In early 2007, The New Yorker writer George Packer published an enthralling article about the desperate plight of Iraqis who had assisted the American effort in their country and were being hunted down as a result, with little or no U.S. protection. Betrayed, Packer's first play, is based on interviews conducted while in Iraq for the sixth time to research his article; the fictionalized account concerns three young Iraqis – two men and a woman......

HEADS UP!: We love Daniel Kitson, it's been documented, so we wanted to give you a heads up that our favorite British comedian is coming back to the States! He has three shows in December at Union Hall (the 2nd, 3rd and 4th), and tickets are ON SALE NOW for two of those dates. It'll be the best $8+fees that you ever spent. ART: The Brothers Grimm fairytale Hansel and Gretel has taken over the......

FAIR: Attention vinyl junkies! WFMU is hosting their Record Fair starting this eve and running throughout the weekend. "Hundreds of dealers specializing in the out sounds that WFMU is adored for delivering year round will gather for three days of merciless hawking o' the wax, and thousands of area music geeks are already trembling with nervous anticipation!" There will also be live performances this year, check out more details here. Friday, 7pm to 10pm and......

One of the most heartbreaking stories after the September 11 attacks was that of James Zadroga, a NYC police detective. Zadroga had worked rescue and recovery in the debris of the World Trade Center and developed a respiratory disease. Now, over a year after his death, the city's medical examiner has ruled that his death was not caused by toxic WTC dust. Medical examiner Dr. Charles Hirsch wrote a letter to Zadroga's parents (who are......

Grace Paley, New York's official state author from 1986-88, died at the age of 84 yesterday. She had been battling breast cancer for quite some time. The author, born in the Bronx on December 11th, 1922, still kept an apartment in Manhattan -- but was at her home in Vermont at the time of death. The NY Times recaps her life in literature:Ms. Paley’s output was modest, about four-dozen stories in three volumes: “The Little......

On August 9, 1997, a 30-year-old Haitian immigrant taken into police custody (and eventually found innocent) was beaten and sodomized with a broken broomstick by police officers at the 70th Precinct in Brooklyn. Today, Abner Louima is back in New York and is attending an event at the Reverend Al Sharpton's The National Action Network tonight. From the National Action Network:ABNER LOUIMA AND REV. AL SHARPTON, ALONG WITH OTHER VICTIMS OF POLICE BRUTALITY, TO......

Senator Hillary Clinton has never been on the cutting edge of fashion. Nor was she ever meant to be (okay, she was on the cover of Vogue in 1998) and she's poked fun at her fashion choices (have pantsuit, can rule the world) before. But this past week, everyone's got an opinion about her style. During the Democrats' YouTube debate, when asked what he didn't like about the junior Senator from New York, Senator......

TV star Matthew Fox went to his alma mater today to give the Class Day speech at Columbia College. Fox, class of 1989, was a controversial speaker choice amongst the Columbia community, given that other Columbia University schools had, er, Nobel Laureate and former Treasury Secretary types speaking. Just Jared has a partial transcript of his remarks:“You may have an idea where you want to be in 20 years and some of you will get......

The Sanitation Chronicles, a new play by and about New York’s Strongest, premiered on Wednesday. Actor/playwright Paul Brno, who’s been moonlighting for the Department of Sanitation for the past 17 years, says “every day is still a great day to be on a garbage truck.” The “slice of life” play explores the daily prejudices, anger and violence faced by “Sanmen”, all of which is exacerbated when one of the guys shows up for work dressed......

Apparently, sexy Hollywood beefcake is what Columbia College is trying to promote at its Class Day this year! Last year, father-of-fellow-Columbia College-student Senator John McCain spoke, to wide protest. This year, Columbia College has selected Matthew Fox, star of Lost, to be the main speaker. Naturally, students are very divided about the news. One tells the Columbia Spectator, "I've never heard of this guy. The years before got a Pulitzer Prize-winner and a potential presidential......

