New York

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Gay Metropolis" (Houghton Mifflin) by Charles Kaiser.

Commissioner for New York's Child Welfare Agency, the Administration for Children's Services Nicholas Scoppetta. He recently called for an expansion of foster care for the city's children, including "neighborhood based" care. Scoppetta understands well the struggles of children in foster care. As a five year old boy, he was taken out of his home in New York's Little Italy for neglect, and lived in several foster institutions for six years.

Kelly worked as a construction worker for ten years, three of which he worked on the Third New York City Water Tunnel alongside other "sandhogs," Irish and West Indian urban miners who dig soft ground tunnels in the city. He also holds a master's degree from Harvard University. His first novel "Payback" tells the story of two Irish-American brothers living in 1980s New York among the Irish mob and the construction workers' unions.

The sixty-year-old writer talks with Terry Gross about his new book "Angela's Ashes." The memoir recounts his childhood experience growing up in the slums of Ireland. McCourt lives in New York.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Typhoid Mary," by Judith Walzer Leavitt, about the woman unwittingly responsible for an outbreak of typhoid fever in New York City.

Commentator Dagoberto Gilb on this trip to New York City with his son.

Commentator Dagoberto Gilb tells us about his trip to NYC.

Former three-term Governor for New York State Mario Cuomo and one of the Democratic party's most respected spokesperson. Since losing office in the 1994 republican-landslide election, Cuomo has started his own nationally syndicated radio show. His new book, Reason to Believe (Simon & Schuster) is his critique of the Republican's Contract with America.

Rock historian Ed Ward continues his look at the contribution various cities have made to rock and roll.

Film Critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Kiss of Death." It stars David Caruso, Samuel Jackson, and Nicolas Cage.

TV critic David Bianculli previews tonight's episode of "Mad About You," which features a guest appearance by Carl Reiner as Alan Brady -- the character he played on "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new film, "Vanya on 42nd St," starring Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, and with a screenplay adapted by David Mamet from Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya".

New York City transit police officer Brendan McGarry. He's been at the job for 21 years. McGarry wrote (also in a recent New York Times article, 10 Apr 94) about the homeless and the panhandlers on the subways, "for a transit cop, they are a tough, unpleasant, sometimes dangerous part of a sometimes thankless job." McGarry complains the public misunderstands them and accuses them of mistreatment. But he says they've worked hard at finding shelter and services for the subway's homeless, setting up a homeless outreach unit.

Journalist Nicholas Dawidoff recently wrote a New York Times Magazine piece (24 Apr 94) about it, "The Business of Begging: To Give or Not to Give." Dawidoff went into New York's subways where panhandlers had gotten increasingly aggressive. In January the New York Transit officials announced a crackdown and began arresting the most persistent of the lot.

Regular Stephen Schiff is covering the final days of the Cannes Film Festival. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead fills in with a review of "Sliver".

Maureen Corrigan reviews the new novel by Cathleen Schine, about a woman who falls in love with a French manuscript.

The world of New York drag queens was captured on film long before "Paris Is Burning." In 1968, a movie called "The Queen" documented the Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant. The film was a sensation in New York City; it was even shown at the Cannes Film Festival. This month "The Queen" has been revived for a short run at New York's Film Forum. Terry talks with Jack Doroshow also known as Sabrina, the organizer and mistress of ceremonies of the 1968 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews the new crime show on Fox, produced by Robert De Niro.

Critic John Powers reviews "Single White Female," the new psychological thriller starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bridget Fonda.

Terry talks with Nancy Wackstein, Executive Director of the Lenox Hill Neighborhood Association, a settlement house in New York City. Wackstein recently gave up her job as Director of New York's Office on Homelessness. Before that she was an advocate for the homeless at the Citizens' Committee for Children. Wackstein used to believe that the solution to homelessness was more housing; she now believes that housing alone will not solve the problem