NY Salon Rumbles with PS122 Theater

‘In search of the American Dream’ with GTA Road Theater USA

Sat 13 October 2007, 6pm at PS122 Theater

‘The NY Salon Rumbles’ with Performance Space (PS122) Theater is an exciting partnership that offers a unique opportunity for New Yorkers to discuss some of the provocative and stimulating ideas that emerge from this cutting edge theater’s innovative international performances. The NY Salon firmly maintains that - contrary to much that is fashionable today - audiences are smart and perceptive and want to debate the important issues of our time. After all, ideas have consequences.

‘Searching for the American Dream’

German Theater Abroad Road Theater USA explores various ideas and themes in Ronald Schimmelpfenng’s play Start Up. After the matinee show on Saturday 13 October, the audience will have the rare opportunity to discuss ideas related to the American Dream and how America is viewed today both here and internationally.

After 9/11 some people asked ‘Why do people hate America?’ and yet it is still the case that America is a popular destination for many people pinning their dreams on a better future. Is America still able to project a confident, anyone-can-make-it outlook or is there a more anxious and defensive position taken today? What does this say more broadly about how we see ourselves in society? While many in the past, such as Arthur Miller, pointed to the shortfalls of the American Dream, there is a sea change today.Is the idea of the ‘American Dream’ relevant today?

The panelists:

Ronald Marx - Director of Start Up and GTA Road Theater USA

Mark Seddon - New York Bureau Chief and UN Correspondent for Al Jazeera English

James Matthews - Business Consultant, NY Salon

Moderated by:

Alan Miller - Director, NY Salon

Sat 13 Oct, 6pm directly after the matinee performance.

http://www.ps122.org/

The NY Salon and the New York Society for Ethical Culture present:

What’s So Bad About Abortion?

   Thursday, August 7, 7 to 9pm

New York Society for Ethical Culture, www.nysec.org 
2 West 64th Street at Central Park West, 
New York, NY 10023 
Travel Directions and Contact Info

Click To Download Event Flyer

    Speakers

Donna Crane, Director, Government Relations, NARAL Pro-Choice America

Ann Furedi, Chief Executive Officer, British Pregnancy Advisory Service (UK)

Kirsten Moore, President and CEO, Reproductive Health Technologies Project

Vicki Saporta, President and CEO, National Abortion Federation

Moderated by Jean Smith, Director, NY Salon

Abortion is one of the most contentious issues in American politics, but the most recent polls show that most voters fall between somewhere between the extremes. This has led some to suggest that Democrats need a more nuanced view of abortion to win back the electorate. As the 2008 presidential race to the White House gets into full swing this international panel will examine:

• Why is abortion such an important issue in electoral politics in the US compared to Europe?
• What’s so bad about abortion?
• Why do women need the right to abortion?
• Should we seek a middle ground?
• Which 2008 presidential candidates, if any, will defend the right to abortion?

    Participant Biographies

Donna Crane, is the Government Relations Director at NARAL Pro-Choice America wwww.prochoiceamerica.org Crane has been with NARAL for more than seven years and has nearly 15 years of lobbying experience overall. As the organization’s lead lobbyist, she represents pro-choice Americans’ views to Congress and the executive branch.

She came to NARAL from the American Public Health Association, where she served as their Director of Congressional Affairs. She has also lobbied for the state health officials and for several biomedical research associations.

Crane also speaks frequently to the media and public on choice-related legislative issues, having appeared on National Public Radio, MSNBC, in National Journal and Roll Call newspaper, among others. Fortune magazine has rated NARAL Pro-Choice America as the top pro-choice advocacy organization in Washington.

Crane holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from San Jose State University and a master’s degree in legislative affairs from George Washington University. She has traveled widely and lived abroad – and is an enthusiastic gourmand.

Ann Furedi, is the Chief Executive Officer of British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) www.bpas.org a non profit organization which provides abortion care for almost 60,000 women a year at its 17 specialist clinics. Read the bpas online news journal Abortion Reviewhttp://www.abortionreview.org

Furedi has worked in reproductive health care for more than 20 years, mainly in policy and communications. She ran the press office of the UK Family Planning Association before leading Birth Control Trust, a non profit organization that advocated the need for research and development in methods of contraception and abortion.

Before joining bpas, as its Chief Executive Officer in June 2003, Furedi was Director of Policy and Communications for the UK regulator of infertility treatment and embryo research, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA). She is regarded as a leading pro-choice advocate and spokesperson often appearing in the media arguing that abortion is needed back up to contraception if women are to plan their families.

Furedi has written extensively on the causes and consequences of unwanted pregnancy and has a commentary on the need for progression abortion law reform in the current edition of the Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health.

Kirsten Moore is President and CEO of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project www.rhtp.org, a national nonprofit advocacy organization that seeks to improve the political and commercial climate in the U.S. so more and better contraceptive and reproductive health products are available to women.

In recent years, RHTP played a principal role in defining the advocacy agenda for expanding awareness of and access to EC in the U.S., culminating in an August 2006 decision by the Food and Drug Administration to allow over-the-counter access to consumers 18 and older.

In 2003, RHTP co-founded with the Union of Concerned Scientists of the Integrity of Science Working Group which crafted a highly successful earned media strategy that helped to make abuses of science in policymaking circles a favorite topic of editorial boards and cartoons.

Most recently, RHTP launched a multi-pronged project to develop and evaluate new communications strategies for talking about abortion that acknowledge changes in our culture, technology, and demographics in the decades since Roe v Wade.

