April 27, 2026 - Adele Bertei on "No New York," Persona + Picturing Isabella at the ISGM, and Evan Wang

About this episode

Adele Bertei discusses her memoir on the no wave scene and the contributions of women artists, alongside curators from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and poet Evan Wang.

Adele Bertei was part of the late-1970s downtown New York no wave scene, playing with The Contortions and later fronting the Bloods. In her new memoir, No New York: A Memoir of No Wave and the Women Who Shaped the Scene , Bertei writes from inside that abrasive, cross-disciplinary movement — and restores the women artists, musicians, and filmmakers who helped define it. At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Picturing Isabella traces how Isabella Stewart Gardner shaped her public image through photography, while Persona: Photography and the Re-Imagined Self looks at artists who use the camera to construct alter egos and challenge fixed ideas of identity. Joining us are Pieranna Cavalchini, the Gardner’s Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art and co-curator of Persona , and Sylvia Hickman, Curatorial Associate at the Gardner and curator of Picturing Isabella . We close out National Poetry Month with Evan Wang, the National Youth Poet Laureate and author of the new chapbook Slow Burn: Poems . Wang will appear at Harvard Book Store on Wednesday, April 29 at 7 p.m. , in conversation with Cindion Huang.

People in this episode

Guests: Adele Bertei, Pieranna Cavalchini, Sylvia Hickman, Evan Wang

Topics covered

• no wave music scene
• women in art
• photography and identity
• memoir
• poetry

Keywords

• Adele Bertei
• no wave
• Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
• photography
• Evan Wang
• poetry
• memoir

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Books & works: No New York: A Memoir of No Wave and the Women Who Shaped the Scene, Picturing Isabella, Persona: Photography and the Re-Imagined Self

Places: Harvard

More episodes of The Culture Show Podcast

• June 12, 2026 - Week in Review: Sagrada Família, the Kennedy Center, and David Hockney · June 12, 2026 · 56 min
• June 11, 2026 - Dorie Greenspan on Kate Hepburn's brownies, Celtic Art at the HAM, and Jackson Cannon's summer spritzes · June 11, 2026 · 56 min
• June 10, 2026 - Veronica Robles on Vive Latinoamérica, RoxFilm 2026, and A Midsummer Night's Dream · June 10, 2026 · 56 min
• June 9, 2026 - RISE! by the Boston Gay Men's Chorus, Matthew Connors, and Firebird Part 2 · June 9, 2026 · 56 min
• June 8, 2026 - The 2026 Tony Awards, La CASA in the South End, and Jane Eaglen · June 8, 2026 · 56 min
• June 5, 2026 - Week in Review: Horror films, Taylor Swift's Toy Story tune, and Euphoria · June 5, 2026 · 56 min