Hip Hop, Immersion Theatre, High Heels and More Set for CUNY TV's ARTS IN THE CITY, Beginning 1/9

The January 2015 edition of CUNY TV's ARTS IN THE CITY, hosted by Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson in the newly reopened Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan, begins Friday, Jan. 9 (2015) at 10am, 3pm and 8:30pm on CUNY TV*. The show is repeated Sunday 1/11 at noon and returns Friday 1/23 at 10am, 3pm and 8:30pm and on Sunday 1/25 at noon on CUNY TV. On and after Jan. 9, the program may be viewed anytime on www.cuny.tv.

January's show begins with Laguerre-Wilkinson's interview with Caroline Baumann, Director of the re-designed and re-conceived Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in the landmark Andrew Carnegie Mansion, after its three-year renovation. Tony Guida explores the future through the work of David Benjamin, a young architect and bio-researcher whose buildings and projects are eco-friendly and self-sustaining. They meet at MoMA PS1, the site of Benjamin's Hy-Fi -- a building made of 10,000 bricks derived from corn stalks and mushroom root. Also interviewed about Benjamin's work are Susan Szenasy, publisher/editor in chief of Metropolis magazine; Ron Shiffman, Pratt Institute architect and urban planner; and Pedro Gadanho, Curator of Contemporary Architecture at MoMA PS1.

Hip Hop is now 40 years old -- and New York City can claim the international art form as its own. Recalling the music's early days are pioneer artist Grandmaster Caz, music insider Xavier Jernigan, Bronx break dancer Crazy Legs, artist Mickey Factz, and producer-songwriter Jerry Wonda. Donna Hanover goes backstage at A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder to meet Tony Award-winning actor Jefferson Mays, who is acclaimed for portraying eight family members (male and female) in the fast-moving musical.

Ernabel Demillo reports on a different kind of theatre experience -- one where the audience is part of the show. It's called Immersion Theatre, and she talks about breaking the theatre's traditional "fourth wall" with Jaygee Macapugay, lately of Here Lies Love; producer Steven Shaw and actor Liam Lane of the off-Broadway hit Fuerza Bruta: Wayra; and theatre commentator Patrick Pacheco. And Lisa Beth Kovetz profiles the Brooklyn Museum's eye-popping Killer Heels exhibition -- a collection of historic and contemporary high-heeled shoes. The Museum's Curator of Exhibitions Lisa Small provides the details.

*CUNY TV is broadcast over-the-air in the tri-state area on Ch. 25.3, and cablecast in THE FIVE boroughs of New York City on Ch. 75 (Time Warner and Optimum), Ch. 77 (RCN) and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS).

Pictured, L to R: Hip Hop pioneer Grandmaster Caz and music insider Xavier Jernigan; architect David Benjamin and his Hy-Fi building at MoMA PS1; Brooklyn Museum's Killer Heels exhibition and Roger Vivier's "Virgule Houndstooth" shoe; actor Jefferson Mays backstage and in "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" on Broadway; Fuerza Bruta: Wayra at the Daryl Roth Theatre. (Photo credits: Shoe photo by Jay Zukerkorn, courtesy Brooklyn Museum; show photos courtesy respective productions; all other photos courtesy Arts in the City / CUNY TV.)