Video Portfolio
Video has become one of the principal methods of capturing and expanding an audience on social media. Here is a selection of videos I have created in my roles in communications.
The first film adaptations of Where the Wild Things Are
Elena Rossi-Snook is the film specialist in charge of the Reserve Film and Video Collection at the Library for the Performing Arts. I spoke to her about the earliest film adaptations of any children’s books, in which Weston Woods Studio worked closely with NYPL children’s librarians.
A Chorus Line Cast Reunion
The 50th anniversary of the Broadway sensation A Chorus Line included a reunion of cast members over the year in front of the Library. I edited this video that earned more than 2 million views, becoming the most watched video on any NYPL channel to date.
How the Arthur Russell archive inspires young musicians
An interview with the musician Katy Kirby in a local outlet from the East Bay noted that Kirby thanked, in the liner notes of her new album Juniper, the librarians of the Library for the Performing Arts. I reached out to Kirby’s management to see if she would be interested in taping an interview. This was a great example of uncovering the hidden stories of how contemporary artists are inspired by their predecessors through the archive.
Alexa West on the set design of Martha Graham
I spoke to artist Alexa West about her research into Martha Graham’s set designs, created by Isamu Noguchi and other artists, and the work she made inspired by that research.
Preserving a performance video by Arthur Russell
The media preservationists of NYPL are constantly working to digitize audio and moving image works from a range of media formats, including many outdated ones—but their work is largely hidden. I worked with the media preservation lab team at NYPL to tell one of their stories about salvaging a U-matic tape of what was thought to be a lost tape of Arthur Russell performing at The Kitchen.
Sekou McMiller on the Mambo dance
I spoke to Sekou McMiller during his residency at the Library for the Performing Arts. McMiller gathered elders from the mambo community to archive their stories, their moves, and their memories, especially of the Palladium nightclub in NYC.
Musicologist David Seubert on the Library’s Collection of Global Music 78 Records
I spoke to David Seubert, curator of performing arts collections at the UCSB Library, as he visited the Library in April for a research trip to access to the collection of 78 rpm records preserved by the Library.
Capturing the work of library staff behind the scenes
When someone requests a piece of media in the research part of the Library for the Performing Arts, it’s not as simple as clicking a button. Library staff actually have to find it in our basement and play it on one of the many media players, some long outdated, for patrons. I interviewed library staff to learn more.
Maria Torres talks about The Hustle dance
Far from an outdated fad, the Hustle has developed a robust community since it was started in the 1970s by Puerto Rican teens in the Bronx. Maria Torres is one of those voices carrying forward the spirit of the Hustle.
Rocky Duval and Hildegard von Bingen
In this video for the Library for the Performing Arts featured the musician Rocky Duval, who used the Library to research for a new project on Hildegard von Bingen.
Jen Bervin’s silk poetry.
Jen Bervin received a Creative Capital Award for her project Silk Poetry, which combined her own poetry with cutting-edge silk sensor medical research. In 2016, when this video was published, it went viral on Facebook and Vimeo, and inspired news features in outlets like Al-Jazeera Plus.