Yearly Archives: 2011

CLIMATE WEEK: REFLECTING THE STARS

“Reflecting the Stars” seeks to give the night sky back to the people (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Pier 49, Hudson River Park at Bank St.
Climate Week runs September 19-26
Through October 25, free
www.thewindmillfactory.com
www.climateweeknyc2011.org

Born and raised in Kentucky, Jon Morris couldn’t help but notice something as he moved to Los Angeles and then here to New York City: the disappearance of so many stars and constellations in big-city skies as a result of light pollution and other environmental problems. So he resolved to do something about it. He and his artists collective, the Windmill Factory (so named with more than a subtle nod to Don Quixote), which specializes in “manufacturing the sublime,” has installed “Reflecting the Stars” on the old pilings jutting out into the river from Pier 49 in Hudson River Park. Divers have attached radio-controlled, solar-powered LED lights encased in rusting steel pipe caps on more than two hundred of the wooden posts, and each evening, from sunset to midnight, blue and white lights go on and off in various patterns. In addition, visitors can push buttons on a board to see nine constellations that can are longer visible with the naked eye in the city sky, including Perseus, Hercules, Canis Major, Andromeda, Aquila, Boötes, Pegasus, the Little Dipper, and Draco. Engineered by Adam Berenzweig, designed by Rich Schwab, and manufactured by Andy Baker at Kontraptioneering, “Reflecting the Stars” is more than just a cool site — and one, by the way, that is that much cooler if you can gain access to one of the surrounding roof decks to look down on it. It also sends an important environmental message, a plea for people to take back nature and the skies from industrial pollution, particularly the lights left on all night in office buildings and the neon logos that blast across the city all night long. “It raises questions about the way we live,” Morris said at the project’s public unveiling on August 31. With a Buddhist’s calm, Morris stressed how people need to regain their “connection to the stars, to the moon, to the universe.”

“Reflecting the Stars,” which continues through October 25, is one of the highlights of Climate Week, as the Clean Revolution descends on New York September 19-26. Among the many lectures, panel discussions, installations, cocktail receptions, and other educational and informational gatherings are “The Lexicon of Sustainability Project,” “Innovations in Energy Efficiency Finance,” “Apartment Building Recycling Training,” “Plug-In Cities: What EV Means for the Future of Urban and Regional Transportation,” “Feeding Hope: Living Democracy with Vandana Shiva & Frances Moore Lappé,” “Dr. James Hansen: Climate Change or Just Mother Nature Acting Out,” and the grand finale, “Meditations on a Warming Planet: An Audience Participation Performance” on September 26 at 6:00 on the Sheep Meadow in Central Park.

NEW YORK CITY APPLE DAY

Orchard St. between Broome & Grand Sts.
Sunday, September 18, free, 11:00 – 4:30
www.lowereastsideny.com/events/nyc-apple-day

The apple is the official state fruit of New York, and the city will be celebrating that tasty delight at the annual New York City Apple Day festival. Held on September 18 on Orchard St., of course, the all-day event will be able to pick up all kinds of apples from upstate orchards, check out the Competitive Eaters-sanctioned National Apple Pie Eating Championship, and try apple treats from such vendors as 88 Orchard, An Choi, BabyCakes, Café Grumpy, Fatta Cuckoo, Georgia’s East Side BBQ, Katz’s, Melt, Mortgage Apple Cakes, the Roasting Plant, Roni-Sue’s Chocolates, Saxelby Cheesemongers, the Sweet Life, and many others. Sponsored by the Lower East Side Business Improvement District, New York City Apple Day also includes a running tour, children’s activities, glass demonstrations, and more.

BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL 2011

Jhumpa Lahiri will receive the BoBi (Best of Brooklyn) Award at this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival

Multiple venues in Brooklyn
Sunday, September 18, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
www.brooklynbookfestival.org

Three’s just something about Brooklyn that both raises many of the world’s best writers and lures them to the Borough of Kings to do their most insightful writing. On Sunday, more than 250 writers will come together for the sixth annual Brooklyn Book Festival, with panel discussions, signings, lectures, workshops, live performances, and other events taking place at Borough Hall, Columbus Park, St. Francis College, St. Ann’s Church, and the Brooklyn Historical Society. This year’s BoBi (Best of Brooklyn) Award goes to Jhumpa Lahiri, who will be at St. Ann’s at 2:00 to speak with Liesl Schillinger. Everything is free, although some of the events require advance ticketing available one hour before program time. Below are our top ten recommendations; other participants include Colson Whitehead, John Sayles, Lawrence Block, Susan Isaacs, Madison Smartt Bell, Edmund White, Alina Simone, DJ Spooky, Pete Hamill, Russell Banks, Nicole Krauss, Larry McMurtry, Jennifer Egan, Tom Perrotta, Cory Doctorow, Dean Haspiel, J Hoberman, Phillip Lopate, Nick Bertozzi, Rita Williams-Garcia, and many more.

Laugh Your Head Off: Teen beauty pageant contestant Mad Libs! with Jon Scieszka, Libba Bray, Paul Acampora, and Tommy Greenwald, moderated by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Youth Stoop, Borough Hall Plaza / Columbus Park, 10:00 am

The Phantom Tollbooth at 50: Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer in conversation with Leonard Marcus, St. Francis Auditorium, 180 Remsen St., tickets required, 12 noon

Epic Confusion: Readings and discussion with Nadia Kalman, Chuck Klosterman, and Sam Lipsyte, moderated by Tiphanie Yanique, St. Francis McArdle Hall, 180 Remsen St., 12 noon

Words of Personal: Readings by Jonathan Safran Foer, Joyce Carol Oates, and Nina Revoyr, followed by a Q&A moderated by Brigid Hughes, St. Francis Auditorium, 180 Remsen St., tickets required, 2:00

Gumshoes: Eoin Colfer and Walter Mosley, moderated by David L, Ulin, St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church, 157 Montague St., 3:00

Making Difficult Choices: Panel discussion with Cory Doctorow, Jacqueline Woodson, and Gayle Forman, moderated by Caragh O’Brien, Youth Stoop, Borough Hall Plaza / Columbus Park, 3:00

Comics Writ Large and Small: Panel discussion with Craig Thompson, Anders Nilsen, and Adrian Tomine, moderated by Meg Lemke, St. Francis Auditorium, 180 Remsen St., tickets required, 3:00

CATCH-22 at 50: Examining the classic novel with Tracy Daugherty, Bruce Jay Friedman, and Troupe, North Stage, Borough Hall Plaza / Columbus Park, 3:00

Where Are We? Panel discussion with Deborah Eisenberg, Fran Lebowitz, and Wallace Shawn, moderated by Harold Augenbraum, St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church, 157 Montague St., 4:00

Kickstarter Conversations: A Symposium on Creative Ideas with Ted Rall, Nelson George, and Meaghan O’Connell, moderated by Yancey Strickler, North Stage, Borough Hall Plaza / Columbus Park, 4:00

CRAIG THOMPSON: HABIBI

Multiple venues
September 17-20, free – $40
www.dootdootgarden.com
www.habibibook.com

