this week in literature

UNDER THE RADAR 2011

GOB SQUAD’S KITCHEN (YOU’VE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD) will be at La Mama January 6-8 during the seventh annual Under the Radar festival (photo by David Baltzer)

The Public Theater (and other venues)
425 Lafayette St. between East Fourth St. & Astor Pl.
January 5-16, $15-$30
212-967-7555
www.undertheradarfestival.com

The seventh annual Under the Radar: A Festival Tracking New Theater from Around the World features nineteen international productions, from the United States’ AMERIVILLE and LIVING IN EXILE to Belgium’s BONANZA, from Italy’s TOO LATE! ANTIGONE (CONTEST #2) to France’s VICE VERSA, from the UK’s THE INTERMINABLE SUICIDE OF GREGORY CHURCH to Slovenia/Latvia’s SHOW YOUR FACE! Several works investigate the nature of theater itself, including Vladimir Shcherban’s BEING HAROLD PINTER and Barry McGovern’s WATT BY SAMUEL BECKETT, while others feature such behind-the-scenes theater favorites as director JoAnne Akalaitis helming Nora York’s JUMP, about Sarah Bernhardt in Sardou’s TOSCA; Suzan-Lori Parks’s free WATCH ME WORK, in which the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright will literally work on her next project in the lobby of the Public Theater; and writer Taylor Mac’s THE WALK ACROSS AMERICA FOR MOTHER EARTH, a collaboration with the Talking Band that documents a cross-country antinuclear protest march. Other highlights include Reggie Watts’s multimedia collaboration with playwright Tommy Smith and journalist Brendan Kiley, DUTCH A/V; 2boys.tv’s PHOBOPHILIA, in which audiences will witness an interrogation in a secret location; and CORRESPONDENCES, a dance-theater piece in which Haitian/Malian Kettly Noël and South African Nelisiwe Xaba meet in person after having written to each other for a long time. While the Public Theater is home base for Under the Radar, there are also productions scheduled for HERE Arts Center, La MaMa, Dixon Place, the Abrons Arts Center, St. Ann’s Warehouse, and the Robert Moss Theater, in addition to several postshow discussions, a two-day symposium, festival lounges at the Chinatown Brasserie, and other special events.

JONATHAN LETHEM & JOHN HODGMAN: THEY LIVE

Jonathan Lethem and John Hodgman will discuss John Carpenter cult classic at IFC Center

IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at Third St.
Tuesday, December 21, 8:00
www.ifccenter.com

John Carpenter’s 1988 sci-fi horror comedy, THEY LIVE, puts on sunglasses to reveal corporations’ and government’s subliminal control of the populace, then brings in wrestling star Rowdy Roddy Piper (HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN) as John Nada to try to save the day from a growing force of aliens. The cult classic, which also stars Keith David (THE THING), who gets into one of the great all-time movie fights with Piper, takes on social consciousness and public responsibility; “Homelessness and poverty aren’t just happening to one kind of person these days,” Carpenter (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, HALLOWEEN, ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13) said when the film was released. THEY LIVE is being screened December 21 at the IFC Center in conjunction with the publication of Jonathan Lethem’s (MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN, THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE) monograph on the film, DEEP FOCUS: THEY LIVE (Soft Skull, November 2010, $13.95). “THEY LIVE,” Lethem writes in the book, “lends itself to obsession. Howlingly blatant and obvious on many levels — some might ask, How many levels do you really think there are? — it grows marvelously slippery and paradoxical at its depths.” Lethem will be on hand to discuss the depths of the film with DAILY SHOW correspondent and fellow author John Hodgman (THE AREAS OF MY EXPERTISE, MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE) in what promises to be a rather unique event.

CLEMENT C. MOORE PARK

People gather every Christmas Eve in Clement C. Moore Park to read his holiday classic, “The Night Before Christmas” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Sunday, December 19, Church of the Intercession, 550 West 155th St. at Broadway, free, 4:00
Friday, December 24, Clement C. Moore Park, West 22nd St. at Tenth Ave., free
www.nycgovparks.org
www.audubonparkperspectives.com

On Christmas Eve, 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the holiday poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” for his wife and children, who lived on an estate called Chelsea in the neighborhood that later became the Chelsea of today. A native New Yorker, Moore (1779–1863) has two city parks named after him, the half-acre Clement C. Moore Park on Tenth Ave. & 22nd St. and the Clement Clarke Moore Homestead in Newtown, Queens. Every Christmas Eve, people gather at the Chelsea park to read Moore’s famous story, which is better known as “The Night Before Christmas,” right near where it was written. Although Moore is most closely associated with Christmas, he also compiled a Hebrew lexicon and was fluent in six languages. The Moore mansion itself was located at what is now a doctor’s office at 420 West 23rd St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves. Moore is buried in Trinity Cemetery in Audubon Park, where, on Sunday, December 19, actor Malik Yoba will read Moore’s most famous poem in the Church of the Intercession, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the public reading, which will be followed by a lantern-lit procession and wreath-laying ceremony. “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

STEVEN BLUSH: AMERICAN HARDCORE

The Strand
828 Broadway at 12th St.
Wednesday, December 15, free, 7:00
212-473-1452
www.americanhardcorebook.com

