Bess Rowen, 10/16/12

Ph.D Student, Department of Theatre, CUNY, the Graduate Center

This adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath brings the piece into direct conversation with our times in a way that allows the novel to live and breathe in a theatre as opposed to being studied as an artifact from another time.

Philip Gates, 10/16/12

Artistic director, Lunar Energy

The magic that can happen when you assemble a group of exceptional collaborators is truly thrilling; it is one of the reasons I have chosen a life in the theater.

Cyrus Vance, 10/16/12

Manhattan District Attorney

Every child, on every block of every neighborhood, has the right to walk to school and home without fear of getting shot. And yet, the subject of gun law reform remains taboo for many of our state and national elected officials.

Jill Herzig, 10/16/12

Editor in Chief, Redbook

My mother took me with her to vote when I was a kid. As we waited in line she would speak passionately about people around the country and the world who had fought and died for the right to vote.

Paula White, 10/16/12

Founder, Newark Legacy Charter School

As members of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) often say, charter schools are no silver bullet for fixing education. No greater proof point exists for this statement than the alarming failure of the UFT Charter School in New York City.

Faith Hope Consolo, 10/16/12

Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate

It's that time of year again: one that has become the second biggest retail holiday of the year (I kid you not): Halloween! And of course New York has the best costumes and party items in the world.

Ioannis Pappos, 10/16/12

Writer, management consultant and fisherman

For no matter what type of regulation is introduced, risk will never be completely eliminated. The question is, how should we do this?

Toni Haber, 10/16/12

Real Estate Broker

While no one can predict the future, all signs would seem to indicate that we are at the start of a very exciting time in real estate. A one percent increase in prices may not get the average home owner so excited, but it's evidence of an upward trend.

Marty Lipp, 10/16/12

Music writer

After 25 years at the top of the Italian charts, the stadium-filling singer-songwriter Lorenzo "Jovanotti" Cherubini has moved to New York City to try on a new life, to jar his music-mad mind into seeing things anew.

Regina Weinreich, 10/16/12

Author, 'Kerouac's Spontaneous Poetics'

Aided and abetted by his wife, Hitchcock could lure actresses into his movies. Who wouldn't want to work with such a genius? And, in Psycho, Rear Window, Vertigo, it is clear, he preferred blondes.

Jeffrey Sachs and Paul Polman, 10/15/12

At the start of the new millennium, world leaders promised to cut by half the proportion of people without decent sanitation, and to reduce child mortality by two thirds, all by 2015. We're determined to help the world keep its promises.

Nancy Ploeger, 10/16/12

President, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce

Despite our slow economic recovery, one bright spot throughout the last several years has been the thriving Internet economy. Innovation is alive and well in America, with new startups launching practically every day.

Laura Prudom, 10/15/12

Associate Television Editor, The Huffington Post

After last week's brief, blissful injection of wit and logical storytelling, episode two of "Gossip Girl's" final season snapped back to inanity faster than you can shout "Dorota!"

Abby Sims, 10/15/12

Ortho/sports physical therapist

Even hampered by injury he was performing at a higher level than many of his teammates this post-season. He took a calculated risk and he lost. So did the Yankees and their fans.

Allan M. Jalon, 10/15/12

Arts reporter and critic

Naomi Replansky speaks with rueful self-acceptance of the long patience she's devoted to her relatively small body of work. "There's that old saying about how inspiration is waiting outside in a thunder storm for lightening to strike," she said. "That's been my life."

Kevin M. Ryan, 10/16/12

President and CEO, Covenant House

She was the Mother Teresa of street children, a Holy tornado of determination and compassion. She lived and died every day with the successes and failures of our kids ... and she saw God in the tired faces of beautiful, forgotten kids.

Nicole Brittingham Furlonge, 10/15/12

Writer, teacher, scholar

For C.K. Williams, poems emerge from cities. His poetry draws our attention to urban spaces, to the ways in which they pulse with layers of interaction often missed.