The Importance of Public Art, and how it affects our communities?
Download | Duration: 00:51:59
Barbara Segal is the public Art Consultant to the City of Yonkers, NY. She has had many “One Woman Shows,” she has been involved in many group exhibits and has written numerous articles that have been published in the NY Times, the Journal News, and other publications. She is a graduate of the Pratt Institute and has a degree from L’Ecole Nationale Supericure, des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France, and a BFA degree from Pratt.
Barbara Segal has earned a firmly established reputation as an important public artist and advocate of the arts in New York State. Her exhibitions and larger scale public works have consistently met with rave reviews. The New York Times describes her sculpture as "provocative and exquisitely carved", responding to her installation exhibit at the Neuberger Museum of Art in 2000. "Tour de force well describes Barbara Segal’s achievements in sculpture. She is a master at creating complex, detailed and unusual objects from hard stone”, states the Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs at the museum. The fall of 2003 welcomed the opening of a sculpture park on the Hudson River waterfront in Yonkers, N.Y. The City of Yonkers exclusively contracted Barbara Segal to organize and design this ambitious project as a symbol of its extensive cultural revitalization. Completed in 2005 is “Muhheakantuck”, an MTA Arts for Transit commission is a two-part seventy foot cast aluminum wave, charting the original borders of the Sawmill River. It runs along both sides of the historically land marked Metro-North viaduct in the heart of downtown Yonkers. Barbara Segal in partnership with JMC Art Partners created Yonkers Artrucks, launched during Business Week 2007 for the Dept. of Public Works. Together the team developed the concept and implemented the project to transform 6 garbage trucks into "mobile art galleries" with artist-designed vinyl wraps promoting environmental awareness. Currently Barbara is a consultant for the City of Yonkers working with the Dept. of Public Works and the Downtown Waterfront Development Corp. She spends everyday in her studio in Parkhill creating new works of art for galleries, museums and private collectors.
Rosemary Uzzo, a member of “Who’s Who in Education,” has a BA and an MA from Fordham University. She was a member of the Yonkers Board of Education from 1961 through 1996. During that period of time she served as the Director of Information Services, for the Yonkers Board of Education, served as an Assistant Principal, a curriculum Coordinator, and a curriculum writer. She is still active as an Instructor for Adult Education through BOCES, been the director of the Jewels Learning Center at the Yonkers YMCA. Ms. Uzzo has been an instructor at Mercy College, and an adjunct professor at Fordham University. She is the author of “Exploring New York,” and activity text for fourth grade students in New York State. She has served on numerous Boards and Councils, which include Mayor’s Community Relations Board, Westchester Council on crime and Delinquency, National Council of Christians and Jews, Bronxville Women’s League, the Italian-American/African-American Dialogue Group, American Association of University Women, among a number of others.
Commissioner of Public Works, John A. Liszewski, started his career in the City of Yonkers in 1987 as a senior budget analyst. He became Administrator for the Yonkers Police Department, then Director of General Services in the Department of Public Works. He was then appointed by Mayor Terrance Zaleski as Commissioner and was reappointed by both Mayor John Spencer and currently by Mayor Phil Amicone.
As Commissioner of Public Works, Mr. Liszewski holds full administrative responsibility for all phases of the public works operation, including the water system, the sewer system, solid waste collection, snow removal, recycling, bulk pick-up, and the maintenance of all public areas (streets, bridges, highways).
He continues to work on increasing the percentage of recycling that we do as a City. His duty as Commissioner of Public Works has always been to continue to enhance the quality of life for all residents of Yonkers and to maintain our proactive approach. In addition, he participated in collaboration with the City’s Art Community to create an exciting project to transform six garbage trucks into mobile art galleries. The outcome was to promote environmental awareness and educate the public on the integral role DPW plays in sustaining a clean and save environment.
He is a member of Westchester Counties Solid Waste Advisory Board, American Public Works Association, Westchester County Public Works Association, Westchester Counties Water Works Association, as well as many other community and civic associations.
He was born and raised in Yonkers, were he currently resides with his wife. He has three children and two grandchildren.
Our guests will address some of these following questions:
• How does public art impact a Community?
• Who should pay for it?
• What is the difference between public art and gallery art?
• Is there a discernible economic impact regarding public art?
• Why have public art in a community?
Robert Flower, Ph.D. talks about his book, "Your Exceptional Mind" and it's meaning.