Steven Blush has been part of the American hardcore scene since the early 1980s, promoting shows, starting music magazines, writing the definitive book on the subject, 2001’s AMERICAN HARDCORE: A TRIBAL HISTORY, and writing and producing the 2006 documentary of the same name. He is on tour now with the second edition of the book, having expanded every chapter and added a new one, stretching it from 328 to 408 pages with new art, new interviews, and new subjects. Blush will be at the Strand tonight with Dave Smalley (Dag Nasty, Descendents) and author Laura Albert, better known as controversial writer JT Leroy, discussing the past, present, and future of American hardcore, which Blush famously declared was dead in 1986. In celebration of the second edition of the book, Blush has given us one of the great holiday presents ever, a website that offers twenty-four hours of hardcore, consisting of 911 free, downloadable songs from familiar, forgettable, and hard-to-find groups, an unbelievable collection that you can find here.

CAROLEE SCHNEEMAN — BOOK RELEASE EVENT!

Carolee Schneeman will introduce MEAT JOY and other short works at Anthology Film Archives on December 16 in celebration of the publication of her letters

Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. at Second St.
Thursday, December 16, 7:30
212-505-5181
www.anthologyfilmarchives.org
www.dukeupress.edu

American performance artist Carolee Schneeman has been shaking up the art world since the late 1950s, staging happenings and making short films in which she bares it all in shocking, controversial ways, holding nothing back. Among her many works are FUSES, MEAT JOY, MORTAL COILS, and VULVA’S MORPHIA, which investigate such themes as erotics, kinetics, dreams, war, and cats. Born in Pennsylvania in 1939, Schneeman has opened up a fascinating aspect of her life in the new book CORRESPONDENCE COURSE: AN EPISTOLARY HISTORY OF CAROLEE SCHNEEMAN AND HER CIRCLE (Duke University Press, November 2010, $99.95 hardcover, $29.95 paperback), allowing Duke University professor Kristine Stiles to publish letters that Schneeman has kept throughout her career. “The letters were edited and selected for how they document charged personal and artistic struggles, arguments, and displays of ego; how they illuminate internecine aesthetic politics, conflicting ethics, and values; and how countless mundane activities constitute the exasperating vicissitudes of making art, building an artistic reputation, and negotiating an industry as unpredictable and demanding as the art world in the mid-to-late twentieth century,” Stiles writes in the preface. “For her part, Schneeman discusses financial dilemmas; grapples with her career; shares her success, joy, and love; and contends with loneliness, aging, and disappointment.” Schneeman will celebrate the publication of the book on Thursday, December 16, at Anthology Film Archives, where she will introduce and screen FUSES, MEAT JOY, KITCH’S LAST MEAL, ASK THE GODDESS, and MYSTERIES OF THE PUSSIES and discuss her work and career in what should be quite an unusual evening.

DRAW BOOK RELEASE PARTY

Karen O’s “So Trashed” is among the many works collected in DRAW

Fuse Gallery
93 2nd Ave between Fifth & Sixth Sts.
Wednesday, December 15, free, 7:00 – 10:00
212-777-7988
www.fusegallerynyc.com

In October 2006, Erik Foss and Curse Mackey curated “Draw,” an exhibition at Fuse Gallery of drawings by illustrators, skateboarders, animators, graphic novelists, musicians, tattoo artists, and others. The show traveled to Austin, London, San Francisco, and, most recently, Mexico City, where El Museo de la Ciudad de México has put together the catalog with curator Miguel Calderon. On December 15, Fuse will host a party for the launch of the book, making one hundred advance copies available for a mere $25, with posters going for $10. The 256-page book features drawings by such artists and musicians as Raymond Pettibon, Tom Sachs, Chris Johanson, Terence Koh, Dan Colen, Swoon, Ozzy Osbourne, DAZE, Karen O, R. Crumb, HR Giger, Clive Barker, Barry McGee, Rick Griffin, Ron English, Neck Face, David Byrne, Hank Williams III, WK Interact, Doze Green, Tara McPherson, Les Claypool, and Shawn Barber. Also on view in the gallery is Benjamin Bertocci’s “Stutter.”

WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE? A NIGHT WITH GENE WILDER

Gene Wilder will be interviewed by his wife, Karen, at special evening at the JCC

JCC in Manhattan
334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St.
Wednesday, December 15, $15, 8:00
646-505-4444
www.jccmanhattan.org

Comic actor Gene Wilder, who made his film debut in BONNIE AND CLYDE and went on to star in such hits as THE PRODUCERS, BLAZING SADDLES, and WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, is also the author of such books as KISS ME LIKE A STRANGER: MY SEARCH FOR LOVE AND ART, THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN’T, and MY FRENCH WHORE. His latest, WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE? (St. Martin’s, March 2010, $19.99), features a dozen stories about love and romance, including “The Lady with the Red Hat,” “The Flirt,” and “My Old Flame.” In the prelude, Wilder admits, “Apart from the 1929 Cole Porter song, this is a ridiculous title and I know it; sounds a little like some egotistical guru telling the rest of the world about love and lovemaking and broken hearts.” Wilder’s goal, instead, is to give readers “a little pleasure and a laugh.” He’ll be looking to do all that and more on December 15 at the JCC in Manhattan, when he’ll be interviewed by his wife, Karen, about love and other topics in a special event held in conjunction with the Center for Hearing and Communication.