Many artists have a source of inspiration that forever holds a place in their heart, and for Guatemalan-born David Unger it is Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his book, “No One Writes to the Colonel.” “That book forged my identity as a Latin American native and writer,” says Unger, who, through a shared language and culture, felt a kinship with Marquez. Today, Unger, who teaches translation at City College’s MFA program, is the author of four books, including his latest novel, “The Prince of Escape.” As part of the City College Center for Worker Education Book Talk Lecture Series: Writers on Writing, Unger reads from his work and talks about his brief encounter with Marquez as a graduate student at Columbia University.
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Japan’s devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami were unavoidable forces of nature, but the nuclear meltdown that resulted was man made, according to Michio Kaku. “If you take a look at Fukushima, there have been previous tsunamis that have hit the exact same area,” says Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at City College, referring to the area about 140 miles north of Tokyo where the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station was built. In an interview, Kaku pointed out that engineers tend to study incidents that take place in their own lifespan, not long term. “When it comes to nuclear power, we have to look at the 100-year storm.”
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In today’s topsy-turvy world, what used to make sound, economic sense is no longer the case, according to Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics and a New York Times columnist. “We are in Bizzaro-land now. Both consumer and government saving depresses the economy because the money isn’t being spent at businesses that will spur investment,” says Krugman, who appeared at the Graduate Center as part of the series, “Perspectives: Conversations on Policy and Place with Peter Beinart,” to discuss the Obama’s administration’s missteps, failed policies in other countries and a reluctance, across the board, to accept responsibility. “If people had actually listened to economists,” says Krugman, “then the profession deserves a lot of the blame.”
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What Bill Keller, executive editor of New York Times, still enjoys, most, about journalism is what attracted him to it in the late 1960’s when he wrote for the Pomona College student newspaper. “The things I’ve always always found most satisfying about journalism was the exploratory function-wading into a big, puzzling situation and than explaining it in a way that people might fund find really engaging,” said Keller, who was at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, in an event sponsored by the New York Press Club and moderated by WNYC’s “On The Media” managing editor and host, Brooke Gladstone. Keller spoke about a wide range of issues, including the new online pay model, as well as the rewards of the job. “My favorite reaction, when people respond to a story, isn’t, gee, I didn’t know that, but, gee, I never thought of it that way-and editing the paper is a lot like that.”
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On March 25, 1911, a fire engulfed the Triangle Waist Company, a fabric factory in Greenwich Village, killing 146 workers, mostly young Jewish and Italian women, nearly half still in their teens. It was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of New York City. The catastrophe, and the working conditions it revealed, inflamed public opinion leading to a reform in conditions. As part of day-long conference, marking the one hundredth anniversary of the tragedy, Annelise Orleck, history professor at Dartmouth College, called attention to the safety and health concerns of today’s workers. “There are people in Bangladesh garment shops, and sweatshops in Los Angeles, making clothes under the same conditions as those 100 years ago,” says Orleck, who was part of a panel sponsored by the Gotham Center for New York City History. “As we talk about Triangle, and the humanity of these young women and men who died, let’s try to take that outrage and apply it to the present day, because we need it.”
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Jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch, hailed by Downbeat as “one of the small handful of brilliant musicians of his generation,” has been living with AIDS since the early 1990s, and during the same time has recorded a portfolio of work the New York Times calls a “manifesto of contemporary jazz.” But in 2008, Hersch fell into a near fatal AIDS-related coma, which left him in mental and physical seclusion. “I was very fearful that I would never be able to express myself at the piano the way I’ve been doing my whole life,” says Hersch, in a conversation with music critic Gary Giddins at the Graduate Center. But with intensive therapy and rehabilitation, Hersch learned to walk — and play the piano — again. What was most important, says Hersch, was “to get back on the horse as soon as I could.”
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By the end of the century, Michio Kaku sees a world in which humans will have x-ray vision, and micromachines — smaller than the period at the end of this sentence — will perform surgery. “Your computerized toilet will be able to analyze proteins emitted from a colony of cancer cells from excretions,” says Kaku, co-founder of string field theory and professor of physics at City College. Kaku’s latest book, “Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100,” predicts a future in which nearly everything we touch, including our eyeglasses, will be connected to the Internet. “You’ll blink and you’ll go online — it’s coming faster than you think.”
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To be a talented book reviewer it helps to have a certain set of skills, among them the ability to enter the author’s mind, according to Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times Book Review. “You have to abandon yourself to a book, immerse yourself in its world,” says Tanenhaus, who spoke at a Graduate Center event, “The Art of the Book Review.” “That doesn’t mean simply recapitulating what you’ve read,” says Tanenhaus, “you have to create your own drama around it through a driving and suspenseful narrative prose.” Panelists also included Henry Finder, editorial director of The New Yorker, Radhika Jones, senior editor for Time and Time.com, Robert Messenger, book editor for the Wall Street Journal, and moderator, André Aciman, director of the Writers’ Institute at the Graduate Center.
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Standing committee meeting of the Board of Trustees, Committee on Student Affairs and Special Programs, April 4, 2011.
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Standing committee meeting of the Board of Trustees, Committee on Fiscal Affairs, April 4, 2011.
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