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State of the Arts goes Green for the premiere episode of its 27th season – from a new musical based on a cult eco-horror classic, to a photographer who spent ten years documenting the people and places of the Meadowlands. Also, poet Joe Weil at the Dodge Poetry Festival.
| Toxic Avenger |
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“He was 98 pounds of solid nerd until he became… The Toxic Avenger.”
A new musical based on the 1980s cult classic film opened New Brunswick’s George Street Playhouse’s 2008-2009 season. It’s the story of a mutant vigilante who lives in a junkyard, finds true love, and fights crime and corruption in Tromaville, the most polluted town in New Jersey – all set to new music and lyrics by founding Bon Jovi member David Bryan. State of the Arts Producer Christopher Benincasa goes behind the scenes of this eccentric production, and delves into the myth behind one of the Garden State’s pop-culture icons – Melvin Ferd the Third, aka The Toxic Avenger.
“I go around ripping apart everyone who’s polluting New Jersey, including the mayor [of Tromaville]. So that’s what the show’s about – me saving New Jersey and trying to win the love of a noble blind librarian.”
– The Toxic Avenger, aka ‘Toxie’
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| Joshua Lutz: Meadowlands |
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The Meadowlands is a 32 mile stretch of marshy wilderness that sits between New Jersey and New York. To some it evokes fantasies of Mafia hits and Jimmy Hoffa, to others it seems a vast wasteland full of landfills. The truth is more complex – and as photographer Joshua Lutz reveals, far more beautiful and poignant than might be imagined. For ten years Lutz has documented the people and places of the Meadowlands, from empty landscapes to revealing portraits, now collected in a book, Meadowlands, published by powerhouse Books (2008). Joshua Lutz’s photographs show the Meadowlands as a place of compelling contrasts. State of the Arts producer Susan Wallner goes with Lutz as he takes his large format camera on a shoot in the Meadowlands, and talks to him about why he has been so drawn to this area’s geography and characters. Also interviewed in the story are the director of Lutz’s gallery, Brian Clamp of ClampArt, and the author of the introduction to Lutz’s book, Robert Sullivan. Sullivan is the author of “Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants” and “Meadowlands: Wilderness Adventures on the Edge of a City.”
Joshua Lutz graduated with an MFA in photography from Bard College/The International Center for Photography in 2005. He was named one of the top thirty emerging photographers by Photo District News Magazine in 2004 and his work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Newsweek, ArtNews, and Time.
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| Joe Weil |
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State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa follows poet Joe Weil from his home town of Elizabeth, New Jersey to the 2008 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, where he was a featured poet. Weil was born and raised in Elizabeth and has been described by The New York Times as personifying that town: "working-class, irreverent, modest, but open to the world and filled with a wealth of possibilities." His new book, Painting the Christmas Trees was released in 2008 by Texas A&M University Press. Weil is currently an instructor of writing at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton, but before that he found work in factories in New Jersey.
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Poet Joe Weil
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On NJN1: Thursday, September 10, 2009 @ 8:00 pm
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