this week in lectures, signings, panel discussions, workshops, and Q&As

SHINING LIKE A FIREBIRD: MISTY COPELAND AT THE JOYCE

BALLET FESTIVAL
Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
August 4-16, $87-$102
212-645-2904
www.joyce.org

On October 22, 2025, Misty Copeland retired from American Ballet Theatre after a twenty-five year career that included her becoming the first Black female principal dancer in the company’s history. But that hasn’t appeared to slow down the forty-three-year-old Kansas City native.

In December, she had hip replacement surgery. In March, she performed in a musical tribute to the film Sinners at the Oscars. In April she was honored at the Misty Copeland Foundation Spring Benefit as part of the Celebrating Misty Campaign. In May she received the Medal for Distinguished Service from Teachers College at Columbia and walked the red carpet at the Met Gala as a member of the host committee. In June she was named the inaugural recipient of the Lincoln Center Luminary Award, received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement for “exceptional accomplishment in the sciences, the professions, business, industry, arts, literature, sports, entertainment, and public service,” and delivered the keynote commencement address at the Success Academy Charter Schools graduation. In July she attended the FIFA World Cup Final in her role as a skin-care spokesperson. And on August 25, her latest children’s book, Firebird Waltz, will be published.

If that were not enough, she is also curating this year’s Ballet Festival, which runs August 4–16 and features dancers from American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Houston Ballet, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet, performing works by Ingrid Silva, Kyle Abraham, Bob Fosse, Houston Thomas, José Limón, Rudolf Nureyev, Dwight Rhoden, and Aleisha Walker the first week and Stanton Welch AM, Andrea Miller, Alonzo King, John Taras, Roland Petit, James Whiteside, and Ilo the second. Among the dancers are Madison Brown, Guillaume Diop, Joe Gonzales, Babatunji Johnson, Sae Eun Park, Taylor Stanley, April Watson, and Harper Watters.

“At the heart of my curation for The Joyce Ballet Festival is a celebration of Black, Brown, and Queer voices,” Copeland wrote on Instagram. “Ballet has a remarkable history, and I believe it grows stronger when we create space for a wider range of artists and perspectives. This festival honors that history while celebrating the artists expanding what ballet can be. I’m so excited to share these extraordinary performances with you.”

There will be a Summer Soirée on August 4, a Curtain Chat with Copeland and Complexions cofounder Desmond Richardson on August 5, and a teen ballet workshop on August 8 at New York Center for Creativity & Dance.

So what are you up to in your retirement?

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

CREATIVE RESET FOR THE MIND, BODY, AND SPIRIT: NARRATIVE HEALING AT THE COFFEE HOUSE WITH LISA WEINERT

Lisa Weinert brings her Narrative Healing program to the Coffee House on August 5 (photo courtesy Lisa Weinert)

CREATIVE RESET: AN INTERACTIVE LITERARY & CREATIVE GATHERING
Coffee House Club at the Salmagundi CLub
47 Fifth Ave. between Eleventh & Twelfth Sts.
Wednesday, August 5, $75-$150 (includes signed book),6:00
www.thecoffeehouseclub.com
www.lisaweinert.com

“Most writing books, journaling courses, and creative writing programs begin by putting the pen to the page. At Narrative Healing, we begin with the body,” native New Yorker Lisa Weinert explains in the introduction to her 2023 book, Narrative Healing: Awaken the Power of Your Story. “We offer a new paradigm for healing from trauma, tapping into creativity, and sharing our stories in the world. The premise here is simple: as we are able to better know our own stories, we are better able to take in the humanity of those around us. My hope is that if we start to listen to the body when it whispers, we won’t have to wait for it to scream to hear what it has to say. And we will thus have the capacity to listen to others too.”

