Huntting--for Honesty!

"Respect, Contempt, and Individuality"

2011-05-26T14:04:00.007-04:00

There is a paper I presented as part of a public seminar at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation some years ago which includes a section about the life and work of an important woman, Civil Rights lawyer Pauli Murray. She, with others, was instrumental to the success of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. My paper, which can be read online, begins:

"Eli Siegel explained what individuality really is--and I believe that every person’s personal happiness and our collective future depends on this great, true explanation being known. He writes in his essay titled “There Is Individualism”:

"Individualism is the whole world rightly in ourselves, and welcome there. It is reality working with a sweet lack of interference, through us….It is the self thriving on what it has to do with, making beautiful what it has to do with." . . . .

Pauli Murray's life shows that what makes for true individuality is not our difference from others or our possible superiority to others--it is respect for the world. Born in Baltimore—in the segregated South—she and her family, as black persons, suffered from the contempt of white for black that was enforced by law. Like apartheid in South Africa, they were separated by force from what every human being needs and has a right to: their full relation to the world. more

Seminar, Thursday, May 5th, 6 - 8 PM

2011-04-20T17:53:00.002-04:00

What's the Big Mistake We Make about Other People?

Speakers - Bruce Blaustein, Derek Mali, Joseph Meglino

Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene St in SoHo New York, NY 10012

aestheticrealism.org 212.777.4490

The Civil War, Poetry, & Our Lives!

2011-04-13T16:18:00.004-04:00

"Hot & Cold Tell of Poetry" Eli Siegel's great lecture
on Walt Whitman’s Specimen Days & the Civil War

"What the Civil War Was About" by Ellen Reiss
Civil War Poems by Eli Siegel

—And more, including songs of the Civil War

Saturday, April 16, at 8 pm at the

AESTHETIC REALISM FOUNDATION

141 Greene St in Soho, New York City

www.aestheticrealism.org 212.777.4490

I Stand with the Public Service Workers of Wisconsin!

2011-03-10T15:05:00.001-05:00

www.standwisconsin.org

Important, thrilling for men & women right now!

2011-02-24T11:48:00.007-05:00

Seminar on Thursday, March 3 at 6:30 pm

What Is True Courage in a Man?

Speakers: Aesthetic Realism Consultants

Jeffrey Carduner, Ken Kimmelman, Ernest deFilippis

Aesthetic Realism Foundation
141 Greene St in SoHo
212.777.4490 aestheticrealism.org

2011-01-18T19:09:00.028-05:00

On Thursday, February 3, 6:30 pm there
will be an answer--an honest,
thrilling answer--to this question:
FREEDOM & LOVE:
HOW CAN A
WOMAN HAVE BOTH?
The speakers are The Three Persons:
Margot Carpenter, Carol Driscoll, Devorah Tarrow

Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene St. NYC 212.777.4490

Extraordinary Measures - The Film

2011-01-09T16:34:00.019-05:00

I just saw the year-old film "Extraordinary Measures" on dvd, with Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser, Keri Russell, and the 8 yr old daughter played wonderfully by Meredith Droeger. It's about a father's effort to find a cure for his two children's rare disease, called Pompe's. The film is courageous for showing the horror of the profit-driven pharmaceutical industry. My brother Rick Huntting died of muscular dystrophy when he was 20, in 1968 (he did not have Pompe's disease, but Pompe's is a form of muscular dystrophy). Perhaps there could have been a medicine to save his life if it weren't for the profit motive blocking the development of life-saving drugs--which this film, based on true events, gives powerful evidence for 40 years later. I thank and admire the people making this film, and John Crowley, the true life father who fought against enormous odds for his children's lives. The film was inspired by the book The Cure by Geeta Anand--the family and their two children are still struggling against the disease.

Great Holiday Events!

2010-11-25T12:35:00.013-05:00

December 9, 6:30 pm:

What Are Men & Women Hoping For in Love?

December 18, 8 pm:

The Holidays--and Song, Humor, Knowledge!

December 30, 6:30 pm
What Music Says about Our Lives—A Celebration!

Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene St NYC 10012

212.777.4490

NOVEMBER 20: About Emotion, Music—& Communication!

2010-11-06T10:29:00.006-04:00

A Dramatic Presentation, Saturday, November 20, at 8 PM
About Emotion, Music--& Communication!
Aesthetic Realism Looks at Things: Communication by Eli Siegel
Explosiveness & Ease in James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" by singer Kevin Fennell
What Food Deserves: A Canticle, poem by Eli Siegel
Do You Want to Be Accurate about Your Feelings? Reenactment of Aesthetic Realism Lesson
Aesthetic Realism Foundation - 141 Greene Street NY 10012
212.777.4490 http://www.aestheticrealism.org/

Come to a Thrilling & Urgent Seminar on Education!

2010-10-31T13:32:00.011-04:00

Thursday, November 4, 2010 6:30 - 8 pm
"Through the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method

Students Choose KNOWING--Not Anger & Bullying!"

Speakers:

Patricia Martone (ESL, PS 134)

Arnold Perey (instructor, the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method)

Rosemary Plumstead (Science, NYC HS, retired & current teacher education)

Zvia Ratz (Mathematics, MS 319)

Christopher Balchin (Social Studies, Brooklyn Academy of Science & the Environment)

Avi Gvili (Language Arts, IS 7SI)

click here for flyer

AESTHETIC REALISM FOUNDATION

141 Greene St (in SoHo) NYC 10012 Tel. 212.777.4490

www.AestheticRealism.org

OPENING OCTOBER 28 - 6 - 8 pm

2010-10-21T17:37:00.008-04:00

Painting Matters

Nine Contemporary Painters

Last Week of Chaim Koppelman Exhibition!

2010-10-11T13:04:00.019-04:00

Don't miss this chance to see a remarkable gathering

of work by one of America's great artists --

Chaim Koppelman (1920 - 2009)

A Memorial Exhibition

An exhibition of works spanning seven decades—
drawings and sculpture from the 1940s, and prints
and pastels from the 1950s into the 21st century.

through Saturday, October 16

Gallery hours Wed - Fri 12 - 5; Sat 12 - 4

TERRAIN GALLERY / AESTHETIC REALISM FOUNDATION

141 Greene Street in SoHo New York, NY 10012 212.777.4490

Great Talks on Art on Thursday, October 7, 2010!

