Best Selling Author Colson Whitehead Speaks At Marymount
By Dr. Pola Rosen
When Lewis Burke Frumkes, author, talk-show-host and Director of the prestigious Writing Center of Marymount Manhattan College introduced Colson Whitehead recently he said, “Okay, I want to clear this up right away. Our guest tonight is not Alfred North Whitehead, the mathematician and philosopher, or John Whitehead of Wall Street, or Edwin Whitehead who founded Technicon. Our guest is Colson Whitehead, one of the best writers on the literary scene these days. Colson is a MacArthur Fellow, a Whiting Award winner, and the author of “The Intuitionist,” “John Henry Days,” “The Colossus of New York,” and “Apex Hides The Hurt,” which has just been released in paperback and was re-reviewed and re-recommended by the New York Times recently. “Whitehead went on to read new selections from an as yet untitled new book to the audience who howled with laughter, especially when he presented visual aids to illustrate his points. “They will be in the book,” he said. Whitehead who at one time was a pop culture critic for the Village Voice, and then its television critic continues to skewer the pomposities and frailties of our sometimes amazingly foolish society with wit and intelligence. Frumkes invited the audience to come back and hear another satirist, Tony Hendra speak on March 28 at 7:30 in the Regina Peruggi Room. In addition to Hendra he said, other speakers this spring will include major writers such as John Edgar Wideman, Alan Furst, John Simon, and Jessica Hagedorn. There are also classic films being shown and introduced each Wednesday by screenwriter Roy Frumkes “The Substitute.” For information on these and other events call 212-774-0780 or 212-774-4810.#
