Art Works Podcast

Tana French reigns over Irish crime fiction. She pushes the genre with descriptive lyrical language in novels that are character-driven and densely atmospheric. Her first six books center on the Dublin Murder Squad, an imaginary branch of the Dublin police force. But French defies convention—instead of a single narrator for the series, each book is narrated by a different member of the squad. So, a supporting player in one book might be the narrator of another. These first-person narrations by various detectives, whose own issues color their observations, give readers a deeply personal and extremely partial perspective of colleagues, suspects, and the crimes. All of which results in the understanding that truth is elusive. Then in her seventh book, the stand-alone novel The Witch Elm, French turns this model upside down. Here, the narrator is a character who is the victim of one crime and a suspect in another. Not surprisingly, the detectives and their actions look very different from this perspective—manipulative and bullying rather than cops just trying to get the job done the best way they can. In her latest book The Searcher, another stand-alone, French moves to new territory entirely: she takes the framework of the American western and shifts it to a remote rural area of Ireland where a former Chicago cop settles by himself in a ramshackle cottage ready to begin a new life. It’s a familiar trope but French molds it into a story of her own. In this episode of the podcast, she joins us to talk about that new novel and her other books, as well as her determination not to keep writing the same book over and over, how her time as an actor informs her writing, and why she blames her entire career on Stephen King. As we celebrate Women’s History Month this March, the National Endowment for the Arts will shine the light on some phenomenal women, past and present, through the agency’s blog, podcast, and social media channels. While the stats may continue to be disappointing in terms of equity, we believe that as we work to address those disparities it’s also important to celebrate the impact women have made and continue to make in the arts. From Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who was also one of the best-known poets in pre-19th-century America to dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, whose work lives on not only through her dancers but through the company’s venture into mixing dance with technology, we’re celebrating women who, to borrow from Maya Angelou’s famous poem “Phenomenal Woman” have fire in their eyes and joy in their feet.

When Nataki Garrett was named the artistic director of Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) in Spring 2019, people took notice for multiple reasons: Garrett is only OSF’s sixth artistic director and its first woman of color to hold that position. She also became one of few women of color in the country to lead a major theater. Because of OSF’s history, reach, prestige, and $44 million budget, and Garrett’s track record in developing new work and her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, her appointment seemed to herald an important moment in not-for-profit theater. But just as Garrett was launching her first full season as artistic director, OSF was forced to shutdown because of the pandemic—closing five productions only six days after opening. Since then Nataki Garrett has focused her efforts on keeping OSF vital, sustainable, and accessible to new and old audiences alike. In this podcast, she talks about OSF’s 2020 journey through the pandemic,  the country’s racial reckoning, and the challenges and opportunities presented by both, OSF’s 2021 season, and her vision of creating strategies to support artists. As we celebrate Women’s History Month this March, the National Endowment for the Arts will shine the light on some phenomenal women, past and present, through the agency’s blog, podcast, and social media channels. While the stats may continue to be disappointing in terms of equity, we believe that as we work to address those disparities it’s also important to celebrate the impact women have made and continue to make in the arts. From Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who was also one of the best-known poets in pre-19th-century America to dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, whose work lives on not only through her dancers but through the company’s venture into mixing dance with technology, we’re celebrating women who, to borrow from Maya Angelou’s famous poem “Phenomenal Woman” have fire in their eyes and joy in their feet.

