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Founder | Eli Siegel (1902–78) |
---|---|
Purpose | Philosophy dedicated to the understanding of, and greater respect for, people, art, and reality. |
Coordinates | 40°43′34″N73°59′56″W / 40.725989°N 73.99882°W |
Chair | Ellen Reiss, Chair of Education |
Website | AestheticRealism.org |
Aesthetic Realism is a philosophy founded in 1941 by the American poet and critic Eli Siegel (1902–1978). [1] He defined it as a three-part study: "[T]hese three divisions can be described as: One, Liking the world; Two, The opposites; Three, The meaning of contempt." [2]
Aesthetic Realism differs from other approaches to mind in identifying a person's attitude to the whole world as the most crucial thing in their life, affecting how one sees everything, including love, work, and other people. For example, it says racism begins with the desire to have contempt for what is different from oneself. [3] [4] The philosophy is principally taught at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, an educational institution based in SoHo, New York City.
In the 1980s the Foundation faced controversy for its assertion that men changed from homosexuality to heterosexuality through study of Aesthetic Realism. In 1990, it stopped presentations and consultations on this subject. [5]
Eli Siegel described the philosophy of Aesthetic Realism as a study in three parts: "One, Man's greatest, deepest desire is to like the world honestly. Two, The one way to like the world honestly, not as a conquest of one's own, is to see the world as the aesthetic oneness of opposites. Three, The greatest danger or temptation of man is to get a false importance or glory from the lessening of things not himself; which lessening is Contempt. Even more briefly, these three divisions can be described as: One, Liking the world; Two, The opposites; Three, The meaning of contempt." [6] [7]
A central principle of Aesthetic Realism is that the deepest desire of every person is to like the world. It states that the purpose of art education—and all education—is to like the world. [8]
Honest like of the world does not depend on how fortunate one is, but on seeing that reality is made well because it has an aesthetic structure, which art shows. [9] Siegel asked, "Is this true: No matter how much of a case one has against the world—its unkindness, its disorder, its ugliness, its meaninglessness—one has to do all one can to like it, or one will weaken oneself? [10]
Aesthetic Realism is based on the idea that reality has an aesthetic structure of opposites. Siegel stated that all the sciences and arts provide evidence of reality's aesthetic structure and can be used to understand and like the world. [11] For example, motion and rest, freedom and order can be seen as one in an electron, the ocean, the solar system. These opposing forces of reality are within every person, and we are always trying to put them together. [12] In Siegel's critical theory, "The resolution of conflict in self is like the making one of opposites in art." A good novel or musical composition, for example, composes opposites that are often in conflict in a person's mind or daily life: intensity and calm, freedom and order, unity and diversity. A successful poem or photograph or work of art in any medium, is therefore, a guide to a good life, because it shows the aesthetic structure of reality and ourselves. "All beauty," he stated, "is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves." [13] [14]
Siegel recognized that the desire to like the world is in a constant fight with another competing desire: the desire for contempt, or the hope to lessen what is different from oneself as a means of self-increase as one sees it. [15] He writes in The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, number 247:
Aesthetic Realism differs from psychoanalysis and differs from other ways of seeing, when it says that contempt is the greatest danger of an individual; of society. ... Contempt is the one sure means people all over the world have of building themselves up. Contempt is in families, chancelleries, lodges, on pillows, in halls. It is that in [a person] which says: "If I can make less of this and this and this, my glory is greater." …And it should be remembered that having contempt is the same as disliking the world. [16]
A key study in Aesthetic Realism is how an attitude to the world as a whole governs how a person sees every aspect of life, including a friend, a spouse, a book, food, people of another skin tone. Accordingly, the philosophy argues that individuals have an ethical obligation to "see the world as well as we can" and where we don't hope to see things and people fairly "contempt ...is winning." [17] Accordingly, the philosophy argues that individuals have an ethical obligation to give full value to things and people, not devalue them in order to make oneself seem more important. [18] Aesthetic Realism states that the conscious intention to be fair to the world and people is not only an ethical obligation, but the means of liking oneself. [19]
