue, and not just marketing.  

Serious criticism, by talking about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts, plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations need a response. When they are ignored as they are by the mainstream media, they fail to gain an audience. And without an audience, they fold, further weakening the entire ecosystem.

SUBSCRIBE to the weekly e-newsletter

LIKE The Arts Fuse on Facebook, FOLLOW  on Twitter

HELP  The Arts Fuse thrive by providing underwriting for the magazine. Even better — make a tax deductible donation.

The music used in the intro of this episode is a classic Eritrean song called "Milenu" by Tewolde Reda.  In I Hope You Find What You're Looking For Zewdi mentions this singer in a flashback to her first love.

Bsrat Mezghebe received an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, The Paris Review, and the anthology Well–Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves. She lives in the Washington, D.C. area.

Liveright Books/WW Norton

Well-Read Black Girl. 

Glory Edim is the founder of The Well-Read Black Girl, a podcast and digital literacy platform that celebrates the uniqueness of Black literature and sisterhood. She edited the Well-Read Black Girl anthology, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and named a best book of the year by Library Journal. Her latest book On Girlhood is a collection of groundbreaking short stories that explore the thin yet imperative line between Black girlhood and womanhood. The winner of the Innovator's Award from the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, Edim worked as a cultural practitioner for over ten years and serves on the board of Baldwin for the Arts. She resides in Washington D.C. with her son, Zikomo. 

Center for Fiction

Our mission is to support readers and writers of all ages and histories, and to build community through fiction.From our vibrant home in Downtown Brooklyn, we offer a wide range of programming for local and national audiences. Through our Events, Reading Groups, Library, and Bookstore, we inspire readers to explore classic and contemporary literature. In our Workshops and Writers Studio, emerging and established writers hone their craft and develop new work. Our Fellowships and Awards champion fresh talent and celebrate excellence in fiction. Through our KidsRead programs with New York City public schools, we foster a lifelong love of books for our youngest readers.

The Short Fuse Podcast  is hosted by Elizabeth Howard. She talks with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change through their art, music, ideas, and performances. James Baldwin reminds us that "artists are here to disturb the peace."  Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016).    @elizh24 on Instagram

Gerald Kent

Gerald Kent is the producer and editor of the Short Fuse. Based in Cape Town, South Africa. Gerald is a talented musician and audio engineer who has been releasing his own music independently since 2021. Alongside his artistry, he’s built up experience working with multiple clients in the podcasting space, from editing through full-scale production. 

Hannah Brueske, manages social media and marketing for the Short Fuse. She is a senior journalism student at Emerson College, with a special interest in feature stories, arts reporting, and documentary filmmaking. She is active in campus publications as a reporter for The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson’s only independent student newspaper, and the editor in chief of The Independent, an arts magazine that covers independent art.

Evelyn Rosenthal, copy edits the Short Fuse. She is a singer specializing in jazz and Brazilian music, a freelance editor, and the former editor in chief and head of publications at the Harvard Art Museums. She writes about music for the Arts Fuse and copy edits the magazine

The Arts Fuse 

Bill Marx, is the editor in chief of The Arts Fuse. For over four decades, he has written about arts and culture for print, broadcast, and online. He has regularly reviewed theater for National Public Radio Station WBUR and The Boston Globe.He created and edited WBUR Online Arts, a cultural webzine that in 2004 won an Online Journalism Award for Specialty Journalism. In 2007 he created The Arts Fuse, an online magazine dedicated to covering arts and culture in Boston and throughout New England

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

The goal of The Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The magazine’s motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.” 

The Arts Fuse has published over 10, 000 articles and receives 80,000+ visits a month. This year the magazine is celebrating its 18th birthday - a milestone for a small, independent magazine dedicated to covering the arts.

Assist Arts Fuse in its mission:  keep arts and culture hale and hearty through dialogue, and not just marketing.  

Serious criticism, by talking about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts, plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations need a response. When they are ignored as they are by the mainstream media, they fail to gain an audience. And without an audience, they fold, further weakening the entire ecosystem.

SUBSCRIBE to the weekly e-newsletter

LIKE The Arts Fuse on Facebook, FOLLOW  on Twitter

HELP  The Arts Fuse thrive by providing underwriting for the magazine. Even better — make a tax deductible donation.

Hannah Brueske, manages social media and marketing for the Short Fuse. She is a senior journalism student at Emerson College, with a special interest in feature stories, arts reporting, and documentary filmmaking. She is active in campus publications as a reporter for The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson’s only independent student newspaper, and the editor in chief of The Independent, an arts magazine that covers independent art.

Evelyn Rosenthal, copy edits the Short Fuse. She is a singer specializing in jazz and Brazilian music, a freelance editor, and the former editor in chief and head of publications at the Harvard Art Museums. She writes about music for the Arts Fuse and copy edits the magazine

Big House Books would appreciate your paperback books - westerns, fantasy novels  and science fiction are genres often requested.  Books can be shipped through media mail.  More information on the Big House Books website. 

Big House Books, 

  Lemuria Bookstore  With over 40 years in the book business Lemuria has formed valuable author relationships.  
 Lemuria believes in the value of the physical book, whether you're a collector in search of a literary gem or you are looking for the latest bestseller. In a digital age, Lemuria is areal bookstore with floor-to-ceiling shelves, that quintessential book smell, and a little bit of Southern hospitality, you’ll feel right at home.

The Short Fuse Podcast  is hosted by Elizabeth Howard. She talks with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change through their art, music, ideas, and performances. James Baldwin reminds us that "artists are here to disturb the peace."  Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016).    @elizh24 on Instagram

Gerald Kent

Gerald Kent is the producer and editor of the Short Fuse. Based in Cape Town, South Africa. Gerald is a talented musician and audio engineer who has been releasing his own music independently since 2021. Alongside his artistry, he’s built up experience working with multiple clients in the podcasting space, from editing through full-scale production. 

Hannah Brueske, manages social media and marketing for the Short Fuse. She is a senior journalism student at Emerson College, with a special interest in feature stories, arts reporting, and documentary filmmaking. She is active in campus publications as a reporter for The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson’s only independent student newspaper, and the editor in chief of The Independent, an arts magazine that covers independent art.

Evelyn Rosenthal, copy edits the Short Fuse. She is a singer specializing in jazz and Brazilian music, a freelance editor, and the former editor in chief and head of publications at the Harvard Art Museums. She writes about music for the Arts Fuse and copy edits the magazine

The Arts Fuse 

Bill Marx, is the editor in chief of The Arts Fuse. For over four decades, he has written about arts and culture for print, broadcast, and online. He has regularly reviewed theater for National Public Radio Station WBUR and The Boston Globe.He created and edited WBUR Online Arts, a cultural webzine that in 2004 won an Online Journalism Award for Specialty Journalism. In 2007 he created The Arts Fuse, an online magazine dedicated to covering arts and culture in Boston and throughout New England

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

The goal of The Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The magazine’s motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.” 

The Arts Fuse has published over 10, 000 articles and receives 80,000+ visits a month. This year the magazine is celebrating its 18th birthday - a milestone for a small, independent magazine dedicated to covering the arts.

Assist Arts Fuse in its mission:  keep arts and culture hale and hearty through dialogue, and not just marketing.  

Serious criticism, by talking about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts, plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations need a response. When they are ignored as they are by the mainstream media, they fail to gain an audience. And without an audience, they fold, further weakening the entire ecosystem.

SUBSCRIBE to the weekly e-newsletter

LIKE The Arts Fuse on Facebook, FOLLOW  on Twitter

HELP  The Arts Fuse thrive by providing underwriting for the magazine. Even better — make a tax deductible donation.

Hannah Brueske, manages social media and marketing for the Short Fuse. She is a senior journalism student at Emerson College, with a special interest in feature stories, arts reporting, and documentary filmmaking. She is active in campus publications as a reporter for The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson’s only independent student newspaper, and the editor in chief of The Independent, an arts magazine that covers independent art.

Evelyn Rosenthal, copy edits the Short Fuse. She is a singer specializing in jazz and Brazilian music, a freelance editor, and the former editor in chief and head of publications at the Harvard Art Museums. She writes about music for the Arts Fuse and copy edits the magazine

Gish Jen's work has been included in The Best American Short Stories five times, including in The Best American Short Stories of the Century. A fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has received NEA, Guggenheim, and Radcliffe fellowships, a Lannan Literary Award, and a five-year Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award. Her short work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, and many anthologies; she has taught at Harvard University, NYU Shanghai, and other universities.

Bad Bad Girl is her sixth novel; her other books include two collections of short stories and two works of non-fiction, including publication of her Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization at Harvard University.

The Short Fuse Podcast  is hosted by Elizabeth Howard. She talks with contemporary artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change through their art, music, ideas, and performances. James Baldwin reminds us that "artists are here to disturb the peace."  Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016). She leads reading groups at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York.  @elizh24 on Instagram

Gerald Kent

Gerald Kent is the producer and editor of the Short Fuse. Based in Cape Town, South Africa. Gerald is a talented musician and audio engineer who has been releasing his own music independently since 2021. Alongside his artistry, he’s built up experience working with multiple clients in the podcasting space, from editing through full-scale production. 

The Arts Fuse 

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

The goal of The Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The magazine’s motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.” 

The Arts Fuse has published over 10, 000 articles and receives 80,000+ visits a month. This year the magazine is celebrating its 18th birthday - a milestone for a small, independent magazine dedicated to covering the arts.

Assist Arts Fuse in its mission:  keep arts and culture hale and hearty through dialogue, and not just marketing.  

Serious criticism, by talking about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts, plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations need a response. When they are ignored as they are by the mainstream media, they fail to gain an audience. And without an audience, they fold, further weakening the entire ecosystem.

SUBSCRIBE to the weekly e-newsletter

LIKE The Arts Fuse on Facebook, FOLLOW  on Twitter

HELP  The Arts Fuse thrive by providing underwriting for the magazine. Even better — make a tax deductible donation.

Founded in 1967, The Fortune Society’s vision is to foster a world where those who are incarcerated or formerly incarcerated will thrive as positive, contributing members of society. This is achieved through a holistic, one-stop model of service provision.

The Fortune Society's continuum of care is informed and implemented by professionals with cultural backgrounds and life experiences similar to those of the participants. They serve thousands of individuals annually through  New York locations: service centers in Long Island City, Queens and Morrisania, the Bronx, as well as several housing residences throughout the city. Their program models are recognized both nationally and internationally for their quality and innovation.

Dr. Shuvendu Sen 

Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from AmeriCorps and the Office of the President of the United States, Dr, Shuvendu Sen is an Award winning physician, community activist, Author, and Ffilm personality. He is the author of Amazon bestseller Why Buddha Never Had Alzheimer’s: a Holistic Treatment Approach through Meditation, Yoga and the Arts, which received the 2017 Nautilus Award. He recently directed and produced "Broadway Bars & Fortune," a 40-minute Documentary that unfolds the story of four incarcerated individuals and their triumphant return to life through arts and theater.

Shortfuse Podcast 

The Short Fuse Podcasts, hosted by Elizabeth Howard, are conversations with artists, writers, musicians, and others who have a lens on contemporary thought and stir us to seek change. With their art, their music, their performances, and their vision they lead us through the social and environmental transformations sweeping across the globe.

“Artists are here to disturb the peace.” James Baldwin.

The Short Fuse is distributed through the Arts Fuse, a journal of arts criticism and commentary.

Elizabeth Howard, Host

Elizabeth Howard is the host of the Short Fuse Podcast, conversations with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change. Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016).  @elizh24 on Instagram

Gerald Kent

 Gerald Kent is the producer and editor of The Short Fuse. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, Gerald is a talented musician and audio engineer who has been releasing his own music independently since 2021. Alongside his artistry, he’s built up experience working with multiple clients in the podcasting space, from editing to full-scale production. We’re thrilled to have Gerald on board and look forward to the journey ahead with him.

The Arts Fuse 

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

The goal of The Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The magazine’s motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.” 