In July, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens was named as the new artistic director of Silkroad.  A classically-trained singer, MacArthur Fellow, banjo and fiddle-player and composer, Rhiannon excavates the past to bring forgotten stories and music forward. Giddens is co-founder of the Grammy-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, which insisted reclaiming  a central and historically-accurate place for black musicians in old-time music. She then went on to create solo albums of haunting beauty and power born of African-American struggles past and present. Giddens is, first and foremost, an artist determined to be of service and put her wide knowledge of different musical traditions to good use. She found a good match with Silkroad. Begun by Yo-Yo Ma in 2000, Silkroad brings musicians together from around the globe—not just to make music but to use art to have a positive impact across borders.  In this podcast, Rhiannon talks about the importance of fiddler National Heritage Fellow Joe Thompson to her musical lineage, her drive to be of service, her current projects (she just wrote an opera!), the centrality of history in her music, and her plan to have Silkroad explore the musical worlds within the US. As we celebrate Women’s History Month this March, the National Endowment for the Arts will shine the light on some phenomenal women, past and present, through the agency’s blog, podcast, and social media channels. While the stats may continue to be disappointing in terms of equity, we believe that as we work to address those disparities it’s also important to celebrate the impact women have made and continue to make in the arts. From Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who was also one of the best-known poets in pre-19th-century America to dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, whose work lives on not only through her dancers but through the company’s venture into mixing dance with technology, we’re celebrating women who, to borrow from Maya Angelou’s famous poem “Phenomenal Woman” have fire in their eyes and joy in their feet.

Henry Threadgill remains one of music’s great innovators—as a composer and as a musician. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2016 for his album In for a Penny, In for a Pound, becoming only the third jazz artist to receive the award.  A multi-instrumentalist, throughout his career he has led ensembles of varying sizes—experimenting with instrumentation and creating new compositional techniques. In this podcast, Threadgill reflects on the vast musical legacy he found in his hometown of Chicago and the early influence of Muhal Richard Abrams and The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians—a collective that encouraged musicians to compose and play their own music.  He looks back at his ensembles and the various musical languages he’s expressed with each as well as his overall philosophy of composing and making music—explaining why he believes the true test of music is in the live performance and why he eschews the word “jazz.”  Henry Threadgill is not just a musical seeker, he’s also a deeply thoughtful and funny storyteller.

In The Office of Historical Corrections., Danielle Evans weaves themes of race, memory, and history throughout her finely-crafted stories.  With extraordinary artistry, she complicates these issues with sensitivity, imagination, and wit. “You know how white people love their history right up until it’s true,” observes a character in the title story who works for a fictional government agency whose aim is to correct historical inaccuracies.  Well, Evans shows us in beautifully-realized stories with no easy answers-- only complicated questions. How do you make things right—either personally or collectively? Who gets that second chance? How do you find a past that’s been erased? How/where do you place yourself in it? These are just some of the questions animating her stories…and our conversation about The Office of Historical Corrections.    

Here’s a conversation with Tracy K. Smith about poetry, history, memory, and wonder. Smith collects awards and prizes the way the rest of us collect traffic tickets (only hers are well-deserved!) She served as poet laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019. She is the author of four prize-winning poetry collections, including Wade in the Water and Life on Mars, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Her 2016 memoir Ordinary Light was a finalist for the National Book Award. In 2018, she curated an anthology called American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time—bringing together contemporary writers to create a poetic exploration of  21st century America. She’s also written the librettos for two operas and serves as the chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton where she teaches creative writing.  Her writing sings from the page.  It is lyrical, accessible and crucial—combining honesty and imagination as she explores issues of race, family, and the infinite.  In this podcast, she reads and discusses some of her poems and delves into her belief that the language of poetry with its multiplicity of voices can create possibilities with wide and deep implications.  Tracy K. Smith is a voice for our time—both on the page and in this interview.  

Amanda Morgan is in the corps of the prestigious Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) based in Seattle. PNB is one of the largest and best-regarded companies in the United States with a deep commitment to racial diversity. Although people of color comprise 26 percent of its dancers, Morgan is its only black female ballet dancer—add to that her height of five foot ten inches, and you have someone who stands out rather than fits in.  But Morgan decided long ago that “if you don’t see what you want to see around you, create it." And so she has. Finding herself not picked by choreographers, she began to create dances herself; she co-founded a mentorship program between company dancers and students at Pacific Northwest Ballet School; she began the Seattle Project, an interdisciplinary artist collective that presents performing arts to the community; and she spoke at protests in Seattle about pervasive racism—calling out the ballet community at large for its lack of racial equity. Morgan is talented, determined, and outspoken. In this podcast we talk about her love of ballet—both as a dancer and a choreographer, her appreciation for being part of the PNB family, her belief that ballet has to change and embrace real inclusion from the studio to the boardroom in order to thrive, and the work she’s done to help bring that change about.

