this week in literature

SEYMOUR CHWAST: THE DIVINE COMEDY

Designer and illustrator Seymour Chwast reinterprets Dante’s DIVINE COMEDY in new graphic novel

Society of Illustrators
138 East 63rd St.
Friday, September 24, $10-$20, 6:30
www.societyillustrators.org
www.pushpininc.com

Longtime commercial designer and illustrator Seymour Chwast enters the world of the graphic novel with his original take on a complex classic, DANTE’S DIVINE COMEDY (Bloomsbury, September 2010, $20). Adapted from Dante Alighieri’s fourteenth-century foray into the nine circles of hell, Chwast’s black-and-white tale follows Dante, depicted as a tall, thin, pipe-smoking noir writer in hat, trenchcoat, and sunglasses, and Virgil, a short, stout, mustached man in dark suit and hat who walks with a cane. As the pair make their way through thirty-three cantos of Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise, they come upon Captain Charon, who ferries the dead across the River Acheron; souls boiling in tar; an angel that carves peccatums on Dante’s forehead; sinners engulfed in flames; and sowers of discord who are repeatedly stabbed by a devil. Also among the punished are falsifiers of metals, blasphemers, thieves, the unshriven, the avaricious, the gluttons, and the lustful. Chwast’s interpretation of Dante is indeed divine and comic, a playful retelling filled with humor and light horror. Chwast, who is seventy-nine and known as the Left-Handed Designer, will be at the Society of Illustrators on September 24 for a lecture, book launch, and reception celebrating the release of this delightfully devilish hardcover.

PETER ORLOVSKY MEMORIAL READING

The Poetry Project will honor the life and work of Peter Orlovsky, longtime partner of Allen Ginsberg, at free event at the Poetry Project on September 22 (photo by Ludwig Urnig)

The Poetry Project, St. Marks Church
131 East Tenth St. at Second Ave.
Wednesday, September 22, free, 8:00
212-674-0910
www.poetryproject.org

On May 30, Beat Generationer Peter Orlovsky died of lung cancer at the age of seventy-six. Although most well known as the longtime on-and-off partner of Allen Ginsberg, New York City native Orlovsky was a poet in his own right. “Make my grave shape of heart so like a flower be free aired & handsome felt, / Grave root pillow, tung up from grave & wiggle at blown up clowd,” he wrote in 1958’s “Snail Poem.” Orlovsky also taught at the Naropa Institute’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, was an army medic in the Korean War, and appeared in several Robert Frank films, including the classic short PULL MY DAISY and ME AND MY BROTHER, which dealt with Peter’s mentally troubled brother, Julius. On September 22, a large group of friends and admirers will gather at the Poetry Project to pay tribute to Orlovsky, reading from such works as CLEAN ASSHOLE POEMS AND SMILING VEGETABLE SONGS, STRAIGHT HEARTS’ DELIGHT: LOVE POEMS AND SELECTED LETTERS, and LEPERS CRY; among those scheduled to participate in the free event are Chuck Lief, Philip Glass, Ed Sanders, Steven Taylor, Hal Willner, Janine Pommy Vega, Andy Clausen, Patti Smith, Anne Waldman, Gordon Ball, Rosebud Pettet, Simon Pettet, Bill Morgan, Anselm Berrigan, and John Godfrey.

PUBLIC ART FUND TALKS: RYAN GANDER

Ryan Gander’s “The Happy Prince” will tantalize passersby through April 2011 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The New School, Tishman Auditorium
66 West 12th St. between University Pl. & Sixth Ave.
Thursday, September 16, $10, 6:30
212-223-7805
www.publicartfund.org
“the happy prince” opening slideshow

In describing British artist Ryan Gander and his “Passengers: 1.3” 2007 exhibit at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, CCA director Jens Hoffman wrote, “Gander’s works are uncommonly hard to decipher. He sends us on a journey that is less about trying to arrive at an intellectual understanding and more about engaging in a form of detective work, which is often linked to the history of larger social structures and their relationships to the human condition. He lays out the evidence and asks us to study it carefully, connecting the different elements and forming our own personal relationship with them.” Hoffman’s perfect summation can also be applied to Gander’s latest piece, his first commissioned public sculpture, “The Happy Prince,” which went on view yesterday at Doris C. Freedman Plaza at the beginning of Central Park on 60th St. & Fifth Ave.

Ryan Gander will be giving one of his “Loose Associations” PowerPoint performance-lectures at the New School on September 16 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Using glass-reinforced concrete, Gander has brought to life the end of Oscar Wilde’s 1888 absurdist fairy tale about a gilded statue of the Happy Prince, which goes from being “as beautiful as a weathercock” to “little better than a beggar” after a severe frost. Ever the visual storyteller, Gander incorporates many elements of the tale into his sculpture, including the Swallow, the prince’s crown, and his heart, all of which can be found within the rubble with some detective work. The sculpture not only comments on public art and monuments but also relates to Central Park and New York itself, a proud city that has more than its fair share of princes and beggars. Gander, whose “Intervals” site-specific installation opens at the Guggenheim on October 1, will be presenting one of his famed “Loose Associations” illustrated performance-lectures at the New School on September 16 as part of the Public Art Fund Talks series, in which he combines text and images in unique ways via PowerPoint.