The philosophy identifies contempt as the underlying cause of depression and broader social problems as well: societal evils like racism and war arise from contempt for "human beings placed differently from ourselves" in terms of race, economic status, or nationality. Siegel stated that for centuries ill will has been the predominant basis of humanity's economic activities. The philosophy asserts that humanity cannot overcome its biggest problems until people cease to feel that "the world's failure or the failure of a[nother] person enhances one's own life." Siegel stated that until good will rather than contempt is at the center of economics and in the thoughts of people, "civilization has yet to begin." [20] [21] [22] He defined good will as "the desire to have something else stronger and more beautiful, for this desire makes oneself stronger and more beautiful." [23]
The philosophic basis of Aesthetic Realism was set forth systematically by Siegel in two major texts. The first, Self and World: An Explanation of Aesthetic Realism, was written from 1941 to 1943. [24] Individual chapters, including "Psychiatry, Economics, Aesthetics" and "The Aesthetic Method in Self-Conflict", were printed in 1946. The full text was published in 1981. It presents the philosophy in terms of how it applies to everyday life and understanding mind. Chapters include "The Aesthetic Meaning of Psychiatry", "Love and Reality", "The Child", and "The Organization of Self" (NY: Definition Press). [25]
A second text, Definitions, and Comment: Being a Description of the World, completed in 1945, defines 134 terms, including Existence, Happiness, Power, Success, Reality, and Relation. Definitions of one sentence are given for every term, followed by a lengthier explanation. The work was published in 1978-9 as a series in the journal The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.
A third philosophic text, The Aesthetic Nature of the World, is largely unpublished, although selections appear in The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known. [26]
Aesthetic Realism arose from Eli Siegel's teaching of poetry. He stated that ideas central to the philosophy were present in his poem "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana", which won The Nation's annual poetry prize in 1925. The philosophic principle that individuality is relation, "that the very self of a thing is its relations, its having-to-do-with other things", is in this poem. [27] [28] It begins with a hot, quiet afternoon in Montana, and travels through time and space, showing that the diversity of reality is surprisingly connected, and things, people and places usually regarded as separate "have a great deal to do with each other." [29]
The not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation was established by Siegel's students in 1973. Located at 141 Greene Street in SoHo, New York, it is the primary location where the philosophy is now taught, in public seminars, dramatic and musical presentations, semester classes, and individual consultations. There is an interactive workshop for teachers, "The Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method", and classes in poetry, anthropology, art, music, and "Understanding Marriage." [30] [31]
Ellen Reiss is the Aesthetic Realism Chairman of Education, appointed by Eli Siegel in 1977. Since that time, she has conducted professional classes for the Foundation's faculty. Herself an Aesthetic Realism consultant since 1971, Reiss also taught in the English departments of Queens and Hunter Colleges, City University of New York. She is a poet, editor, and co-author (with Martha Baird) of The Williams-Siegel Documentary (Definition Press, 1970). [32]
Eli Siegel died on November 8, 1978. [33] Reiss continues his work teaching Aesthetic Realism in professional classes for the Foundation's faculty and in the course "The Aesthetic Realism Explanation of Poetry". Her commentaries on how the philosophy views life, literature, national ethics, economics, and the human self appear regularly in The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known. [34]
The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company, composed of actors, singers and musicians, has appeared throughout the country in both musical performances and dramatic productions. Presentations showing the significance of art and ethics throughout history and in our daily lives, include "Ethics Is a Force!"—Songs about Labor, "The Great Fight of Ego vs. Truth"—Songs about Love, Justice & Everybody's Feelings, "Humanity's Opposites—Beginning with Ireland" (Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock and Irish Songs) and "The Civil War, Unions & Our Lives! They also present dramatic readings of Siegel's lectures on Shakespeare, Molière, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Ibsen, Strindberg, Eugene O'Neill, George Kelly, Susan Glaspell, and others. [35]
The matter of racial prejudice has long been a focus of Aesthetic Realism. In one of his earliest essays, "The Equality of Man" (1923), Siegel opposed writers who were promoting eugenics. He argued that thus far in the history of the world, people have not had equal conditions of life, to bring out their potential abilities, and he asserted that if all men and women had "an equal chance to use all the powers they had at birth, they would be equal." [36]