Born in Traverse City, Michigan, and based in Portland, Oregon, graphic novelist Craig Thompson redefined the genre with his 2003 smash, Blankets, which won the prestigious Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz awards and is on nearly all lists of the greatest graphic novels ever. He has followed that massive tome with a new massive tome, Habibi (Pantheon, September 20, 2011, $35). Habibi is a gorgeously designed tour de force for Thompson, who tells the epic love story of a pair of child slave refugees seeking their place in a complex, changing world. The tale unfolds amid spectacularly detailed panels and spreads that include filigreed borders, Middle Eastern motifs, Islamic writing, and glorious illustration depicting exciting action, intimate moments, and the spiritual search for identity. Thompson will be making several appearances in New York over the next few days, beginning with tonight’s “An Evening with Craig Thompson” at Greenpoint’s WORD bookstore ($40, 8:00), a meet-and-greet bookend event of the Brooklyn Book Festival. He’ll be participating in two discussions at the festival on Sunday afternoon, “The Heart of the Matter: Stories of Epic Love” with Alan Cheuse and Julie Orringer, moderated by Jeffrey Lependorf, at 12 noon at the St. Francis Volpe Library, and the can’t-miss all-star panel “Comics Writ Large and Small” at 3:00 at St. Francis Auditorium with Anders Nilsen and Adrian Tomine, moderated by Meg Lemke (free tickets required). On Tuesday, September 20, he’ll be at Midtown Comics Downtown on Fulton St. for a signing from 12 noon to 2:00, followed that night at 7:00 by a signing and Q&A with Bill Kartalopoulos in the Strand’s Rare Book Room.

THE KITCHEN BLOCK PARTY

A Free Neighborhood Street Fair
West 19th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Saturday, September 17, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
212-255-5793
www.thekitchen.org

For forty years, the Kitchen has been presenting cutting-edge multidisciplinary art, theater, and dance. The nonprofit organization will kick off its fall season today with a block party on West 19th St. featuring family-friendly artist-led booths and activities, including face painting, mask making, temporary tattoos, cookie decorating, and more. Among the artists participating in the annual event are Michael Paul Britto + Elia Alba, Miles Bumbray, Nathan Carter, Francisca Chaidez-Gutierrez, Michael DeLucia, Torkwase Dyson, Jonathan Ehrenberg + Bryan Zanisnik, Escape Artist + Saintchic, Brent Green + Donna K, Simone Leigh + Chitra Ganesh, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya + Timothy Hull. There will be live music and dance performances by DJ Laylo and Eli Efi, Pegasus Warning, Olabunmi and the Hamana Djembe Orchestra, and others, while food will be provided by Asiadog, Chelsea Thai, Choncho’s Tacos, Coconut Rob, and Je & Jo. You can also venture inside the venerable institution to see the exhibitions “Joe Winter: The Stars Below” and “Jennie C. Jones: Absorb/Diffuse” and pick up tickets to such upcoming events as Wally Cardona, Jennifer Lacey, and Jonathan Bepler’s Tool Is Loot, Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabako’s more more more… future, and Anna Sperber’s FOREVERANDADAY.

COLLECTING MATISSE AND MODERN MASTERS: THE CONE SISTERS OF BALTIMORE

Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd St.
Thursday – Tuesday through September 25, $12 (free Saturdays 11:00 am – 5:45 pm)
212-423-3337
www.thejewishmuseum.org

Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone were highly unusual, both as women and as art collectors. Born in the Victorian era and active in early-twentieth-century European society, they were never concerned with what was popular or a good investment. Instead, the two Baltimore sisters bought art that they wanted to live with — and that created quite a stir, because others in the art world did not understand their eclectic, avant-garde, far-ranging tastes. Through September 25, the Jewish Museum is displaying the charming exhibit “Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore,” featuring fifty paintings, sculptures, and drawings by Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro, Theodore Robinson, and, primarily, Henri Matisse, among others, as well as jewelry, embroidery, textiles, and other objects from Asia and Africa that the sisters collected. An extensive collection of letters, diaries, postcards, photographs, and other archival documents grounds the exhibit and lends insight into the sisters’ fascinating lives; they counted among their friends Matisse (who would send them photos of works in progress to titillate them), Leo and Gertrude Stein, and other seminal figures of the time. The exhibit includes an enlightening BBC film about the sisters, narrated by Michael Palin, as well as a photo series of their Marlborough Apartments that depicts how they lived with their art. The daughters of German-Jewish immigrants who amassed a fortune in the textile industry, Claribel (1864-1929) became a medical doctor, while Etta (1870-1949) served as the large family’s caretaker. Models of Victorian refinement, neither of the sisters married. After Claribel died suddenly, Etta continued to maintain her apartment as if she were still alive. Upon Etta’s death, the entire collection was bequeathed to the Baltimore Museum of Art. Walking through this engaging exhibit is like taking a stroll through the lives of these wholly original women.