A look at some noteworthy programs this week: The Morning Show With Mike & Juliet (Monday, 10 a.m. WNYW 5) Fox takes another stab at a morning show. Just the thought of a Fox morning show brings back memories of the insipid Fox After Breakfast from the mid 90s that had Tom Bergeron and Viki Lawremce hosting from a faux Manhattan loft. The new entry is fronted by Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy of the......

THEATER: The Transport Group’s season begins with Tad Mosel's 1961 play All the Way Home. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play is based on James Agee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Death in the Family, so that kind of prize power should put this production on track for a couple OBIEs, at least. Set in Knoxville in the summer of 1915, All The Way Home explores generations of family relationships in a time of crisis, with an original......

Earlier in the week the Sun pointed out that while Brooklyn may be "so hot right now" in terms of people and real estate that heat hasn't exactly turned into any money for the print-set. Just as quickly as new Kings County publications come out they seem to close. The latest to fold is the actually enjoyable The Brooklynite ("the only Brooklyn magazine to have published articles by a Pulitzer Prize-winner and a Scripps......

Before we present you with this weeks paltry wedding numbers, we were wondering if you've ever wanted to bet on how long marriages announced on wedding pages will last? In which case, might we introduce you to Wedding Betting? Think HotorNot... but with weddings. And with that, let's get to this weeks Weddings and Celebrations, by the Numbers: Total Number of weddings: 7 Total Number of Same-Sex Weddings: 1 Average Age of Brides: 32.16......

Anya Kamenetz, Author, Generation Debt: Why Now Is A Terrible Time To Be Young...

On Sundays Gothamist runs opinion pieces relevant to life in New York and reviews of recent books and performances. The judgments expressed below are entirely those of the author. To get students’ creative juices flowing, writing teachers like to make them build a story around some basic situation or obstacle. “There’s a secret that everyone knows but is not allowed to discuss,” for instance – I have not-so-fond memories of some of my poor attempts......

Garrison Keillor noted during his opening speech for last night's National Book Awards that this week is the opening of another Harry Potter film. He said, "Most of us have stood in Barnes & Noble and opened a Harry Potter book, read a few pages and said: 'I could have done that. I could have done that while doing all the other things that I do. Why didn't I?'" An always curmudgeonly and brilliant Norman......

Kerryites, still wracking your brain for a reason why George W. won. Well, Air America host, Laura Flanders has a theory which she uncovers in her latest book Bushwomen: How They Won the White House for Their Man. Tonight Laura Flanders will be at NYU to discuss her thoughts on how Connie Rice, Laura Bush, Karen Hughes, Gale Norton et all, worked their feminine wiles to keep Bush the leader of the free world. Laura......

Yesterday saw the announcement of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winners. The LA Times and Wall Street Journal Business > Media & Advertising > Pulitzer Prizes Announced" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/04/business/media/04cnd-pulitzer.html?hp">won two each, while the NY Times took one for reporting about http://www.nytimes.com/ref/national/deathonthetracks_index.html?">railroad fatalities and the coverups behind them. We spent some of the evening reading a lot of the winning work, including Newsday's Dele Olojede's excellent and harrowing series on the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, which......

Gothamist always finds it fascinating how some truly non-commercial playwrights will always get their new shows produced on Broadway. It's as if some producers and investors genuinely don't care about making money with some of the works they are essentially subsidizing. One such writer that falls in this category is two-time Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson, whose new play Gem of the Ocean, was scheduled to begin previews Nov. 4, but was delayed when the......

New Yorker architecture critic and Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Goldberger speaks tonight about his new book, Up from Zero: Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York, about the reconstruction of lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center. Goldberger surveyed many key figures - from politicians to city planners to architects to the families of September 11 victims - exploring the fundamentals of the rebuilding process, the bureaucratic armatures required to set such a process......

Finally, the contemporary literature I'm reading can officially be called good: Jeffrey Euqenides' Middlesex wins the Pulitzer for fiction. About a the coming of age of a Greek-American hermaphrodite, Middlesex is the second novel by Eugenides, the first being the lyrical The Virgin Suicides. More about Middlesex and other Pulitzer Prize art winners.......