The Arts Fuse has published over 10, 000 articles and receives 80,000+ visits a month. This year the magazine is celebrating its 18th birthday - a milestone for a small, independent magazine dedicated to covering the arts.

Assist Arts Fuse in its mission:  keep arts and culture hale and hearty through dialogue, and not just marketing.  

Serious criticism, by talking about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts, plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations need a response. When they are ignored as they are by the mainstream media, they fail to gain an audience. And without an audience, they fold, further weakening the entire ecosystem.

SUBSCRIBE to the weekly e-newsletter

LIKE The Arts Fuse on Facebook, FOLLOW  on Twitter

HELP  The Arts Fuse thrive by providing underwriting for the magazine. Even better — make a tax deductible donation.

Chris Thurman is  Director of the Tsikinya-Chaka Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is co-editor, with Sandra Young, of Global Shakespeare and Social Injustice: Towards a Transformative Encounter (2023). He is also editor of South African Essays on ‘Universal’ Shakespeare (2014), Sport versus Art: A South African Contest (2010) and sixteen volumes of the journal Shakespeare in Southern Africa. His other books are the monograph Guy Butler: Reassessing a South African Literary Life (2010); Text Bites, an anthology for high schools (2009); and two collections of arts journalism. He is president of the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa and founder of Shakespeare ZA.  (christopher.thurman@wits.ac.za) 

Laura Bohannan

Link for "Hamlet in the Bush".

Gerald Kent

 Gerald Kent is the producer and editor of The Short Fuse. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, Gerald is a talented musician and audio engineer who has been releasing his own music independently since 2021. Alongside his artistry, he’s built up experience working with multiple clients in the podcasting space, from editing to full-scale production. We’re thrilled to have Gerald on board and look forward to the journey ahead with him.

Elizabeth Howard, Host of the Short Fuse Podcast 

Elizabeth Howard is the host of the Short Fuse Podcast, conversations with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change. Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016). She leads reading groups at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York.  @elizh24 on Instagram

The Arts Fuse 

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

The goal of The Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The magazine’s motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.” 

The Arts Fuse has published over 10, 000 articles and receives 80,000+ visits a month. This year the magazine is celebrating its 18th birthday - a milestone for a small, independent magazine dedicated to covering the arts.

Assist Arts Fuse in its mission:  keep arts and culture hale and hearty through dialogue, and not just marketing.  

Serious criticism, by talking about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts, plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations need a response. When they are ignored as they are by the mainstream media, they fail to gain an audience. And without an audience, they fold, further weakening the entire ecosystem.

SUBSCRIBE to the weekly e-newsletter

LIKE The Arts Fuse on Facebook, FOLLOW  on Twitter

HELP  The Arts Fuse thrive by providing underwriting for the magazine. Even better — make a tax deductible donation.

Show

Seton Hawkins is the Director of Public Programs and Education Resources at Jazz at Lincoln Center. He leads the organization's Swing University teaching initiative.  In addition, he has worked as a producer, manager, publicist, radio DJ, and advocate in jazz for more than a decade.  He has written extensively for Hot House Jazz and for AllAboutJazz.com, with a particular emphasis on the jazz scene of South Africa. Outside of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Seton is a radio host for SiriusXM's Real Jazz Channel (hosting a weekly South African Jazz series); a professor at the Julliard School; and is the curator of the AfricArise South African Jazz record series for Ropeadope Records. He received his MBA from Babson College and his BA in Music from Columbia University. 

Marcus Printup

Marcus attended Georgia State University, then transferred to the University of North Florida on a music scholarship. It was during his studies at UNF that he competed and won the prestigious International Trumpet Guild Jazz Trumpet Competition.

In 1991, Mr. Printup's life would change when he met his mentor and friend-to-be, the incomparable pianist Marcus Roberts. Mr. Roberts introduced him to world renowned trumpeter, Wynton Marsalis which in time led to the invitation to join the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra in 1993. Since then, Marcus has established and held third chair in the trumpet section and contributes regularly to the orchestra as an arranger and composer.

Among many others, Mr. Printup has performed/recorded with Betty Carter (an inductee into Ms. Carter's first Jazz Ahead class in 1994), Dianne Reeves, Eric Reed, Cyrus Chestnut, Wycliffe Gordon, and Marcus Roberts. 

Mr. Printup has led multiple recordings on several major record jazz labels.

Mother Africa, Jazz at Lincoln Center 

This episode explores the opening of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2025–26 season with Afro!, a new composition by Wynton Marsalis. Performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Marsalis directing, the work celebrates jazz’s deep ties to African music and features special guests vocalist Shenel Johns and percussionist Weedie Braimah.

As part of our conversation with Seton Hawkins, we highlight three South African jazz standards that will be featured in the performance and in this episode:

Kippie Moeketsi – Scullery Department: A hard-swinging, bebop-rooted tune that captures the energy of Johannesburg’s 1950s jazz scene. An alto saxophonist central to the 1950s Johannesburg jazz scene and often dubbed the “Charlie Parker of South Africa.”

Winston Mankunku Ngozi – Yakhal’ Inkomo: Recorded in 1968, this tenor sax masterpiece became one of the most iconic South African jazz albums. Its title, meaning “the bellowing bull,” captures both deep personal expression and the wider struggle under apartheid.

Feya Faku – Elegy for Bheki Mseleku: A leading trumpeter and composer of the modern era, Faku wrote this moving tribute to pianist Bheki Mseleku, one of South Africa’s most innovative and spiritual jazz voices.

Together, these works connect South Africa’s jazz legacy with Marsalis’s new composition, underscoring how the story of jazz is inseparable from its African roots.

Gerald Kent

We’re excited to welcome Gerald Kent as the producer and editor of The Short Fuse. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, Gerald is a talented musician and audio engineer who has been releasing his own music independently since 2021. Alongside his artistry, he’s built up experience working with multiple clients in the podcasting space, from editing to full-scale production. We’re thrilled to have Gerald on board and look forward to the journey ahead with him.

Elizabeth Howard, Producer and Host of the Short Fuse Podcast

Elizabeth Howard is the producer and host of the Short Fuse Podcast, conversations with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change. Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016). She leads reading groups at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York.  @elizh24 on Instagram

The Arts Fuse 

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

The goal of The Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The magazine’s motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.” 

The Arts Fuse has published over 10, 000 articles and receives 80,000+ visits a month. This year the magazine is celebrating its 18th birthday - a milestone for a small, independent magazine dedicated to covering the arts.

Assist Arts Fuse in its mission:  keep arts and culture hale and hearty through dialogue, and not just marketing.  

Serious criticism, by talking about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts, plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations need a response. When they are ignored as they are by the mainstream media, they fail to gain an audience. And without an audience, they fold, further weakening the entire ecosystem.

SUBSCRIBE to the weekly e-newsletter

LIKE The Arts Fuse on Facebook, FOLLOW  on Twitter

HELP  The Arts Fuse thrive by providing underwriting for the magazine. Even better — make a tax deductible donation.

The Open Book Festival is a trusted space in which difficult conversations are possible.  The festival, at its core, recognizes the importance of books to explore the world. Writers and their work is at the center of the Festival, along with the audience. We believe that the meaningful conversation is impossible, without the representation of the audiences. 

Book Lounge

The Book Lounge is located at 71 Roeland Street in Cape Town.  

Karavan Press

Karavan Press is an independent publisher based in Cape Town, South Africa, devoted to excellence and integrity.  They are passionate about the books they publish.

The Frightened by Lethokuhle Msimana

  Published by Karavan Press

“In this lyrical, fragmented novella, Lethokuhle Msimang uses autobiographical and poetic interventions to lead the reader thorugh landscapes of loss and longing, traveling between France, China, Spain and South Africa, to explore the troubled terrain of leaving and findinghome. 

The Bitterness of Olives by Andrew Brown

  Published by Karavan Press

Avi Dahan, a retired detective mourning his beloved wife in tel Aviv and Khalid Mansour, a Palestinain doctor confront the precarious reality of living in Gaza City – and are still reeling from the policital fallout that jeopardies their delicate friendship.  

Colleen Hicks. Modjagi Books

Colleen Hicks is a writer and publisher.She founded the ground-breaking independent southern African press, Modiaji Books in 2007.Through her publishing company she occasionally offers workshops on how to get published in South Africa. She has edited four editions of African Small Publishers Catalogue.  

The Bookery

The Bookery was established in 2010 and since then has set up more than 98 school libraries in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng, South Africa.  Professional libraries assist in keeping the organized supplied with reference, non-fiction and fiction books.  The Bookery provides at least three books per learner, carefully selected, to meet their individual needs and interests. The Bookery also trains librarians.  They have distributed more than 375,000 books throughout South Africa.

African Literary Cities Project

African Literary Cities Project – University of Cape Town 

“As a form of urbanity, the literary city can be considered a narrative that (re)produces itself in both material and imaginative forms and can thus not be read solely with one single disciplinary lens. The African Literary Cities Project at the University of Cape Town proposes the notion of “literary urban ecologies” to make sense of the complex entanglements and (re)productions of cityness and literature. We are not concerned with creating an authoritative definition of the African Literary City. Rather, we are interested in mapping how literary cityness is locally produced in the contexts of dynamic African cities that are constantly “ making connections of all kinds through their literary.”

Conversations with Mohale Mashigo

Otto Foundation

The Otto Foundation is the philanthropic trust of the Otto Family. The Trust was established by Chris Otto and his daughter, Zephne Ladbrook, in 2016. The Otto Family and the board of trustees has mandated the Otto Foundation to contribute to social justice and positive change in South Africa through projects that improve early literacy. 

Batis Books

Batis Books, based in Edinburgh  and publish beginning in early 2026. Batis will publish a handful of titles focusing on literary excellence and new talent from South Africa and Scotland. 

On Publishing with Pan Macmillan

Patient 12A by Lesedi Molefi – a candid and absorbing account of his time spent in a psychiatric clinic in 2016.

Book mentioned

Braids and Migranes by Andile Cele  - 

The Fragile Mental Health of Strong Women By Michelle Myeko Kekana

Elizabeth Howard, Producer and Host of the Short Fuse Podcast 

Elizabeth Howard is the producer and host of the Short Fuse Podcast, conversations with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change. Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016). She leads reading groups at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York.  @elizh24 on Instagram

The Arts Fuse 

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

The goal of The Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The magazine’s motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.” 

The Arts Fuse has published over 10, 000 articles and receives 80,000+ visits a month. This year the magazine is celebrating its 18th birthday - a milestone for a small, independent magazine dedicated to covering the arts.

Assist Arts Fuse in its mission:  keep arts and culture hale and hearty through dialogue, and not just marketing.  

Serious criticism, by talking about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts, plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations need a response. When they are ignored as they are by the mainstream media, they fail to gain an audience. And without an audience, they fold, further weakening the entire ecosystem.

SUBSCRIBE to the weekly e-newsletter

LIKE The Arts Fuse on Facebook, FOLLOW  on Twitter

HELP  The Arts Fuse thrive by providing underwriting for the magazine. Even better — make a tax deductible donation.

Born to Cockney Jewish immigrant parents who were entertainers, Malcolm Purkey  is an actor, director, playwright, influential drama lecturer, and theatre administrator.  He holds a BA and Honours from University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, an MA in Theatre Studies from the State University New York,  is a Fulbright Scholar and  he is a Graduate of the British Film School. 

His career and contribution to theatre is monumental. It started in the mad bohemian world of Adam Leslie. While still a student he designed and developed The Box and The Nunnery Theatres for Wits and then managed the influential Workshop 71. He surrounded himself with a group of artistic academic friends who met in a house in Junction Avenue, Parktown.  They formed the Junction Avenue Theatre Company that created politically conscious plays that had an influence on theatre in South Africa.

Malcolm took a post lecturing drama at Wits (University of Witwatersrand) becoming Head of Department and an associate Professor. He was asked to assist the Market Theatre through a diffiult period and  turned it around. Malcolm has been a force in the theatre community and has had an enormous impact on hundreds of students. 