2010-09-29T17:47:00.003-04:00

Thursday, October 7, 6:30 pm
Art Answers the Questions of Our Lives!

• Artist Marcia Rackow on Titian

• Sculptor Donita Ellison on Barbara Hepworth

• Architect Anthony Romeo on Antonio Gaudi

With an introduction by Architect Dale Laurin

Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene Street in SoHo New York City, NY 10012
Tel: (212) 777-4490

2010-09-02T17:17:00.012-04:00

Saturday, September 18, 8 pm

On Beauty, Justice, & the Self of Everyone

Aesthetic Realism Looks at Things: Discontent—A 1952 lecture by Eli Siegel, enormously relevant today:

“At the present time, there is more conscious discontent than perhaps at any other time in the world’s history. When people realize this, they will have to say, for their own protection: ‘We’ve got to have people contented in this world, or there will be danger."
Power & Tenderness in Men & Picasso's Minotauromachy by the late Chaim Koppelman, artist & Aesthetic Realism consultant, whose Memorial Exhibition is now at the Terrain Gallery
Are You Proud of Your Desire? Reenactment of an Aesthetic Realism Lesson

Aesthetic Realism Foundation 141 Greene St NYC 10012 212.777.4490

Exciting Seminar on Thursday, August 5 at 6:30 pm

2010-07-21T16:12:00.003-04:00

Can a Woman Make Sense for How She's

For & Against a Man, the World, Herself?

Speakers:
Nancy Huntting, Karen Van Outryve, Carrie Wilson

at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene St New York, NY 10012

212.777.4490

Come to a GREAT Seminar Thurs. July 8th at 6:30pm!

2010-07-01T15:43:00.010-04:00

Being True to Oneself--What

Does It Really Mean?

Speakers: Joseph Spetly, Dan McClung, Dale Laurin

Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene St. New York, NY 10012

212.777.4490 http://www.aestheticrealism.org

Podcasts of Aesthetic Realism Seminars!

2010-06-23T16:19:00.007-04:00

Podcasts of "Busier Than Ever--but Why Do We Feel Something's Missing?" by Carol McCluer &
"Toughness and a Feeling Heart--Can a Man Have Both?" by Bennett Cooperman are available at: http://aestheticrealism.org/.

June 19 8pm: Love, Marriage, Fashion--& Reality's Opposites!

2010-06-10T16:58:00.006-04:00

Aesthetics Meets Love by Eli Siegel

Love & Respect--What's the Relation? Aesthetic Realism Lesson

The Elegant & the Provocative; or, Can

a Young Woman Learn about Herself

through the Prom Dress She Wears?

by designer Bruce Blaustein and educator Lauren Phillips

Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene Street in SoHo, NYC 10012

212.777.4490

Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," June 6, 2010 in NYC

2010-04-23T18:29:00.010-04:00

Sunday, June 6, 2010, at 2:30 pm

The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company presents

"Absurdity in a Dukedom; or,

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night"--&

Everyone's Trouble about Love!"

a dramatic presentation of Eli Siegel's 1951 lecture,

with scenes from the play

at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene Street in SoHo, New York, NY 10012 - 212.777.4490

A New Film - Delightful and Deep

2010-03-22T19:10:00.005-04:00

Thomas Comma
Directed by Ken Kimmelman
Emmy Award-winning filmmaker

Based on a story by poet Martha Baird
Thomas Comma is the charming, humorous, sophisticated, wonderful
adventure of a lonely comma looking for the right sentence.
This animated film will delight and inspire children and adults.
—Reception following the screening— Reservations: 212.777.4490

Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene St. NYC 10012 in SoHo

212.7777.4490

Great Theatre, Song, & Meaning: March 14th

2010-02-25T17:18:00.012-05:00

Sunday, March 14, at 2:30 PM
HUMANITY'S OPPOSITES—
Beginning with Ireland!
An Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company Production

—Songs of Ireland with comment—

"Danny Boy," "Wearin’ o’ the Green," "Molly Malone,"

"Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye," & more
"Words Are Everywhere: Comedy & Tragedy Are Two of These"
Eli Siegel's 1971 Lecture on Sean O'Casey's

Juno and the Pacock

— with scenes from the play —
PERFORMERS: ANNE FIELDING • TIMOTHY LYNCH
CARRIE WILSON • DEREK MALI • BENNETT COOPERMAN
MARION FENNELL • ANN RICHARDS • KEVIN FENNELL
BARBARA ALLEN • EDWARD GREEN
"Good Will: The Greatest Practicality" By Ellen Reiss

Aesthetic Realism Foundation 141 Greene St. NYC 10012

212.777.4490

What can a 21st century man or woman learn from Shakespeare?--You'll be thrilled!

2010-01-08T15:50:00.018-05:00

Sunday, February 14, at 2:30 pm
Shakespeare—& What Is Love?
The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company presents—
A dramatic production of Eli Siegel's great 1951 lecture on
The Taming of the Shrew
—with scenes from the play—
"Shakespeare was solving a problem through these people of Padua that he saw as an everlasting problem of persons."
-- with incidental music on flute & harpsichord --
AESTHETIC REALISM FOUNDATION
141 Greene Street in SoHo NYC 212.777.4490

2010-01-05T16:38:00.006-05:00

Thursday, January 7, at 6:30 PM
We Want to Be Like Music—A Celebration!
° Strength & Sweetness in "You’ve Made Me So Very Happy," sung by Blood, Sweat, and Tears
° Passion and Accuracy in Sergé Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony
° Anger & Being Pleased in the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
° Power and Delicacy in the "Flower Duet" from the opera Lakmé by Léo Delibes
° Simplicity & Complexity in Elvis Presley's "Can’t Help Falling in Love"
—and more!
Presented by Barbara Allen, Anne Fielding, Edward Green, and Speakers from the Opposites in Music class
at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation
141 Greene St in SoHo NYC 212.777.4490

Holiday Special Event moved to Sunday, Dec. 27!

