Friday night’s “Readings From Around the Globe” was similar in format to Wednesday night’s headlining “Revolution/Evolution” readings: a series of authors read in their own languages while the English translations scrolled on a screen behind them. The format was even more successful at the theater of the 92nd Street Y, than it was at the...
April is the pucker factor for Vietnam Veterans. Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Army on April 30. Every anniversary Vietnam vets are told again that their service, suffering and sacrifice was for nothing, that their comrades died in vain.
In 1989, the War Atrocity Museum in the city still called Saigon displayed the photograph of the arch war criminal, Dwight Eisenhower. The Vietnamese consider him the primary villain because he did not sign the Peace Accord between France and Vietnam but signed the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) agreement committing the US to defend South Vietnam. More foreign troops, other than US, fought in Vietnam under the SEATO Treaty than fought in Korea under the UN flag or in the Coalition...
The “Youth on the Frontlines” panel was absolutely packed! So full, in fact, that I ended up sitting with my 12-year-old son upstairs watching the event on a grainy videotape (though the image was poor, the sound was good). The unfortunate conditions (for me anyway) didn’t rob the panel of any of its power.
I was sorry to be late but it couldn’t be helped—my 8-year-old daughter had a poetry reading of her own work along with her classmates first thing this morning (delightful!). But that made for a late departure from Brooklyn. I was feeling harried and annoyed when we got to the panel but once we got there, I was...
