Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen

Just after his team rebuilt Central Park’s Sheep Meadow, it turned completely brown. Why? “How do I know? I’m not an arborist. I’m not a horticulturist. I can’t tell an elm from an oak. That wasn’t my job.” His job was Parks Commissioner; his solution was to water the lawn. It worked. Produced with the NYC Department of Records and Information Services. Music: Rashad Brown.

Flor de Toloache, a mariachi band cofounded by this Latin Grammy winner, is not just all women, it’s all world: “We had women from Australia, Korea, Egypt, Japan.” Which means it could only be formed in New York City. Additional music: Daniel Espiliz, guitar, Shae Fiol, vocals. Produced with Greenwich House School.

“We do bare feet, we do singing, we do dancing, we do point shoes,” declares the Joffrey’s artistic director. "The company combines techniques of ballet and modern," explains this former Joffrey dancer at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Range!

As a boy, this conductor loved family summers in Spain. “It was a beautiful place to practice undisturbed and a fantastic place to play soccer, because soccer was my great love, violin and soccer. And then we discovered water skiing.” Mozart, same way: violin, soccer, water skiing. The making of a musician.

At 96, the author of The Women’s Revolution: How We Changed Your Life, declares, “After thousands of years when women were in servitude to men, we changed it. I hope we’re going to have a woman president. I take some credit for that.” Rightly so. I’m writing her a thank-you note.  So should you.

This Kenyan gay rights activist is adept at working with her adversaries. “You have to keep pushing, and getting friend and allies.” But she’s no softy, adding: “and sue some people.” I generally go right to that last tactic. I’m an American.

When this graphic designer worked at Sony Music, the handwriting was already on the wall, the tiny, tiny wall: “It was no longer LPs; it was CDs. The canvas kept shrinking.” And now with digital music, there’s no canvas at all. “It’s not the end of the world; it’s a different paradigm.” Disconcerting optimism, great design. Produced with the Center for Architecture. Music: Solange Prat.

Does use determine design, or does design shape behavior? This architect asserts the latter: “A certain object does make you behave a certain way or do certain things.” For example, a simple lime-squeezer lured her and her family into more lime squeezing than anyone—or any lime—anticipated. Produced with the National Academy of Design. Music: Tomas Rodriguez

Among his many productions, he directed A View from the Bridge and West Side Story on Broadway and collaborated with David Bowie on the musical Lazarus. “It turned out to be—I didn’t know, of course, when we started—the last work that he ever made.” And a surprisingly happy experience.

This singer-songwriter has been admired for fifty years, and yet: “I always wanted a Collings guitar, but it was too expensive, and I just didn’t feel worthy.” If she’s not worthy of the tools of her trade, then what hope is there for us mortals? (Happily, she now has a Collings.) Presented with Richard Barone.