Elizabeth Howard, Producer and Host of the Short Fuse Podcast 

Elizabeth Howard is the producer and host of the Short Fuse Podcast, conversations with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change. Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016). She leads reading groups at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York.  @elizh24 on Instagram

The Arts Fuse 

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

The goal of The Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The magazine’s motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.” 

The Arts Fuse has published over 10, 000 articles and receives 80,000+ visits a month. This year the magazine is celebrating its 18th birthday - a milestone for a small, independent magazine dedicated to covering the arts.

Assist Arts Fuse in its mission:  keep arts and culture hale and hearty through dialogue, and not just marketing.  

Serious criticism, by talking about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts, plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations need a response. When they are ignored as they are by the mainstream media, they fail to gain an audience. And without an audience, they fold, further weakening the entire ecosystem.

SUBSCRIBE to the weekly e-newsletter

LIKE The Arts Fuse on Facebook, FOLLOW  on Twitter

HELP  The Arts Fuse thrive by providing underwriting for the magazine. Even better — make a tax deductible donation.

Order Tyler Wetherall's novel Amphibian

About Reading the City

 "Reading the City" is a weekly newsletter of bookish events in and around NYC, a weekly diary of upcoming New York literary life on a need-to-know basis. No long blurbs, no reviews, just book events of all stripes. "Reading the City" links to the author’s books, website, or social pages when possible. Tyler Wetherall, the founder and editor, is a believer in the  power of the literary community to raise each other up, champion one another, and help make the site an inclusive and welcoming space for all writers and readers. 

Tyler Wetherall is a  Brooklyn-based writer, editor, and teacher, and the author of No Way Home: A Memoir of Life on the Run (St. Martin’s Press) and Amphibian (forthcoming from Virago).   She arrived in New York from London in 2014, knowing just three people. She  carried with her a manuscript she had  written alone in a Victorian outhouse at the end of her mother’s garden in Devon. Her entire experience of the writerly life thus far was solitary—and pretty cold. She found herself in a  very special place called the Oracle Club (RIP) in Long Island City, and there  she met real life authors for the first time. After staying up late and  talking craft, drinking gin, and playing records, or reading poetry and howling into the night, she had  found her community, and through that community the practical and intellectual resources she needed to become an author myself. 

Photo credit:  Sammy Deigh

Elizabeth Howard, Producer and Host of the Short Fuse Podcast 

Elizabeth Howard is the producer and host of the Short Fuse Podcast, conversations with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change. Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016). She leads reading groups at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York.  @elizh24 on Instagram

The Arts Fuse 

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

The goal of The Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The magazine’s motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.” 

The Arts Fuse has published over 7,000 articles and receives 60,000+ visits a month. This year they are celebrating their 5th birthday, a milestone for a small, independent magazine dedicated to covering the arts.

Why The Arts Fuse? Its birth was a reaction to the declining arts coverage in newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. When the number of news pages shrink in the mainstream media, attention is paid. But the continual whittling down of arts coverage has been passed over in silence. Editor-in-Chief Bill Marx started the magazine to preserve the craft of professional arts criticism online, while also looking at new and innovative ways to evolve the cultural conversation and bring together critics, readers, and artists.

Serious criticism, by talking about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts, plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations need a response. When they are ignored as they are by the mainstream media, they fail to gain an audience. And without an audience, they fold, further weakening the entire ecosystem.

Assist The Arts Fuse in their  mission: to keep arts and culture hale and hearty through dialogue rather than marketing.

SUBSCRIBE to the weekly e-newsletter

LIKE The Arts Fuse on Facebook, FOLLOW  on Twitter

HELP  The Arts Fuse thrive by providing underwriting for the magazine. Even better — make a tax deductible donation.

Film Forum

Film Forum began in 1970 as an alternative screening space for independent films, with 50 folding chairs, one projector and a $19,000 annual budget. Karen Cooper became director in 1972 and under her leadership, Film Forum moved downtown to the Vandam Theater in 1975. In 1980, Cooper led the construction of a twin cinema on Watts Street. In 1990, Film Forum’s current Houston Street cinema was built at a cost of $3.2 million. In 2018, Film Forum raised $5 million to renovate and expand its Houston Street cinema, upgrading the seating, legroom, and sightlines in all theaters and adding a new, 4th screen. In 2023, Cooper stepped down as Director and was succeeded by Deputy Director Sonya Chung.

We present two distinct, complementary film programs – NYC theatrical premieres of American independents and foreign art films, programmed by Cooper (Advisor to the Director as of 2023), Mike Maggiore, and Sonya Chung; and, since 1987, repertory selections including foreign and American classics, genre works, festivals and directors’ retrospectives, programmed by Bruce Goldstein. Our third and fourth screens are dedicated to extended runs of popular selections from both programs, as well as new films for longer engagements. 

Film Forum is open 365 days a year, with as many as 250,000 annual admissions, nearly 500 seats, approximately 60 employees (of which half are full time), 6,500+ members and a $7 million operating budget. Approximately 80% of our budget is spent directly on programs. As a non-profit, we raise approximately 50% of our operating income. Public funders include: The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council for the Arts, and various NYC agencies including the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. Private donors include individuals, foundations, and corporate entities. Additionally, our members contribute more than $500,000 annually. This allows us to take risks on emerging filmmakers and challenging films. Film Forum has a $6 million endowment, begun in 2000 with a $1.25 million gift from the Ford Foundation.

Film Forum is the only autonomous nonprofit cinema in New York City and one of the few in the U.S. The success of our distinctive position is evidenced by our over 50-year tenure, during which our programs and fiscal resources have grown steadily. Sadly, since the 1970s, dozens of NYC art-house theaters (and a great number throughout the U.S.) have closed their doors.

As a cinema of ideas, Film Forum is committed to presenting an international array of films that treat diverse social, political, historical and cultural realities. Unlike commercial cinemas that primarily “book” high-grossing, Hollywood films, Film Forum’s programs are thoughtfully selected, with attention to unique cinematic qualities, historical importance individually or within a genre and – particularly for documentaries – relevance to today’s world.

Elizabeth Howard

Elizabeth Howard is the Host of the Short Fuse Podcast.

Arts Fuse 

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

Professor Adam Kuper  is an anthropologist and public intellectual. He has held positions at a number of universities  and is a recipient of the Huxley Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Kuper is the author or editor of 19 books and  has published over 100 journal articles focusing on anthropological theory, the history of anthropology in the US and Britain, and southern African societies and cultures. He has made numerous appearances on BBC TV and radio, and reviewed regularly for the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Wall Street Journal. 

The Museum of Other People

Published by Penguin Random House, in this deeply researched, immersive history, Adam Kuper tells the story of how foreign and prehistoric peoples and cultures were represented in Western museums of anthropology. Originally created as colonial enterprises, their halls were populated by displays of plundered art, artifacts, dioramas, bones, and relics. Kuper reveals the politics and struggles of trying to build these museums in Germany, France, and England in the mid-19th century, and the dramatic encounters between the very colorful and eccentric collectors, curators, political figures, and high members of the church who founded them. He also details the creation of contemporary museums and exhibitions, including the Smithsonian, the Harvard’s Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, and the famous 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago which was inspired by the Paris World Fair of 1889.

Listen to an excerpt from The Museum of Other People 

Elizabeth Howard  

The Short Fuse Podcasts, hosted and produced by Elizabeth Howard, are conversations with artists, writers, musicians, and others who have a lens on contemporary thought and stir us to seek change. With their art, their music, their performances, and their vision they lead us through the social and environmental transformations sweeping across the globe.

“Artists are here to disturb the peace.” James Baldwin.

The Short Fuse is distributed through the Arts Fuse, a journal of arts criticism and commentary.
 

The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas, the first principals in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, who traveled the world as highly celebrated stars in their field and whose legacy was erased from history until now.

At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lydia Abarça was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company—the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She was the first Black ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover star, cast in The Wiz  and on Broadway with Bob Fosse. She performed in some of ballet’s most iconic works with her closest friends—founding members of the company, the Swans of Harlem, Gayle McKinney, Sheila Rohan, Marcia Sells, and Karlya Shelton—for the Queen of England and Mick Jagger, with Josephine Baker, at the White House, and beyond.

Some forty years later, when Lydia’s granddaughter wanted to show her own ballet class evidence of her grandmother’s success, she found almost none, but for some yellowing photographs and programs in the family basement. Lydia had struggled for years to reckon with the erasure of her success, as all the Swans had. Still united as sisters in the present, they decided it was time to share their story themselves.

Captivating, rich in vivid detail and character, and steeped in the glamor and grit of professional ballet, The Swans of Harlem  is a riveting account of five extraordinarily accomplished women, a celebration of their historic careers, and a window into the robust history of Black ballet, hidden for too long. During Covid, five ballerinas met weekly on Zoom and formed the 152nd Street Black Ballet Legacy Council. Karen Valby joined them and wrote their story

“Karen Valby’s The Swans of Harlem brings to life the stories of Black dancers whose contributions to the world of ballet were silenced, marginalized, and otherwise erased. Karen introduces readers to important figures of our past, while inspiring us to courageously chase our dreams.”Misty Copeland

“These five original Dance Theatre of Harlem ballerinas fell in love with an art form that most of America believed was white and should remain so. Upon Arthur Mitchell’s founding of an all-Black company in 1969, they eagerly took their places at the barre and challenged themselves to the utmost. They triumphed. They showed that Blacks could not only excel at classical ballet but could also shape the art in their own vibrant image. Karen Valby weaves their stories together as a choreographer would: the women form an ensemble, yet each gets her own riveting solo. It’s thrilling to watch as they join forces at last and claim their unique place in American ballet’s past, present and future.”—Margo Jefferson

152nd Street Black Ballet Legacy Foundation

The 152nd St. Black Ballet Legacy is an independent non-profit organization created by five trailblazing Black ballerinas.  Their professional careers began at the founding of Dance Theatre of Harlem, where their sisterhood was born.  They have enjoyed and nurtured their sisterhood for over 50 years and continue to thrive for the sake of preserving our their rich history.

Lydia Abarca Mitchell is a founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem and their first prima ballerina. She danced leading roles in George Balanchine’s Agon, Bugaku, Concerto Barocco, Allegro Brillante, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, and Swan Lake, Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun, Ruth Page’s Carmen and Jose, William Dollar’s Le Combat, and Arthur Mitchell’s Ode to Otis, Holberg Suite, and Biosfera. She was featured on the cover of DanceMagazine, in the movie The Wiz, and on Broadway in Bob Fosse’s Dancin’.  It was a stunning career on the world stage.

Karen Valby 

Author of Welcome to Utopia, and contributor to The New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; Glamour; Fast Company; and Entertainment Weekly

Dance Theater of Harlem
The Dance Theater of Harlem was founded in 1969, during the Civil Rights movement by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook.

Harlem School of the Arts

Elizabeth Howard, Producer and Host of the Short Fuse Podcast 

Elizabeth Howard is the producer and host of the Short Fuse Podcast, conversations with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change. Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016). She leads reading groups at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York.  @elizh24 on Instagram

This is the longest continually running literary conference in the United States dedicated to the work of one author. This is the 50th Anniversary of the Conference, first held in 1974. 

Square Book Store, Oxford, Mississippi

 Square Books is a general independent bookstore in three separate buildings (about 100 feet apart) on the historic town square of Oxford, Mississippi, home of the University of Mississippi and many great writers, including William Faulkner, Barry Hannah, Larry Brown, and, for a time, both Willie Morris and John Grisham. The main store, Square Books, is in a two-story building with a cafe and balcony on the second floor; Off Square Books is a few doors down from the main store and has lifestyle sections such as gardening and cookbooks; Square Books, Jr., the children's bookstore, is in a building on the east side of the square; above it (in the site of the original bookstore) is the more recently opened Rare Square Books, which feature collectible, vintage, first edition books across a broad price range. Square Books is known for its strong selection of literary fiction, books on the American South and by Southern writers, a large inventory of reduced-price remainders, and its emphasis on books for children. The store hosts the popular Thacker Mountain radio show and over 150 author events a year.

