This was a particularly special day for David Nussenbaum, executive director of the arts ensemble, whose headquarters were nearby. “They don’t name streets after just anybody.” more

Even when there’s a choice, leaving home is an intensely difficult action. It’s harder, scarier, when one is forced to leave. The hope is that one can move forward, to keep living without forgetting roots, and maybe learning what home can be. Art can reveal this struggle. more

Jazz and the Balkans don’t seem compatible. The music is rooted in humidity, dancing, history and communication between souls, while the land is that of mountains, snow, a fierce language, and fierce people. But for Alma and Rale Micic, Belgrade and New Orleans are not that far apart. more

Playwright Samuel D. Hunter serves up a heaping spread of classic themes in the Lincoln Center Theater production of his new play, “Greater Clements.” Time has overtaken this Idaho mining town and left its inhabitants and visitors at a crossroads, unsure of their way forward. The bonds of family and lost love, youth and maturity, and authority and compromise entangle a band of idiosyncratic characters. more

Yonkers, in the early afternoon, is the sound of landscapers and slowly driven cars. A mere 20-minute walk from the city line, the area seems calm and distant. Yet in one of the large, well-kept houses that line the roads is an artist filled with the excitement and verve that comes from growing up in New York City. That artist is Julia Eisen-Lester. more

Given everything that tends to happen in horror films, a cemetery is perhaps the last place someone would want to be after dark. Yet, on a brisk late autumn night, a group of some 30 people piled into a trolley in the dark of night to traverse through Woodlawn Cemetery. more

A half mile from the Hudson River is a decades old music group that harvests relationships with the community at large to create an area rich and bountiful with classical music. Their cornucopia of work has been performed throughout New York City, but their home is the Northwest Bronx, and it is here where di.vi.sion showcases most of its orchestral work. more

The conductor stood in all black before the white-shirted sea of student ensemble percussionists. From the first motion of the director’s fist, the Hearth Room at Lehman College was filled with a frenetic yet carefully balanced and coordinated wave of excited Latin music. As they played, the director stood to the side, his head bent, evaluating the performance of his musicians. more

The art world can seem like a place far removed from the everyman. As a branch of academia’s ivory tower — with its galleries and shows, exclusive parties and galas — most of the art world stands aloof from the very idea of accessibility. more

Late summer was clearly yellow jacket season. Exactly where they spent the earlier warm months was unclear, but by late August they were buzzing around beneath the park benches, busily crawling on discarded sugary snacks. more