2009-12-15T17:16:00.020-05:00

Sunday, December 27, at 2:30 pm
The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company presents—

The Beauty & Urgency of Justice
A Holiday Event of Music & Vivid Comment
Choruses from Handel's Messiah & Judas Maccabaeus
And "Holiday Songs Begin with the World's Opposites"
Including such internationally loved songs as “The Little Drummer Boy,” "The Hanukah Song,"

“Silent Night,” “Un Flambeau, Jeannette Isabelle!,” “Who Can Retell?”

Carrie Wilson, Alan Shapiro, soloists

Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene Street SoHo NYC 212.777.4490

Sunday, Nov 15 - Special Repeat Performance!

2009-10-31T12:25:00.001-04:00

Sunday • November 15 • 2:30pm
The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company proudly presents
The Great Fight of EGO vs. TRUTH
Songs about Love, Justice,& Everybody's Feelings!
Rock 'n' roll, ballads, musical comedy, & more!

Aesthetic Realism Foundation
141 Greene Street in SoHo NYC 10012

Call 212.777.4490 for Reservations!

2009-08-10T17:32:00.006-04:00

SATURDAY, AUGUST 15 at 8 PM
There Are Comedy & Comprehension
Entertainment Is With the Profit System A deep and hilarious 1971 lecture by Eli Siegel, on Arthur Kober's 1937 hit comedy Having Wonderful Time—with scenes from the play.
Do You Think Women Are Facts? A reenactment of an Aesthetic Realism lesson conducted by Eli Siegel
Wildness & Precision in Tommy Dorsey's “Well, Git It” by Michael Palmer
— AND MORE!
at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation 141 Greene Street in SoHo NYC

What Do Men Most Need to Know about Their Anger?

2009-08-03T18:53:00.003-04:00

August 6, 2009 Seminar - 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm:
"What Do Men Most Need to Know about Their Anger?"
Speakers Christopher Balchin, Jaime Torres, Joseph Meglino
at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation 141 Greene Street NYC 10012
Telephone 212-777-4490 www.AestheticRealism.org

Exciting Seminar--On A Very Difficult Subject!

2009-07-06T18:15:00.010-04:00

Thursday, July 9th, at 6:30 pm:
How Can a Woman See Time & Age as Friendly?
Marion Fennell, Meryl Nietsch-Cooperman, Karen Van Outryve
Aesthetic Realism Foundation
141 Greene Street NYC 10012
212-777-4490

Saturday, June 20, 8 PM

2009-06-17T16:10:00.007-04:00

"The Dramatic Opposites in Fatherhood"
Including--
Mind and Fathers by Eli Siegel:

“A father is most often in a dilemma. He wants to be severe; at the same time he wants to be a pal....The first thing a father has to see is that when he's nice to the child, and when he's severe, he should be the same person.”

A Son Can See--Looking at the Rembrandt portrait Man with the Golden Helmet, Steve Weiner writes:

“I did not see my father as a mingling of dignity and uncertainty, or see that he himself could not make sense of these opposites. Aesthetic Realism taught me that the true way of seeing Sam Weiner is the way an artist would see him. Consider this man's thoughtful, stern face and glowing helmet….”

Aesthetic Realism Foundation
141 Greene Street NYC 10012
212-777-4490

"Does Art Answer the Questions of Our Lives?" Seminar Thursday, May 7, 6:30 PM

2009-05-01T13:52:00.005-04:00

Donita Ellison, Sculptor, on Deborah Butterfield

Dale Laurin, Architect, on Eero Saarinen

Marcia Rackow, Artist, on Claude Monet

Anthony C. Romeo, Architect, on Bernini

Based on this groundbreaking principle stated by Eli Siegel:

"All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one
of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."

Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene Street NYC 10012

WHAT POETRY REALLY IS--A CELEBRATION! SATURDAY, APRIL 18 at 8 PM

2009-04-11T14:59:00.014-04:00

Poetry Is a Making One of Opposites by Eli Siegel
with examples from Keats, Omar Khayyám, Blake, Poe, & more.
Louis Dienes, Dorothy Koppelman, Ellen Reiss,
Margot Carpenter, & Karen Van Outryve
read their poems
Ellen Reiss will talk on "Poetry, Anna Akhmatova, &
Our Two Ambitions"
How Much Feeling? Reenactment of an Aesthetic Realism Lesson
Poems by Eli Siegel, including “To Dylan Thomas” --and--
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of
Personal and Impersonal: 6 Aesthetic Realists
we present poems by: Sheldon Kranz, Louis Dienes,
Nancy Starrels, Nat Herz, Martha Baird, Rebecca Fein

AESTHETIC REALISM FOUNDATION
141 Greene Street NYC 10012 in SoHo off W. Houston

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2:30 PM

2009-01-16T19:09:00.010-05:00

IBSEN, BACH, & —WHAT INTERFERES WITH LOVE!
— Part One—

An Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company Production
"How Is One Though Of?"
Eli Siegel's 1969 Lecture on
Ibsen's A Doll's House
—with scenes from the play—
— Part Two—
"Two Melodies Teach Us How to Love!—
or, J.S. Bach's Flute Sonata in E-Flat"
Performance & Comment by
Barbara Allen, flute, & Edward Green, piano
Announcement from AestheticRealism.org

141 Greene Street, New York, NY 10012

212.777.4490

SAT., DECEMBER 20: A Christmas Celebration!