Aesthetic Realism and the Answer to Racism by journalist Alice Bernstein [37] contains articles published in newspapers throughout the country. [38] The People of Clarendon County (Chicago: Third World Press, 2007), includes a play by Ossie Davis, re-discovered by Bernstein, together with photographs and historical documents concerning the Rev. Joseph DeLaine and others who took part in Briggs v. Elliott. This was the first of five lawsuits that eventually led to the breakthrough 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which made segregation in public schools illegal and struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine established in 1896 by Plessy v. Ferguson. The book includes essays about Aesthetic Realism, which is described as "the education that can end racism." [39]
A production of The People of Clarendon County—a Play by Ossie Davis, & the Answer to Racism, presenting Aesthetic Realism as the educational method that explains and changes prejudice and racism, was staged in the Congressional Auditorium of the US Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, DC on October 21, 2009, with introductory remarks given by Rep. James E. Clyburn. [40]
In public forums, individuals of diverse nationalities and cultural backgrounds have described how, through study of Aesthetic Realism, their racism and prejudice changed, not into mere "tolerance" but into a respectful desire to know and see that the feelings of another are "as real, and as deep, as one's own..." [41]
On an international level, students of Aesthetic Realism advocated the study of contempt and good will, as described by Aesthetic Realism, as "The Only Answer to the Mideast Crisis", in a 1990 advertisement on the op-ed page of The New York Times. [42] To oppose prejudice they recommend that persons of nations who are in conflict "write a soliloquy of 500 words" describing the feelings and thoughts of a person in the opposing land. [43]
The United Nations commissioned Ken Kimmelman to make two anti-prejudice films: Asimbonanga, and Brushstrokes. Kimmelman credits Aesthetic Realism as his inspiration for these films, as well as his 1995 Emmy Award-winning anti-prejudice public service film, The Heart Knows Better, based on, and including, a statement by Eli Siegel. [44]
In 1946, Siegel began giving weekly lectures at Steinway Hall in New York City, in which he presented what he first called Aesthetic Analysis (later, Aesthetic Realism), "a philosophic way of seeing conflict in self and making this conflict clear to a person so that a person becomes more integrated and happier." [45] From 1948 through 1977, Siegel continued teaching in his library at 67 Jane Street in Greenwich Village, where he also resided. Individuals studied Aesthetic Realism in classes such as the Ethical Study Conference, the Nevertheless, Poetry Class, and classes in which Aesthetic Realism was discussed in relation to the arts and sciences, history, philosophy, national ethics, and world literature. [46]
Eli Siegel gave over 30,000 such lectures and lessons over the four decades he taught Aesthetic Realism. One series, "Aesthetic Realism As Beauty", considered how particular opposites are brought together in the drama, music, sculpture, dance, and painting, and demonstrated how each of these arts unites opposites that are often in conflict in life situations. He lectured on "Aesthetic Realism and Love", "Aesthetic Realism and Scientific Method", "Aesthetic Realism and H.G. Wells' The Outline of History" and "Aesthetic Realism Looks at Things: Understanding Children". He gave a series of lectures on Henry James that was later published as the book James and the Children: A Consideration of Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw". He gave a series of lectures on Imagination, Religion, and the Arts and Sciences. Aesthetic Realism classes were scholarly [47] and sought to demonstrate that art is related to the problems of everyday life. [48] [49] This contradicts the Freudian view of art as sublimation. [50]
Among the earliest students of Aesthetic Realism were Chaim Koppelman (1920–2009), [51] a painter, sculptor, printmaker, [52] and founder of the printmaking department of the School of Visual Arts, and his wife, painter Dorothy Koppelman (1920-2017), who opened the Terrain Gallery in 1955, introducing Aesthetic Realism to the cultural scene of New York City with art exhibitions and public discussions of the Siegel Theory of Opposites in relation to painting, sculpture, photography, poetry, and later, music, theatre, and architecture. [53]