Robert Flower and his book "Your Exceptional Mind,” and his thoughts on how “enhancing one’s intelligence promotes the expanding of understanding.”Download | Duration: 00:51:15
Dr. Flower, who is a resident of Bronxville, NY, is a graduate of both Fordham University and Walden University with a BA degree in Philosophy and a Ph.D. in Philosophy along with Organizational and Systems Sciences.
Dr. Flowers is a member of MENSA, has lectured and appeared on radio extensively. Part of his career has been devoted to the real estate industry, college lecturing and he has traveled extensively all over the world on archeological and anthropological investigations. He is has spent numerous years studying and reporting on “The Search for Natural Intelligence.”
As a result of this work, his books deal with intellectual potential and how it can enhanced, and utilized. His books have included, “Decoding Potential,” “A Revolution in Understanding” and “The Intelligence Cubes.” This afternoon we will explore his thoughts on intelligence and he will answer some of the following questions:
* What exactly is Natural Intelligence?
* How does it help people?
* How do you use it as a community activist?
* What is your view of governance?
"A Conspiracy of Silence, the Health and Death of FDR" with Author Harry S. Goldsmith, MD
Download | Duration: 01:00:18
Harry S. Goldsmith, M.D., is a renowned practicing surgeon who has invented many innovative surgical procedures, including those that help victims of spinal cord injuries and Alzheimer's.
He is a graduate of Dartmouth College, and the Boston University School of Medicine. In his fifty years of practice he has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, served in the United States Army in Korea as a Captain, and is a member of many organizations and societies. He is the author of 225 scholarly medical papers on subjects that vary from cancer to arterial implantation.
Dr. Goldsmith is also a devoted medical history buff and in "A Conspiracy of Silence" takes the reader inside that critical moment in time when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was running for an unprecedented fourth term during World War II. Although there were rumors about his declining health and telling photos of him at Yalta, his true medical condition was kept secret. His Vice-president, Henry Wallace, was popular with the people and a longtime personal friend, but behind the scenes, Democratic insiders, largely unknown to the general public were conspiring to drop him from the ticket. Their heavy-handed manipulation of the 1944 convention ultimately led to the nomination of Harry Truman in his stead. One wonders if they ever realized how their own actions forever changed the face of America.
Goldsmith's interest in FDR's medical records began in 1963. Years later, he started looking for them and found at every twist and turn they had been destroyed or lost. By 1984 he himself was embroiled in a drawn out court battle for a medical document denied to its legal owner. Even with the backing of FDR's son, James, the original document was never released. What was the motivation of all these people, by what right did they take it upon themselves to keep or destroy historical papers even decades after FDR's death?
Robert Schlesinger discusses his book "White House Ghosts, Presidents and the Speechwriters."
Our show today is about the book, White Houst Ghosts: Presidents and their Speechwriters, with the distinguished author and journalist Robert Schlesinger.
Download | Duration: 00:53:21
Mr. Bob Schlesinger will talk about his book, his renowned fathe, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and the presidency. Schlesinger reveals, in intimate detail, how presidents from FDR through the present day got their most important messages across through their speechwriters.
Bob Sherwood, Raymond Moley, Harry Hopkins, Emmet Hughes, Peggy Noonan, Sam Rosenman. Clark Clifford, Ted Sorenson, Bryce Harlow, Bill Moyers, Jack Valenti, Richard Goodwin, Ray Price, Pat Buchanon, and William Safire, are some of the big-name writers that graced the White House from 1933 until today.
Mr. Robert Schlesinger, a U.S.News and World Report deputy editor, oversees all opinion editorial content. Spearheading the opinion section of www.usnews.com, Schlesinger solicits op-eds from writers and bloggers nationwide. Schlesinger came to U.S.News & World Report as a freelancer and blogger for a variety of publications, including Salon.com, Economist.com, the Huffington Post, and the New York Times Magazine. His work has also appeared in The Washington Monthly, the Weekly Standard, People, Campaigns & Elections, Washington DC Style, DC Magazine, the Washington Examiner, the Boston Globe Magazine, George, and the AARP Bulletin.