University Press of Mississippi

University Press of Mississippi tells stories of scholarly and social importance that impact our state, region, nation, and world. We are committed to equality, inclusivity, and diversity. Working at the forefront of publishing and cultural trends, we publish books that enhance and extend the reputation of our state and its universities.

Dr. Jay Watson

Howry Professor of Faulkner Studies Jay Watson, a native of Athens, Georgia, received his B.A. degree from the University of Georgia (1983) and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University (1985, 1989). He joined the English department at the University of Mississippi in 1989, was promoted to Professor of English in 2007, and became UM’s second Howry Professor in 2010. During the 2002-2003 academic year he served as Visiting Fulbright Professor of American Studies at the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland, and he has since been honored with the UM Faculty Achievement Award (2012), the UM Liberal Arts Professor of the Year award (2014), and the UM Humanities Teacher of the Year award (2014). In 2013 he was a finalist for the Southeastern Conference Professor of the Year Award, and in 2018 he was the fall convocation speaker at UM.

Elizabeth Howard, Producer and Host of the Short Fuse Podcast 

Elizabeth Howard is the producer and host of the Short Fuse Podcast, conversations with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change. Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016). She leads reading groups at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York.  @elizh24 on Instagram

Dell'Aria Cafe is at 232 East 111th Street in East Harlem.  An authentic cafe with roasted Italian coffee ... and conversation.

Jasmine Rice LaBeija is a Drag Queen, who can often be found performing in New York City.

Rev. Michael Curry is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States.  He spoke at the memorial held for Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.

Ann Kjellberg is the founder of Book Post. 

Bill Marx is the founder and Editor of the Arts Fuse, the online journal of arts commentary and criticism.

Kyle Dacuyan is a poet and the director of the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church in the Bowery.

Valena Beety is the author of Manifesting Justice and works with Tasha Shelby.

Frank Young is the artist who created the collage for this episode. 

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Alex Waters is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 

The Short Fuse Podcast  hosted and produced by Elizabeth Howard, are conversations with artists, writers, musicians, and others who have a lens on contemporary thought and stir us to seek change. With their art, their music, their performances, and their vision they lead us through the social and environmental transformations sweeping across the globe.

“Artists are here to disturb the peace.” James Baldwin.

The Short Fuse is distributed through the Arts Fuse, a journal of arts criticism and commentary.

Alex Waters is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 

Works & Process    Described by The New York Times as “an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process,” for 35 years as New Yorkers have been able to see, hear, and meet the most acclaimed artists in the world, in an intimate setting unlike any other. Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, has championed new works and offered audiences unprecedented access to generations of leading creators and performers.

Elizabeth Howard, host and producer of the Short Fuse Podcast. 

Alex Waters is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for The Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 

The Poetry Project

American Academy of Poets

St. Mark's in the Bowery Church

Poetry Foundation

The Paris Review 

O, Miami

Alex Waters is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 

Joshua Whitehead is a Two-Spirit, Oji-nêhiyaw member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Calgary where he teaches Indigenous literatures and cultures with a focus on gender and sexuality.  His book of poetry, full-metal indigiqueer (Talonbooks 2017), was shortlisted for the inaugural Indigenous Voices Award and the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry.  His novel, Jonny Appleseed  (Arsenal Pulp Press 2018), established Joshua Whitehead as one of the most exciting and important new literary voices on Turtle Island.  Jonny Appleseed was long listed for the Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Indigenous Voices Award, the Governor General's Literary Award, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction and the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction. In Making Love With the Land  (University of Minnesota, 2022), a book of essays, he writes in prose that is evocative and sensual, unabashedly queer and visceral, raw,  autobiographical, and emotionally compelling. Whitehead shares his devotion to the world in which we live and brilliantly—even joyfully—maps his experience on the land that has shaped stories, histories, and bodies from time immemorial.   His work is published widely in such venues as Prairie Fire, CV2, EVENT, Arc Poetry Magazine, The Fiddlehead, Grain, CNQ, Write, and Red Rising Magazine.

Robin Wall Kimmerer

University of Minnesota Press

Johnny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

Alex Waters is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast, Con Confianza and The Stand Unshaken Podcast. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries.

To support Tasha:

Governor Tate Reeves: C  Governor’s office,  call 601-359-3150/ email governor@govreeves.ms.gov.

Lynn Fitch, Mississippi Attorney General:  601.359.3680/P.O. Box 220, Jackson MS 3920

Valena Beety is a law professor, an innocence litigator, and a former federal prosecutor. She has exonerated wrongly convicted clients, founded the West Virginia Innocence Project, and obtained presidential grants of clemency for drug offenses. She served as an appointed commissioner on the West Virginia Governor's Indigent Defense Commission. She is currently a professor of law at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O' Connor College of Law and the deputy director of the Academy for Justice, a criminal justice center at the law school.V

Tasha Mercedes Shelby is a writer and an advocate for incarcerated women. Tasha was wrongly convicted of a crime that did not occur on June 16, 2000 in Biloxi, Mississippi. In her twenty-two years of incarceration, she has earned her GED, taken classes at Millsaps College through the Prison to College Pipeline, and developed as a writer and as an artist. She continues to fight her wrongful conviction and you can learn more about her struggle at Free Tasha Shelby.

Alex Waters is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at  alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 

Audio used in the episode has been contributed by Bloomberg Philanthropies' Public Art Challenge. 

Artist David Best's Temple of Time brought the communities of Parkland and Coral Springs, Florida together on the one-year anniversary of the school shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The Greenwood Art Project in Tulsa, Oklahoma commemorated the centennial anniversary of the 1921 massacre of a thriving Black community, known as Black Wall Street. The history of the massacre had been buried, and these art projects marked the community's resilience and recovery through installations by local artists who told the story of Black Wall Street's past, present, and future..

Bloomberg Philanthropies believes in the power of arts and culture to inspire creativity and spark collaboration. The Arts program supports artists and cultural organizations and improves audience experience to strengthen the creative landscape and quality of life in cities around the world. These efforts include facilitating collaborations between artists and local governments to address civic issues, building capacity for small and mid-sized cultural institutions, and increasing and enhancing visitor engagement through the integration of digital technology.

Data on projects over the five most recent Public Challenge Projects underscores their impact, including catalyzing more than $100 million in economic benefits for local communities. Cities can apply for Public Art Challenge grants until February 15, 2023.

Stephanie Dockery brings more than 12 years of experience in arts management to her role as a member of the Arts Team at Bloomberg Philanthropies. Currently, Stephanie manages Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge, a national competition supporting temporary public art projects that address significant civic issues and demonstrate an ability to generate public-private collaborations, celebrate creativity, and strengthen local economies. She also manages partnership teams on the Bloomberg Connects portfolio app, a free app with guides to 160 cultural organizations. 

Elizabeth Howard  is the producer and host of the Short Fuse Podcast. 

Alex Waters is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at  alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 

Turtle Point Press introduces readers to outstanding literature by classic and contemporary writers from around the globe. We promote the work of emerging and neglected authors alongside those who are better known. The mix creates a publishing program that is both iconoclastic and challenging, revealing lives not usually seen in books that are playful, poignant, and poetic. Our writers work with some of the best editors in publishing and are treated to exquisitely designed and produced books. We are especially dedicated to supporting women, the LGBTQ community, and writers whose first language is not English. 

Elizabeth Howard is the producer and host of Short Fuse Podcast.  She engages individuals in lively and provocative conversations around how the arts can affect social change.  As a creative director and communications consultant she is recognized for her creative approach in working with clients and assisting them in their messaging, branding and media, as they stride past boundaries in search of the new. Her portfolio includes authors, artists, and cultural organizations; business leaders, universities, nonprofit organizations; and professional service firms, including high-profile architectural and design firms, often with international practices.

Alex Waters

Alex is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at  alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 

Diane Alters is a lecturer in journalism at Colorado College. She has worked as an editor or reporter for several publications, including the Boston Globe, the Sacramento Bee and the Denver Post and is co-author of Media, Home and Family (Routledge 2004). Her exquisite book of poetry, Breath, Suspended, (Finishing Line Press 2022.) was described by a critic as, “What it means to write at the aperture of grief.”

Edward Hirsch

Edward Hirsch is a beloved American poet. Gabriel: A Poem, published in 2014, is a book-length elegy for his son.  He has written 10 volumes of poetry and is the author of five prose books. His most recent book is 100 Poems to Break Your Heart. Edward Hirsch has taught creative writing and is president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, a position he has held since 2002.

Sarah J. Purcell

Author, Spectacle of Grief, Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era and L. F. Parker Professor of History at Grinnell College.

Alex Waters

Alex is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at  alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 

Tasha Mercedes Shelby is a writer and an advocate for incarcerated women. Tasha was wrongly convicted of a crime that did not occur on June 16, 2000 in Biloxi, Mississippi. In her twenty-two years of incarceration, she has earned her GED, taken classes at Millsaps College through the Prison to College Pipeline, and developed as a writer and as an artist. She continues to fight her wrongful conviction and you can learn more about her struggle at Free Tasha Shelby.

Alex Waters 

Alex is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at  alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 

Amy Clark is a professor of Appalachian and Communication Studies at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, where she is the founding co-director of the Center for Appalachian Studies, and founding Director of the Appalachian Writing Project. She is author and co-editor of Talking Appalachian: Voice, Identity, and Community (University Press of Kentucky). Her work on Appalachian dialects has appeared in the New York Times and NPR, among other publications. She co-hosts the podcast Southern Salon: Culture and Communication Podcast  which includes a new series on Talking Appalachia. 

Jayne Moore Waldrop

Jayne Moore Waldrop is a  western Kentucky native,   She is the author of Retracing My Steps, a finalist in the 2018 New Women's Voices Chapbook Contest, and Pandemic Lent: A Season in Poems. Waldrop's work has appeared in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Still: The Journal, Appalachian Review, New Madrid Review, Deep South Magazine, New Limestone Review, Women Speak, and other literary journals. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

University Press of Kentucky  

The University Press of Kentucky has a dual mission—the publication of academic books of high scholarly merit in a variety of fields and the publication of significant books about the history and culture of Kentucky, the Ohio Valley region, the Upper South, and Appalachia. The Press is the statewide nonprofit scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, serving all Kentucky state-sponsored institutions of higher learning as well as six private colleges and Kentucky’s two major historical societies.

The Short Fuse Podcast

Hosted and produced by Elizabeth Howard.  Learn more at Elizabeth Howard.

The Arts Fuse  

 The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 60 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters.

  Courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States. We are dedicated to supporting cultural diversity and increased understanding among peoples through the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of sound. We believe that musical and cultural diversity contributes to the vitality and quality of life throughout the world. Through the dissemination of audio recordings and educational materials we seek to strengthen people's engagement with their own cultural heritage and to enhance their awareness and appreciation of the cultural heritage of others. Smithsonian Folkways is part of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

Alex Waters 

Alex is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at  alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 

Meredith Hall 

Meredith Hall's memoir Without a Map was instantly recognized as a classic of the genre and became a New York Times bestseller. It was named a best book of the year by Kirkus and BookSense, and was an Elle magazine Reader’s Pick of the Year. Hall was a recipient of the 2004 Gift of Freedom Award from A Room of Her Own Foundation. Her work has appeared in Five Points, The Gettysburg Review, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, The New York Times, and many other publications. Hall divides her time between Maine and California.

Godine Publisher

Godine is an independent publisher located in Boston, Massachusetts. In 2020, with new titles that range from Shaun Bythell’s memoir, Confessions of a Bookseller to Thomas W. Gilbert’s groundbreaking history, How Baseball Happened: Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed.  Founded in 1970, Godine is home to the Black Sparrow Press, founded in 1966 and relaunched in Spring 2020 with titles including Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems by Wanda Coleman, edited by Terrance Hayes, and Summer Solstice: An Essay by Nina MacLaughlin.

