Performing Martha Graham at Eugene Lang College

nts understand the emotions as well as the complex choreography of “Steps in the Street,” an excerpt from Martha Graham’s work Chronicle, which premiered in 1936. In addition to rehearsing with Yuriko, students studied the Martha Graham technique and influences on Graham’s work with Ellen Graff, director of programs at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. “Steps in the Street” was performed in the 2006 Lang Spring Dance Concert.

Will the Real Spacemonkey Please Stand Up? A film by Eric Hopper, Media Studies

In your dreams, you are a rocketboy in search of your errant spacemonkey. You wake to find him right next to you in bed, so your mission is accomplished. Or is it? Eric Hopper, a media studies alumnus who directed the film, enlisted his son Jack as both narrator and protagonist of this animated short, a creepy dream-versus-reality vignette set against the backdrop of outer space, complete with NASA countdown overdubs and spliced vintage footage of space launches. In the sequel, Nobody’s Monkey, the story is retold from the monkey’s point of view. He complains that he is just an object, something the rocketboy likes to jerk around, not his real friend. He wants to be left alone, he wants to be free. But still the monkey asks: Is this real, or am I dreaming?

The Image Maker: A Life Devoted to What Looks Good. A film by Helen Pearson, Media Studies

Decades ago, Connie De Nave, a no-nonsense Brooklyn native, was a press agent who helped package the Beatles and the Rolling Stones for a mass audience, creating the signature look of tousled glamour made famous in photo spreads and on album covers. The company she founded, the Image Makers, secured privileged spots for her acts in the annals of rock. This 2005 film by Helen Pearson, a media studies alumna, is an engaging portrait of this intriguing woman in more recent years. Connie became a costume and antique jewelry seller—a jewel diva living a quieter but still rocking life.

A Stickball Game Grows in Brooklyn. A film by Media Studies alumni

In South Park Slope, stickball is a cherished tradition. This neighborhood which is slowly being gentrified is home to men who have gone to bat on the same block—12th Street and Third Avenue—for decades. This captivating black-and-white film, shot in late summer 2006 by media studies alumni Ted Fisher, Iris Lee, and Maya Mumma, offers an intimate portrait of the game and the unique brotherhood it forges among the players.

Together We Win: The Fight to Organize Starbucks

Labor organizers have always used rallying cries to mobilize workers and win support for union campaigns. Think of the AFL-CIO's slogan “from the people who brought you the weekend.” Starbucks organizers, whose efforts are sympathetically chronicled by media studies alumna Diane Krauthamer in this 2006 film, have updated the slogan to “from the people who brought you better pay and more hours.” Several baristas from New York City describe their fight against mandatory part-time schedules, workplace discrimination, poverty wages, and inadequate healthcare coverage, a battle they ultimately won.

The New Face of Parsons

Take a virtual tour of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, designed by Lyn Rice Architects, which is set to open in 2008. Funded in part by a $7 million donation from philanthropist and New School trustee Sheila C. Johnson, the 25,000-square-foot complex will create a new public face for the school at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 13th Street. The center will house an innovative urban quad, state-of-the-art galleries, lecture and meeting spaces, a design store, and the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Archives, an important collection documenting 20th-century design.

A Conversation with Bob Kerrey, Part 1

New School President Bob Kerrey talks to three students from different departments of the university about their academic interests and discusses prospects for collaboration between departments. Nada Abshir studied at the graduate program in International Affairs and wrote her thesis on the use of hip-hop by youth in urban Africa as a tool to promote urban development. Kate Emerman studied voice in the Bachelor of Music program at Mannes and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in vocal performance there. Lee Clayton studied product design and design technology at Parsons The New School for Design.

A Conversation with Bob Kerrey, Part 2

President Kerrey continues his discussion of the challenges and possibilities of interdisciplinary collaboration at The New School with three students from different departments. Nicole Pontes studied sociology in the PhD program at The New School for Social Research. Gordon Burke studied in the Science, Technology, and Society and Urban Studies programs at Lang, and did research on Type II diabetes in New York City. Carolina Cruz Santiago studied documentary film in the Media Studies department; the first film she directed, Aloha New York, debuted at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.

