Watering down Iliteracy

Just watered. 6:30 PM. Photo: JH.

May 12, 2009. Yesterday was sunny and breezy, turning even cool toward evening. Yesterday was also the 121st anniversary of the birth of one of New York’s greatest citizens. He wrote the words and the music. Irving Berlin, born in 1888 in Russia, died in 1989 on Beekman Place.

Last night I went over to Lincoln Center to the annual Literacy Partners gala which was held at the David H. Koch Theater (formerly the New York State Theater).

This is one of my favorite annual galas. Covering as many things as I do, you learn there is a limit to what can be done in the way of a gala to keep things interesting for the guests. Literacy is interesting because the guests are interesting. You don’t get to talk to a lot of them or most of them, but you do get to be around them and there is an energy.

It’s also a glamorous evening. Barbara Walters read from her “Audition; A Memoir” (she read an excerpt about growing up with her sister who had serious learning disabilities). Barbara – as she is known to one and all who come in contact with her, is very glamorous. She looks the part. She’s enormously successful, enormously popular, clever in her business, and when she’s making a public appearance she dresses the part. It’s kind of great to see. It’s from the old school where the rules of glamour were set.

Dinner on the Grand Promenade.

Marie Brenner read an excerpt from her memoir “Apples and Oranges,” about her brother. This was excellent. It was as if she were telling you personally about this brother of hers whom she describes as someone who has a great deal of “perplexity.” It’s very serious stuff yet funny and curious. And her brother sounds like a very serious guy whose obsessiveness is funny because we’ve all been exposed to it, in our own families, and even in ourselves.

Then Christopher Buckley read from “Losing Mum and Pup; a Memoir.” This was about the deaths and cremations of his parents – William F. and Pat Buckley -- who died within a year of each other. This too was funny, and again in the way that family stories are funny because we’ve all been there. He’s an interesting combination of his mother and father, an amalgam of their wits and their presence. He can imitate his father’s self-presentation perfectly but the man behind it has his mother’s congeniality.

Then David Wroblewski read from his first novel “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle." Mr. Wroblewski has a background far more all-American 20th century hardscrabble compared to the other three authors last night. Late 20th, early 21st century Americana. He grew up in rural central Wisconsin, close to the land, with parents who worked for a living on a farm, in a factory; his mother raised dogs in a barn. The boy grew up to study theater at University of Wisconsin, where he also became interested in the art of making software. He now lives in Colorado with a partner and a dog and a cat. The excerpt he read was about the man against the elements of nature.

All of the authors last night were inviting us into their personal experiences. It was one of those spiritually uniting moments when everyone could feel as if we are all in this together, like great art, great theatre. A simple thought but really a much more powerful vibe than we are used to, especially at a New York gala benefit.


	Honorees Mitchell Davidson and Nina Rennert Davidson

After the readings, Liz Smith introduced the two Student Readers. Gary Figueroa is a father of five and a grandfather of six. He’s been a working man ever since he got out of school early to help support his mother. He put his children through school but neglected his own reading skills in the meantime. He’s had a responsible job for a long time now in a New York auction house, but the last time he had an opportunity to move up, he decided to go to Literacy Partners to learn to read at an adult level.

Emma Davis, who followed, was a student at Literacy Partners about six years ago. She found it one middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep and turned on 1010 WINS. There was a program talking about Literacy Partners. Emma’s lack of ability to read caused her to hide it all her life from everyone. That night she decided the time had come. She was back last night because Emma is now a reading assistant at Literacy Partners.

Learning to read was her key to pulling her life together and acquiring a confidence and drive she never had before. I remember seeing her speak six years ago. The woman last night has a totally different attitude about herself.

She also looked glamorous in a white silk peplum jacket and pants and stilettos. She’s also now getting her Masters in Mental Health, having done her GED and Bachelor of Arts since joining Literacy Partners.

Do you know how many of us out there can’t read. Or read above a fifth grade level? Millions. Millions! Literacy Partners was founded more than a quarter century ago by Liz Smith, Arnold Scaasi, and Parker Ladd just to do something about that, and they succeeded just like Emma Davis and Gary Figueroa.

They raised $1.1 million last night. They honored the great Barbara Goldsmith and Nina Rennert Davidson and Mitchell Davidson. Both Ms. Goldsmith and the Davidsons are actively involved in matters of literacy, and in Barbara Goldsmith’s case, literature.

Bob Hardwick and orchestra.

Afterwards there was a dinner on the Promenade. Again, it just looked smashing with the signature green and white striped tent that they set up in the room. Women were dressed, often in long dresses or jackets, pants and stilettos.

The place was busy with writers everywhere. And editors and publishers and literary publicists. Bob Hardwick and his orchestra played for the evening and a lot of people took to the floor for both the foxtrots and the sambas as well as the rock and the disco sounds that everybody gets into nowadays no matter how old they are.

I was seated between Martha Stewart and Susan Magrino the public relations executive who handled Martha’s PR for a long time, having first been in publicity for Crown where Martha has published SIXTY-FIVE books, and now she heads up her own firm.

I know Martha has a lot of help, maybe hundreds, maybe thousands, but she does so much in a day, any day that I asked her how much she slept. She said about four hours a night. She takes naps too. But that’s not a lot of sleep even for me who gets five to six (and takes a nap late in the day also). She also does an hour of yoga at the top of the day (which makes a big difference).

Exiting the dinner onto Lincoln Center Plaza.

She’s unfazed by those facts although she did observe that the time is going by so fast. Many people she knows, she said, say the same thing. I told her I felt that way too. Perhaps it’s generational; perhaps it’s the time, I’m not sure.

Whatever it is, Martha’s a powerhouse; there’s no other word for it. And when she talks about it, it’s as matter of fact as it is when she’s telling you how to make a pie or cupcakes. Just get those ingredients, mix them together like so, put it in the oven and presto!

She’s very unassuming about her industriousness. This is not a female or male thing. A lot of us are quite impressed with our industry and make a point about it. How many people do you hear describe themselves as “hard working.” Not that I doubt it. But Martha who almost goes 24/7 and travels and entertains bigtime and goes out all the time and reads and watches some TV (her two must-watches are In Treatment with Gabriel Byrne and The Tudors), acts like it’s nothing.

It is also true that there are a lot of New Yorkers we come in contact with frequently who are very industrious. There were certainly a good number present last night at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center. It goes with this territory and it’s in the air. And sometimes glamorous, like last night. Presto! Bravo!