A licensed social worker, certified yoga teacher, book coach, and public speaker, Weinert founded Narrative Healing in 2016, guided by her belief in storytelling as a form of medicine for the body, mind, and spirit. She has since led writing retreats and workshops in the United States and abroad, welcoming writers from around the world. On August 5, she returns to her hometown for her first Narrative Healing event in New York City in several years: “Creative Reset: An Interactive Literary and Creative Gathering.”

“I’m so honored to bring Narrative Healing to the historic Salmagundi Club for a special evening presented by the Coffee House,” Weinert told twi-ny. “After spending the past few years completing my MSW and exploring the healing power of storytelling through a social work lens, I’m so happy to be returning to New York’s literary community. It feels like such a gift to come together in person and create a space where we can slow down, listen within, write, and connect through our stories. I’m so grateful to [Coffee House executive director] Julian Tepper for presenting the evening and to [Salmagundi interim executive director] Paul Morris for welcoming us into this extraordinary space.”

The event will feature guided writing and reflection prompts, mindfulness and embodied awareness practices, brief paired and group conversations, live piano and atmospheric music, and a quiet space for private writing, sketching, reflection, and listening. Attendees don’t need any prior experience with such disciplines in order to participate, and everyone is encouraged to proceed at their own pace.

“This partnership reflects the Coffee House Club’s commitment to creating spaces where creativity, thoughtful conversation, and artistic community can flourish,” Tepper told twi-ny. “We’re delighted to partner with Lisa Weinert because her vision of creativity as a practice of reflection, connection, and community beautifully aligns with the club’s own literary and artistic tradition.”

The Coffee House’s history dates back to 1915, when Vanity Fair editor Frank Crowninshield helped form the Foes of Finance, a collective of New Yorkers from intellectual, artistic, literary, and theatrical circles whose constitution declared: “No Officers. No Charge Accounts. No Liveries. No Tips. No Set Speeches. NO RULES.” The Salmagundi Club was founded in 1871 by a group of artists and patrons.

Tickets for “Creative Reset” range from $75 (community) to $125 (standard) and $150 (supporter), each including a signed copy of Narrative Healing: Awaken the Power of Your Story.

As I noted in a September 2023 twi-ny talk, “Weinert exudes a natural warmth and charm, building communities of friends and colleagues who mingle and then form bonds and relationships of their own.”

You can expect the same thing to happen August 5 at the Coffee House Club.

[Lisa Weinert also writes the Substack “The Writing Body.” Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; visit his Substack here to find out how you can win a free copy of Narrative Healing.]

THE NATURE OF LIGHT: LECTURE AND MEDITATION ON THE HIGH LINE

Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s High Line Plinth commission is focus of lecture and guided meditation on August 5 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Who: Tashi Chödrön, Donald S. Lopez Jr., Jungwon Kim
What: Lecture and guided meditation
Where: The High Line Spur, Thirtieth St. & Tenth Ave.
When: Wednesday, August 5, free with advance RSVP, 12:30
Why: “Art history, or history, human history, is a discover of all the objects that we’ve left behind,” Việtnamese artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen says in a video about his High Line Plinth commission, The Light That Shines Through the Universe. “The objects are trying to tell us a story. And I think that’s fascinating.”

Nguyen’s monumental twenty-seven-foot-high sandstone sculpture is fascinating, a tribute to two sixth-century Bamiyan Buddhas that were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. It also recalls the attacks on the World Trade Center six months later.

On August 5 at 12:30, the High Line and the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art will present “The Nature of Light,” the latest monthly lecture and guided meditation that delves into The Light That Shines Through the Universe. Hosted by Rubin programs and communities ambassador Tashi Chödrön, the event will feature a talk by Donald S. Lopez Jr., professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies at the University of Michigan and author of Buddhism: A Journey through History, followed by a guided meditation led by Love Circle facilitator, Plum Village Tradition practitioner, writer, cultural worker, and Columbia director of graduate studies Jungwon Kim, who believes, “We must ritualize the healing, not the trauma.”

