Mission Impossible: Finding the Perfect Name for My Kid
By Noah Rosenberg | May 3, 2019
A new dad on the nightmare-inducing challenge of coming up with a timeless but fresh, cool but not too cool name for his son.
A renowned puppeteer and his tiny Brooklyn company stage their quadrennial revival of Aladdin—using spit, glue, and the same painstakingly-restored marionettes they have for the last half century.
Born in 1935, Nicolas Coppola grew up in Brooklyn. In third grade, he saw a Suzari Marionettes puppet show and was inspired to create his first cloth marionette. A decade later, at age nineteen, Coppola joined Suzari and got to perform in Aladdin, which had been one of the company’s original productions in the 1940s. Coppola was later promoted to Artistic Director of spinoff Nicolo Marionettes, where he staged a touring version of Aladdin in 1964.
Coppola founded Puppetworks in 1980 and staged his own versions of Aladdin many times. While a number of the original marionettes that make up the “cast” have since been retired, some have stayed on for revival upon revival. Now retired, Coppola won the Puppeteers of America President’s Award for “Outstanding Contributions to the Art of Puppetry” in 2011. He still visits Puppetworks to refurbish the puppets before any performance is mounted.
A new dad on the nightmare-inducing challenge of coming up with a timeless but fresh, cool but not too cool name for his son.
A filmmaker and surfer proudly explores her Indigenous roots, and discovers that thrill-seeking runs in the family.
The coalminer’s daughter. The bartender. The police brutality activist. The grieving mother. Each looked at the man representing her in Congress and said, “I can do better.”
Amy Vilela lost her daughter when she couldn’t afford the medical bills. When her Congressman told her he wouldn’t support universal healthcare, Amy said, “I’m running.”
Cori Bush is a registered nurse, a pastor and a mom. After taking to the streets to protest police killings, she looked in the mirror and said, “why not politician, too?”
“The Boss of the Queens Machine” hasn’t faced a primary challenger in 14 years. But an underfunded upstart is suddenly giving him a run for his money.
Paula Jean Swearengin has seen West Virginia’s land exploited, its people fall ill, and its politicians do nothing. So she decided to do something herself.
As Mark McKinley puts it, “no collector ever says, ‘I’ve gone too far.'” After 27 years and an official Guinness World Record, he stands by that statement.
Three young Spaniards are reviving the farming tradition that flourished in their grandparents' generation.
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