The Portsmouth Athenaenum 

The Portsmouth Athenaenum is a library, gallery and museum founded in 1817 and located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Membership libraries were first created in the 18th century. While there were once hundreds of membership libraries across America and today there are fewer than 20. Today, the Portsmouth Athenæum maintains a library of over 40,000 volumes, an archive of manuscripts, photographs, objects, and ephemera relating to local history and sponsors exhibitions, concerts, lectures, and other educational and cultural programs.

Alex Waters

Alex is the technical producer and editor for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at  alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 
 

Mark Goldsmith, author of From Madison Avenue to Rikers Island: The Making of a Social Entrepreneur, is founder and CEO emeritus of Getting Out and Staying Out, a nonprofit that provides educational, vocational, job readiness, counseling, and other services to young men who have been incarcerated. Prior to his nonprofit work, Goldsmith was an executive in the cosmetics industry for more than 35 years, rising through the ranks at companies including Revlon, Yves St. Laurent, and Almay before starting his own company, Inventory Management Systems, specializing in trading excess inventories of well-known brand names for media time at similar values.

John Gonzalez  was raised  and grew up in New York City (Washington Heights). He got involved with the wrong people, which changed the course of his life, and led him into the Criminal Justice System, from 1999-2005 on multiple occasions.  He met Mark Goldsmith in  2005 and got involved in Getting Out and Staying Out (GOSO) which changed his life.   

John went from Rikers, to 116th Street, where GOSO, was located. With Mark Goldsmith's support he was able to find employment, get married and begin a new life. He bought his first house at age 23 in Portland, PA. He is now  operations manager for a trucking company, in charge of 30 trucks in the Northeast, and has maintained his sobriety and a clean record since 2007.

Getting Out and Staying Out (GOSO).    The vision of GOSO is  world where neither a person’s race nor contact with the legal system determines their future. The mission of GOSO is to partner with people impacted by arrest and incarceration on a journey of education, employment and emotional wellbeing and collaborates with NYC communities to support a culture of nonviolence.

Alex Waters is a technical producer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at the  Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including  The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. Alex writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at:  alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com

Comprising more than forty manuscripts, broadsides, and first editions, the exhibition explores Brooks’s roles as a poet, teacher, mentor, and community leader. The exhibition traces the effect of the resulting relationships on her work and the work of other creatives, such as Dudley Randall, Sonia Sanchez, and Jeff Donaldson. It takes us through the story of Brooks as a young poet, her early published poetry and establishes her relationship with the Black arts and publishing communities of the 1960s and ’70s. We learn of her contributions as a mentor to future writers through her children’s books and self-published guides for young poets. Nic Caldwell's exhibition  comes at an important moment in our collective history, providing us with a blueprint for building community as an essential part of creative growth.

The Poetry Project 

Thank you to the Poetry Project for allowing us to use the recording of Gwendolyn Brooks reading at  
The Poetry Project in 1981. The  program included   Ntozake Shange, the American playwright and poet. best known for her play   For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. The reading was just after the premiere. 

Library of America

Edward Hirsch's essay on Gwendolyn Brooks can be found in The Heart of American Poetry, published by Library of America.  Elizabeth Alexander edited wrote the introduction to The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks also published by Library of America. 

 DuSable Museum of African American History

Student readers

Timia McCoade is a senior at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. This recording was arranged through Alwin Jones, chair, the English Department and director of the Fieldston Summer Academic Program.  

Alex Waters is a technical producer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at the  Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including  The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. Alex writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at:  alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com

Helena Gustavsson is a Swedish journalist based in New York. She reports mainly for Swedish media on politics, social issues, and arts and culture. Helena has covered two presidential elections and profiled a number of U.S.-based authors, including Salman Rushdie, Siri Hustvedt, and Colson Whitehead. She has written several pieces on how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted America and has also interviewed “Sweden’s Dr. Fauci,” Anders Tegnell. Helena lives in Brooklyn, New York.

https://www.onpausebook.com

Alex Waters is a technical producer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at the  Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including  The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. Alex writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at:  

Eric Miller is a documentary photographer who has worked in South Africa and across Africa. He began his career during the struggle against Apartheid in the 1980's, working during that period for the progressive photo collective Afrapix, documenting Apartheid's oppression.  In the post-Apartheid period, he has worked across Africa on assignment for many publications in North America and Europe and has been widely  published in publications ranging from Time and Newsweek to newspapers including New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, among many others.

The hymn used at the end of the conversation is "Thato ya hao."  We are told it was  Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s favorite hymn. You can find a video  featuring Imilonji Kantu Choral on  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm9PlOz3MOE.

Alex Waters is a technical producer  for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at the  Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including  The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living. Alex lives in Brooklyn.  You can reach him  at alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com.

New York Times critic, Anthony Tomassini,  described Ms. Otis as a “show-stopper” in the role of Ella Worker in Downtown Music Production’s staging of The Cradle Will Rock.

She is a graduate of Wellesley College (Presser Music Scholar), the only African-American to win that award and she also holds a Masters Degree from Emerson College in Boston where she was a teaching fellow.

She has toured as a vocalist with many distinguished artists including Donald Byrd, Grover Washington Jr., Vishnu Wood, and Arthur Prysock, among many others.  She is the music director of St. Mark's in the Bowery Church in New York City.

Jeannine Otis would like to recognize:

CHURCH PUBLISHING

Church of the Heavenly Rest

St. Mark's Church in the Bowery

SUNDOG Theater Family.

The SOUNDTRACKS PROGRAM

Jewish Community Center of Staten Island

RURAL and MIGRANT MINISTRIES

Bruce Jones 

Dr. Theddia Jones JJe

 Susan Fenley, Victoria Collela, Ellen Petillo, and Poet Gold,( SUNDOG) and Ela Seeley ( JCC)
 

Elizabeth Howard is the host and the producer of the Short Fuse Podcast. She has never had barriers between her life, work, art and writing. Experience, sense of place and exploration define the choices she makes, seeking collaboration, flexibility, spontaneity and responsiveness in the projects she designs and engages with.  As the host of the Short Fuse she engages individuals in lively and provocative conversations around the arts: dance, theater, literature, music and film. 

Alex Waters is a technical producer  for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at the  Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including  The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living. Alex lives in Brooklyn.  You can reach him with inquiries at alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com.

Simon spent nearly two years traveling through six continents and visiting 26 countries to write Race for Tomorrow,  to tell the stories of the diverse cast of characters locked in this historic struggle – from communities hit by extreme physical shifts, to business leaders grappling with the implications for the world economy.  Race for Tomorrow is now on sale in 40 countries. 
 

Follow Simon on Twitter: @simonmundy.com

On Instagram:   @simonmundyphotos

Books mentioned in this episode:

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

The Lost Gospel of the Earth by Tom Hayden

The End of Nature by Bill McKibben

A Life on Our Planet, My Witness Statement and A Vision for the Future by David Attenborough

Elizabeth Howard is the host and the producer of the Short Fuse Podcast. She has never had barriers between her life, work, art and writing. Experience, sense of place and exploration define the choices she makes, seeking collaboration, flexibility, spontaneity and responsiveness in the projects she designs and engages with.  As the host of the Short Fuse she engages individuals in lively and provocative conversations around the arts: dance, theater, literature, music and film. 

Alex Waters is a technical producer  for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at the  Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including  The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living. Alex lives in Brooklyn.  You can reach him with inquiries at alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com.

Halim Flowers

Autodidact, Halim A. Flowers (b. 1980, Washington, DC) visual artist, spoken word performer, businessman, and author of eleven published non-fiction works, is married to L. Patrice McKinney, raising a family in Washington, DC. A Member of the Board of Directors of The Frederick Douglass Project for Justice and Cultural DC, he is an ardent advocate for human rights and is best known for his quote, “Love is the Antibody”. In the short time since the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act of 2016 effectuated his 2019 release from prison, he has created a stunning spectrum of paintings and spoken word comprised of a benevolent mission forged and galvanized over decades in a pressure cooker.

In 1997, as a minor, Halim A. Flowers was arrested and wrongfully sentenced to two life sentences in Washington, DC. His experiences aired on HBO in the Emmy award-winning documentary “Thug Life in DC”. Released under a new juvenile lifer resentencing law, Flowers’ 2019 freedom was documented by Kim Kardashian-West’s “The Justice Project” film. Upon release, he was awarded the Halcyon Arts Lab and Echoing Green fellowship awards. In 2020, Flowers’ TEDx Talk, “Criminal Justice Reform”, and his prolific production and exhibition of his visual art, e.g., The Museum of Modern Art’s “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration” exhibit, continue to advance his mission to promote love among all humans. A beneficiary of Georgetown University’s Prison and Justice Initiative, Flowers studied Government, Philosophy, Reparations: African-American Literature, and English 101 in a mentorship with academic advisor, Professor Marc Morjé Howard (2018-2019). More recently, as a grant recipient from the Art for Justice Fund, Flowers was featured as a “Justice Ambassador” in the film “Halim’s Hope” (2020).

Elizabeth Howard is the host and producer of the Short Fuse Podcast.  Elizabeth has never had barriers between her life, work, art and writing. Experience, sense of place and exploration define the choices she makes, seeking collaboration, flexibility, spontaneity and responsiveness in the projects she designs and engages with.   As the host and producer of the Short Fuse Podcast, she engages individuals in lively and provocative conversations around how the arts can affect social change.

Music for the Short Fuse Podcast

Jeannine Otis recorded the music for this episode of the Short Fuse Podcast. Music has always been a part of Jeannine's life.  Her mother was a musical director and her family  includes the Jones Brothers, Hank, Thad, and Elvin who formed the basis of exposure to music that began a career that started with Jeannine’s debut as a vocalist with the Detroit Symphony with American Youth Performs at age 12.

She has shared the stage with great musicians of every genre (especially jazz) who have served as mentors including Grover Washington Jr., Arthur Prysock, Kool and the Gang, Joe Chambers and Donald Byrd, Rudy Mwangozi, Saul Ruin, Stanley Banks bassist, Finnish Jazz composer Heikki Sarmanto and Vishnu Wood, bassist, and his band Safari East.

She has been a featured vocalist at many jazz festivals including the Pori Jazz Festival in Finland, JazzMobile with Safari East, and the Universal Temple of the Arts yearly jazz festival and trombonist Art Baron and Friends. Jeannine has also appeared on Broadway in THIS JOINT IS JUMPIN’ at the Supper Club in the Edison Hotel with Larry Marshall and the Michael E Smith Big Band and the New York Big Band at Tavern on the Green.

She has toured extensively worldwide as a featured vocalist, in theater, and with her own ensemble. Anthony Tomassini of the New York Times labeled Jeannine a “show-stopper” in a review of a Downtown Music Production’s version of THE CRADLE WILL ROCK. As the STRAWBERRY WOMAN in Porgy and Bess, Jeannine toured extensively in Europe singing in many of the great opera houses in Europe including those in Rome, Cologne, Venice, and Modena—home of Luciano Pavorotti.

Her “little” book THE GATHERING was made into a Musical Theater piece entitled WHO AM I, and debuted at The La MaMa Theater in 2014. She is an honors graduate of Wellesley College (BA) and of Emerson College (MA) and the Director of Music at Saint Marks Church, known for its progressive outreach programming through the arts.

Alex Waters is a technical producer  for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at the  Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts such as The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living. Alex lives in Brooklyn.  You can reach him with inquiries by emailing alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com.

Howard Sherman is the author of “Another Day’s Begun: Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in the 21st Century,” published by Methuen Drama. He has been executive director of the American Theatre Wing and the O’Neill Theatre Center, managing director of Geva Theatre, general manager of Goodspeed Musicals, and public relations director of Hartford Stage. He is the US columnist for The Stage newspaper in London and his writing has appeared in The Guardian, American Theatre magazine, Encore Monthly and LitHub, among many others. @hesherman on Twitter, Facebook and Insta. www.hesherman.com

Elizabeth Howard is the host and the producer of the Short Fuse Podcast. She has never had barriers between her life, work, art and writing. Experience, sense of place and exploration define the choices she makes, seeking collaboration, flexibility, spontaneity and responsiveness in the projects she designs and engages with.  As the host of the Short Fuse she engages individuals in lively and provocative conversations around the arts: dance, theater, literature, music and film. 