Prior to joining U.S. News, Schlesinger covered national security and public policy issues for the Boston Globe’s Washington bureau. He previously served as chief congressional correspondent at Voter.com, political editor at The Hill newspaper, and researched advisers to presidential candidates at the Center for Public Integrity, co-writing “Under the Influence,” a 1996 report on presidential campaign advisers. He is also co-founder and co-contributor of the blog, RobertEmmet, which covers topics from national security to entertainment and culture. He teaches political journalism at the Boston University Washington Journalism Center. He lives with his wife in Alexandria, Virginia. A New York City native, he graduated from Middlebury College in 1994.
Our show will attempt to explore these questions:
• How important are speechwriters to a president?
• Who was the first presidential speechwriter
• Who were the best writers among the presidents?
• What was it like being the son of Arthur Schlesinger Jr as a father?
• What made FDR’s team of writers special?
"The Unionization of the Taxi Cabs in White Plains, What are the Implications?"
Our show is about “The Unionization of the Taxi Cabs in White Plains, What are the Implications?”
Our special guests are Mr. Michael Carriere of District Council 9, Mr. Mario Alfonso, a taxi operator from White Plains, NY and Mr. Glen Hockley, a Member of the White Plains City Council.
Download | Duration: 00:50:49
Mr. Carriere, who has been a Union member for 20 years, came from a Union family. He started a glazier for Local Union 1087 and held many elected positions, before and after, the merger with District Council 9 and the consolidation of Local Unions 206 and 1087. He is also a strong advocate of apprentice programs, and has contributed his time, and the efforts his union in many charitable projects that include the YMCA rehabilitation in White Plains, food pantries, toys for tots, The Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, various projects in Yonkers and church rehabilitations in Port Chester and Brewster.
Mr. Alfonso is a resident of White Plains, and is an owner operator of his own taxi. He has been actively involved in this effort to not only unionize his drivers, but to make sure that the standards regarding drivers, their conduct and dress are improved.
The some of the issues that will be discussed:
• How did this effort to organize cabdrivers begin?
• What role did Councilman Glen Hockley play?
• How is the price of gasoline impacting on taxi service?
• What role will unionization play in the upcoming years?
• How has this rich and poor society of the last decade affected the average working man?
Presidential Politics in the Post FDR Era
Our guest today is Mr. Doug Garr, an author, writer, editorial consultant, speechwriter and former Editorial Director of the New York State Urban Development Corporation. Doug, a graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications has written for magazines, newspapers, and CEOs of companies like, JP Morgan, Hewlett-Packard, and Network Appliances. He has written books on Lou Gerstner of IBM, investing, and Silicon Valley. He wrote economic speeches for former Governor Mario Cuomo, and he is currently working on two new books. He has a life-long interest in politics.
Download | Duration: 00:52:16
The Advocates will focus on “Presidential Politics in the Post FDR Era.”
Mr. Garr and I will discuss some of the pivotal elections, which include the following:
• Truman- Dewey-Wallace-Thurmond, 1948
• Eisenhower –Stevenson, 1952
• Kennedy-Nixon, 1960
• Nixon-Humphrey-Wallace, 1968
• Carter-Ford, 1976
• Reagan-Carter-Anderson, 1980
• Clinton-Bush-Perot , 1992
• Bush-Gore, 2000
"American-Made" author NIck Taylor Talks about the WPA-
Our special guest is Mr. Nick Taylor, the author of American-Made, The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR put the Nation to Work.
Download | Duration: 00:52:44
Nick Taylor has written ten books of non-fiction, both solely and in collaboration, on a wide variety of subjects. His history of the Works Progress Administration, was published last February to wide acclaim.
Taylor’s other subjects include tournament bass fishing, the Mafia, and life in a small church. His memoir, A Necessary End recounts a baby boomer’s growing concern and care for his parents in their final years. His story of an intrepid Israeli’s journey into the German neo-Nazi underground, In Hitler’s Shadow, written with Yaron Svoray, was adapted as the HBO feature movie, The Infiltrator, starring Oliver Platt. His account of a Mafia family in the government’s Witness Protection Program, Sins of the Father, is currently under a motion picture option. Laser, published in 2000, tells the story of the laser’s true inventor and his thirty-year fight to win the patents that would make him rich. And he worked with astronaut and Senator John Glenn on the bestselling, John Glenn: A Memoir.
His pro bono work includes four years as president of the Authors Guild, the oldest and largest organization of published writers in the United States, which advocates for authors’ rights. He is a native of western North Carolina who today lives in Greenwich Village with his wife Barbara Nevins Taylor, who is an investigative reporter for Fox TV’s New York stations Fox 5 and My 9 News.