Chaim Koppelman's interviews of Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Anuszkiewicz, and Clayton Pond, in which these artists discussed the relevance of Aesthetic Realism and Eli Siegel's Theory of Opposites to their work, are now part of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. [54] Artists began using Aesthetic Realism in writings about their fields, including Ralph Hattersley, editor of the photography journal Infinity, [55] and Nat Herz, author of articles in Modern Photography and of the Konica Pocket Handbook: An Introduction to Better Photography. [56] Aesthetic Realism: We Have Been There (NY: Definition Press, 1969), a book of essays by working artists in the fields of painting, printmaking, photography, acting, and poetry, documents how the Siegel Theory of Opposites "relates life to art and is basically a criterion for all branches of aesthetics". [57]
Some artistic productions inspired by the philosophy were surrounded by controversy. A theatrical production of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler by The Opposites Company of the Theatre, in which the title character was presented as "essentially good", in keeping with Siegel's interpretation of the play, [58] was highly praised in Time magazine, [59] but severely criticized in The New York Times , [60] [61] which also published Siegel's response to the critics. [62]
A controversial aspect of the philosophy concerns the assertion that men and women could change from homosexuality through studying its principles. In 1946 writer and WW II veteran Sheldon Kranz (1919–1980) was the first man to report that he changed from homosexuality through Aesthetic Realism. [63] Kranz claimed that as his way of seeing the world changed, his sexual preference also changed: from a homosexual orientation (he was no longer impelled toward men) to a heterosexual one that included love for a woman for the first time in his life. Kranz was married for 25 years (until his death) to Obie award-winning actress Anne Fielding. [64]
In keeping with its general approach, Aesthetic Realism views homosexuality as a philosophic matter. [65] [66] [67] A fundamental principle of the philosophy is that every person is in a fight between contempt for the world and respect for it. [68] Siegel stated that this fight is present as well in homosexuality. [69] In the field of love and sex, a homosexual man prefers the sameness of another man while undervaluing the difference of the world that a woman represents. This undervaluing of difference is a form of contempt for the world; therefore, as a man learns how to like the world honestly, his attitude towards difference changes and this affects every area of his life, including sexual preference. [70]
Beginning in 1965 supporters of the philosophy began an effort to have press and media report on the change from homosexuality through Aesthetic Realism. [71] In 1971 men (including Kranz) who said they changed through Aesthetic Realism were interviewed on New York City's WNET Channel 13 Free Time show [72] and the David Susskind Show, [73] which had a national syndication. The book The H Persuasion, [74] published that year, contained writing by Siegel detailing his premise about the cause of homosexuality, transcripts of Aesthetic Realism lessons, and narratives by men who said they changed, describing both why they changed and how. In response to requests from men and women wanting to study Aesthetic Realism, Siegel designated four consultation trios, one of which, Consultation With Three, was for the purpose of teaching men who wanted to change from homosexuality. In 1983, five other men who said they had changed from homosexuality were interviewed on the David Susskind Show. [75] The transcript of this interview was published in the 1986 book The Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel and the Change from Homosexuality. [76]
With the exception of a brief 1971 review calling The H Persuasion "less a book than a collection of pietistic snippets by Believers," [77] The New York Times never reported that men said they changed from homosexuality through Aesthetic Realism. [78] Students of the philosophy who said they changed from homosexuality or in other large ways accused the press of unfairly withholding information valuable to the lives of people. In the 1970s they mounted an aggressive campaign of telephone calls, letters, ads, and vigils in front of various media offices and at the homes of editors. [79] Many wore lapel buttons that read "Victim of the Press". [80] [81]
In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder. [82] In 1978, ads were placed in three major newspapers stating "we have changed from homosexuality through our study of the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel." They were signed by 50 men and women. [83]
The gay press and gay reporters were generally hostile to Aesthetic Realism. [84] A 1982 Boston Globe article written by "the first openly gay reporter" on its staff, [85] interviewed primarily gay therapists and then reported that the "assertion" of change through Aesthetic Realism was "a claim staggering to psychiatrists and psychologists." [86] About 250 people protested the article on the Boston Common. The Globe's ombudsman later wrote in his column that the article was biased against Aesthetic Realism and that it contained "strong, negative words without attribution" and "inaccuracies". [87]