TWI-NY TALK: MARIA HASSABI

Maria Hassabi premiered SOLO at FIAF’s 2009 Crossing the Line Festival

Saturday, September 17, Crossing the Line Festival: Fiction & Non-Fiction, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, 972 Fifth Ave., free, 212-355-6100, 2:30 – 6:00
SHOW: The Kitchen, 512 West 19th St., November 3-5, $15, 212-255-5793, 8:00
www.fiaf.org/crossingtheline
www.thekitchen.org
www.mariahassabi.com

In such recent productions as Solo and SoloShow, dancer and choreographer Maria Hassabi has displayed a remarkable dexterity, her lithe body interacting with a rolled-up carpet or dangling off the edge of a black platform. When we saw her listed on the French Institute Alliance Française’s website as one of the participants of the free “Fiction & Non-Fiction” kickoff to the 2011 Crossing the Line Festival on September 17, we immediately scheduled an interview with her. Alas, in checking the website later, her scheduled site-specific performance around the Cultural Services of the French Embassy building on Fifth Ave. had disappeared. Does that mean the Cyprus-born Hassabi won’t be participating? Even without her, the lineup is extremely impressive, with works by Trajal Harrell & Perle Palombe, Kimberly Bartosik, Raimund Hoghe & Takashi Ueno, Roderick Murray, and others. (Be sure to get a drink at Prune Nourry’s “Spermbar.”) We’re still holding out hope that Hassabi, a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow and a New Yorker since 1994, has something special planned for the afternoon, which runs from 2:30 to 6:00.

This year’s Crossing the Line Festival, which continues through October 17, also features Nick van Woert’s “Terra Amata” exhibition at the FIAF Gallery, Xavier le Roy’s “More Mouvements für Lachenmann” at Florence Gould Hall, Bartosik’s “i like penises: a little something in 24 acts” at Danspace Project, Sophie Calle’s free site-specific “Room” installation at the Lowell Hotel, and Rachid Ouramdane’s “Ordinary Witnesses” and “World Fair” at New York Live Arts. Hassabi is definitely scheduled to present the world premiere of her latest piece, SHOW, November 3-5 at the Kitchen. Whether or not she’ll be part of tomorrow’s fête, we’re still delighted that she answered some questions for us, even if she did skip over the one about what she was planning for “Fiction & Non-Fiction.”

twi-ny: What is it that draws you to the Crossing the Line Festival?

Maria Hassabi: What draws me to this festival primarily is the two curators (Lili Chopra and Simon Dove). I admire and respect both of them. I love working and being in conversation with them, feel lucky to be part of what they do, and excited to see what they’ve curated.

twi-ny: Are there any particular performances you’re looking forward to seeing at the festival?

MH: The usual suspects, which in this case, performance-wise, means pretty much all. Sadly, I will be missing many of them as I will be out of town.

twi-ny: You premiered SOLO and SOLOSHOW at PS122, and in November you’ll be premiering SHOW at the Kitchen with frequent collaborator Hristoula Harakas and Will Rawls. What is it about Hristoula that makes her so compatible with your choreography?

MH: There are many of my frequent collaborators in SHOW, including Hristoula, Marcos Rosales, Scott Lyall, Joe Levasseur. I like working with the same people. With Hristoula, we have worked together since 2002. I treasure such a long-term collaboration, and Hristoula’s ethics of work are irreplaceable. Of course, she’s undoubtedly a gorgeous performer.

twi-ny: You are a remarkably flexible dancer. Do you have a special exercise regimen or a secret you’re willing to share?

MH: I was born flexible! Then I slept all the way until I went onstage! You know, muscle atrophy helps!