Person Place Thing: An Interview with Randy Cohen and Meredith Monk
Fri Dec 13, 7:00 PM - Fri Dec 13, 8:30 PM

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen featuring Academy member, composer, and performer Meredith Monk

Person Place Thing is an interview show based on the idea that people are particularly engaging when they speak not directly about themselves but about something they care about. Guests talk about one person, one place, and one thing that are important to them. The result? Surprising stories from great talkers.

The interview will take place in the Academy's library with live music by Anna Roberts-Gevalt.

This event is free and open to the public but reservations are required.



Academy Library - Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
American Academy of Arts and Letters
633 West 155 Street, New York, NY 10032



Meredith Monk was elected as a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters earlier this year, and is a composer, singer, director, choreographer, filmmaker, and creator of new opera, music-theater works, films, and installations. Considered one of the most unique and influential artists of our time, she is a pioneer of what is now called “extended vocal technique” and “interdisciplinary performance.” Over the last six decades Monk has received numerous awards and honors including a MacArthur “Genius” award and Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Republic of France. In addition to induction into the Academy, Monk recently received two of the highest honors bestowed on a living artist in the United States: the 2017 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize and a 2015 National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama. In conjunction with her 50th season of performing and creating work, she was named Carnegie Hall’s 2014-15 Debs Composer’s Chair. Celebrated internationally, Monk’s work has been presented at major venues throughout the world.

Randy Cohen’s first professional work was writing humor pieces, essays, and stories for newspapers and magazines (The New Yorker, Harpers, The Atlantic, Young Love Comics). His first television work was writing for "Late Night With David Letterman" for which he won three Emmy awards. His fourth Emmy was for his work on Michael Moore’s "TV Nation." He received a fifth Emmy as a result of a clerical error, and he kept it. For twelve years he wrote "The Ethicist,"