Zora and Langston Write a Play, Robert Birmelin, and The Art of Reenactment

This Week's Episode

This week on an all new episode of State of the Arts...

At the Passage Theatre Company in Trenton, Muleheaded, or Zora and Langston Write a Play, explores the intense friendship of two of the most famous Harlem Renaissance writers.

Artist Robert Birmelin’s evolving visual style takes a new turn as he moves into his 90s, adding new approaches to a career spanning seven decades.

And, the members of the Princeton Battlefield Society bring history alive through the collaborative art of reenactment, and by using one of the most important battlefields of the Revolutionary War as their stage.

NJ PBS

Premieres online & on air!

Wed, 4/1 @ 8:30 pm

Sat, 4/4 @ 7:30 pm

Sun, 4/5 @ 9:30 am

WNET Thirteen

Sun, 4/5 @ 11:30 am

ALL ARTS

Mon, 4/6 @ 10:30 am & 3:30 pm

Wed, 4/8 @ 10 am & 3 pm

Find out where (and how) to watch!

Women's History Month

March is Women's History Month, and we're taking part in the #5WomenArtists hashtag by highlighting five stories from the State of the Arts library.

Joyce Kozloff is a painter and printmaker who first became known in the 1970s as a leader in the Pattern and Decoration Movement. In 1973, she was included in a seminal exhibition in New York, Women Choose Women, one of the first major attempts to break down institutional barriers for female artists. Forty years later, 13 of the women artists from the original Women Choose Women exhibition were featured in Women Choose Women Again at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey. Watch here.

On the Blog

As Women’s History Month draws to a close, we’re sharing this State of the Arts feature with saxophonist and bandleader Virginia Mayhew. Though she was told as a child that “girls don’t play saxophone,” the West Orange resident tells us, “I fell in love with it as soon as I heard it. I didn’t understand it, per se—I just felt it, the rhythm and the emotion.” Read here.

Happening Now

Join Passage Theatre Company for their 2026 Gala: "Freedom Has No Rehearsal" at the Trenton War Memorial on April 25! See here for more info and tickets to support our capital city's only professional theater.

Our related stories: The OK Trenton Project, Paradise, This Trenton Life.

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

Our related documentaries: Toshiko Takaezu: Portrait of an Artist, and Toshiko Takaezu: In the Stars.

Highlights

From the State of the Arts archive, a 1988 interview with the indispensable Maya Angelou.

Our 1988 story: Maya Angelou.

Pepe Santana, an Andean musician, emigrated from Ecuador to New York City more than 60 years ago. Missing the music of the Andes Mountains, he connected with fellow musicians to form the band INKHAY.

Our 2026 story: Pepe Santana.