this week in literature

THE BROOKLYN COMICS AND GRAPHICS FESTIVAL

The charming Galit Seliktar will be signing copies of her highly praised FARM 54, written with her brother, Gilad, at the Fanfare / Potent Mon booth at 4:00 & 7:00 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church
275 North Eighth St. at Havemeyer St.
Saturday, December 3, free, 12 noon – 9:00
www.comicsandgraphicsfest.com

The third annual Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival returns today to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Williamsburgh, featuring an impressive lineup of guests, exhibitors, and special events from 12 noon to 9:00. Admission is free to see such industry favorites as Chip Kidd, David Mazzuchelli, Adrian Tomine, John Porcellino, Sam Henderson, Mark Newgarden, Lisa Hanawalt, Kim Deitch, Brian Ralph, Gary Panter, Dash Shaw, and MAD’s Jack Davis, along with such exhibitors as Acti-i-vate, Drawn & Quarterly, Fanfare / Potent Mon, Fantagraphics, the Jack Kirby Museum, Rabid Rabbit, Top Shelf, and dozens of others. Programming highlights include a Q&A with Davis at 1:30, a “Gestural Aesthetics” panel at 2:30 with Austin English, Dunja Jankovic, and Frank Santoro, moderated by Bill Kartalopoulos (who, with Desert Island and PictureBox, created the festival), “Chip Kidd and David Mazzuchelli: Comics by Design” at 3:30, also moderated by Kartalopoulos, “Phoebe Gloeckner: A Life and Other Stories” at 5:00 with Gloeckner and Nicole Rudick, “The Language in Comics” at 6:00 with Porcellino, Gabrielle Bell, and David Sandlin, moderated by Myla Goldberg, and “C.F. and Brian Ralph in Conversation” at 7:00, moderated by Tom Spurgeon. In conjunction with the festival, a film series continues through Sunday at the Spectacle Theater on South Third St., with the Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation showcase at 7:30 and The Idea (Berthold Bartosch, 1932) and The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Lotte Reiniger, 1926), with live music by Chips and Salsa, at 9:30 ($5 per screening, $8 for both). In addition, “Pictures and Performance: A Melodrama,” consisting of multimedia works by Kartalopoulos, Ben Katchor, Shana Moulton, R. Sikoryak, and others, will take place at the Brick Theater at 3:00 on Sunday (free admission).

FIRST SATURDAY: YOUTH AND BEAUTY

Luigi Lucioni, “Paul Cadmus,” oil on canvas, 1928, part of “Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties” (Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, December 3, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

Don’t be fooled by the theme of this month’s First Saturday party at the Brooklyn Museum. It might be called “Youth and Beauty,” but you can expect an old-fashioned good time, as it refers to the Eastern Parkway institution’s new exhibit subtitled “Art of the American Twenties,” featuring works by such artists as Thomas Hart Benton, Edward Hopper, Gaston Lachaise, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Alfred Stieglitz. On tap for the free evening is jazz and blues from Hazmat Modine (5:00 to 7:00), a 1920s costume contest (5:30), a collaboration between spoken-word artists and musicians and tap dancer Lisa La Touche that references the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance (5:30), curator Catherine Morris discussing “Eva Hesse Spectres 1960” (6:00), ballroom dance lessons from Nathan Bugh, including the Charleston and the Lindy Hop (6:00), a painting workshop (6:30 – 8:30), a tour of “Youth and Beauty” with museum guide Emily Sachar (7:00), a dance party hosted by the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra (8:00 – 10:00), Farah Griffin discussing Wallace Thurman’s 1929 book, The Blacker the Berry (9:00), and a bodybuilding showcase hosted by Phil Sottile (9:00). The young and the beautiful can always be found at the Brooklyn Museum on First Saturdays, but this month more than ever.

DON DeLILLO AND PAUL AUSTER FOR GRANTA 117: HORROR

Union Square B&N
33 East 17th St.
Tuesday, November 29, free, 7:00
212-253-0810
www.granta.com
www.barnesandnoble.com

Two of America’s finest novelists have taken a foray into a different genre for them in the latest issue of the British literary journal Granta: The Magazine of New Writing. Don DeLillo (White Noise, Mao II) and Paul Auster (Leviathan, The Music of Chance) have contributed spooky tales to the horror issue, along with such other writers as Mark Doty, Sarah Hall, Will Self, D. A. Powell, and the master himself, Stephen King. Auster’s “Your Birthday Has Come and Gone,” excerpted from his upcoming memoir and written in the second person, deals with the death of his mother, while DeLillo’s “The Starveling” is a modern noir set in New York City. DeLillo and Auster will read from and discuss their stories, and the horror genre, at the Union Square Barnes & Noble on Tuesday night at 7:00, with priority seating given to people who buy a copy of Granta 117.

SEE YOU NEXT WEDNESDAY: 8 FILMS BY JOHN LANDIS

THE BLUES BROTHERS is part of eight-film BAMcinématek tribute to John Landis

BAMcinématek
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
November 21-30
212-415-5500
www.bam.org

