Arts Express: Ben Vereen Talks Time Out Of Mind

Time Out of Mind

A conversation with multi-talented veteran actor and performer, Ben Vereen.

Ben Vereen co-stars with Richard Gere in Time Out of Mind, a film about the plight of the homeless struggling to survive on the streets of NYC.

Ben also reflects on what some of his many countless roles have meant to him. Including playing Louis Armstrong in his first ever film, Louis Armstrong: Chicago Style. And the promise he made to the late Lincoln Perry, more notoriously known as the controversial Stepin Fetchit, when Vereen played Fetchit on stage in the 2010 production, Fetch Clay, Make Man.

Fetch Clay, Make Man is about the real life strange friendship between Fetchit and Muhammad Ali. Vereen also brought along his vintage wooden flute to serenade listeners, which you can hear in the audio below.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE

Suffragette

The suffragettes are female action heroes extraordinaire. While the mass movement for women’s voting rights in the US that reached its most heated moment back in the early 20th century is remembered mostly as a tame affair, apparently the struggle back then in England is barely remembered at all.

That is, until now when that one hundred year buried history has been boldly and brilliantly exhumed and brought back to life in this defiant and devastating historical dramatic feature. A commentary.

Poetry Corner

The man known as Holy Foole, poet Sparrow, reads and discusses his work. And its connection to wandering around the supermarket uncertain about yogurt, five shoes, and a fifth grade epiphany having to do with a red wheelbarrow and white chickens. And, as a member of the writers of The Unbearables, challenging establishment publishing.

Arts Express, Thursdays 2pm ET: Airing on WBAI Radio in NY 99.5 FM, and streaming live and archived everywhere at wbai.org.

Prairie Miller is a New York multimedia journalist online, in print and radio, who reviews movies and conducts in-depth interviews. She can also be heard on WBAI/Pacifica National Radio Network’s Arts Express.