Some gay advocacy groups and gay activists presented Aesthetic Realism as "anti-gay", due to its promotion of sexual-orientation change. [88] Conversion therapy for sexual orientation is widely considered discredited within the medical and scientific communities; in more recent years the practice has been condemned as ineffective and harmful by leading medical and psychological associations, as well as being made illegal in a variety of jurisdictions. [89]
More recent statements from the Aesthetic Realism foundation have stated that "Aesthetic Realism is, and always has been, for full, completely equal civil rights for everyone. And that includes the right to marry a person of one’s choice, regardless of gender" and that "[...] in 1990 [over 3 decades ago] the Aesthetic Realism Foundation discontinued its presentation of the fact that through study of Aesthetic Realism people changed from homosexuality". [90] A website created in 2004, *Countering the Lies*, by a group called Friends of Aesthetic Realism states in a comment, "Some Notes on the Effort to Make Trouble about Homosexuality", that Aesthetic Realism promoted "change" rather than a "cure", that these methods should only be offered to those who want change, and that "[t]he Friends of Aesthetic Realism also will not comply with the attacker and say that no one really changed from homosexuality through study of Aesthetic Realism". [91]
The organization has been described by Steven Hassan as a psychotherapy cult. [92]
Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and the nature of taste and, in a broad sense, incorporates the philosophy of art. Aesthetics examines the philosophy of aesthetic value, which is determined by critical judgments of artistic taste; thus, the function of aesthetics is the "critical reflection on art, culture and nature".
Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns are generally categorized under heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality, while asexuality is sometimes identified as the fourth category.
Eli Siegel was a poet, critic, and educator. He founded Aesthetic Realism, a philosophical movement based in New York City. An idea central to Aesthetic Realism—that every person, place or thing in reality has something in common with all other things—was expressed in the title poem of his first volume, Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana: Poems. His second volume was Hail, American Development.
Pride is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as "reasonable self-esteem" or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". The Oxford dictionary defines it as "the quality of having an excessively high opinion of oneself or one's own importance." Pride may be related to one's own abilities or achievements, positive characteristics of friends or family, or one's country. Richard Taylor defined pride as "the justified love of oneself", as opposed to false pride or narcissism. Similarly, St. Augustine defined it as "the love of one's own excellence", and Meher Baba called it "the specific feeling through which egoism manifests."
Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology, sometimes published with the subtitle A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology, is a 1943 book by the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. In the book, Sartre develops a philosophical account in support of his existentialism, dealing with topics such as consciousness, perception, social philosophy, self-deception, the existence of "nothingness", psychoanalysis, and the question of free will.
Heterosexism is a system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination in favor of heterosexuality and heterosexual relationships. According to Elizabeth Cramer, it can include the belief that all people are or should be heterosexual and that heterosexual relationships are the only norm and therefore superior.
The field of psychology has extensively studied homosexuality as a human sexual orientation. The American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality in the DSM-I in 1952 as a "sociopathic personality disturbance," but that classification came under scrutiny in research funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. That research and subsequent studies consistently failed to produce any empirical or scientific basis for regarding homosexuality as anything other than a natural and normal sexual orientation that is a healthy and positive expression of human sexuality. As a result of this scientific research, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the DSM-II in 1973. Upon a thorough review of the scientific data, the American Psychological Association followed in 1975 and also called on all mental health professionals to take the lead in "removing the stigma of mental illness that has long been associated" with homosexuality. In 1993, the National Association of Social Workers adopted the same position as the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association, in recognition of scientific evidence. The World Health Organization, which listed homosexuality in the ICD-9 in 1977, removed homosexuality from the ICD-10 which was endorsed by the 43rd World Health Assembly on 17 May 1990.
