Summary: How did a poor kid from Brooklyn escape life as a shipping clerk and instead become Mel Brooks? Even Mel Brooks isn’t too sure, but “If you’ve got your mother’s love,” he tells Kurt Andersen, “you can’t go wrong.” Meanwhile, jazz composer Darcy James Argue conjures another, imaginary Brooklyn in an epic work for big band that’s a “total sensory overload.” And we’ll see how architects have tried to heal the memory of trauma at buildings like Sandy Hook Elementary School.