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 60 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts.

Alex Waters is a media producer and editor for the Short Fuse Podcast, a music producer, and Berklee College of Music student. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts such as The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He produces his own, as well as writes music and records for independent artists such as The Living. Alex lives in Brooklyn.  You can reach him with inquiries by emailing alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com.

The value of cultural diplomacy has long been acknowledged as a critical component in the projection of a nation's identity. On September 23, 2021, the South African Consulate General in New York opened a Cultural Center at 845 Third Avenue. The inaugural exhibition, celebrating South Africa's Heritage Day, was an exhibition in the  gallery of South African artist Zakes Mda's collection of collages, Washboards and Mirrors  

Zakes Mda is the pen name of Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda. Born in South Africa, the writer, painter, and composer also has roots in Lesotho and Ohio. He holds an MFA (Theater) and an MA (Telecommunications) from Ohio University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cape Town.

He has published 22 books, 10 of which are novels and the rest collections of plays, poetry, and a monograph on the theory and practice of theater-for-development. His novel Cion, set in southeast Ohio, was nominated for the NAACP Image Award. His memoir Sometimes There Is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and was a New York Times Notable Book for 2012.

Zakes Mda commutes between the US, where he is Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio University, and South Africa, where he is Extraordinary Professor of English at the University of the Western Cape; a beekeeper in the Eastern Cape (running a project he established in 2000 with rural women); and a director of NeoZane, a publishing house and animation film production company based in Johannesburg.

Elizabeth Howard is the host and the producer of the Short Fuse Podcast. She has never had barriers between her life, work, art and writing. Experience, sense of place and exploration define the choices she makes, seeking collaboration, flexibility, spontaneity and responsiveness in the projects she designs and engages with.  As the host of the Short Fuse she engages individuals in lively and provocative conversations around the arts: dance, theater, literature, music and film. 

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 60 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts.

Alex Waters is a media producer and editor for the Short Fuse Podcast, a music producer, and Berklee College of Music student. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts such as The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He produces his own, as well as writes music and records for independent artists such as The Living. Alex lives in Brooklyn.  You can reach him with inquiries by emailing alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com.

Lynne Sachs is a Memphis born, Brooklyn based filmmaker. Since the 1980s, Sachs has created cinematic works that defy genre through the use of hybrid forms and collaboration, incorporating elements of the essay film, collage, performance, documentary and poetry. Her films explore the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences. With each project, she investigates the implicit connection between the body, the camera, and the materiality of film itself.

Over her career, Sachs has been awarded support from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NYFA, and Jerome Foundation. Sachs has made 40 films (including Tip of My Tongue, Your Day is My Night, Investigation of a Flame, and Which Way is East). Her films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art, Wexner Center, the Walker, the Getty, New York Film Festival, and Sundance. In 2021, Edison Film Festival and Prismatic Ground Film Festival at Maysles Documentary Center awarded Sachs for her body of work.

Sachs is also deeply engaged with poetry. In 2019, Tender Buttons Press published her first book Year by Year Poems. In 2020 and 2021, she taught film and poetry workshops at Beyond Baroque, Flowchart Foundation, San Francisco Public Library, and Hunter.  

Lynne's films are now available on the Criterion Channel.
 

STEPHEN VITIELLO (MUSIC):

Electronic musician and sound artist Stephen Vitiello transforms incidental atmospheric noises into mesmerizing soundscapes that alter our perception of the surrounding environment. He has composed music for independent films, experimental video projects and art installations, collaborating with such artists as Nam June Paik, Tony Oursler and Dara Birnbaum. Solo and group exhibitions include MASS MoCA, The High Line, NYC, and Museum of Modern Art. 

ALEX WATERS (PRODUCER):

Alex Waters is a media and music producer. He  has written and produced music for podcasts such as The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza, as well as for other independent artists. Alex lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two cats and enjoys creating and writing music independently and in collaboration with others. You can reach him with inquiries by emailing alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com.

Stephen has created over 35 works for his company and has been commissioned by some of the world’s most prestigious modern and ballet companies, including William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt (1987), Deutsche Opera Berlin (1992), Lyon Opera Ballet (1994), Maggio Danza Florence (1996), Sydney Dance Company (2003, full evening), Norrdans (2006), the Washington Ballet (2007), The Scottish Ballet (2007), and two works for National Dance Company Wales (2010 and 2013). Over his career, Petronio has collaborated with a wide range of artists in many disciplines. Collaborators include some of the most talented and provocative artists in the world: composers Valgeir Sigurðsson, Nico Muhly, Rufus Wainwright, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, and Peter Gordon; visual artists Robert Longo, Cindy Sherman, Anish Kapoor, Donald Baechler, and Janine Antoni; fashion designers Narciso Rodriguez, John Bartlett, Benjamin Cho, and Leigh Bowery.

Stephen Petronio's  training originated with leading figures of the Judson era, performed Man Walking Down the Side of a Building in 2010 for Trisha Brown Company at the Whitney Museum, and performed his 2012 rendition of Steve Paxton’s Intravenous Lecture (1970) in New York, Portland, and at the TEDMED-2012 conference at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, DC. Petronio received the distinction of being named the first Artist-in-Residence at The Joyce Theater from 2012 to 2014. He has been entangled with visual artist Janine Antoni in a number of discipline-blurring projects, including the video installation Honey Baby (2013), created in collaboration with composer Tom Laurie and filmmaker Kirsten Johnson, and most recently Ally, in collaboration with Anna Halprin and Adrian Heathfield, which premiered at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia in summer of 2016. Petronio and Antoni were the 2017 McCormack Artists in Residence at Skidmore college, where they showed their series of installations, Entangle. Most recently, he was commissioned by The Juilliard School to set a work, #PrayerForNow, on their fourth year students for the New Dances Edition 2019. Petronio’s memoir, Confessions of a Motion Addict, is available at Amazon.com. 

Movement Without Borders Festival - October 2, 2021 - Ernesto Breton performing Rudy Perez's Coverage Revisited. 

Fall For Dance - October 15 & 16, 2021 - New York City Center - SPC performing American Landscapes (2019). 

Petronio Punk Picks and Other Delights - November 18-21 - La MaMa - SPC revives a series of solos and duets from Stephen's formative days coming up in the East Village and invites Bloodlines(future) artist Johnnie Cruise Mercer to the stage.

Alex Waters:

Alex Waters is a media producer and editor for the Short Fuse Podcast, a music producer, and Berklee College of Music student. He has written and produced music for podcasts such as The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He produces his own music, as well as writing and recording for dependent artists such as The Living. Alex lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two cats and enjoys creating and writing music. You can reach him with inquiries by emailing alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com.

The Poetry Project

American Academy of Poets

St. Mark's in the Bowery Church

Poetry Foundation

The Paris Review 

O, Miami

Kyle Lee is a media producer for the Short Fuse Podcast as well as for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and has produced podcasts such as The Daily Arrow, a 2-season, 60-day podcast with devotional and meditative exercises to help navigate our current political climate through the lens of faith, spirituality, and mindfulness. He lives in Harlem with his wife and enjoys writing and performing poetry and spoken word in his spare time. You can reach him at @kyleburtonlee on Instagram and Twitter.

Gilda Geist is an intern for the Short Fuse Podcast and a student at Brandeis University, where she is studying journalism, English, and political science. She is a senior editor of her university newspaper, The Justice, as well as a tutor for the Brandeis University English Language Programs. Gilda is based in Boston, MA and enjoys writing, bookbinding, and listening to podcasts. 

The Short Fuse Podcast is produced by the Arts Fuse.

In "Promise," artists explore ideologies of the United States  through the symbols that uphold it, reflecting on the nation’s founding, history, and the promises and realities, both implicit and explicit, contained within them. In "Witness," they address the contemporary moment, building upon the gap between what a nation promises and what it provides through artworks that explore ideas of resistance across time, form, and context. In "Remembrance," they address gun violence and police brutality, their victims, and their legacies.

The death of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker who was shot and killed by Louisville police officers in March 2020 during a botched raid on her apartment, has been one of the main drivers of wide-scale demonstrations that erupted in the spring and summer over policing and racial injustice in the United States.

A grand jury in September indicted  a former Louisville detective involved in the raid, Brett Hankison, for wanton endangerment of neighbors whose apartment was hit when he fired without a clear line of sight into the sliding glass patio door and window of Ms. Taylor’s apartment. He pleaded not guilty. No charges were announced against the other two officers who fired shots, and no one was charged for causing Ms. Taylor’s death

Stephen Reily served as the Director of the Speed Art Museum from April 2017 to June 2021. He is a successful entrepreneur, civic leader, lawyer, and supporter of the arts in building a stronger community. A longtime supporter of the Speed, he served on its Board for 10 years, including several years as Chair of both the Museum’s Long-Range Planning Committee and its Curatorial Committee. 

For four years, Stephen served as Chair and Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Creative Capital Foundation, a national grant maker in the arts. He has served as the Chair of the Greater Louisville Project and is a member of the Boards of the Louisville Urban League and the J. Graham Brown Foundation. He also founded Seed Capital Kentucky, a non-profit focused on building a more sustainable future for Kentucky’s farmers.

As an entrepreneur Reily foundeD IMC, a global leader in brand licensing that has generated over $3 billion in consumer product sales for the Fortune 500 brands it represents. He is also the co-founder of ClickHer, a mobile app publisher, and SUM180,  a digital financial planning service purchased by FlexWage. a national provider of financial wellness solutions. After graduating from Stanford Law School, Stephen clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court.  A native of New Orleans, he is married to historian Emily Bingham and they have 3 children.

Promise, Witness, Remembrance contributing artists:

Terry Adkins

Noel W Anderson

Erik Branch

Xavier Burrell

María Magdalena Campos-Pons

Nick Cave

Jon P. Cherry

Bethany Collins

Theaster Gates

Tyler Gerth

Sam Gilliam

Jon-Sesrie Goff

Ed Hamilton

Kerry James Marshall

Rashid Johnson

Kahlil Joseph

Glenn Ligon

Amy Sherald

Lorna Simpson

Nari Ward

Hank Willis Thomas

Alisha Wormsley

T.A. Yero

Curator

Allison M. Glenn is an Associate Curator, Contemporary Art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Glenn works across the contemporary program at Crystal Bridges and the Momentary, a new contemporary art space and satellite of Crystal Bridges. Since joining Crystal Bridges in 2018, she has worked with artists at all stages of their careers around themes of history, temporality, language, site, and identity.

Community Engagement Strategist and Chair of the National Steering Committee for Promise, Witness, Remembrance

Toya Northington graduated with a Fine Art degree from Georgia State University and also holds a MSc in Social Work from the University of Louisville. She has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in Georgia and Kentucky, and has recently been involved in a number of public art projects in Louisville. Working in mixed media and across disciplines, Toya speaks of her work as pushing back at societal expectations, as an act of resistance. As a feminist and social activist she states, “my work is an acknowledgment of traumas too often experienced by women and a means to foster healing and resilience from them.” Toya is the recipient of Art Meets Activism, Artist Enrichment, and The Special grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. In 2012 she founded artThrust a youth, art-based, mental health and social justice organization that empowers youth through art. She is currently the Community Engagement Strategist at the Speed Art Museum.

Music for the Short Fuse Podcast

Jeannine Otis recorded the music for this episode of the Short Fuse Podcast. Music has been a part of Jeannine’s life since she was born. Having a mother who was a Musical Director and a family that includes the Jones Brothers Hank, Thad, and Elvin formed the basis of exposure to music that began a career that started with Jeannine’s debut as a vocalist with the Detroit Symphony with American Youth Performs at age 12.

