A virtual walkthrough of the celebrated photography exhibition at Westbeth, curtailed due to the Covid 19 crisis.

“Give me a plane, train or bus ticket, or a set of wheels and I promise I will come back with photos and stories that will warm your heart.” Never leaving home without her IPhone, intrepid Emmy award winning Netflix filmmaker and TEDx speaker, Gayle Kirschenbaum, can’t stop herself. Her insatiable curiosity to see the world, to learn about others and to document her experiences and impressions has been captured in her first solo photo exhibition called STILL MOMENTS.

“Kirschenbaum’s photos are gorgeous! Not only does she have a very keen eye, but the photos all have such life, and show such life. I felt uplifted as I was looking at them and carried that away with me afterwards.”
-Ken Tabachnick/ED Merce Cunningham Trust

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STILL MOMENTS exhibition HERE

Bio
Gayle Kirschenbaum is a creator who expresses herself in many forms. She began life as a visual artist and started taking photos where she loved spending hours in her darkroom. She found herself shooting stories with her photographs and painting them in an impressionist way. Her desire to use words and sound led her to moving images. She became an Emmy award-winning filmmaker whose films and programs have premiered on Netflix, HBO, and Discovery. They include Look At Us Now, Mother!, A Dog’s Life: A Dogamentary, My Nose and Little Parents. Her last film led to an invitation to give a TEDx talk called No More Drama With Mama about forgiveness. She speaks and teaches on this topic. Gayle has found herself returning to her first love, photography. Her photographs were exhibited in Spain at the Barcelona Foto Biennale in October 2018, she received an honorable mention under landscape for the Pollux Awards 2019, have been in Westbeth group shows and a solo show.

She has been featured widely in the media including New York Times, NBC Today Show, Jerusalem Post and Psychology Today. She is a member of Producers Guild of America (PGA) and a judge for the Emmys and PGA.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glkirschenbaum/

photo: Kate Walter – her refrigerator magnet

I was still in denial on March 12. I didn’t even wear plastic gloves when I went outside, although I made a point not to touch the bus door with my fingertips and then to sanitize them. That was the last time I rode the bus.

The day it really hit me was Sun., March 15, when I was asked to attend an emergency planning meeting in the Westbeth community room. The president of our board of directors said he was in close touch with Governor Cuomo and that Cuomo was going to close down the city and there would be hospitals in places like the Javits Center.

“This is war,” someone said….

At Westbeth, it is now one person at a time at the elevator (unless you are family) and we were asked to only check our mail twice a week in order to maintain social distancing in our mail room (unless we are expecting an urgent piece of mail.)

Before this pandemic hit, Westbeth Artists Housing was gearing up to celebrate our 50th anniversary. (The first tenants arrived in May 1970.) My choral group was working on versions of songs arranged by Gil Evans, who lived at Westbeth.

I’m a big fan and member of WFUV 90.7. I always tune into DJ Rita Houston’s show “The Whole Wide World” on Friday nights but now this program feels life sustaining. I cried when Rita played Van Morrison’s “Till We Get the Healing Done.” I was dancing around to the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive.” This is my new mantra.

Read the complete article by Kate Walter in the April 1, 2020 online edition of The Village Sun HERE

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Kate Walter Reading Her Work on March 4, 2020 photo: @Maile Studios

I live in Westbeth Artists Housing, in Greenwich Village, and had a successful reading of my novel in progress in the community room on March 4. About 50 people attended.

Everyone liked the chapter I read and told me I had to finish the book. We chatted and drank champagne. Hard to believe that wonderful evening was only two weeks ago. All events in my building are now postponed, including the flea market and a big exhibit in the gallery.

Along with my neighbors at Westbeth, we survived 9/11, watching the horror from our rooftop. We survived Hurricane Sandy, which flooded our basement. But those disasters brought us together. The virus is isolating us. We got a memo from management not to hang out in the lobby.

All of this is depressing. I feel like I need an extra therapy session. But the virus has helped me to put things in perspective…

Read the complete article published online at AARP Magazine HERE