Contributor: Eleanor Foa Dienstag

Eleanor Foa Dienstag is a veteran author, journalist, photo-journalist and award-winning corporate writer. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Harper's, the New Republic, the New York Observer, Ms., Travel & Leisure, and many other websites and publications. Eleanor is the author of three books. Her most recent, available on Amazon and Centro Primo Levi is MIXED MESSAGES: Reflections on an Italian Jewish Family and Exile. It is a multi-layered memoir about Eleanor’s personal journey, her father’s exile from Fascist Italy and the Foa Family journey, whose Italian-Jewish roots go back to the 1500s in northern Italy where her ancestors were famous printers. WHITHER THOU GOEST: The Story of an Uprooted Wife, also a memoir, was acclaimed by Business Week for its insights into corporate life. Her third book, In Good Company: 125 Years At The Heinz Table, offered a unique view of a quintessential American company. Eleanor served as staff speechwriter to the Chairman and CEO of American Express. In 1983, she founded Eleanor Foa Associates (www.eleanorfoa.com). It provides a wide variety of corporate writing and marketing services. Eleanor is past president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), received speechwriting awards from IABC, and was awarded literary residencies at Yaddo, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA). She resides in Manhattan.  

I’m not normally given to nostalgia, but entering ICP’s new quarters on Essex Street (except the main entrance is on Ludlow) I found myself yearning for ICP’s earlier incarnations, especially its midtown space.  To begin…

What is one to make of Fotografiska New York, billed as a museum of photography as well as a gourmet dining and event space housed in a brilliantly renovated landmark building on Park Avenue South?…

Text and photos by Eleanor Foa Dienstag For some of us, it’s hard to believe that our recent past is already “history.” But two  lively exhibitions at the Museum of the City of New York…

Paname (slang for Paris), owned and operated by Restaurateur/Chef Bernard Ros, occupies a modest space between 56 and 57 Street on Second Avenue. A few years ago, when Ros found the place, he had the foresight…

This year’s Women’s March in New York was blessed with beautiful, sunny weather, after days of brutal cold. It made all of us feel as though someone was smiling down on us — more than 200,000…

There are shows and then there are blockbuster shows that only a major museum, like the Met, can envision, research, organize, and finance. Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer is one of those “once in a…

Text and Images by Eleanor Foa Dienstag If you are seeking a diversion from the horror of U.S. politics (as I was and am), I recommend a small exuberant exhibition at the Met Breuer focused…

I used to joke that, after a trip, when I returned to my East Side neighborhood in New York, I would walk around the block to see which store had closed. At first there were…