Janaya Williams

New York, NY —

President Obama has bestowed the National Medal of Honor on the creator of the iconic "I♥NY" logo. Graphic designer Milton Glaser created it in 1977. He says he hasn't gone out once in the last 30 years without seeing the familiar image somewhere. In fact, ...

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Brooklyn-based band Djarara plays the traditional Haitian street music known as rara, which features metal horns, bamboo trumpets, and drums. Every one of the 15 band members lost someone in the recent earthquake. They're continuing the music, and even rehearsing a new song to commemorate the tragedy. "Rara ...

New York, NY —

For almost two decades, a group of Haitians and Haitian-Americans in Brooklyn have been keeping an important musical tradition alive. RaRa is Haitian "street music" that has roots in African spiritual traditions. The Brooklyn-based band DjaRara are the most well-known ambassadors of RARA in New ...

New York, NY —

The Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School in the South Bronx is one of the schools the Department of Education has scheduled for closing this year. A Brooklyn man has recorded a song to drum up support for the school and keep ...

For many New Yorkers with roots in Latin America or the Caribbean, the holiday season doesn’t end until 12 days after Christmas. Epiphany, or Three Kings Day, is a celebration of the Biblical story of the three wise men bringing gifts to the baby Jesus.

Writers from the PEN American Center, an advocacy group that works to defend free expression around the world, staged a New Year’s Eve rally this morning on the steps of the New York Public Library.

New York, NY —

Writers from the PEN American Center, an advocacy group that works to defend free expression around the world, staged a New Year’s Eve rally this morning on the steps of the New York Public Library. They gathered to protest the imprisonment of writer Liu Xiaobo ...

New York, NY —

The Signature Theater is getting a new home on 42nd Street, with the help of a $25 million contribution from the city. The Signature Center is expected to open in 2012 and it will house three theaters, rehearsal studios, a cafe and a bookstore.

Signature is ...

Brooklyn choreographer Reggie Wilson and Andréya Ouamba of Senegal have been collaborators for seven years.  Their newest work, The Good Dance — dakar/brooklyn, stretches from the Con...

New York, NY —

"CONTACT!" - the New York Philharmonic’s contemporary music series, makes its debut tomorrow at Symphony Space. The series is the creation of Alan Gilbert, the orchestra's new music director. WNYC's Janaya Williams talked with Gilbert backstage at the Philharmonic.

The concert will be performed again in ...

Late-night cocktails with adult children of psychotherapists led Jill Bauerle to the idea for Stacked Up, a web-based video series about authors and their bookshelves.  She described ...

New York, NY —

Nearly 200 arts groups in New Jersey are waiting for state money -- more than $10 million in grants -- that was awarded last summer but frozen in fiscal limbo.

Arts organizations expected to receive checks in the mail last month, but state treasury officials now ...

New York is packed with professionally trained performers of all kinds. And then there are the rest of us, who sit in the audience, thinking we could never do what they're doing on st...

Should deaf characters only be played by deaf actors?  Some deaf actors are protesting a new play that features a hearing actor performing a deaf character.  WNYC's Janaya Williams reports.

Architect and illustrator Matteo Pericoli says that we don't choose our window views, they choose us.  In his new book,  "The City Out My Window - 63 Views on New York," he meticulously draws the window views of 63 New Yorkers, both famous and ordinary.

Photographer Matthew Neiderhauser first discovered Beijing’s underground music scene two years ago as a student. He noticed young artists flocking there and live music venues popping up all over town — all under the radar of government-controlled media outlets. So Neiderhauser picked up a camera and got to work.

New York, NY —

Three indie rock bands from Beijing are performing in New York this weekend, wrapping up a three-week tour of the U.S. It's their first time touring in this country. The bands are signed to one of China's two independent music labels, and they're the subject ...

New York, NY —

"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter". started previews last week at the New York Theater Workshop. The action takes place in a small town in Georgia in the 1930's, and revolves around a central character, John Singer, who is deaf.

The choice to cast a hearing ...

New York, NY —

“Who Shot Rock and Roll” opens today at the Brooklyn Museum. It's the first major museum exhibition to acknowledge the role photographers played in ushering in the rock-and-roll revolution.

REPORTER: There's a photograph of an emotional Kurt Cobain weeping backstage, and Amy Winehouse sitting on ...