Mr. Taylor will address some of the following questions:
• Who was Harry Hopkins and how did he get to run the WPA?
• What role did the WPA play in preparing us for WWII?
• Why was the WPA so criticized and by whom?
• Where was the work of the WPA concentrated?
Freedom of the Press with Richard Blassberg of the Westchester Guardian
Our special guest is Mr. Richard Blassberg, the author of “The Jeanine Machine,” an expose of former Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro. He is also the Editor-In-Chief of the hard-hitting local newspaper the, The Westchester Guardian. He was born and raised in the 41st Precinct, "Fort Apache" the Bronx, Richard holds a degree in psychology from Adelphi College, and a law degree from Pace University School of law. A former Youth Board Worker for the City of New York, and Probation Officer for the County of Westchester, he has worked for nearly three decades with formerly homeless, and disadvantaged individuals.
Download | Duration: 00:52:22
The subject of “The Advocates” will be “Freedom of the Press,” and how he sees the small newspaper’s role in the following:
1) Corruption in the courts and the justice system
2) Justice for the oppressed and forgotten
3) The growth of layered, duplicative government, and is it out of hand
4) The game of incestuous politics: elected officials, the courts and law enforcement
Graying of the Great Powers: a talk with Richard Jackson
Our special guest is Mr. Richard Jackson, the author of The Graying of the Great Powers: Demography and Geopolitics in the 21st Century. Our program will explore what Richard Jackson has written, “The world is entering a demographic transformation of unprecedented dimensions… therefore the coming transformation is both certain and lasting. There is almost no chance that it will not happen --- or that it will be reversed in our lifetime.” In fact, Mr. Jackson warns, “In the developing world, the transformation will give rise to dangerous new security threats!”
Download | Duration: 00:51:39
Mr. Richard Jackson, Ph.D. is a Senior Fellow & Program Director, of The Global Aging Initiative, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1800 K. Street, NW, suite 400, Washington, DC 20006. This research program explores the economic, social and geopolitical implication of the aging of the population of America and around the world. He is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Hudson Institute and a Senior Advisor to the Concord Coalition. Mr. Jackson is the author of numerous policy studies, including, “The Aging of Korea,” “Long-term Immigration Projection Methods: Current Practice and How to Improve It,” “Building Human Capital in an Aging Mexico,” and “The Graying of the Middle Kingdom.” In 1994, he served as a Blackstone Group Chairman Peter G. Petersen’s liaison to the Kerrey-Danforth Commission on Entitlement and Tax reform. Mr. Jackson was awarded his Ph. D. in economic history from Yale University and currently lives in Alexandria with his wife Perine and his children.
Is The Size and Scope of Westchester County Government Out of Control, and What Can Be Done?
Our special guests are the honorable Paul Feiner, The Town Supervisor of Greenburgh, NY and Ms. Joan Gronowski, a Member of the City Council of Yonkers, NY. Our subject today is, “Is the Size and Scope of County Government Out of Control, and What Can Be Done?”
Download | Duration: 00:51:54
Mr. Feiner was a Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude at Fordham University and a 1981 graduate of St. John's Law School, Mr. Feiner immediately put his academic skills to good use. He led the campaign to open committee meetings of the Westchester County Board of Legislators to the public. This successful effort prompted Common Cause to name Mr. Feiner one of six national recipients of the Common Cause Public Service Achievement Award in 1982. His award cited Mr. Feiner's "force of imagination, initiative and perseverance that have made an outstanding contribution to the public interest in the areas of government performance and integrity."
Joan Gronowski is a lifelong Yonkers resident, born and raised on Hawthorne Avenue. She has lived in the Yonkers 3rd district for most of her life. Joan attended St. Mary’s Parochial School and Blessed Sacrament Academy High School, beginning her employment with the City of Yonkers shortly thereafter.
Joan is a retired City of Yonkers employee and former member of the Service Employees’ International Union Local 704, having served as the Union’s Recording Secretary for ten years. Joan worked for many years in the city’s Office of Consumer Protection, corresponding with the private sector as a liaison to resolve constituent complaints and inquiries. During the latter years of her employment, Joan became actively involved in the political process, hoping to bring about more accountability in our public officials. She became a first-time candidate herself, and in November 2007, was elected to the Yonkers City Council representing the Third District.