2008-12-16T17:33:00.010-05:00

REALITY IS LOOKED AT: THERE ARE POWER AND CHRISTMAS In his 1972 lecture on Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Eli Siegel said: "We're celebrating Yuletide by talking about power. The last thing Scrooge wants to be is powerless, and he feels the way to get power is to stick to money-getting. Scrooge is tough, and as he goes on in life he tries to have less and less feeling. Being able to show something like good will is as easy as falling off an ego log. But having it really, is exceedingly difficult. I've said that being able to have authentic good will is the greatest power in the world."
HOW MUCH KINDNESS DO YOU WANT TO HAVE? Reenactment of an Aesthetic Realism Lesson. "It happens that if anyone makes us uncertain, we get angry…. Do you think that while being uncertain, you can still be kind? "—Eli Siegel
IS LOVE FREEDOM & SECURITY? or, "Sempre Libera" from Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata by Alan Shapiro. "As Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti sing this music, they present in sound what Aesthetic Realism explains true love is: two people strong and free in yielding to the meaning of the outside world they each represent." --and more!
At the Aesthetic Realism Foundation 141 Greene Street in SoHo New York, NY 10012 212-777-4490

Want the Time of Your Life?

2008-09-10T17:03:00.004-04:00

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2:30 PM
The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company presents
Rock 'n' Roll, the Opposites, & Our Greatest Hopes— A Celebration!
AESTHETIC REALISM FOUNDATION 141 Greene Street in SoHo, NYC

The Drama of Love & Anger in a Woman's Life

2008-08-18T17:54:00.013-04:00

Seminar, Thursday, September 4, at 6:30 PM
Speakers--Women Are Various:
Carrie Wilson, Karen Van Outryve, Nancy Huntting
Do you (man or woman) want to understand that infuriating thing called LOVE? And--have authentic new hope about it? You will at this exciting seminar about women's lives in 2008 and in culture & history.
Aesthetic Realism Foundation
141 Greene Street NYC 10012
212-777-4490 In SoHo, west of Houston St.

Don't Miss This--about Everyone's Question

2008-07-28T17:24:00.006-04:00

THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 6:30 PM there will be a public seminar titled:
COMFORT, JUSTICE, OBLIGATIONS—CAN

A MAN MAKE SENSE OF THESE?
Speakers: Avi Gvili, Matthew D'Amico, Bruce Blaustein

AESTHETIC REALISM FOUNDATION
141 Greene Street New York, NY 10012
212-777-4490

2008-06-23T15:58:00.012-04:00

Thursday JULY 10th 6:30 - 8PM
Aesthetic Realism Seminar
INTENSITY & EASE IN A WOMAN:
HOW CAN THESE OPPOSITES BE ONE?
Speakers: Meryl Nietsch-Cooperman, Ann Richards, Devorah Tarrow
Aesthetic Realism Foundation
141 Greene Street NYC 10012
212-777-4490 www.AestheticRealism.org

Relationships Have a Future!

2008-06-09T18:07:00.002-04:00

Come on SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 8:00 PM to hear:

"Love—Its Beauty & Turmoil!"

IT IS DIFFICULT TO LOVE & DIFFICULT TO STOP - Lecture by Eli Siegel

SEX HAS ITS LOGIC - Reenactment of an Aesthetic Realism Lesson
"Do you think, Mr. Boyce, that women make their own charm, or did the universe have a preliminary hand in it? Aesthetic Realism says that you're affected by the world in being affected by a woman." —Eli Siegel

POWER IN LOVE IS GOOD & BAD - Class Chairman Ellen Reiss discusses the historic character Don Juan, his operatic form in Mozart's Don Giovanni, & the education in Aesthetic Realism consultations.

Aesthetic Realism Foundation
141 Greene St. in SoHo NYC
212-777-4490

Shakespeare & Mozart -- Sunday, June 8th in SoHo!

2008-05-27T16:46:00.009-04:00

SUNDAY, June 8, 2:30 PM
SHAKESPEARE, MOZART, &—

THE VICTORY YOU WANT MOST!
An Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company Production

of Eli Siegel's 1951 Lecture on
Shakespeare's The Tempest and—
Mozart's Flute Concerto in G
Shows the Victory of Self-Questioning!
Barbara Allen, flute • Edward Green, piano

AESTHETIC REALISM FOUNDATION

141 Greene Street (off W. Houston) in SoHo, NYC
for announcement, click here

Special Event March 2nd

2008-02-15T17:44:00.003-05:00

SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2:30 PM
The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company presents
HOW SHOULD A PERSON BE SEEN?

or,

Charles Dickens'

HARD TIMES

by Eli Siegel
A dramatic enactment of Mr. Siegel’s great lecture,

with scenes from the novel; & songs—

about labor, learning, & the human heart.
for announcement, click here

Holiday Event - December 23rd at 2:30 pm!

2007-12-20T17:14:00.000-05:00

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2:30 PM

The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company Presents

THE BEAUTY & URGENCY OF JUSTICE!
A Holiday Event of Music & Vivid Comment

From Handel's Messiah: “And the Glory of the Lord ” &

“Hallelujah” Choruses, & the Aria & Chorus “O Thou

That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion” (Carrie Wilson, soloist)

and

Holiday Songs Begin with the World's Opposites—
including such internationally loved songs as “The Little Drummer Boy,”
“Silent Night,” “Un Flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle!,”

“Who Can Retell?” & others

For Announcement, click here!

AESTHETIC REALISM FOUNDATION
141 Greene Street in SoHo NYC 10012

www.AestheticRealism.org 212-777-4490

ALERT: People Who Love the Theatre!

2007-10-18T14:45:00.000-04:00

Saturday, October 20, 8 PM

The Ethics of the Great Art of Acting!
ACTING, LIFE, & THE OPPOSITES

Reenactment of an Aesthetic Realism Lesson
"Acting shows you don't have to be fettered to yourself.