She has shared the stage with great musicians of every genre (especially jazz) who have served as mentors including Grover Washington Jr., Arthur Prysock, Kool and the Gang, Joe Chambers and Donald Byrd, Rudy Mwangozi, Saul Ruin, Stanley Banks bassist, Finnish Jazz composer Heikki Sarmanto and Vishnu Wood, bassist, and his band Safari East.

She has been a featured vocalist at many jazz festivals including the Pori Jazz Festival in Finland, JazzMobile with Safari East, and the Universal Temple of the Arts yearly jazz festival and trombonist Art Baron and Friends. Jeannine has also appeared on Broadway in THIS JOINT IS JUMPIN’ at the Supper Club in the Edison Hotel with Larry Marshall and the Michael E Smith Big Band and the New York Big Band at Tavern on the Green.

She has toured extensively worldwide as a featured vocalist, in theater, and with her own ensemble. Anthony Tomassini of the New York Times labeled Jeannine a “show-stopper” in a review of a Downtown Music Production’s version of THE CRADLE WILL ROCK. As the STRAWBERRY WOMAN in Porgy and Bess, Jeannine toured extensively in Europe singing in many of the great opera houses in Europe including those in Rome, Cologne, Venice, and Modena—home of Luciano Pavorotti.

Her “little” book THE GATHERING was made into a Musical Theater piece entitled WHO AM I, and debuted at The La MaMa Theater in 2014. She is an honors graduate of Wellesley College (BA) and of Emerson College (MA) and the Director of Music at Saint Marks Church, known for its progressive outreach programming through the arts.

Behind the scenes of the Short Fuse Podcast

Kyle Lee is a media producer for the Short Fuse Podcast as well as for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and has produced podcasts such as The Daily Arrow, a 2-season, 60-day podcast with devotional and meditative exercises to help navigate our current political climate through the lens of faith, spirituality, and mindfulness. He lives in Harlem with his wife and enjoys writing and performing poetry and spoken word in his spare time. You can reach him at @kyleburtonlee on Instagram and Twitter.

Gilda Geist is an intern for the Short Fuse Podcast and a student at Brandeis University, where she is studying journalism, English, and political science. She is a senior editor of her university newspaper, The Justice, as well as a tutor for the Brandeis University English Language Programs. Gilda is based in Boston, MA and enjoys writing, bookbinding, and listening to podcasts. 

What to listen to next

If you liked this episode, you'll like our host Elizabeth Howard's conversation with Gioni Massimiliano, Artistic Director of the New Museum. They spoke about the New Museum's exhibit "Grief and Grievance, Art and Mourning in America", which  features the works of 37 Black artists and was conceived of by the late curator Okwui Enwezor. Listen here.

Jason Maron

Nedelka F. Prescod

The Un-Silenced Voice Project

Dreaming Girls Foundation

South African Institute of International Affairs

Naledi Masilo is a vocalist, composer, educator and founder of the Dreaming Girls Foundation, a South African based non-profit. She grew up in Johannesburg  where she cultivated a love for music through backyard jam sessions and endless artistic curiosity. She graduated from the University of Cape Town with a Bachelor of Social Sciences  and received a degree in Jazz Performance from The New England Conservatory (June 2021). 

Naledi has been a resident at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC through Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead Program, where she was mentored by individuals including Dee Dee Bridgewater and Jason Moran. She was elected as part of the prestigious South African Standard Bank National Youth Band. 

Naledi moved to Boston to attend the New England Conservatory when she was awarded the Dean’s Scholarship. At the Conservatory she played an important role in bringing forward Black voices as the president of the Black Student Union. She cemented the legacy of alumna Coretta Scott-King, wife of the late Dr. Martin L. King through three annual concerts held in her honor; served on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and earned various fellowships and grants from the conservatory.

Naledi cultivated a strong relationship with The Boston City Singers (BCS), where she was their premier tour choir conductor and taught electives on vocal technique and South African music. She was also a program director at the YMCA youth center for a music and social justice program. Naledi currently teaches at BCS and Savannah Music Festival Jazz Academy. She also runs her own workshops on jazz, voice techniques and the history and music of South Africa.

Naledi founded the Dreaming Girls  Foundation to help women and young girls become leaders and critically conscious members of society. In 2021, a generous grant by the New England Conservatory Entrepreneurial Musicianship Department allowed Dreaming Girls to expand their reach. They collaborated with Her Own Skin and The Unsilenced Voice Project to host a podcast series titled Wathint'abafazi that featured seven young women speaking on their experiences in the music industry. 

Kyle Lee is a media producer for the Short Fuse Podcast as well as for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and has produced podcasts such as The Daily Arrow, a 2-season, 60-day podcast with devotional and meditative exercises to help navigate our current political climate through the lens of faith, spirituality, and mindfulness. He lives in Harlem with his wife and enjoys writing and performing poetry and spoken word in his spare time. You can reach him at @kyleburtonlee on Instagram and Twitter.

Gilda Geist is an intern for the Short Fuse Podcast and a student at Brandeis University, where she is studying journalism, English, and political science. She is a senior editor of her university newspaper, The Justice, as well as a tutor for the Brandeis University English Language Programs. Gilda is based in Boston, MA and enjoys writing, bookbinding, and listening to podcasts. 

House of Anansi

Brooklyn Book Festival

Lit & Luz Festival

Writers Bone 

Otherppl with Brad Listi

Paul Holdengraber

Lauren Cerand is a  writer and  arts and literary publicist with twenty years of experience running her own thriving global communications consultancy, based in New York and driven by an intensive personal focus on each client’s needs and desires, a vast network of relationships, and unparalleled expertise and creative ingenuity.

Recent and current clients for strategic public relations campaigns and representation in 2021 include the authors Darien Hsu Gee, Charles Vidich, Jasmin Kaur, Arisa White, John Donohue, Melissa Scholes-Young, Kia Corthron, Jai Chakrabarti, Joy Castro, and the international independent publishers House of Anansi Press and Sandorf Passage.

In July 2019, Lauren took a sabbatical year to immerse herself in the study of jewelry design and creation full-time in Florence, Italy, and learn more about the Italian language and way of life. Her writing while there was published in April 2020 in Dining in Place, the online food and culture magazine based in Melbourne, and shortlisted for the 2020 Mollie Salisbury Cup memoir writing competition, administered by the Garden Museum in London. She also wrote about her life with Toscano for a December 2020 feature at Girls and Their Cats.

You can listen to podcast interviews recorded since September 2020 with Tranquility du Jour (”A Creative Leap”), Finding Favorites with Leah Jones (”Making Jewelry in Italy with Lauren Cerand”), and Lost Ladies of Lit (”Princess Marthe Bibesco –– The Green Parrot”).

In April 2021, she was interviewed by Publishers Weekly about “Bookishness,” and was the inaugural guest on Rachel Syme’s Instagram Live show, Running on Fumes. Her remembrance of her friend, publisher Giancarlo DiTrapano, was published online at Literary Hub and in print in the spring/summer issue of Northwest Review. 

Lauren serves on the advisory committee for Film Forum and the advisory board for Turtle Point Press in New York, and is a member of the City University Club in London. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial & Labor Relations from Cornell University, a certificate in Jewelry Design & Marketing from Pratt Institute, and completed the first year of the two-year BFA program at Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School in Firenze.

The music for this episode is from Karthik Nair.  He is a music producer attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and creating music under the alias “Ashgreen." Karthik produces electronic music that explores the idea of imagining a space or moment through music. In this piece named “Forest Plucks,” Karthik paints the sonic landscape of a surreal forest captured in the dead of night.

Photo: Girls and Their Cats. Web design: Bud Parr. Music: Forest Plucks by Karthnik Nair. All Rights Reserved.

Mary Beth Meehan and  Fred Turner launch Seeing Silicon Valley,  Monday, May 3, 2021, 6:00 p.m. PT / 9:00 ET, through a virtual Zoom platform event hosted by City Lights Bookstore. 

Griffin Museum of Photography, Boston, Massachusetts 

Event on May 13, 2021 at 7:00 ET

Mary Beth Meehan, is a distinguished  photographer known for her large-scale community-based portraiture. 

Fred Turner   is the Harry and Norman Chandler Professor of Communication at Stanford University and author of  From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism (Chicago, 2006) among other books.

Read Peter Walsh's  review of Seeing Silicon Valley in the Arts Fuse.

Nathan Moody  composed the music for this episode.  The song is  "Sonnenaufgang" from the album Future Rituals. 
  
Buy the book!

Jesse Kornbluth has written or collaborated on 14 books and a dozen screenplays. He has worked with Paul Newman, Robert De Niro, ABC, PBS, and Warner Bros.   After stints at The New York Times Magazine, New York and Vanity Fair, he discovered the Internet. In 1997, a few months after co-founding bookreporter.com, he became editorial director of America Online.   He launched Head Butler in 2004 as a cultural concierge “for people with more taste than time.” He admits he  thought he would write a few reviews and move on, yet  2,000 reviews later he is still sharing his favorite books, music and products through the week. He is finishing a novel.  His  most recent novel is JFK and Mary Meyer, A Love Story (Skyhorse Publishing, 2020).

https://www.newmuseum.org

Massimiliano Gioni  is the Edlis Neeson Artistic Director of the New Museum and the director of the Trussardi Foundation, a nomadic museum in Milan  which organizes exhibitions by contemporary artists in forgotten buildings, public monuments and abandoned palazzos across the city.  

He has curated numerous international exhibitions and biennials including the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), the 8th Gwangju Biennale (2010), the first New Museum Triennial (co-curated with Lauren Cornell and Laura Hoptman in 2009), the 4th Berlin Biennale (co-curated with Maurizio Cattelan and Ali Subotnick in 2006) and Manifesta 5 (co-curated with Marta Kuzma in 2004).

At the New Museum Massimiliano Gioni has curated  both solo  and group exhibitions. In 2018 in London at The Store X Gioni organized “Strange Days – Memories of the Future”, an anthology of video works originally presented at the New Museum. In 2019 he curated “The Warmth of Other Suns,” a collaboration between the New Museum and the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, and at Museo Jumex in Mexico City he curated “Appearance Stripped Bare: Desire and the Object in the Work of Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons, Even”, the first exhibition to bring in dialogue the works of Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons – with nearly 500,000 viewers, the exhibition was the most visited in the museum's history.  Since 2015 he has organized the presentations of the Tony and Elham Salame Collection at the Aishti Foundation in Beirut. 

Gioni has contributed to many publications and magazines including Artforum, Flash Art (for which he served as US editor from 1999 to 2003), Frieze, Parkett, Tate Etc., among others. He co-founded the “Wrong Gallery” with Maurizio Cattelan and Ali Subotnick, with whom he has directed the independent art magazines “The Wrong Times” and “Charley”. He is the commissioning editor of “2000 Words,” a series of monographic books published by the Dakis Joannou Collection/Deste Foundation, with which he has frequently collaborated, co-curating numerous exhibitions in Athens.  

Neal Goren was the founder and artistic director of Gotham Chamber Opera, which popularized and legitimized the formerly ignored genre of chamber opera. Goren’s newest opera venture is Catapult Opera, a new company dedicated to communicating the power of opera through unique internet-based media and world-class live performance. As a recital accompanist, Goren has concertized extensively with Leontyne Price, among others. He is an associate professor at Mannes College, The New School for Music, and a frequent judge of national and international vocal competitions. His writings on opera and the arts have appeared in numerous books and periodicals.

Beyond the Aria:  Artistic Self-Empowerment for the Classical Singer: Why You Want It, Why You Have Been Denied It, and How to Achieve.   (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Incorporated, 2020).  Beyond the Aria provides singers with the tools to develop an inquisitive and analytical mindset about the artistic details found in scores. Neal Goren takes readers through a careful reading of clues provided by the librettist and composer, informed by performance practice, and empowers singers to make their own valid artistic choices.  Sample analyses of six standard arias and songs are provided as a guide of characterization.

   https://beyondthearia.com

https://www.merliguerra.com/

Or check out the Luminarium Dance Co.: 

https://www.luminariumdance.org/

Just ICYMI, The 2020 Fusical:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qdMBcEJtzo

And, if you haven't had a chance to donate to this year's Winter Appeal, you can find that here: https://artsfuse.org/keep-the-fuse-lit/

Stay healthy, safe, and have a Happy New Year!