Admission is free with advance RSVP; The Light That Shines Through the Universe will remain on view through fall 2027. The series concludes October 10 with “Monuments to War,” featuring Monuments Lab deputy director Nico Rodriguez and Shambhala teacher Steve Clorfeine.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

REFLECTING ON HUDSON YARDS: STORM CUFF AND STEFAN FALKE LEAD PHOTO WALK

Stefan Falke will be part of Photoville tour at Hudson Yards (photo from Reflecting New York, © Stefan Falke)

Who: Storm Cuff, Stefan Falke
What: Photoville Summer Artist Walk: Hudson Yards
Where: Bella Abzug Park at Hudson Yards, 533 West Thirty-Fourth St.
When: Saturday, August 1, free with advance RSVP, 11:30 am
Why: The Photoville Summer Artist Walk series continues August 1 at 11:30 am with two photographers who hold a mirror up to New York City — in one case, literally. The hourlong tour, which begins in Bella Abzug Park at Hudson Yards, features Brooklyn-born multidisciplinary artist Storm Cuff and NYC-based German-American photographer Stefan Falke. Both participated in Photoville this year, Storm Cuff with Vehicle. The Chosen Ones, Falke with Reflecting New York.

“You need a very low aperture and a corresponding amount of light in order to produce a sharp image. Even the smallest movement of the handheld mirror is magnified in the camera; that’s just a mathematical phenomenon,” Falke says in the published Reflecting New York book, consisting of photos of him holding up a mirror at such locations as the Chrysler Building, Coney Island, the Roosevelt Island Tram, the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park, the Empire State Building, and Hudson Yards.

Storm Cuff will be part of Photoville tour at Hudson Yards (photo from Vehicle. The Chosen Ones, © Storm Cuff)

“I hope it carries the weight of deliberateness. That nothing about it feels accidental. That even without my voice present, the work communicates that it was built with care, a responsibility to who it represents. I want it to retain clarity about who shaped it and why,” Storm Cuff told ColorBloc magazine about her photos of Black men and women around classic cars. “I hope it carries momentum. That it doesn’t feel static on a page and feels like part of something still moving. That someone younger might encounter it and feel permission, not just to admire it, but to build beyond it. When the work moves without me, it becomes a kind of ambassador. I want it to continue doing what it was built to do: propel and remind.”

Admission is free with advance RSVP to what should be a special event.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

THE CALL OF THE WILD: THE ODYSSEY OF FLACO THE OWL

New Penny Lane documentary details Flaco the owl’s unique New York City adventure

WILD INSIDE (Penny Lane, 2026)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Opens Friday, July 31
www.ifccenter.com

On February 2, 2023, an unexpected animal suddenly appeared on a Fifth Ave. sidewalk, becoming an instant sensation.

No, it wasn’t a groundhog looking for its shadow. It was a glorious Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco, who had escaped from the Central Park Zoo after someone had cut a hole in his steel mesh cage. The thirteen-year-old bird captivated the city, the country, and the world for more than a year as he traversed Manhattan, adapting to his newfound freedom by learning how to survive on his own, unfazed by — or perhaps reveling in — the media attention and the dozens of owlers who tracked his every move with binoculars and high-powered cameras.

Documentarian Penny Lane shares the remarkable tale of Flaco in the gently warm and touching — and ravishingly dramatic — Wild Inside, making its world premiere at IFC Center on July 31. Incorporating crowd-sourced photos and videos, news reports, eyewitness accounts, cute animation, and expert opinions, Lane and editor Hannah Buck transform the adventure into a compelling narrative of love and loneliness, of obsession and desperation, an apt metaphor for who we are and what we want and need in the twenty-first century. Birder after birder projects their fears and desires onto Flaco and his journey, an odyssey that goes well beyond Free Willy territory.

“The first time I saw him, I felt protective of him,” Jacqueline Emery says.

“I felt his pain,” JP Borum, known as the Bunny Lady because she rescues rabbits in the park, explains.