You can be other people. There is no limit to how

much you can be other people!"—Eli Siegel
THERE WAS THE STAGE, 18TH CENTURY, POETRY
Actress Carol McCluer reports on a lecture in which Eli Siegel discussed

Hamlet's speech to the players and Charles Churchill's satirical poem

on actors, The Rosciad. “This class was a hopeful, inspiring education

about something explained for the first time by Aesthetic Realism:

that the art of acting is an expression of the deepest

desire of every person—to like the world.”
CLASSIC MISTAKES IN ACTING—& IN MARRIAGE
By Anne Fielding, Obie award-winning actress, with examples

from Sheridan 's School for Scandal, Wilde's An

Ideal Husband, and acting technique.
PEOPLE WERE SO IN 1908; or,

or, EUGENE WALTER'S THE EASIEST WAY

Discussing this drama about an actress & the fight between art &

comfort, Eli Siegel said: “There is not a person who hasn't

felt he was a mean varmint and at the same time taken

advantage of….This play was looked on as one of the

big things in realism in America.”
AESTHETIC REALISM FOUNDATION

141 Greene St in SoHo NYC 10012

Contri. $10

REPEAT ON OCTOBER 7TH!

2007-08-25T11:55:00.000-04:00

The first was a smash--sold out--audience, including me, LOVED it. The big meaning of it!

WHY DO PEOPLE LOVE ROCK 'N' ROLL?

2007-08-06T18:33:00.000-04:00

Like millions of people, I loved dancing and listening to the rock 'n' roll music I grew up with--and took that pleasure for granted. Now I've learned it has important meaning, as every art does, in a way I never would have imagined! You are REALLY going to have your socks knocked off by this special event--

SUNDAY, AUGUST 12 at 2:30 PM

The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company presents

Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Opposites,
& Our Greatest Hopes—
A Celebration!

“Rock ‘n’ roll has the answer to people’s problem of, on the one hand, wanting to be very private and sad, and on the other, wanting to have something like sunlight and public force. Every person has to make a one of the most secret thing in him and the most public thing. Rock ‘n’ roll shows it can be done.”
-Eli Siegel, from an Aesthetic Realism lesson to a rock musician
AESTHETIC REALISM FOUNDATION
141 Greene St. in SoHo New York, NY 10012
Call for reservations now at 212.777.4490, seating is limited!
And visit www.AestheticRealism.org for more information.

Sat., JULY 21st - 8 pm at 141 GREENE, SoHo NYC

2007-07-02T18:05:00.000-04:00

I urge you--DON'T MISS this dramatic presentation. You've never experienced anything so funny and so good for you at the same time!
Humor—Its Meaning For Our Lives!
HUMOR & STRANGENESS by Eli Siegel. In this very funny and greatly cultural talk, Eli Siegel discussed the famous “Rumpelstiltskin” story; Don Marquis' archy and mehitabel, a tale about an intellectual cockroach and his feline friend; & Milt Gross's delightful Nize Baby. Here's a quote from it: "Humor does something to reality—it's a mingling of the world gone crazy and the world gone ever so correct…. Art can be called ‘the satisfying wildness.'”
Plus:
THE MAD LOGIC OF THE MARX BROTHERS By filmmaker and animator Ken Kimmelman. "The Marx Brothers put together opposites every person wants to do a good job with: wildness and accuracy, surprise and symmetry, freedom and order, the zany and sane—all with a speed and precision which have made people around the world laugh respectfully….The way Groucho could poke fun at people in high places who were pretentious and snobbish was hilarious and useful.”
--and more!
At the Aesthetic Realism Foundation 141 Greene Street NYC 10012 212-777-4490

How Can Love & Marriage Succeed?

2007-06-12T19:17:00.000-04:00

Saturday, June 16, 8 PM:

Celebrating the Real Meaning of Marriage!

MIND AND WIVES A groundbreaking lecture by Eli Siegel, in which he spoke about George Sand, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Milton, & more:

"A wife is a tremendous point in emotion, accompanied by a clear legal situation. In being married, women are saying they want a man to affect them. Yet in being affected, they don't want to lose themselves. So they face the aesthetic problem of how to have themselves by giving themselves to another."

AFFECTION & RESPECT, BODY & MIND, IN REMBRANDT'S THE JEWISH BRIDE by Carol Driscoll & Harvey Spears

"As the groom in this painting embraces his bride, Rembrandt shows visually that a man's desire to embrace a woman and his desire to understand her can be the same thing!"

MAXIMS ABOUT MARRIAGE—humorous, educative, & romantic—from Damned Welcome by Eli Siegel

— AND MORE!

Aesthetic Realism Foundation 141 Greene St.
SoHo NYC 10012 212.777.4490

A not-for-profit educational foundation

http://www.aestheticrealism.org/events2.htm

Special Event on Sunday, June 10

2007-06-02T12:01:00.000-04:00

SUNDAY, JUNE 10 at 2:30 PM

Aesthetic Realism Fdn. 141 Greene St in SoHo NYC

A Dramatic Reading of Selections from
GWE: Young Man of New Guinea

A Novel Against Racism
By anthropologist Arnold Perey, PhD

—with slides and music—

15 Photographers at the Terrain Gallery

2007-03-27T17:00:00.000-04:00

Three photos (from over 50) in the show: On the Way by Dale Laurin, Tupelo Street by Amy Dienes, Discarded Automobiles by Len Bernstein
"Emotion--in Black & White and Color: 15 Photographers"

"The purpose of photography is to create an emotion about the
world through what has been carefully seen and selected."
—Eli Siegel, AFTERNOON REGARD FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

Through July 2007, with comment by the photographers on this principle, stated by Eli Siegel, the basis of the gallery: "In reality opposites are one; art shows this."

Terrain Gallery/Aesthetic Realism Foundation, 141 Greene St. in SoHo, NYC. Hours: Wed-Fri 12-5, Sat 12-4 pm. Tel. 212-777-4490. Visit the above link for more information!

Every Land Is a Means of Understanding Yourself!

2007-03-11T13:01:00.000-04:00

Saturday, March 17, 8 PM - Humanity's Opposites—Beginning with Ireland
at the Aesthetic Realism Fdn. 141 Greene St in SoHo, NYC 212.777.4490
WORDS ARE EVERYWHERE: COMEDY & TRAGEDY ARE TWO OF THESE
A 1971 lecture in which Eli Siegel spoke about the first act of Sean O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock;
SOME IRISH SONGS, WITH COMMENT presented by the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company—including “The Minstrel Boy,” “Wearin' o' the Green,” “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye,” “Danny Boy,” and more--;
GOOD WILL: THE GREATEST PRACTICALITY by Ellen Reiss
“I believe the anguish of 400 years of Irish history wants to be used to show that good will is urgent, is the only practical way for human beings to see each other.” —The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, issue 1308;
see link at: http://www.aestheticrealism.org/events2.htm#Dramatic_Presentations

Shakespeare--& What Is Love?: Feb. 11 in NYC!

