Review: ‘Central Park Five’, an opera

May 27, 2025

Anthony Davis’ 2019 opera tells the story of five boys from East Harlem, New York, wrongly convicted of the beating and rape of Trisha Melli. The composer blends an incredible range of musical styles in a “frank engagement with race, gender and power in America.”

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Readers’ Views, September-October 2014, Part I

August 31, 2014

From the September-October 2014 issue of News & Letters

U.S. CRISES: RACISM, POLICE, LABOR STRUGGLES

New York News and Letters Committee prepared a flyer on Eric Garner (see: “NYC Police murder Eric Garner” this issue) headlined: “Wanted For Murder: Daniel Pantaleo.” It denounced the fact that the cops who killed Garner are [=>]

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De Blasio’s phony housing policies

July 7, 2014

From the July-August 2014 issue of News & Letters

New York—When new Mayor Bill de Blasio was campaigning, his pledge was to end the “two cities” here, one of the rich and one of the rest of us. And a major component of that was to address the housing problem. Some may contend that [=>]

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Pariah and Brother to Brother fire up Queer film

February 26, 2012

Wherever the bird with no feet flew she found trees with no limbs.             —Audre Lorde

It is audacious for Dee Rees to begin Pariah with an image of Black women that today’s film is all too comfortable with, a scantily-clad pole dancer, and then cut to her film’s protagonist, Alike, a character that has little precedent [=>]

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Occupy Wall Street strikes deep chord, challenges rulers

November 8, 2011

by Gerry Emmett and Susan Van Gelder

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, since beginning in New York City’s Zuccotti Park–renamed Liberty Plaza–on Sept. 17, has spread to hundreds of cities and towns across the U.S. and linked with the occupation movements in Europe. On Oct. 15, Occupy demonstrations took place in 951 cities in 82 [=>]

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