“After little more than a week, people were relating to Flaco. They were identifying with him and seeing him as a hero,” David Barrett points out.

As these birders celebrate Flaco’s reinvigorated life, one expresses his concern. “I think I came to this story with an understanding of really the dangers owls face being in Manhattan. . . . There were a lot of people there that night the zoo almost got him that were excited that he got free, and I was just like, ‘No, he’s going to die,’” D. Bruce Yolton admits, referring to the zoo’s attempt to capture Flaco and bring him back to his previous enclosure, efforts they abandoned after a week.

Lane, an avid birder who has made such previous well-regarded nonfiction features as Hail Satan?, Our Nixon, and “Nuts!,” was drawn into the proceedings from the very beginning, when a friend, the first person to see Flaco outside his cage, texted her photos of Flaco the night he was discovered on the street. “It’s rare that a story just falls into my lap and is so immediately capable of demanding my full attention,” she notes in her director’s statement. “Flaco was writing his own story and the rest of us were just watching. And yes, we were watching!”

We were watching, and Wild Inside gives us the chance to watch yet again, this time much more up close and intimately. It’s impossible not to form an emotional bond with Flaco as Lane takes us from the zoo to the park, from the Lower East Side to the Upper West, as Flaco explores his burgeoning independence and searches for a companion, roosting on rooftop edges of tall buildings and hooting out love calls like they’re the Bat signal.

A tight-knit community forms around Flaco, including a man and a woman who get married. When Flaco disappears for a few days, people grow despondent. Sarah Bramwell became so involved that her family was concerned for her mental health. “I had been so worried about him. I mean, so worried, like a mother would be worried, right?” she concedes.

Even though owls are predators who are not often friendly or affectionate with humans, Flaco seems to be making a direct connection to his dedicated fans, as shown in two stunning scenes in which — well, to reveal more would spoil some of the many surprises the film has in store for viewers.

Lane also raises a key issue and a source of much disagreement: Would Flaco be better off back in the zoo, where most of his needs were met on a daily basis, or flying free in the wilds of Manhattan, where danger awaits around every corner? It’s a question many of us ask ourselves when we consider our lives, both personal and professional, whether we can or should take certain risks to find out who we truly are. We cannot watch Wild Inside and not internalize Flaco’s story ourselves; when it comes down to it, we are Flaco, and Flaco is us. We need Flaco — but does Flaco need us?

“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it,” J. M. Barrie wrote in Peter Pan.

Flaco gives us all hope that one day, maybe, we can fly as well.

[Several screenings from July 31 to August 4 will be followed by Q&As with Lane, DOC NYC artistic director Jaie Laplante, and Emery and Lei as well as Village birdwatching tours. Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

NAMING NAMES: STIRRING REVIVAL TO CLOSE EARLY

Jason Babinsky, Michael McKean, and Adam Kantor play three HUAC committee members trying to root out communism in Hollywood in gripping docudrama (photo by Marc J. Franklin)

ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN
New York City Center Stage I
131 West 55th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through August 2, $199
areyounowplay.com
www.nycitycenter.org

An unexpectedly timely subject. An all-star cast. Few other major plays opening at the same time. A superb, well-reviewed production.

So what went wrong?

Anna D. Shapiro’s sparkling revival of Eric Bentley’s 1972 Are You Now or Have You Ever Been began previews at New York City Center Stage I on June 2 and was scheduled to run until September 11, but it recently announced it was closing early, on August 2. And that’s too bad, because it’s a gripping show that deserves a large audience. Maybe it never had a chance, billing itself as “An American Docudrama,” which sounds like something one would see on the History Channel. It could be that it attracted only older folks who are more familiar with the figures involved in serious events that shook the country in the late 1940s and 1950s. Maybe some people were turned off because the dialogue is taken verbatim from actual transcripts.