2007-01-19T17:06:00.000-05:00

The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company presents

SHAKESPEARE—& WHAT IS LOVE?

A dramatic production of Eli Siegel's great 1951 lecture on

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

—with scenes from the play—
and incidental music on flute and harpsichord

Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene St. in SoHo NYC 10012

www.AestheticRealism.org

Call 212-777-4490 for Reservations

For announcement in pdf format

Deep Friends

2006-12-18T18:23:00.000-05:00

Here is a photo of two very different beings, wildly, gracefully, tenderly together--it is by photographer and marine biologist Lori Mazzuca: http://www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/natures_best_2006/gallery/humpbackwhaleanddolphin.html

Holiday Songs & More, in SoHo on December 16th

2006-12-13T17:33:00.000-05:00

The Holidays—& Song, Humor, Knowledge

at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation on Saturday, December 16th, 8 pm
See flyer here: http://www.aestheticrealism.org/Special-Holiday-flyer-Dec2006.pdf

Discontent in America

2006-08-15T18:37:00.000-04:00

I recommend, as going along with Dickens' scathing criticism of economic injustice in his own time in Little Dorrit, the following commentary on jobs and work--and discontent--in America today. Written by Ellen Reiss, Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism, in 1998, it is up to the minute now: http://www.aestheticrealism.net/poetry/tro1324-burns-esc.html

Dickens Is So Useful in 2006

2006-07-26T15:56:00.000-04:00

When I read the following from Chapter 10 of Charles Dickens' novel Little Dorrit, it gave wonderful form to what was weighing me down about our present Government! Aesthetic Realism sees humor as essential, and in an early class, reported on by writer Sheldon Kranz, Eli Siegel explained: "The purpose of true satire is to take an ugly thing and present it gracefully and humorously so that the ugliness is seen....Satire changes a bad thing into a good thing, an untrue thing into a true thing. It makes us laugh to make the ugly more apparent." Mr. Siegel lectured on many works of Dickens including Hard Times, and I once heard him say that Pickwick Papers was his favorite book.
So I bring this great, humorous excerpt from Little Dorrit to you here, believing that others will be strengthened as I was in their work to change things.-NH

From Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens--

Chapter 10: Containing the whole Science of Government

The Circumlocution Office was (as everybody knows without being told) the most important Department under Government. No public business of any kind could possibly be done at any time without the acquiescence of the Circumlocution Office. Its finger was in the largest public pie, and in the smallest public tart. It was equally impossible to do the plainest right and to undo the plainest wrong without the express authority of the Circumlocution Office. If another Gunpowder Plot had been discovered half an hour before the lighting of the match, nobody would have been justified in saving the parliament until there had been half a score of boards, half a bushel of minutes, several sacks of official memoranda, and a family-vault full of ungrammatical correspondence, on the part of the Circumlocution Office.

This glorious establishment had been early in the field, when the one sublime principle involving the difficult art of governing a country, was first distinctly revealed to statesmen. It had been foremost to study that bright revelation and to carry its shining influence through the whole of the official proceedings. Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving--HOW NOT TO DO IT.

Through this delicate perception, through the tact with which it invariably seized it, and through the genius with which it always acted on it, the Circumlocution Office had risen to overtop all the public departments; and the public condition had risen to be--what it was.

It is true that How not to do it was the great study and object of all public departments and professional politicians all round the Circumlocution Office. It is true that every new premier and every new government, coming in because they had upheld a certain thing as necessary to be done, were no sooner come in than they applied their utmost faculties to discovering How not to do it. It is true that from the moment when a general election was over, every returned man who had been raving on hustings because it hadn't been done, and who had been asking the friends of the honourable gentleman in the opposite interest on pain of impeachment to tell him why it hadn't been done, and who had been asserting that it must be done, and who had been pledging himself that it should be done, began to devise, How it was not to be done.

....For more, see http://www.dickens-literature.com/Little_Dorrit/index.html

Coming in August!

2006-06-14T19:02:00.000-04:00

FILM—

and

"The Art of Enjoying Justice"!
Emmy-Award winning filmmaker

KEN KIMMELMAN

speaks on and shows five of his short films—

The Heart Knows Better, Brushstrokes,

& What Does a Person Deserve?

& The new film—of

Eli Siegel’s 1925 prize-winning poem

Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana

Also—The 1968 documentary of Eli Siegel teaching an

Aesthetic Realism class, originally broadcast on WNET, Channel 13:

People Are Trying to Put Opposites Together

click here for flyer

"Who Was Mark Twain?" was Electrifying!

2006-06-07T10:55:00.000-04:00

"Who Was Mark Twain?— A Dramatic Consideration of Huckleberry Finn" presented this Sunday by the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company was truly great!: gripping, funny, and--surprisingly--about things right now troubling our nation and our selves. On prejudice, freedom, hypocrisy, even war--it was right up to the minute and the most valuable things people need to know! It should tour the country.

The acting was superb, sincere--and Eli Siegel's unprecedented comprehension of Mark Twain, humanity, and the importance of Huckleberry Finn is urgently needed!

"Who Was Mark Twain?" - Coming on June 4th!

2006-05-04T14:35:00.000-04:00

Have you ever read Huckleberry Finn? Of course I had heard of it, but I hadn't ever read it until a few years ago after the first time I heard this GREAT lecture (with scenes from the novel performed). What understanding, what courage this lecture has! Eli Siegel is up to the greatness of Mark Twain, and shows how the novel is about what freedom really is, for us, too, and right now. Everyone needs to know it, including people who are very good. You will cheer--but most of all, you will be deeper about people, yourself, and more hopeful.