Other is a term used to define another person or people as separate from oneself. In phenomenology, the terms the Other and the Constitutive Other distinguish other people from the Self, as a cumulative, constituting factor in the self-image of a person; as acknowledgement of being real; hence, the Other is dissimilar to and the opposite of the Self, of Us, and of the Same. The Constitutive Other is the relation between the personality and the person (body) of a human being; the relation of essential and superficial characteristics of personal identity that corresponds to the relationship between opposite, but correlative, characteristics of the Self, because the difference is inner-difference, within the Self.
Labeling theory posits that self-identity and the behavior of individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify them. It is associated with the concepts of self-fulfilling prophecy and stereotyping. Labeling theory holds that deviance is not inherent in an act, but instead focuses on the tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from standard cultural norms. The theory was prominent during the 1960s and 1970s, and some modified versions of the theory have developed and are still currently popular. Stigma is defined as a powerfully negative label that changes a person's self-concept and social identity.
Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana: Poems is a book of poems written by Eli Siegel, founder of the philosophy of Aesthetic Realism. It was one of 13 finalists in the poetry category of the National Book Award in 1958, the year its author was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or antipathy, may be based on irrational fear and may sometimes be attributed to religious beliefs.
Homosexuality is sexual attraction, romantic attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exclusively to people of the same sex or gender. It "also refers to a person's sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions."
Richard Shusterman is an American pragmatist philosopher. Known for his contributions to philosophical aesthetics and the emerging field of somaesthetics, currently he is the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Florida Atlantic University.
The Cass identity model is one of the fundamental theories of LGBT identity development, developed in 1979 by Vivienne Cass. This model was one of the first to treat LGBT people as normal in a heterosexist society and in a climate of homophobia and biphobia instead of treating homosexuality and bisexuality themselves as a problem. Cass described a process of six stages of LGBT identity development. While these stages are sequential, some people might revisit stages at different points in their lives.
Primarily obsessional obsessive–compulsive disorder, also known as purely obsessional obsessive–compulsive disorder, is a lesser-known form or manifestation of OCD. It is not a diagnosis in the DSM-5. For people with primarily obsessional OCD, there are fewer observable compulsions, compared to those commonly seen with the typical form of OCD. While ritualizing and neutralizing behaviors do take place, they are mostly cognitive in nature, involving mental avoidance and excessive rumination. Primarily obsessional OCD takes the form of intrusive thoughts often of a distressing, sexual, or violent nature.
The Terrain Gallery, or the Terrain, is an art gallery and educational center at 141 Greene Street in SoHo, Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1955 with a philosophic basis: the ideas of Aesthetic Realism and the Siegel Theory of Opposites, developed by American poet and educator Eli Siegel. Its motto is a statement by Siegel: "In reality opposites are one; art shows this."
Chaim Koppelman was an American artist, art educator, and Aesthetic Realism consultant. Best known as a printmaker, he also produced sculpture, paintings, and drawings. A member of the National Academy of Design since 1978, he was president of the Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA), which presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. He established the Printmaking Department of the School of Visual Arts in 1959, and taught there until 2007.
Ken Kimmelman is an American filmmaker, animator, and Aesthetic Realism consultant. He is the president of Imagery Film, Ltd. and is known for his films opposing racism and prejudice, including The Heart Knows Better, a public service film for which he received a National Emmy Award and Brushstrokes, produced for the United Nations. Both films were inspired by Aesthetic Realism, the philosophy whose founder, Eli Siegel, identified contempt, "the addition to self through the lessening of something else" as the cause of racism and all human injustice. Kimmelman is also noted for his Poetry film, Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana, based on the prize-winning poem by Eli Siegel. Historian Howard Zinn said of this film, "It matches, in its visual beauty, the elegance of Siegel's words, and adds the dimension of stunning imagery to an already profound work of art."
The following outline offers an overview and guide to LGBTQ topics:
Nat Herz (1920–1964) was an American photographer, poet, and writer.
Siegel composed 'Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana' with this principle in mind, taking 'many things that are thought of usually as being far apart and foreign and [showing] in a beautiful way, that they aren't so separate and that they do have a great deal to do with each other.'