The play, the original full title of which is Are You Now or Have You Ever Been: The Investigations of Show-Business by the Un-American Activities Committee 1947–1958, takes place between 1947 and 1956, as the House Committee on Un-American Activities interviews Hollywood writers, actors, directors, and producers, grilling them on their ties to communism and the Soviet Union during the second Red Scare and the rise of McCarthyism. The chairman (Michael McKean) and two aides (Jason Babinsky and Adam Kantor) famously ask each of them, “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?” and insist that they name names. Some were only too happy to turn in colleagues, either because they were trying to save their careers or were loyal to the cause — Sam G. Wood (Frederick Weller), Elia Kazan (Weller), and, in his follow-up appearance, Martin Berkeley (Brooks Ashmanskas, though I saw understudy Bill Timoney) — while others stood tall in the face of the questioning, defending their rights as American citizens to not succumb to the threats, some ridiculing the proceedings themselves.

When the chairman asks Abe Burrows (Norbert Leo Butz), “Would you call yourself a Communist?,” the playwright, director, and lyricist responds, “Not in my own heart, sir. But I’m here to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and there’s an element of truth in the statement that I was a Communist. There’s also an element of untruth.” The answer cost him the Pulitzer Prize for Guys and Dolls.

Lionel Stander (Bob Odenkirk) has some sharp words for HUAC in Are You Now or Have You Ever Been (photo by Marc J. Franklin)

“My conscience will not permit me to use the name of another person,” Arthur Miller (Weller) tells the committee in no uncertain terms, while Jerome Robbins (Steven Boyer), when asked why he risked being a Hollywood outcast by naming names, explains, “I did it according to my conscience.”

Lionel Stander (Bob Odenkirk) rejects the existence of the committee, arguing, “I have knowledge of subversive action! I know of a group of fanatics who are trying to undermine the Constitution of the United States by depriving artists of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without due process of law! I can cite instances! I can tell names. I am one of the first victims, if you are interested. A group of ex-Bundists, America Firsters, and anti-Semites, people who hate everybody, Negroes, minority groups, and most likely themselves —”

The sergeant-at-arms has to be called to remove Ring Lardner Jr. (Boyer) from the proceedings after he mocks the committee’s purpose. Smoking a cigarette, Lillian Hellman (Molly Ringwald) reads a brilliant statement on why she will talk to HUAC but not name names.

Paul Robeson (Harry Lennix) declares, “In 1946 I testified under oath I was not a member of the Communist Party. Since then I have refused to give testimony to that fact. There is no mystery in this. I have made it a matter of principle to refuse to comply with any demand that infringes upon the constitutional rights of all Americans.”

The most moving part of the show is the interrogation of Larry Parks (T. R. Knight), who was famous for having played Al Jolson in two films but whose career essentially ended after his testimony first in 1951, then in 1953. Emmy nominee Knight portrays Parks with a heartbreaking sincerity, squirming in his chair as he desperately tries to not name names, his voice and body trembling in fear. He believes that his flirtation with communism when he was younger was brief and irrelevant, skirting questions as the chairman attempts to break him.

“On naming names, it is my opinion that the few people I could name, these names would not be of service to the committee: I am sure you know who they are. These people are like myself, and I have done nothing wrong,” Parks insists. “I also feel that to be asked to name names like this is not American justice. We as Americans have all been brought up to believe it’s a bad thing to force a man to do this.”

Parks could be any one of us, in the 1950s or today.

In the past month, President Donald Trump has brought back the Red Scare, accusing many of those whose views deviate from his, especially but not limited to Democratic Socialists, of being communists.

“There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success. These are not mere political disagreements like differences over taxes or regulations. Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty,” Trump said in a July 3 speech at Mount Rushmore. “It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or even 9/11. Uh, we’re not gonna let this happen to us. Believe me, we’re not letting it happen. Because communism is the enemy of free people everywhere, everywhere in the world. Never works. It’s the enemy of the Constitution.”