The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company presents

Who Was Mark Twain?— A Dramatic Consideration of Huckleberry Finn

Sunday, June 4, 2:30 PM!

This great 1951 lecture by Eli Siegel has us see and feel the beauty of Mark Twain's novel, and also contains a definitive, compassionate understanding of one of America's most loved writers. For announcement, click here

Eli Siegel's Prize-Winning Poem, "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana," Is Now A Great Film!

2005-11-09T10:56:00.000-05:00

The Nation prize-winning poem "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana" by Eli Siegel has been made into a film by Emmy Award-winning director and Aesthetic Realism consultant Ken Kimmelman, and is now showing on public television in Montana and at many film festivals across America, where it has won several awards--

“Ken Kimmelman's reproduction, on film, of Eli Siegel's magisterial poem," said historian Howard Zinn, " is an extraordinary achievement. It matches, in its visual beauty, the elegance of Siegel's words, and adds the dimension of stunning imagery to an already profound work of art.”

Find out more about it at the website of Imagery Film Ltd.

At This Time

2005-09-22T15:37:00.000-04:00

I am with in spirit--though I can't in body--this Saturday's march in Washington DC to get our troops out of Iraq!

Our government should be providing basic needs: good permanent homes, food, education, jobs--for the families on our Gulf Coast, and all who need them in every U.S. city--not using our tax money to wage an illegal war in which innocent people are killed every day and their land devastated--a war that is enriching people who already have more than they need.

"What does a person deserve," Eli Siegel asked, "by being a person?"

This is the most important ethical question America has, he showed, as he asked this question in one of his groundbreaking lectures on the economy (click here to read a lecture from this series).

Mr. Siegel explained, too, that the profit system--in which a few individuals, owners and stockholders, make profit from the labor of many people--had finally failed, and that our economy would never recover until it was based on good will instead of the ill will of centuries.

At this time we need honest encouragement to feel hopeful about the world--and joining with others to fight injustice is a very necessary way. And here are some websites I recommend for their combination of science and hope:

Aesthetic Realism: A New Perspective for Anthropology
Essays in cultural anthropology on the philosophy of Aesthetic Realism.

Aesthetic Realism Encourages Self-Expression
Personal narrative of Miriam Mondlin. In learning the cause of stuttering from Aesthetic Realism in classes with its founder, Eli Siegel, her stuttering.

Coming in October--Songs You Are Going to Love!

2005-09-22T15:20:00.000-04:00

I love & recommend the musical events performed by the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company! The next will be:

Sunday, October 23, 2:30 pm

The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company

proudly presents

The Great Fight of Ego vs. Truth

Songs about Love, Justice,

& Everybody's Feelings!

at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene Street in SoHo, New York City

for announcement, click here

Note: Among the performers in this event is actor and singer Timothy Lynch who is also a labor leader, and he is quoted & his singing described in the September 26, 2005 New Yorker magazine's Talk of the Town column--see a reprint from the article "Joe Hill in the Hamptons" by clicking here.

Shakespeare & Love: Aug 7th in NYC!

2005-07-20T15:40:00.000-04:00

Want to learn about love--and what interferes with love--

and have the cultural time of your life? See

Absurdity in a Dukedom;

or, Shakespeare's

Twelfth Night--&

Everyone's Trouble about Love!

click here for announcement

A Dramatic Presentation of Eli Siegel's Great 1951 Lecture

with scenes from the play, performed by the

Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company

Sunday, August 7, 2:30 PM

At the Aesthetic Realism Foundation

141 Greene Street in SoHo, NYC 10011

Travel to A New Place in June!

2005-05-22T12:20:00.000-04:00

"Gwe was born in Stone Age New Guinea. Alan was born in New York City. This is their story and the story of Gwe's people."

On Sunday JUNE 12, 2:30pm I invite you to come to a dramatic reading of selections from GWE Young Man of New Guinea —a novel against racism by Arnold Perey, PhD, Anthropologist, Aesthetic Realism Consultant.

When I read this novel I was gripped, moved to my depths, surprised--and I felt it could make a great movie, too. Now selections from it are coming to the stage. It is a drama for all humanity, as you have the opportunity to see!

This special event with slides and music will take place at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, 141 Greene Street in SoHo off W.Houston, NYC. Call 212-777-4490 for reservations!

Terrain Gallery Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary!

2005-04-22T17:55:00.000-04:00

Visit the Terrain Gallery website and see the announcement for its 50th Anniversary Exhibition on Saturday, May 7th, 2-5 pm. With 52 artists:

Richard Anuszkiewicz, Roseanne Backstedt, Will Barnet,

David Bernstein, Len Bernstein, Robert Blackburn, Al Blaustein,

Rudy Burckhardt, Edmond Casarella, Jeremy Comins,
Robert Conover, Michael Di Cerbo, Amy Dienes,
Louis Dienes, Lois Dodd, Stephen A. Fredericks,
Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, Perry Hall, Burton Hasen,
Robert Henry, Su-Li Hung, Yvonne Jacquette,
Lester Johnson, Alex Katz, Andre Kertesz, William King,
Chaim Koppelman, Dorothy Koppelman, Tom Kranjac,

Harold Krisel, Vincent Longo, Charles Magistro, Allan Michael,

Robert Motherwell, Hans Namuth, Gloria Rabinowitz,
Marcia Rackow, Ad Reinhardt, Clare Romano, Carol Rosen,
John Ross, Frank Roth, Rolph Scarlett, Arnold Schmidt,
Elfi Schuselka, Richard Sloat, George Stadnik,
Steven Stankiewicz, Nancy Starrels, Selina Trieff,
Richard Claude Ziemann, Larry Zox

Plus commentary on the opposites

& history of this trailblazing gallery!

More Pictures of the Central Park Gates

2005-03-20T14:50:00.000-05:00

I got my pictures developed of the Gates, and here are four--you can see what a relation of brilliance and darkness they made for, and the feeling of strictness and freedom they had!

