This week in New York Sam Lipsyte reads from The Ask, David Shields reads from Reality Hunger, the Magnetic Fields perform, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks reads, Lore Segal and Tao Lin engage in a panel discussion about the novella, Stephen Elliott holds a writing class, Philip Gourevitch, Francine Prose and Lewis Lapham explore natural and man-made calamities and Light Industry presents the films of Jon Moritsugu.
MONDAY: Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog, will be in conversation at 92Y. Her new play, The Book of Grace, premiers at the Public Theater this March. 92Y. Lexington Ave. @92nd St. 8:00pm.
TUESDAY: The Contemporary Art of the Novella, a panel with Lore Segal, Tao Lin and Kelly Burdick. The novella is an art of the in-between—not quite short story, not quite novel—and this Melville House series of books aims to highlight works that haven’t reached their full audience. The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction. 17 E. 47th. 6:30pm.
Illustrator Arthur Jones (with whom you can read a Rumpus Interview here), performs a Post-It Note reading, part of the eclectic series of the same name that pairs Jones with writers who perform a unique joint live reading/illustration presentation that will include stories by Jonathan Goldstein, Daniel Engber and one of his own forthcoming in the anthology Cassette from My Ex. KGB Bar. 84 E. 4th St. 7:00-9:30pm.
Light Industry presents two films (Der Elvis, and My Degeneration) by Jon Moritsugu, underground auteur who has produced a string of legendarily lo-fi films in the last two decades including Fame Whore, Mod Fuck Explosion and Scumrock. But his first feature may be his most severe work of material degradation, My Degeneration, tells the story of a teen-girl punk band who sell out to become guitar-thrashing shills for the American Beef Institute. Light Industry. 177 Livingston Street. 7:30pm.
The Secret Science Club presents “A Mind-Blowing Evening.” How are frightening and traumatic memories stored? Can fearful memories go “out of contol”? Neuroscientists Joseph LeDoux and Daniela Schiller explore these and other topics as they lecture on fear, memory and the brain. Then they jam with their “heavy mental” band, The Amygdaloids. The Bell House. 149 7th St. Free. 8pm.
WEDNESDAY: The Magnetic Fields perform at Town Hall. The Magnetic Fields are the music of songwriter- producer-instrumentalist Stephin Merritt, who lives and records in New York City. Adept at computer music programming and production, Merritt records his own albums and plays almost everything on them with help from cellist Sam Davol, banjo player/second guitarist John Woo, and percussionist/pianist Claudia Gonson. The Town Hall. $35. 8:00pm.
THURSDAY: Artist William Kentridge’s new production of The Nose is on stage at the Metropolitan Opera. If you miss Thursday’s performance, there are four more lined up. More Kentridge happenings in New York: a retrospective at MOMA.
Our own Stephen Elliott, author of seven books including the novel Happy Baby and the memoir The Adderall Diaries, presents a Memoir Class. Stephen Elliott will talk about writing from experience in both fiction and non-fiction and how to use our lives as framing devices for the stories we tell about ourselves and others. He’ll also talk about the dangers of writing from experience and overcoming the blocks caused by our fear of exposure. LGBT Center, 208 W. 13th St. 6:15 – 8:15pm.
Woods and Real Estate perform. Music Hall of Williamsburg. $13 advance. $15 day of. Doors at 8:00pm. Show at 9:00pm.
The Magnetic Fields perform at Town Hall.
FRIDAY: Sam Lipsyte reads from his new novel, The Ask, a new favorite at Powell’s. Reading at Book Court. 163 Court St. 7:00pm.
Book Party for David Shields (who was recently interviewed by the Rumpus), and whose book Reality Hunger was just released. The New School. 55 W. 13th St. 6:00-8:00pm.
The Magnetic Fields perform at Town Hall.
SATURDAY: Between Hope and History: When Disaster Strikes. Join Philip Gourevitch, David Rieff, Francine Prose, Jonathan Schell, Lewis Lapham and many others for an all-day symposium explore recent and continuing calamities, both man-made and natural, that continue to provoke profound and disturbing questions. Cantor Film Center. 36 E. 8th St. 11:00am – 6:00pm.
SUNDAY: Look into the schedule of the New Directors New Films 2010 festival at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The festival will run from March 24 – April 4.
ART: Healing the Wounds of War: The Brooklyn Sanitary Fair of 1864. This exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art presents a selection of artworks and historical objects celebrating the contributions of women to the mid-nineteenth-century Sanitary Movement, particularly the highly important Brooklyn and Long Island Sanitary Fair of 1864. The genesis of the exhibition was a rare doll from the Museum’s collection featuring an elaborate trousseau made by a woman named Eliza Lefferts and sold at the Brooklyn Sanitary Fair.
***
News about notable happenings in New York can be sent to rozalia-AT-therumpus.net
Original Notable New York Illustration © André da Loba
Other images in order of appearance: One of Arthur Jones’s Post-It Note illustrations for Joey Garfield’s story The Wrong Max; John Bock’s Fabric and Objects on view at Anton Kerr Gallery;
