Enter the Critics
With this issue, Arts & Letters initiates a criticism section, which will rotate weekly between film, music, dance and art. We are proud to introduce our columnists, eight incisive cultural observers, with unique voices and singular perspectives.
FILM
Daphne Merkin, the author of the novel “Enchantment” and “Dreaming of Hitler,” an essay collection, is a former film critic for The New Yorker. She is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review, and her essays and criticism appear in a wide variety of publications. She is currently at work on “Melancholy Baby,” a personal and cultural history of depression. She is based in New York City.
Michael Bronski has written for The Boston Globe, The Boston Phoenix, The Los Angeles Times and The Village Voice. He is a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College, and his latest book is “Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps.” He is based in Boston.
MUSIC
Dimitri Ehrlich, who will write about popular music, is music editor at large for Interview magazine and has written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Vibe and Spin. Ehrlich, a former music editor for MTV, is also the author of “Inside the Music: Conversations With Contemporary Musicians About Spirituality, Creativity, and Consciousness.” He is based in New York City.
David Mermelstein, who will cover opera and classical music, is the editorial director of KUSC radio in Los Angeles and a regular contributor to the Sunday Arts & Leisure section of The New York Times. He has reviewed classical music for The New Criterion and the Los Angeles Daily News, and his work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and Opera News. He is based in Los Angeles.
DANCE
Joseph Carman, a former soloist with The Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Dutch National Ballet and The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, is now a regular contributor to The New York Times Arts & Leisure section. He has written for Dance magazine, Poz magazine, The Advocate, The New York Blade, the New York Press, The Village Voice and Playbill. He is based in New York City.
Judith Brin Ingber, a choreographer and dancer, lived in Israel from 1972 to 1977, where she worked with the Batsheva Dance Company and as an assistant director for the Inbal Dance Theatre. She is the author of several monographs and articles on dance, including “Shorashim: The Roots of Israeli Folk Dance,” “Dancing Into Marriage: Jewish Wedding Dances” and “The Priestesses, on Yarden Cohen and Sara Levi-Tanai.” She also published a biography of Viennese modern dancer Fred Berk titled “Victory Dances.” In addition to her performing and writing, she teaches in the Department of Theater Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota. She is based in Minneapolis.
ART
Leslie Camhi’s essays on art, film and books appear regularly in The New York Times, The Village Voice and numerous other publications. She is based in New York City.
Andrew Patner is critic-at-large for Chicago’s WFMT Fine Arts Radio and contributing critic of the Chicago Sun-Times. A former staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal, he has also been an editor and staff writer for Chicago magazine and an arts critic, program host and producer for WBEZ-FM, Chicago’s NPR affiliate. A former contributing editor at the Forward and at Art & Antiques, his articles have also appeared in The Art Newspaper (London), The Nation, and The New Yorker, and he is the author of “I.F. Stone: A Portrait.” He is based in Chicago.
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