Nilka Martell

When this playwright’s grandfather faced a tough decision, “He sought the advice of Paul Robeson.” Of course he did. Who wouldn’t? And it all worked out fine. Fine-ish. A writer, his family, his community. Presented with the Classical Theatre of Harlem. Music: Emery Mason, Melissa Mosley.

She and her neighbors—untrained, uncredentialed—revived the Bronx River and are taking on the hideous Cross Bronx Expressway. “We’re just a group of Bronxites with ambitious ideas.” Presented with the Architectural League, in conjunction with the exhibition Cross Bronx/Living Legend at the Bronx River Art Center. Music: Jeremy Bosch, Román Lajara.

“The least interesting thing about a book is its contents, assert the curators of the recent Grolier Club exhibition After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and Small Presses, 1960-2025. Now my head hurts. Seldom have I felt older or enjoyed a conversation more.

In 1972, his parents, Massimo and Lella, designed a map of the New York subway system. Many people hated it. I loved it. (I have one framed on my living room wall.) The MTA soon withdrew it. Now it’s back, slightly revised. Good news in bleak times.

As a member of Manhattan Transfer, she won ten Grammy awards, but “I was not going to be a singer at all, actually; I was going to be a nurse.” Medicine’s loss, music’s gain. Guitar: Sean Harkness. Presented with The Village Trip.

Her father, Leonard Bernstein, thought “that if he could write a good enough song, maybe he could stop war.” Not insane, aspiring. “It’s ridiculously idealistic, but that was his impetus.” Tales of a famous father. Music: Amy Burton, accompanied by John Musto. Presented with The Village Trip, whose annual festival begins September 19.

He’s a member of The Washington Post’s editorial board, a commentator on the PBS NewsHour, anchor of The Weekend on MSNBC, author of Yet Here I Am. He is liberal in his politics, conservative in his dress. “Absolutely. I love a good, wild outfit, on someone else.”

When this drummer was a kid, his father introduced him to an array of music, from Tito Puente to Dobie Gray. “He bought himself a La-Z-Boy chair. He would sit there after dinner, smoke a cigarette, and zone out listening to music.” Bad for the lungs, great for the soul. The making of a musician. Presented with the Bronx Music Hall.

She’s a special correspondent for BBC Studios, a regular contributor to MSNBC, and co-host, with Anthony Scaramucci, of the podcast The Rest Is Politics. “People call journalists curious; I think it’s just nosiness.” A higher form of nosiness!

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research makes many of the 24 million items in its archive available online, but there’s an “electric moment of actually touching a document,” says its executive director. “My first was when Lenin’s party card was put in my hand.” (Patrons are urged not to touch the documents. This is not some sort of scholarly petting zoo.)  Music: Jardena Gertler-Jaffe, Bethany Pietroniro.