A conversation with Duke Dang—he’s the general manager of Works & Process the performing arts series at the Guggenheim Museum. Since 1984, Works & Process has been bringing audiences into the creative process of performing artists. Serving as a laboratory of sorts for artists to test their ideas, Works & Process has produced approximately 60 performances annually.  Each performance would begin with an excerpt of  a work in process, followed by a discussion with the artist. But this past year, because of the pandemic, Works & Process itself faced a shuttered theater. But the program made a remarkably quick pivot: it found a path for artists to safely gather, create and perform together again by establishing covid-free bubble residencies for artists in the Hudson Valley.  Over fifty artists have entered eight Works & Process bubble residencies following strict safety protocols, and Works & Process captured this journey in a four-part docuseries Isolation to Creation. Isolation to Creation gives audiences a rare opportunity to go into the bubbles and behind the scenes to witness the exhilaration faced by performers returning to the studio, to the stage and to each other. It’s also a chance to hear some great music and see some extraordinary dancing. I speak with Duke Dang about Works & Process and its recalibration in the face of the pandemic. Duke and I also talk about the struggles performing artists are experiencing creatively, emotionally and financially. (Isolation to Creationis streaming for free at [allarts.org](allarts.org), and is also airing in the New York metro area on the All Arts TV channel)

Aaron Dworkin is a man of many talents: he’s a violinist, social entrepreneur, professor, author, MacArthur Fellow and member of the National Council on the Arts. In this time of a long overdue racial reckoning, many organizations are answering the challenge to interrogate how their own systems address diversity and inclusion. Aaron Dworkin is singularly positioned to speak to this moment: he has been shining a light and doing the work around inequity for decades.   A violinist from early childhood, Dworkin was an undergraduate when he grappled with the implications of the dearth of African-American and Latinx musicians in orchestras as well as  the lack of music by people of color in the repertoire of those same orchestras. Aaron Dworkin got to work and in 1997 founded the Sphinx Organization-- its goal was to address the underrepresentation of people of color in classical music on every level: on the stage, in the repertory, behind the stage, in the front office, and in the audience.  Beginning as a competition for African-American and Latinx string instrumentalists, Sphinx has grown into a force in classical music with its own symphony orchestra, and robust programming that reaches over 100,000 students and artists annually.  In this podcast, Aaron talks about diversity and classical music—what can be addressed immediately and what requires a complex and far-reaching overhaul. We also talk about his own very interesting biography and how it informed his love of music, the centrality of entrepreneurship to the arts today (he wrote a book called The Entrepreneurial Artist), and his public television show Arts Engines in which he talks to arts’ administrators from around the country.  It’s a great conversation with someone whose passion and conviction are matched by his humor.  

2020 National Heritage Fellow singer and songwriter Suni Paz is part of the progressive Latin American music movement known as nueva canción (new song).  For decades,  Paz has been guided by twin passions which are reflected in her music: a commitment to social justice and a creative approach to education.  In fact, Paz is a pioneer in the use of music to teach Spanish-language curricula. Born in Buenos Aires, Paz's was a large extended family of musicians, writers, and artists. Her grandmother painted, her doctor grandfather would play his violin to patients, and her father insisted that the family listen to opera each weekend.  Paz herself was singing and composing as a teenager. But when she heard the songs of Argentinian folk singer Atahualpa Yupanqui, who championed the music of indigenous people and songs about the poor, she became passionate about “music with a conscience.”  She came to the United States and began performing—alongside singers such as Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Don McClean, and Phil Ochs—in folk festivals, rallies, marches, festivals, and on concert stages around the world. In this podcast, we talk about her family, her belief in the power of music to inform and transform people, her commitment to children and education, and her years writing and performing “music with a conscience.”