Ars Nova Workshop presents renowned author and music critic Ben Ratlif, discussing his latest book Run the Song at Solar Myth on Thursday, April 10, 2025.

Best known for his two-decade tenure as jazz and pop critic for the New York Times, Ben Ratliff has also written about pop, jazz, traditional and experimental music for publications including Granta, Slate, Artforum, Wire, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian. His latest book, Run the Song: Writing About Running About Listening, ponders the connections between his daily morning runs and his listening. The book follows Ratliff as he runs through the woods, along the Hudson River, and into the lowlands of the Bronx; and encounters newly erected fences for an intended FEMA field hospital and demonstrations against racial violence. The soundtrack for his daily routine includes seventies soul, jazz, hardcore punk, string quartets, Éliane Radigue’s slow-change electronics, Carnatic singing, DJ sets, piano music of all kinds, Sade, Fred Astaire, and Ice Spice. Run the Song becomes the story of how a professional critic, frustrated with conventional modes of criticism, finds his way back to a deeper relationship with music.