Prior to joining RHTP, Kirsten managed projects focused on gender, reproductive health, and women’s autonomy for nonprofit and for profit clients. She received her Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton University in 1998.

Vicki Saporta is President and CEO of National Abortion Federation www.prochoice.org

Under Saporta’s direction, the National Abortion Federation has played a critical role in promoting and preserving women’s access to safe, legal abortion care. Since taking the helm in 1995, Saporta developed a public policy program that brought abortion providers and the women they serve into the forefront of the public debate about abortion; guided NAF as they set the standard for quality abortion care in North America and led the introduction of medical abortion (RU-486) in the U.S.; successfully advocated to improve law enforcement response to clinic violence; and broadened NAF’s outreach and direct assistance to under served women.

Major media outlets, federal and state legislators, national and international organizations, and the nation’s leading colleges and universities frequently call on Saporta for her expertise on public policy issues, reproductive health, and anti-abortion violence. Saporta currently serves on the District of Columbia Commission for Women, the Steering Committee of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, the Advisory Board of Law Students for Choice, and the Advisory Council of the Women’s Information Network. Saporta was a recipient of the Judge William B. Groat Alumni Award from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, the Karen Mulhauser Award from the Women’s Information Network, and the Choice USA Mentor of the Year Award.

Event Sponsors:

The NY Salon, The Nation And Economist Present:

‘Living in a state of fear’

Tuesday 20 March 2007 
7-8.30pm
Theresa Lang Center, The New School,
55 West 13th Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10011

This concluding public event shall attempt to contextualise the particular way in which we understand risk and fear today - and how it is different to the past. The earlier Salons explored the debate in relation to oil depletion, global warming, the danger of bad parenting and adults fears of one another toward young people as well as our constant need of emotional support. These issues often tend to emphasize human culpability and human vulnerability. Little time passes without the prospect of new horrors that we will inevitably face – which are often sited as being due to our greed and avarice. This orientation stands in sharp contrast to the approach adopted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugural address in 1933, when he stated that the ‘only thing we have to Fear is Fear itself. Roosevelt’s statement sought to assure the public that it was both possible and necessary to minimise the impact of fear. His was a positive vision of a future where fear would be put in its place by a society that believed in itself. To what extent today does it seem as though politicians are more likely to advise the public to fear everything and not simply fear itself? Has fear assumed the character of a ‘natural’ problem that is detached from any specific experience? In this form, does this become a perspective on life rather than a response to any particular threat? From the early days of the Enlightenment human progress and the aspiration to improve our every day conditions of life, was celebrated by Western culture. These days human ingenuity is regarded with apprehension and even fear. What has changed? What are the consequences for the future of society? How we view humanity matters but is the future human?

Participant Biographies

Megan McArdle holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Chicago. She began working as a freelancer after graduating from business school in 2001 and went to work for The Economist as Deputy Countries Editor for the website in 2003. In April 2004 she became Countries Editor. She is also the editor of Asymmetrical Information, a website devoted to business and economic issues, and writes a weekly column for TechCentralStation.com.

Professor Frank Furedi, Born in Hungary, Furedi is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent in Canterbury. During the past decade Furedi’s research has been oriented towards the way that risk and uncertainty is managed by contemporary culture. He has published widely about controversies surrounding issues such as health, children, food and new technology. His Therapy Culture ;Cultivating Vulnerability In an Uncertain Age (March 2004) explores the ascendancy of the therapeutic imagination. It develops the arguments contained in two previous books The Culture of Fear (2003) and Paranoid Parenting(2001) In recent years Furedi has been exploring the way that fear has come to dominate public discussions in Western Societies. His Politics of Fear; Beyond Left and Right, published in September 2005 explores the crisis of meaning afflicting the West. His new book Invitation To Terror, to be published September 2007 explores the relationship between 21st century Western culture and its preoccupation with terrorism.

Furedi regularly comments on radio and television. His articles are published in the New Scientist, The Guardian, The Independent, The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Express, The Daily Mail, The Wall Street Journal, The Independent on Sunday, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Observer, Toronto Globe and Mail, The Times Higher Education Supplement, The Times Literary Supplement,New Statesman, India Today The Harvard Business Review, La Republica and Die Zeit amongst others.

Christopher Hayes is a Contributing Writer at the Nation and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at the Nation Institute. He writes for a wide variety of independent publications. He regularly covers issues related to politics, labor, criminal justice, the environment and community development. His essays, reviews and feature articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including In These Times, The Nation, The American Prospect, The New Republic, The Washington Monthly and the Chicago Reader.

Moderated by: Jean Smith - A Director of NY Salon

Jean is a fund raising director for a major health care institution in New York. Before settling in Brooklyn, Jean was based in London and Birmingham, England where she co-founded and directed a major volunteer led arts charity providing a platform for artists to show their work which otherwise might be ignored by mainstream venues. Her work to challenge the perceptions about people who suffer mental health problems has provided an open platform for debate on the issue and she has developed practical strategies to enable more productive, independent living.

Event Sponsors:

The NY Salon aims to raise the level of discussion of our culture – from politics and business to science and the arts. We seek to provide environments in which ideas can be robustly debated among critically-minded people from a variety of backgrounds. Whatever the forum – discussing a novel, arguing the merits of a museum exhibition, or organizing a public debate – our goal is the same: to ensure that the assumptions underlying the pressing issues of the day are thoroughly examined.