Film enthusiast, historian, theorist, actor, and writer-director John Landis made some of the seminal comedies of the 1970s and ’80s, particularly a five-film streak that began in 1977 with The Kentucky Fried Movie and continued with National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978), The Blues Brothers (1980), An American Werewolf in London (1981), and Trading Places (1983), followed by the underrated Into the Night (1985). He’s also made such guilty pleasures as 1986’s ¡Three Amigos! (you know you don’t change the channel when you find it on cable) and the 1992 vampire flick Innocent Blood, but he’s directed only one feature film since 1998, the 2010 comedy Burke and Hare. BAMcinématek is honoring the Chicago-born, L.A.-raised auteur with an eight-film tribute in conjunction with the release of his latest book, Monsters in the Movies (DK Adult, September 2011, $40), that begins today with two screenings of Animal House sandwiching a 6:50 showing of Into the Night that will be followed by a Q&A and book signing with Landis, who will be back tomorrow for a Q&A and signing after the 7:00 screening of The Blues Brothers, which is still a riot after all these years. The tribute continues on Wednesday with the very funny — and currently extremely relevant yet again — Trading Places, with one-percenter-wannabe Dan Aykroyd changing positions with ninety-nine-percenter Eddie Murphy. The series concludes next week with a pair of double features, ¡Three Amigos! and Coming to America (1988) on November 29 and the always welcome An American Werewolf in London and the 1982 documentary Coming Soon on November 30. Oh, and keep an eye out for a reference to “See you next Wednesday,” which makes a Hitchockian appearance in nearly every one of Landis’s films.

SUPER SABADO: CUÉNTAME! CELEBRATING ORAL HISTORY

Emeline Michel will perform a special concert as part of El Museo del Barrio’s free Super Sabado on November 19

FREE THIRD SATURDAYS
El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Ave. at 104th St.
Saturday, November 19, free, 11:00 am – 9:00 pm
212-831-7272
www.elmuseo.org

November 19 is the third Saturday of the month, which means that admission to El Museo del Barrio is free all day. It also means there will be a slate of special activities, this month focusing on oral history, beginning at 11:00 with the hands-on program “Artexplorers & Artmaking,” which continues through 3:00. From 12 noon till 3:00, you can share your favorite dicho (expression) as part of “Say Quesooooo!” At noon and 2:00 in El Café, you can sing along with Bilingual Birdies and playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes (In the Heights, Water by the Spoonful). At 4:00, Haitian singer-songwriter Emeline Michel will perform an hour-long show in El Teatro in conjunction with the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series. From 4:00 to 6:00, poet Caridad de la Luz “La Bruja” will lead a spoken-word workshop for teens. And at 7:00, “Speak Up!” features María Morales hosting spoken-word performances by Anthony Morales, Nancy-Arroyo Ruffin, Jennifer “Skye” Cabrera, and Maegan Ortiz. In addition, there will be tours of the museum’s two current exhibits, “Voces y Visiones: Signs, Systems & the City” and “El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files 2011.” And be sure to come hungry, because there’s always something interesting cooking in El Café.

SELECTED SHORTS: MIRANDA JULY PRESENTS IT CHOOSES YOU

Symphony Space, Peter Jay Sharp Theatre
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
Wednesday, November 16, $15-$27, 7:00
212-864-5400
www.symphonyspace.org
www.mirandajuly.com

In her second feature-length film, The Future, writer-director-star Miranda July extensively researched PennySaver ads to develop a major plot point — and even discovered Joe Putterlik, who played an important role in the indie flick. The author of the delightful short-story collection No one belongs here more than you., July has turned her PennySaver adventures into It Chooses You (McSweeney’s, November 15, 2011, $24), a book that details her adventures tracking down some of the people who advertise in the paper, accompanied by photographs by Brigitte Sire. “Tuesday was the day the PennySaver booklet was delivered,” July writes early on. “It came hidden among the coupons and other junk mail. I read it while I ate lunch, and then, because I was in no hurry to get back to not writing, I usually kept reading it straight through to the real estate ads in the back. I carefully considered each item — not as a buyer, but as a curious citizen of Los Angeles. Each listing was like a very brief newspaper article. News flash: someone in LA is selling a jacket. The jacket is leather. It is also large and black. The person thinks it is worth ten dollars. But the person is not very confident about that price, and is willing to consider other, lower prices. I wanted to know more things about what this leather-jacket person thought, how they were getting through the days, what they hoped, what they feared — but none of that information was listed. What was listed was the person’s phone number.” The multimedia performance artist, whose interactive “Eleven Heavy Things” filled Union Square Park back in the summer of 2010, will be at Symphony Space on November 16 for a special presentation of the “Selected Shorts” series, performing selections from It Chooses You with Olga Merediz, Adrian Martinez, and Tom Bloom. July is an endearing, engaging figure, so it should make for a memorable event. The evening will begin with Betty Gilpin reading Hannah Pittard’s “Orion’s Belt.” (July will also be reading from and signing copies of It Chooses You at BookCourt in Brooklyn on November 15 at 7:00.)

FIRST SATURDAY — SANFORD BIGGERS: SWEET FUNK—AN INTROSPECTIVE

Sanford Biggers, “Calenda (Big Ass Bang!),” pure pigment, mirrored disco ball, 2004 (courtesy of the artist and Michael Klein Arts, New York)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, November 5, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The exhibition “Sanford Biggers: Sweet Funk—An Introspective” is at the center of the Brooklyn Museum’s free First Saturday program for November, focusing on the sociocultural, history-laden work of the L.A.-born, New York-based multidisciplinary artist, who will be on hand to give an artist talk at 8:00. The evening also includes live performances by Navegante, Ninjasonik, Kanene Holder (400 Years of GRRRRRR), and Imani Uzuri, a screening of Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, an artist talk with Matthew Buckingham about his installation “The Spirit and the Letter,” a curator talk with Teresa Carbone on “Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties,” a book club talk and signing with Paul Beatty (The White Boy Shuffle), and a dance party hosted by DJ Rich Medina with Jump N Funk paying tribute to Fela Kuti, Afrobeat, and world music. Among the other exhibitions on view are “Raw/Cooked: Kristof Wickman,” “Lee Mingwei: ’The Moving Garden,’” “Eva Hesse Spectres 1960,” “Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: The Latino List,” “reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio,” and “Split Second: Indian Paintings.”