Big Ideas, Big Gifts, Big Impact

Milano The New School for Management and Urban Planning hosts its second panel discussion on philanthropy, Big Ideas, Big Gifts, Big Impact: A Conversation with Today's Philanthropists. The panel features Agnes Gund, founder of the Studio in a School Association and president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art; George Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management; Evelyn Lauder, senior corporate vice president of The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. and founder and chairman of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation; and Alphonse Buddy Fletcher, Jr., chairman and CEO of Fletcher Asset Management, Inc. The four panelists, representing an array of philanthropic endeavors, discuss the motivation for giving and accountability in nonprofit organizations.

The Constitution in Crisis

In the third lecture of a four-part series, Elaine Scarry, Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University, speaks on the U.S. Constitution in relation to war and the social contract. The series, The Constitution in Crisis, is moderated by Sam Haselby, visiting professor, and cosponsored by the Leonard and Louise Riggio Writing and Democracy Program, The New School Writing Program, and Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts, is designed to deepen public understanding of this charter document of the United States. Three of the country's leading scholars of law, history, and literature and an outstanding human rights activist will address the topic.

Jazz Matters

Jazz Matters is a series hosted by The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and moderated by Howard Mandel (Down Beat, National Public Radio, New York University). Here a panel consisting of pianist Robert Glasper, Revive Da Live producer Meghan Stabile, and author, journalist, and guitarist Greg Tate discuss the interplay between hip-hop, jazz, and Black rock.

Illustration Today

Illustration today is at a crossroads: Traditional forms of editorial illustration are being reinvented or giving way to new modes of expression. In this symposium, presented by Parsons The New School for Design and the Department of Illustration, more than two- dozen leading practitioners engage in spirited discussions on a range of topics. Steven Guarnaccia, Parsons Illustration Department Chair and former New York Times art director, and Dan Nadel, Parsons Illustration Department assistant professor and publisher of The Ganzfeld, moderate.

Freedom Next Time: An Evening with John Pilger and Amy Goodman

Award-winning journalist and filmmaker John Pilger, author of Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire, and Amy Goodman, host of the Pacifica radio show Democracy Now! and author of Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders and the People Who Fight Back, discuss people’s struggles for freedom in such places as Iraq, Palestine, South Africa, and Diego Garcia, where the dream of independence has yet to be realized.

Democratization and the Networked Public Sphere

Over the past ten years, participatory Web-based technologies have transformed the public sphere. As part of its series The Public Domain, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School presents a panel discussion on the democratizing potential of the Internet. The speakers examine the growth in political participation spurred by weblogs and wikis, which enable anyone with access to a computer to post news and commentary; the use of Web-based platforms for artistic expression; and mobile wireless devices as tools to facilitate political organizing. The discussion is moderated by media artist Trebor Scholz, and features panelists Danah Boyd, PhD candidate at the School of Information at the University of California in Berkeley and graduate fellow, Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California; and Ethan Zuckerman, research fellow, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School.

An Evening with Choreographer, Director, and Artist Ralph Lemon

Choreographer, director, and multimedia artist Ralph Lemon, visiting artist at Eugene Lang The New School for Liberal Arts, discusses his creative process and recent interdisciplinary work, including Practice of Form, his series of student workshops at Lang. He also discusses his first solo exhibition (the efflorescence of) Walter, a series of drawings, paintings, and video works that explore the themes of memory and transcendence.

An Evening with Playwright John Patrick Shanley

John Patrick Shanley, author of the plays Doubt and Four Dogs and a Bone and the screenplay for Moonstruck, speaks with New School for Drama director Robert LuPone about his development as a playwright and his experience directing his own work. Shanley received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2005 Tony Award for Best Play for Doubt, and was the distinguished artist in residence at The New School for Drama for the 2006-07 school year.

Sustainability and Environmental Justice

Majora Carter, executive director and founder of Sustainable South Bronx (SSB) and MacArthur Fellow, discusses sustainability and environmental justice at the annual Michael Kalil Lecture on Natural and Technological Systems, sponsored by The Michael Kalil Endowment for Smart Design in the Department of Architecture, Interior Design, and Lighting at Parsons The New School for Design, and the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School.

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