Alice Childress's plays are having a renaissance

This Week's Episode

This week on State of the Arts...

In 1957, Alice Childress was on the verge of being the first Black woman to have a play on Broadway, but she refused to compromise in order to make white audiences more comfortable. More than 60 years later, her work is having a renaissance on Broadway and beyond.

Violin sensation Stefan Jackiw joins the Bay Atlantic Symphony, South Jersey’s premier professional orchestra, for Benjamin Britten's lyrically expressive Violin Concerto.

Plus, the Arts Council of Princeton’s exhibition of undersung 20th century Black artists, all colleagues and friends of Princeton-based painter James Wilson Edwards.

NJ PBS

Thurs, 1/29 @ 11:30 pm

Sat, 1/31 @ 7:30 pm

Sun, 2/1 @ 9:30 am

WNET Thirteen

Sun, 2/1 @ 11:30 am

ALL ARTS

Mon, 2/2 @ 10:30 am & 3:30 pm

Wed, 2/4 @ 10 am & 3 pm

Find out where (and how) to watch!

National Mentoring Month

During January, be inspired by great mentors we've met over the years here on State of the Arts.

Photographer Erik James Montgomery has a studio in a former fire station in the downtown area of what’s often called America’s most dangerous city, Camden. In addition to having a successful commercial and fine arts photography business, Montgomery has mentored at-risk youth for 30 years. He says it’s the thing that saved him from his own self-destructive path. Watch here.

On the Blog

This past week, the public learned of yet another calamity from a seemingly unending stream of bad news: the Trump administration decided to accelerate the proposed sale of the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in Washington, D.C., which will likely lead to its demolition. Named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, the Cohen Building houses many works of art created specifically for it in the early 1940s. The most significant is a monumental mural by Ben Shahn, The Meaning of Social Security. Read here. | Photo: Timothy Noah

Happening Now

Don't miss the New Jersey Symphony featuring the Shakespeare Company of New Jersey in Romeo & Juliet! See here for dates and tickets.

Our related story: Xian Zhang's Romeo & Juliet.

Friends of Metuchen Arts and Basecamp Studio & Gallery present Cutting Their Own Path, featuring the work of Joan Arbeiter, Edith Pletzner, and the late Helen M. Stummer, on view at FOMA/Basecamp galleries in Metuchen through March 22. | Image via Basecamp Studio & Gallery.

Our related story: Helen M. Stummer.

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is celebrating the Lunar New Year of the Horse with performances happening through Feb 25. See here for their calendar of events! Image courtesy: Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company

Our related documentary: Unity: Nai-Ni Chen Remembered.

Don't miss Toshiko Takaezu: Dialogues in Clay, on view at the Princeton University Art Museum through July!

Our related documentary: Toshiko Takaezu: In the Stars.

Highlights

State of the Arts follows poet Joe Weil from his home town of Elizabeth to the 2008 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.

Our 2008 story: Joe Weil.

Artists explore issues of trauma and resilience in Before, After: Reflections on the Armenian Genocide, at Stockton University Art Gallery. | Pictured: Jessica Sperandio

Our 2021 story: Before/After: Armenian Artists.