this week in literature

MASTER CLASS WITH ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY

Eclectic iconoclast Alejandro Jodorowsky will lead a seminar at the Museum of Arts & Design on September 25

ART AS A WAY OF TRANSFORMATION
Museum of Arts & Design
2 Columbus Circle at 58th St. & Broadway
Saturday, September 25, $60-$85, 3:00
212-299-7777
www.madmuseum.org
www.clubcultura.com

The Museum of Arts & Design is quickly becoming a major player in the world of independent, foreign, and avant-garde film in the city. In July, they presented “Zombo Italiano: The Italian Zombie Film Movement, 1972-1985,” which included screenings of works by George A. Romero, Lucio Fulci, Lamberto Bava, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Later this month, they are featuring the hypnotic, surreal films of one of the twentieth century’s most bizarre characters in the series “Blood into Gold: The Cinematic Alchemy of Alejandro Jodorowsky.” While the museum will be screening such cult favorites as EL TOPO, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, and SANTA SANGRE, the premier event will be a master class with the Chilean-born Mexican filmmaker, who is also a prolific playwright, poet, puppeteer, performance artist, psychoshaman, philosopher, comic-book writer (with Moebius), composer, mime, novelist, musician, tarot interpreter, and anarchist. The eighty-one-year-old Jodorowsky will be focusing on “the power of film and art, with attention given to art-making as a means for enlightenment.” Advance registration is a must, as space is extremely limited, so sign up quickly to be part of what should be an eye-opening experience.

CROSSING THE LINE 2010

Ryoji Ikeda’s “datamatics (ver. 2.0)” kicks off FIAF’s Crossing the Line festival on September 10-11

FIAF FALL FESTIVAL
French Institute Alliance Française and other locations
Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Le Skyroom and FIAF Gallery, 22 East 60th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
September 10-27, free- $45
212-355-6160
www.fiaf.org/crossingtheline

The fourth annual Crossing the Line Festival, a multidisciplinary international celebration consisting of cutting-edge music, dance, film, theater, art, photography, lectures, and even a fair, will take place September 10-27 at FIAF as well as such other venues as the Joyce, the Invisible Dog Art Center, 3rd Ward, the Red Hook Community Farm, Dance Theater Workshop, Columbia University, the ISSUE Project Room, and Anthology Film Archives. Ryoji Ikeda kicks off the festival with “datamatics [ver. 2.0],” in which the Japanese artist and composer uses computer data, an electronic score, and strobes to present a visually dynamic performance; Ikeda’s multimedia installation “the transcendental” will be on view in the FIAF Gallery for free from September 11 through October 16. There will be a pair of exciting site-specific performance pieces, with locations to be announced, with Arthur Nauzyciel’s HETERO running September 11-14 and Daniel Pettrow’s THE SEA MUSEUM scheduled for September 18-19. Former Pina Bausch dramaturg Raimund Hoghe and Congolese dancer-choreographer Faustin Linyekula team up on September 16-18, Buddhist monk and teacher Matthieu Ricard sits down with Philip Glass on September 13 to engage in a “Conversation on Contemplation and Creativity,” and Willi Dorner will lead “Bodies in Urban Spaces,” a pair of free performance walks in Lower Manhattan scheduled for sunrise on September 27 and sunset on September 27. In addition, “Farm City: Where Are You Growing?” will explore urban agriculture around the city with a fair, film screenings, a farm tour, and an afternoon forum. The festival will also include performances and appearances by Jérôme Bel, Bertrand Bonello, Bouchra Ouizguen, Richard Garet, and Eliane Radigue. Tickets for the 2010 edition of Crossing the Line are on sale now; please note that some of the free events require advance RSVPs.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Sam Lipsyte will kick off the Center for Fiction’s fall season on September 10 with Jess Walter

The Center for Fiction
17 East 47th St.
September 10 – December 16, free – $10
212-755-6710
www.centerforfiction.org

The Center for Fiction, previously known as the Mercantile Library, has been celebrating the written word since 1820. The nonprofit organization, which tends to operate somewhat under the radar, regularly hosts wonderful events in its intimate reading room, most of them free, others ranging between $8 and $10 (or a book donation to the center’s Books for NYC Schools program), all requiring advance RSVP. The group’s fall Meet the Author series gets under way September 10 as Sam Lipsyte and Jess Walter contemplate the comic novel, followed on September 22 with “Conjugal Lit,” a panel discussion with Lore Segal, Gary Giddins, Brenda Wineapple, and Stephen Koch, moderated by James Marcus. Among the other featured events are “A Literary Friendship” with Matthew Sharpe and Linh Dinh on October 7, Francine Prose on October 13, Eileen Myles on October 28, S. J. Rozan on November 9, Jennifer Egan on November 10, Louis Begley on November 10, and Oscar Hijuelos and Carlos Eire on the Cuba-Miami Connection on December 16.

BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL

Don’t get washed out of getting tickets to see Pina Bausch’s VOLLMOND at BAM (photo by Laurent Philippe)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave.
BAM Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton St.
September 23 – December 19, $20-$85
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Now in its twenty-eighth year, BAM’s Next Wave Festival is, as always, a terrific collection of productions scouted from around the world. Single tickets go on sale Monday, August 30, for Laurie Anderson’s phantasmagoric DELUSION and Pina Bausch’s VOLLMOND, an extremely strong one-two punch to get the season going, featuring a pair of longtime BAM favorites; we recently caught Anderson at (le) poisson rouge, and she’s still at the top of her game, while VOLLMOND is the final piece from the inventive, innovative, and endlessly entertaining Bausch, who passed away in June 2009, leaving behind a BAM legacy that included the thrilling BAMBOO BLUES, NEFÉS, and FUR DIE KINDER VON GESTERN, HEUTE, UND MORGEN, among other splendid shows. The rest of the series goes on sale September 7, with such highlights as Ralph Lemon’s HOW CAN YOU STAY IN THE HOUSE ALL DAY AND NOT GO ANYWHERE?, Stew’s BROOKLYN OMNIBUS, Julia Stiles in the Ridge Theater’s PERSEPHONE, Sasha Waltz’s GEZEITEN, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s version of Akira Kurosawa’s THRONE OF BLOOD, Thomas Ostermeier’s take on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, Gísli Örn Gardarsson and Nick Cave’s experimental exploration of Franz Kafka’s METAMORPHOSIS, and Mikel Rouse’s multimedia extravaganza GRAVITY RADIO. Subscription tickets are available right now; if you buy seats to four or more shows, you can save up to forty percent and receive such benefits as priority access to future seasons, flexible scheduling, and discounts for additional tickets.

CHARLES BUSCH — A BIRTHDAY EVENT

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF HIS FABULOUS CAREER
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th St.
Monday, August 23, $50 (VIP $75), 6:00
212-620-7310
www.gaycenter.org
www.charlesbusch.com

Charles Busch, the mastermind behind such cutting-edge plays as THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST’S WIFE, VAMPIRE LESBIANS OF SODOM, and SHANGHAI MOON and the star of such films as PSYCHO BEACH PARTY and DIE MOMMIE DIE! will be honored on the occasion of his fifty-sixth birthday August 23 at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center for a twenty-five-year career that has brought LGBT issues to the forefront in New York City and across the country. The event begins at 6:00 with a private VIP reception, followed at 7:00 by a screening of the documentary THE LADY IN QUESTION IS CHARLES BUSCH (John Catania & Charles Ignacio, 2005) with the filmmakers present. Busch will then talk about his life and career at 8:30 and perform a scene from THE DIVINE SISTER with Julie Halston, Alison Fraser, and Amy Rutberg; the play is reopening September 12 at the SoHo Playhouse. All proceeds benefit the Center and the Ark: the LGBT Stories Project. The event’s star-studded honorary host committee includes Christine Ebersole, Paul Rudnick, Angela Lansbury, Cheyenne Jackson, Joan Rivers, Dan Butler, and Kathleenn Turner.

FORT GREENE PARK SUMMER LITERARY FESTIVAL

Young writers will team with established poets at annual literary festival in Fort Greene Park (photo courtesy www.who-will-kiss-the-pig.blogspot.com)

Fort Greene Park monument
Washington Park between Dekalb and Myrtle Aves.
Saturday, August 21, free, 3:00
www.nywriterscoalition.org

The sixth annual Fort Green Park Summer Literary Festival, sponsored by the New York Writers Coalition, will take place on Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn, where young boys and girls between the ages of seven and seventeen, who have participated in six weeks of creative writing workshops, will give a free outdoor reading, alongside Calabash International Literary Festival poets Kwame Dawes, Gregory Pardlo, Willie Perdomo, Carl Hancock Rux, Patricia Smith, and Cheryl Boyce Taylor. As explained in its mission statement, “The Lit Fest honors the power of the written word to build inclusiveness and give voice to the thoughts and experiences of everyone, not just the privileged and powerful.”

DUELING BINGOS

DAILY SHOW correspondent John Oliver is looking for that final “O” so he can declare “Bingo” at Saturday night benefit for 826NYC (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

826NYC
372 Fifth Ave., Brooklyn
Saturday, August 7, $25, 7:00
718-499-9884
www.826nyc.org/bingo

You’ve never played Bingo like this before. Tonight at 826NYC in Brooklyn, you can test your mad gaming skillz against such celebrities as DAILY SHOW correspondent John Oliver, television producer Eric Gilliland (THAT ’70s SHOW), children’s book star Jon Scieszka (THE STINKY CHEESE MAN), comic actor Jack McBrayer (30 ROCK), and wonderfully droll author Sarah Vowell (ASSASSINATION VACATION) in what the nonprofit organization promises to be “the most cut-throat, single elimination, down-and-dirty, going-to-get-ugly, no-holds-barred Bingo Tournament ever held.” After signing up to play ($25) or to support one of the current competitors (any amount you want), you can buy additional cards at $10 each and balls for $5 apiece to increase your/their chances of winning. The evening is a benefit to raise funds for 826NYC’s free literacy programs for students between the ages of six and eighteen, which encourages creativity and learning through writing. The group also holds regular workshops and provides tutoring all year long.