Lewis Whittington

2 weeks ago | culturevulture.net | Lewis Whittington

Throughout his career Winton Marsalis has kept alive the legacies of the big-bands jazz eras. As musical director-conductor of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, he puts his signature on classics and rarities from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie. In LCO performances he joins his trumpets on the bandstand and weighs in with his distinctive sound for a new generation of jazz fans.

1 month ago | culturevulture.net | Lewis Whittington

The hit film ‘Conclave’ is a dramatization of Vatican politics as the college of cardinals (Curia) are tasked with electing a pope. Philip Shenon’s ‘Jesus Wept,’ a sprawling history of the last seven popes, needs no dramatization, the facts are compelling enough and his book clips along at the pace of a Le Carré thriller. The book track the pontiff early careers as clergymen and the success and failures of their papacies starting with Pius XII (1939-1958), through pope Francis’ (2013-2025).

1 month ago | culturevulture.net | Lewis Whittington

In the 80s, New York’s East Village was again the locus of an art renaissance with a cadre of Warhol disciples creating a vibrant new scene in the louche dance clubs, abandoned buildings and on the streets. Keith Haring’s radiant child graffiti and Jean-Michel Basquiat’ SAMO public art was famous even before it was co-opted by galleries worldwide. 27 year old Michael Stewart, a graffiti artist/deejay/dancer fashion model was similarly poised for such success.

1 month ago | culturevulture.net | Lewis Whittington

Sean Hewitt is the award-winning Irish poet author of the Laural Award winning collection “Tongues of Fire” as well as a biographer (J.M. Synge) His 2022 memoir “All Down Darkness Wide” is quite possibly destined to be considered a classic of GLBTQ literature. It is a self-portrait of his relationship and passionately rough breakup with his boyfriend Elias who was suffering from a mental illness and addiction.

2 months ago | culturevulture.net | Lewis Whittington

At age 92, Yoko Ono has for decades been a celebrated artist with art installations and performances in galleries and theaters all over the world. Even songs from Ono’s reviled Plastic Ono Band albums from the 70s have been recycled by millennial bands collaborating with Ono and are dance club hits. Yet Ono is still remembered some as the woman who broke up the Beatles.