Or catch up with her on social media: https://www.facebook.com/TeaganStewartMusic + https://twitter.com/teagan_stewart + https://www.youtube.com/user/StarryRoss + https://www.instagram.com/teaganstewartmusic

Taste of My Heartbreak is available now on all streaming platforms.

• Drive-in Concerts (https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/concerts/9379646/drive-in-concerts-list-coronavirus)
• Bubble Music Video (https://www.designboom.com/design/the-flaming-lips-huge-plastic-bubbles-concert-10-20-2020/)
• Livestream Concerts (https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/9335531/coronavirus-quarantine-music-events-online-streams)

Theatre

• https://www.playbill.com/article/schedule-of-upcoming-and-current-free-live-stream-broadcasts-com-322823
• https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/the-best-theater-to-watch-online-today-october-22-to-october-28

Film

• Online Film Festivals/Markets (https://www.indiewire.com/2020/09/film-festival-market-2020-in-person-online-1202232252/)

Dance

• Dancing Alone Together (https://dancingalonetogether.org/watch/)

Visual Art

• Virtual Tours (https://upgradedpoints.com/best-virtual-museum-tours/)

Lyrics to Obligated by Pretty Shanks

Beaten down again, though I would prefer not. The options that are present, leave much to be desired. Still I have to take, what comes with these constraints. It's better to comply than to dwell about it, after all there must be consequences. Every action that you take, must be made with consciousness. It's so easy to just say, that it's you who's not to blame. But really who else would it be? Every time I think I couldn't possibly do wrong I go out of my way just to check myself, and I know that I don't, always catch every mistake. So much for thinking that I had control. It's up to you now, to yourself you are obliged. The choice is your's to make It always has been, why do you look so surprised? You have no room to talk when, there's been so many, opportunities. But you just sat idly by, thinking that there will always be a next time. Excuse after excuse, justifying, why I'm unable, to advance. It's so draining, admitting to yourself, that what you're doing, isn't working. As much as it pains me I can't keep erasing I can't keep evading. The fact that it's on me to adjust, if not now then when? Before any regrets, so I'll take my time. Just not any longer, just not any longer. Source: Musixmatch Songwriters: Vincent Tinsay Obligated Lyrics © Self Published Through Distrokid

Matt’s Stooges Article- Rock Album: 1970s Live at Goose Lake - The Stooges Hitting Their Feral Stride

Lucas’s Book Review- Book Review: “Murder and the Movies” — So Cinematic, the Spectacle of Death

Upcoming Events- Shelter in Place Attractions: September 20 through October 6

Hear more by Whalesong on: Bandcamp and Spotify

Maggie May by Rod Stewart 

You Don't Mess Around With Jim by Jim Croce

Business Time by Flight of the Conchords

Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar

What a Difference a Day Makes by Frank Sinatra Jr.

Thriller (Thriller, 1982) by Michael Jackson

Subterranean Homesick Blues (Bringing It All Back Home, 1965) by Bob Dylan

The fellas then take a deep dive into Matt Hanson's review of Martin Scorsese's new Netflix documentary Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story and let their obsessions drive the content.

From Matt's review:

"Unsurprisingly, the main subject’s notorious elusiveness means that expectations of some ostensibly “real” or “intimate” look at Dylan’s inner life, both at the time the tour was being filmed and looking back via contemporary interviews, will be frustrated. He’s not some all-knowing wizard calculatedly pulling the strings; instead, he is content to be the relatively quiet eye of the hurricane of talent that came together for a strange, adventurous, and memorable trip around the country during a particularly uneasy time in its history."

It's a very chill episode, with two friends having fun talking about movies and music and more.

Thanks to all of you who have listened and supported the show during its first run. Matt and Lucas are eternally grateful.

Have no fear! The Arts Fuse Podcast will be returning soon in a new format, this time being led by Deanna Costa, so keep an eye out and keep listening and reading the best arts coverage in the Boston area from The Arts Fuse.

Thanks again.

https://artsfuse.org/185769/film-review-rolling-thunder-revue-a-bob-dylan-story-by-martin-scorsese/

https://www.patreon.com/theartsfuse

https://theartsfuse.simplecast.fm/

For anyone who is wondering, this is where we've been getting almost all of the music you hear on the show: http://www.jazz-on-line.com/. Our closing theme has been "Anything Goes" by Patrick et son Orchestre de Danse.

Then we welcome community organizer and children's books writer Jacob Kramer to talk about breaking the rules. His work infuses a poetics of revolutionary thought with childlike wonder, encouraging readers of all ages to consider the possible, and challenge the cynics. His book More Bats, about the practical realities of what might happen if the "maximize bats" - more parks, better health care, education programs - was an insert in Jacobin's "Childhood" issue. His latest book is about a pasta loving elephant named Noodlephant, who stands up to the injustice of an oppressive kangaroo regime, conveying the timeless message of civil rights to a new generation.

You can read and order Jacob's work on his website, jacobakramer.com.

10% of proceeds from Noodlephant go to support the work of Black and Pink, a prison abolition organization. You can buy the book, donate directly, or both.

Michael's pieces on The Arts Fuse can be found here and here.

We've been ballin' on a budget for almost 12 years and don't want to stop now.

Contribute through The Arts Fuse or on our facebook page.

The gang talks Lil Nas X, HBO's Barry, and why the VA probably owes Deanna's ancestors a shit load of cash.

How seriously do we take country rap? Is it even a genre? We take a look at a few of the singles out there being classified as such, and opine on what it says about our obsession with genre and US pop culture. Then Matt does his service to the podcast and takes us through his review of HBO's Barry, starring SNL's Bill Hader. The conversation turns to what the show says about returning veterans, PTSD, and the kind of care they get after coming back. Apparently, like Lt. Dan, Deanna's had a family member fight (and maybe not die?) in every war since the Revolutionary War. Thank you for your service....

The Arts Fuse turns 12 in June, and so we're having our annual spring appeal. Please visit us online or on social media to help support our continued coverage of the arts. $100 dollars or more gets you a snazzy t-shirt.

https://artsfuse.org/

https://www.facebook.com/donate/449866119156075/10157037493503567/

https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Global-Narratives

Thanks for listening and supporting our work.

First, Deanna introduces herself and talks about what she covers for The Fuse. Then the panelists dive into Blake Maddux's review of Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen’s The Ideas That Made America. A discussion about the social and social implications of Sleeping Weazel's The Audacity: Women Speak, follows. The performance is a powerful show using real life stories of women who have gone through some truly gut-wrenching situations. Finally, AOC's new optimistic short film published by The Intercept gets put under the microscope. Her vision of a Green New Deal America, and the kind of art that might help make that vision a reality, raises new questions and new possibilities.

A Message from the Future with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Book review - “The Ideas That Made America” — Not Made in America by Blake Maddux

If you're a fan of the show, you know The Arts Fuse writers are sworn adversaries of the algorithm. While it may ultimately replace us, and, if done well, could lead to some good suggestions. But given the rather unimpressive nature of artificial intelligence, and the potentially dubious ambitions of corporations, no binge-watcher is safe from having your tastes manipulated by some nefarious code. So, basically, keep us around a while longer. If you feel like it.

He highlights a few pieces in the magazine including Tim Jackson's review of the new Jordan Peele film Us, and Steve Provizer's review of Vic Hobson's book Creating the Jazz Solo: Louis Armstrong and Barbershop Harmony.

Then we move on to some bonus content from our interview with Pulitzer prize winner Lloyd Schwartz. Lloyd reads a couple more of his poems and we share some stories.

Stick around for the poetry of Richard Milhous Nixon, too. Lloyd gives an excellent reading.

https://www.amazon.com/American-Audacity-Defense-Literary-Daring/dp/1631493906

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/26/best-of-luck-with-the-wall/

Music cred

Mal Hallett And His Orchestra for "When My Ship Comes In" [Banner 33234, 1934]

DJ /rupture (Jace Clayton) & Matt Shadetek – Solar Life Raft (2009). Clayton also wrote an original piece for Begley's film "Best of Luck with the Wall."
http://www.negrophonic.com/dj-rupture-mixes-free-download/

Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx, along with Lucas Spiro and Matt Hanson, spend the hour talking with David Miller, the founding artistic director of the company. We discuss the challenging theater the small company was known for, current barriers of entry in the theater world, and the money behind it all. Mainstream theater, like so much else in our culture, is dominated by a small group of wealthy people who exert considerable power and influence over what is staged, and who gets to do it. Is there a future for challenging non-corporate theater (i.e. the fringe), and what does that future look like?

You'll have to forgive Lucas for, in addition to everything else, his severe head cold. And both of us for briefly discussing Kevin Spacey's unbearable, cringe-worthy monologue rejecting the premise of the horrendous accusations against him in the persona of Frank Underwood while cooking Christmas dinner. This pretty much sums up 2018 wherein we continuously found new ways to realize that parody is long dead.

It's not all bad. We've got a great review of William Barber's new book by Jeremy Ray Jewell, and then a bounty of top picks from throughout the year by our critics. Matt breaks down his best Criterion editions this year, which includes a noteworthy nod to Kevin Costner's emotive cheekbones, because, how could it not?

So pull up a chair and sit with us a while. We'll ring out this miserable year together and flip the calendar with, dare I say, some hope?

Thanks for listening and happy New Year from all of us at The Arts Fuse.

We base our discussion on the new Coen brothers film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and discuss violence, politics, and the virtues of the noble ferret.

In this episode, Lucas and Matt review some of the recent pieces that have gone up on the Arts Fuse about theater, music, and more. A review of the new Jane Fonda documentary leads into a discussion about celebrity culture and politics. Recently, Matt interviewed writer and New Yorker book Critic James Wood about his novel Upstate and the challenges of writing fiction. Matt coins a phrase. Lucas supplies some sound effects.

Then we read from Jeremy Ray Jewell's review of Lonnie Holley's mind-blowing new album MITH.

For the giving season consider joining our trinity of donors to help pay our writers who bring you the best in arts criticism and commentary.

Music:

"Just Blues (Meanest Kind of Blues)" - The Memphis Jazzers, 1929 (VD 71739)
http://www.jazz-on-line.com/a/2b17/HA509518.mp3

"The Green Grass Grows All Around" - Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five, 1941 (Decca 8605)
http://www.jazz-on-line.com/a/2014/CL497249.mp3

"Tangle Eye Blues" - Walter "Tangle Eye" Jackson, 1947
https://archive.org/details/82161/10+Walter+'Tangle+Eye'+Jackson+-+Tangle+Eye+Blues.mp3

"I Snuck off the Slave Ship" - Lonnie Holley, 2018 (Jagjaguwar)
https://lonnieholley.bandcamp.com/track/i-snuck-off-the-slave-ship

https://jagjaguwar.com/release/JAG316/

https://www.lonnieholley.com/

Lucas looses his mind. Matt tries to be diplomatic. And Bill remains the wise dispassionate critic who sets everyone else straight about the future of theater and the political left.

We are eternally grateful to Matt Christman (@cushbomb) from Chapo Trap House who humbled himself to talk with us about the new book The Chapo Guide to Revolution: A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts and Reason.

The book was co-written with other Chapo members Felix, Will, Virgil, and Brendan and has art from Eli Valley and John White.

Chapo will be live in Boston on Friday September 14 at the Wilbur and then going to Hamden, CT and Pawtucket, RI. Go check them out and buy the book.

Warning*

Something went TERRIBLY wrong with the audio at the beginning. I could do little to fix it and I'm deeply sorry. Feel free to skip ahead to the interview at the 20 minute mark.

I promise to become a better person and better podcaster.

Check out the magazine: http://artsfuse.org/

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theartsfuse