One of Trump’s mentors was Roy Cohn, the lawyer who sat beside Joseph McCarthy as the Wisconsin senator went after communists and homosexuals in a series of public hearings on Capitol Hill.

“Where’s my Roy Cohn?” Trump asked during his first term when he was dissatisfied with several of his administration officials.

Lillian Hellman (Molly Ringwald) shares her thoughts on HUAC in Are You Now or Have You Ever Been (photo by Marc J. Franklin)

Skillfully directed by Anna D. Shapiro (Eureka Day, This Is Our Youth) as if it’s a political thriller with the very future of America at stake, Are You Now or Have You Ever Been makes the audience feel like they are in the chair, facing invasive and accusatory questions about their loyalty to a nation that is supposedly built on freedom. As each figure takes the stand, images of newspaper headlines are projected on a scrim, emphasizing the seriousness and immediacy of the situation. The three interlocutors sit stage left at an angle, while the subjects, once finished with their testimony, sit behind the scrim, as if reduced to shadows. The set is by Andrew Boyce, with sharp costumes by Johanna Pan, noirish lighting by Donald Holder, threatening sound by Milbo Music, and important projections by Brittany Bland.

The cast is outstanding, with Babinsky, Boyer, Kantor, Weller, and McKean in the regular ensemble and Butz, Knight, Lennix, Odenkirk, and Ringwald rotating in for the previous lineups of Billy Eugene Jones, David Krumholtz, Andrew McCarthy, Sally Murphy, and Jay O. Sanders and Jones, Scott Adsit, Sally Murphy, Ben Rappaport, and Thomas Sadoski. Unfortunately, Santino Fontana, Steven Pasquale, and others won’t get the chance to testify.

Winner of an Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement, Bentley (The Red, White, and Black; Good Woman of Setzuan), a British-born longtime New Yorker who was a theater critic for The New Republic, taught at Harvard, extensively translated works by Bertolt Brecht, and died in 2020 at the age of 103, captured the zeitgeist of the time in Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, a question that could now end with more than just “a member of the Communist Party.” The powerful play puts you in the chair, wondering what you would do if asked, under oath by an out-of-control administration, about your political beliefs.

So, again, what went wrong?

Brecht famously wrote, “The one tribute we can pay the audience is to treat it as thoroughly intelligent.”

Perhaps, in this case, it all hits too close to home, and it’s all too real for a swift summer entertainment.

And that’s a genuine shame.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

ART BLACK: WALKING THROUGH HARLEM WITH JOHN T. REDDICK

Walking tour of Harlem is part of special exhibition programming at Poster House

POSTER HOUSE WALKING TOUR WITH HISTORIAN JOHN T. REDDICK
Poster House
119 West Twenty-Third St. (tour starting point given upon ticket purchase)
Saturday, July 18, $25, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Exhibition runs through September 6
posterhouse.org

In September 2024, longtime Harlem resident, preservationist, and Yale University School of Architecture graduate John T. Reddick gave me a tour of the exhibit “Illustrating Tin Pan Alley: From Ragtime to Jazz” at the Society of Illustrators, consisting of his remarkable collection of sheet music art from the Tin Pan Alley era, focusing on Black composers, musicians, and performers. He told me that while doing his research, “It was just shocking; as I bought sheet music or got to see the names, I realized they all lived in Harlem during the same time period.”

Reddick is now collaborating with Poster House on a walking tour of Harlem in conjunction with the institution’s “Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage & Screen,” comprising promotional posters for musical revues, theatrical presentations, and movies featuring Black performers from the 1870s to the 1940s (including from Cabin in the Sky, Zouzou, and Imitation of Life). The one-hour tour will visit Strivers’ Row, the Schomburg Center, and Harlem Hospital’s WPA murals, among other locations that played a role in the Harlem Renaissance.

Reddick, who is a member of the Board of Directors of the Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project, is an engaging storyteller and a font of knowledge, so this should be a special adventure; tickets are $25, and the starting point will be given upon purchase.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]