Joining the ranks of \u201cFiorello!\u201d and \u201cRent\u201d in performances broadly inspired by New York politics is a new entry: the 3 1\/2-day nonstop marathon reading of \u201cThe Power Broker.\u201d<\/p>\n
I filled a 10-minute slot Friday afternoon, reading an evocative passage detailing just how decrepit New York City\u2019s parks were in 1932, before Robert Moses took over. \u201cScabs on the face of the city,\u201d as the author Robert Caro put it, on page 331 (of 1,162).<\/p>\n
The marathon reading is a labor of love by Brad Vogel, director of special projects at Judgy Baby, the church-like Gowanus arts space, yet to formally open, that hosted the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the epic that tells you so much about the place. Where are the fault lines? Who are the players and interests that just keep recurring?\u201d Vogel said. \u201cThat\u2019s why it was worth uncorking the bottle of wine, so to speak, swishing it around the glass and smelling it anew.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reviewing the names of the 400-odd readers, in minuscule font on the playbill, was a game of New York politics word search. I found state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, and New York City Council Members Alexa Avil\u00e9s and Shahana Hanif, but also Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki, reporter turned MTA hand Nolan Hicks and former Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito \u2013 who’s scheduled for a 2:10 a.m. slot Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
Backstage, I ran into former Eric Adams aide Anthony Alaimo talking with Jami Floyd, the longtime WNYC news anchor who briefly ran for retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler\u2019s seat earlier this year. Floyd was recalling the previous night\u2019s conversation with her 24-year-old son, a defender of the nominal power broker\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said \u2018Mama, I can\u2019t believe you\u2019re going to participate in this calumny against Robert Moses. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty,\u2019\u201d Floyd said. \u201cWe had a big debate over dinner about the relative good and evil Moses did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Needless to say, Caro\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning work, published in 1974, is still a cultural obsession for a certain segment of New Yorkers. My two-page segment included mentions of deferred maintenance in city parks (still an issue), the dearth of public bathrooms (still an issue) and the controversial presence of horses in Central Park (still, somehow, an issue).<\/p>\n
This marathon reading was well-timed, as our magazine next week is all about the mixing of arts, culture and New York politics. We ran down 100 Empire State power players in the sector, and reporter Bob Hennelly sat down with the Metropolitan Opera\u2019s Peter Gelb. And our own Sahalie Donaldson pulled together the city\u2019s cultural affairs commissioner and two legislative chairs for some art therapy, while talking about the state of art in New York City.<\/p>\n
My take? As long as New Yorkers keep creating, and showing up to support cultural events like a marathon reading of a 52-year-old doorstop, we\u2019re going to be OK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joining the ranks of \u201cFiorello!\u201d and \u201cRent\u201d in performances broadly inspired by New York politics is a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12287,59310,132613,238,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-327516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-arts-culture","tag-brooklyn","tag-gowanus","tag-new-york-city","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}