PETER YARROW BENEFIT CONCERT

Peter Yarrow will perform a benefit concert for the Museum at Eldridge Street on September 20

Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge St. between Canal & Division Sts.
Monday, September 20, $36, 7:00
RSVP: 212-219-0888 ext205, hgriff@eldridgestreet.org
www.eldridgestreet.org
www.peterpaulandmary.com

As one-third of the folksinging trio Peter, Paul & Mary, Peter Yarrow sang such seminal songs as “If I Had a Hammer,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” “All My Trials,” “500 Miles,” and, of course, “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” a mix of traditional and original tunes that played an important role in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Sadly, Mary Travers passed away in September 2009 from complications arising from her chemotherapy treatment for leukemia, but Yarrow is still keeping the flame burning, founding the nonprofit group Operation Respect, which works “to assure each child and youth a respectful, safe and compassionate climate of learning where their academic, social and emotional development can take place free of bullying, ridicule and violence”; displaying public outrage when Chip Saltsman sent “Barack the Magic Negro,” an insensitive reworking of Peter, Paul & Mary’s “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” to members of the RNC; and participating in the fight against colon cancer through his 2010 tune “The Colonoscopy Song.” He has also written or been part of a number of children’s books, including THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, set for release November 15 and featuring the final performance ever by Travers, singing to a new score of the title track by Yarrow. The Christmas book serves as the perfect lead-in to Yarrow’s latest project, a September 20 benefit concert raising funds for the Museum at Eldridge Street, site of a historic Lower East Side synagogue that is being lovingly restored. Tickets are only $36, with all proceeds going to the museum’s extensive cultural and educational programs.

LIVE FROM THE NYPL

Derek Walcott will deliver the Robert B. Silvers Lecture on December 3 at the New York Public Library

New York Public Library
Celeste Bartos Forum
11 West 40th St. at Fifth Ave.
Tickets go on sale Monday, September 13, at 10:00 am
Series runs September 20 – December 4
212-930-0855
www.nypl.org

Season tickets for the New York Public Library’s always exciting Live from the NYPL series go on sale September 13. This year’s all-star lineup includes Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, Jonathan Lethem, Antonia Fraser, Edwidge Danticat, Zadie Smith, Derek Walcott, Ruth Reichl, Nicole Krauss, the Moth, W. S. Merwin, and Angela Davis in conversation with Toni Morrison, among others. There are also two very special musical guests, Keith Richards on October 29 and Jay-Z on November 15, for which tickets will be announced via an e-mail blast only.

NEW YORKER FESTIVAL

Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg will kick off the New Yorker Festival with a screening of their new film THE SOCIAL NETWORK, which will be followed by a Q&A with the two stars and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin

Multiple venues
October 1-3
Tickets: $25-$150 (most events $25-$35)
www.newyorker.com/festival

And they’re off! The race to get the hottest tickets to this year’s New Yorker Festival will begin September 10 at 12 noon, as literary snobs, wanna-be writers, and the glitterati battle it out to see conversations, lectures, book readings, live music, panel discussions, film screenings, and other events featuring such stars as Steve Carell, James Taylor, Justin Timberlake, Lorrie Moore, Yo-Yo Ma, Stephen King, Regina Spektor, Paul Goldberger, Ian Frazier, Neil Gaiman, Patricia Clarkson, Michael Chabon and Zadie Smith, David Simon, mumblecore masters Andrew Bujalski, Greta Gerwig, and Joe Swanberg, and many others. Good luck getting tickets for “Living History,” in which Peter Carey, E. L. Doctorow, and Annie Proulx share their thoughts with moderator Simon Schama; Paul Reubens talking about life, with Susan Morrison; Werner Herzog telling tales with Judith Thurman; Calvin Trillin’s annual tasting walk from Greenwich Village to Chinatown; a private tour of the Frick with Peter Schjeldahl; and “The Cartoon Caption Game,” in which audience members participate in a live caption-writing contest in the Condé Nast executive dining room.

HOWL! FESTIVAL 2010

Live painting surrounds Tompkins Square Park during Howl! Festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Tompkins Square Park
Ave. A between Seventh & Tenth Sts.
September 10-12
Admission: free
www.howlfestival.com

The on-and-off Howl! Festival, celebrating the seminal work by Allen Ginsberg, is back in Tompkins Square Park this weekend, with free events September 10-12 on two stages, beginning with the group reading of “Howl” on Friday at 5:00, featuring Anne Waldman, John Giorno, Jennifer Blowdryer, Steve Dalachinsky, Mariposa, and many more, emceed by Bob Holman. Saturday and Sunday will include live art installations, yoga, a circus, Butoh dance, performance art, a musical tribute to Arthur Russell, poetry readings, and other very cool events, culminating with the “House of Howl!” variety show and “Low Life 4: Beat Girl.”