The Gates in Central Park

2005-03-02T19:38:00.000-05:00

We went to see the Gates on the last day, Sunday, February 27--and we thought they were beautiful! The park was filled with people on that sunny winter day, pleased, in awe, and puzzled, too. What do they mean?

I'm grateful to see that this principle does explain why thousands went to see them, came from other states to see them--"All beauty," Eli Siegel said, "is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."

The 7,500 gates with their saffron fabric rippling in the wind are fixed and flowing, separate and joined in a way that is stirring and brings something so new to the curving pathways they frame. Do we want to be free to move and be stirred by the wind--and have a solid, sensible base? Do we want to stand out, glow, contrast with what is around us and blend with it, too; bring new life to what is around us, as the gates did to the stark winter landscapes of our beloved Central Park?

Read, too, what Dorothy Koppelman, founding director of the Terrain Gallery (celebrating its 50th anniversary this year!) writes about the Gates at http://ck-dk-art.blogspot.com.

These pictures are from the Central Park website--the second is of Christo & Jeanne-Claude, the artists.

Aesthetics and Religion

2005-02-13T20:10:00.000-05:00

Dear Bloggers,
Aesthetic Realism is wide philosophic education, and one important thing that happens through studying it is that a person has greater respect for religious thought and feeling. In keeping with this, I want to recommend the following links:

What Is Honesty?

2005-01-30T13:57:00.000-05:00

Preliminary Note:Thursday, February 3, I'll be giving a seminar titled "Our Own Good Opinion--How Can We Have It?" with my colleagues Carrie Wilson and Karen Van Outryve in the teaching trio Women Are Various, at 6:30 pm at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, 141 Greene St. in SoHo, New York City.

This is a definition of honesty that I've studied, from Eli Siegel's important work Definitions, and Comment: Being a Description of the World:

Honesty is the whole desire of the self to have pleasure by seeing what it is and what other things are.--[The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, #300]

In the comment to this definition, Mr. Siegel says:

There can be no honesty without knowing. To be honest is to wish to get pleasure by the facts of oneself and everything else: and this means the whole of the facts....Honesty....is a belief, a trust, a gaiety and exaltation in what is. In every one of us there is a desire to accommodate the motives or purposes of the self to what is; or a fear of doing so, which is equivalent to making what is, fit our desires prematurely, disproportionately, inaccurately.

I've seen that what I once and many people associate with honesty--saying things to others even if you know they'll be angered or hurt by what you say--is not a criterion. We have to be sure we're interested in the whole of the facts about that person--good and bad, strengths and weaknesses. The desire to know a person fully and respect them is often lacking.

Art, meanwhile, that is truly that, is honest--is always respect for the world. So I close my post with a work I love by Degas. She's a singer, the title tells us. She's in the shadow, somewhat; she's not flattered by Degas; the pastels have an edgy quality--blue-greens, oranges, and yellows. Degas has us see her depth, her struggle. He wanted to see her, to have pleasure by seeing what is.

A principle that is true

2005-01-15T17:31:00.000-05:00

"All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."-Eli Siegel

This is a painting that has always stirred me tremendously and made me feel more composed or serene at the same time--Vermeer's "Young Woman with a Water Jug"--

Serenity and stir, or rest and motion are fundamental opposites in reality, I have learned, that people are hoping to put together. All works of art that are honest--a poem, a Chopin etude, a dance including the best of hip hop, have both energy and repose in a beautiful and deeply satisfying way.

I have seen this principle to be true in my own life and in hundreds of instances of art and life--in the lives of the many women I've taught in Aesthetic Realism consultations for over two decades. We are going after what art has, and that's why it means so much to us.

At the Terrain Gallery's website you can read an important talk about this painting by Julie and Robert Jensen: Vermeer's Young Woman with a Water Jug--or, What Men and Women Are Hoping for in Marriage.
They speak about another pair of opposites that Vermeer puts together so greatly--the domestic and the wide.

A motto from Shakespeare

2005-01-13T16:22:00.000-05:00

"No legacy is so rich as honesty." -All's Well that Ends Well, Act iii, Sc. 5

This weblog proudly wishes to show this. There's new honesty in what people can learn from Aesthetic Realism about poetry, literature, the visual arts and I want people to know it! For instance, I can mention a poem I care for very much is "The Dark that Was Is Here," by Eli Siegel. It begins--"A girl, in ancient Greece, / Be sure, had no more peace / Than one in Idaho." This poem gets to the honest depths of what's felt by young women (and older women, too) everywhere. And, I've learned, through trying to see accurately our relation to people everywhere, including those who lived before us, we will be more who we want to be!

You can read the rest of "The Dark that Was Is Here" at The Poetry of Eli Siegel website--which has a selection of his poems on many diverse subjects, including nature, jazz, New York, history.

Here are some of the critics on Eli Siegel's poetry:

Kenneth Rexroth, reviewing Hail, American Development (Definition Press, NY) in the New York Times Book Review, wrote of Mr. Siegel's "incomparable sensibility at work saying things nobody else could say....I think it's about time Eli Siegel was moved up into the ranks of our acknowledged Leading Poets....His translations of Baudelaire and his commentaries on them rank him with the most understanding of the Baudelaire critics in any language."

Selden Rodman reviewed Eli Siegel's Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana: Poems, writing in the Saturday Review: "He comes up with poems...which say more (and more movingly) about here and now than any contemporary poems I have read."

And William Carlos Williams in a letter reprinted in Something to Say, ed. J.E.B. Breslin (New Directions), wrote: "[H]e did hit a major chord and from the first with his major poem Hot Afternoons ....Only today do I realize how important that poem is in the history of our development as a cultural entity....I say definitely that that single poem, out of a thousand others written in the past quarter century, secures our place in the cultural world. I make such a statement only after a lifetime of thought and experience, I make it deliberately."

And of Eli Siegel's poems as such, Williams writes: "[He] has outstripped the world of his time....The evidence is technical but it comes out at the non-technical level as either great pleasure to the beholder, a deeper taking of the beath, a feeling of cleanliness, which is the sign of the truly new."