this week in literature

THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD BOOK CLUB

“Bardo: Tibetan Art of the Afterlife” looks at death at the Rubin Museum

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Wednesdays through August 25, $20 per session, 7:00
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org/bookofthedead

Last Wednesday the Rubin Museum of Art began its seven-part series on the THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, led by Dr. Ramon Prats, by examining “Addiction and Attachments” with Dr. Gabor Maté. This week, the discussion of the eighth-century funerary text also known as PROFOUND DHARMA OF SELF-LIBERATION THROUGH THE INTENTION OF THE PEACEFUL AND WRATHFUL ONES turns to “The Near-Death Experience” with Prof. Lee W. Bailey and continues with future talks on “The Analysis of Dreams” with psychoanalyst Morgan Stebbins (July 21), “The Death of Death” with Rabbi Neil Gillman (July 28), “The Egyptian Book of the Dead” with Brooklyn Museum curator Edward Bleiberg (August 11), “Channeling the Dead” with medium Jesse Bravo (August 18), and “How to Die” with Roshi Enkyo O’Hara (August 25). Actually, just about everything at the Rubin right now is about death. “Memento Mori,” the Cabaret Cinema series of Friday night films (free with $7 bar minimum), begins this week with Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 noir PIERROT LE FOU and also features Robin Hardy’s awesome 1973 horror classic, THE WICKER MAN (July 23), Ingmar Bergman’s very funny THE SEVENTH SEAL (July 30), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s IL DECAMERON (August 6) and IL FIORE DELLE MILLE E UNA NOTTE (August 20), Frank Capra’s LOST HORIZON (August 27), and Philip Kaufman’s excellent 1978 remake, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (September 3).

Several of the current exhibitions at the museum also take a fascinating look at the end of physical being. “Bardo: Tibetan Art of the Afterlife,” which runs through September 6, delves into the BARDO THODROL, aka THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, with original illuminated manuscripts, ritual cards, and other items than take visitors into different worlds of existence. Through August 9, “Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures” explores the art of death as seen in European Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism, including a topography of the afterlife, an intriguing video installation by Bill Viola, and paintings, sculpture, and ritual objects. (Also on view is the excellent “In the Shadow of Everest,” Tom Wool’s photographs taken in May 2001; the terrific “From the Land of the Gods: Art of the Kathmandu Valley”; and “Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond,” featuring works by contemporary Tibetan artists.)

PILOBOLUS

Pilobolus collaborates with Art Spiegelman on HAPLESS HOOLIGAN IN “STILL MOVING,” at the Joyce this summer (photo by Joseph Mehling)

Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
July 12 – August 7, $10-$75
212-645-2904
www.joyce.org
www.pilobolus.com

The uniquely creative Connecticut-based Pilobolus Dance Theatre has something very special planned for its annual summer season at the Joyce, a multimedia collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegleman. In HAPLESS HOOLIGAN IN “STILL MOVING,” the dancers will interact with Spiegelman’s colorful artwork, animated on backdrops by Dan Abdo and Jason Patterson, with sound design by FELA!’s Rob Kaplowitz. HOOLIGAN will be part of Program 1, which also includes Jonathan Wolken’s REDLINE, Michael Tracy’s dazzling SYMBIOSIS, and Inbal Pinto, Avshalom Pollak, and Robby Barnett’s RUSHES. Program 2 consists of Wolken’s GNOMEN and HITCHED, THE TRANSFORMATION, RUSHES, and Moses Pendleton’s beautiful and sexy DAY 2, with Program 3 featuring Tracy’s LATERNA MAGICA, Wolken’s stunning PSEUDOPODIA, Matt Kent and Renee Jaworski’s CONTRADANCE (featuring music by kids rocker Dan Zanes), Barnett and Wolken’s GNOMEN, and Wolken’s MEGAWATT. On July 15 at 2:00 at the Joyce, Pilobolus will be holding a public memorial service for cofounder (with Pendleton) and artistic director Wolken, who died on June 13 at the age of sixty, leaving behind a wife and four daughters.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON HOUSE CALL FROM FREE-RANGE LENORE

“America’s Worst Mom” would like to come over for personalized Free-Range sessions with you and your child

FREE-RANGE TUTORIAL
Your Place
Friday, July 9, anytime after 12 noon
Admission: free with advance arrangements
www.freerangekids.com

Back in late April, we conducted a twi-ny talk with Lenore Skenazy, “America’s Worst Mom.” The author of the controversial book FREE-RANGE KIDS: HOW TO RAISE SAFE, SELF-RELIANT CHILDREN (WITHOUT GOING NUTS WITH WORRY) and mastermind of the Free-Range Kids website was promoting “Take Our Children to the Park . . .  and Leave Them There Day,” in which she encouraged parents to go to local parks with their kids on May 22 and let them play without constant overbearing helicopter supervision. As she told us back then, “[In the book] I remind parents that we are not the only influence on our children’s lives. And, ultimately, we cannot control them or the world.”

For her latest project, instead of encouraging parents to let their kids loose in the park, she is going to come over to their place to give a Free-Range tutorial this Friday afternoon, July 9. Yes, she will make a house call, meeting with parent and child to discuss specific Free-Range-type situations they are experiencing. As she writes on her blog, “So if you’d like me to come over for an hour or so to chat with you about what you’d like your kid to maybe start doing on his/her own, whether that’s cutting a sandwich, making a playdate, sitting in the playpen while you take a shower, playing on his own or (well, I need help with this one, too) doing their own homework, invite me over and we’ll see if we can’t make that happen.” Although it’s free, Lenore might ask for coffee and cookies. If you’re interested in having her visit you on Friday, you can e-mail her directly at lskenazy@gmail.com; please be sure to include your phone number. She of course won’t be able to see everyone, but if you’re one of the lucky ones that gets chosen, be prepared for a fun and fascinating time with a very caring, very funny, very dedicated person.

undergroundzero festival

A FESTIVAL OF THEATER ARTISTS
P.S. 122
150 First Ave. at East Ninth St.
Tuesday, July 6, through Sunday, July 25
Tickets: $15-$20
212-352-3101
www.ps122.org/undergroundzero

The fourth annual undergroundzero festival, presented by East River Commedia as a place where artists are encouraged to experiment as part of a creative summer lab experience, returns to P.S. 122 on July 6 for three weeks of innovative, unique, and rather strange theater. Adding an international flavor, this year’s productions come from Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Wales, and New York. Among the shows are Fabiana Iacozilli’s ASPETTANDO MIL (WAITING FOR NIL), a wedding drama inspired by WATING FOR GODOT; Alexandru Mihaescu’s futuristic THE CONCRETES (AFTER VLADIMIR SOROKIN); Dermot Bolger’s timely THE PARTING GLASS, about Ireland’s attempt to qualify for the 2010 World Cup; John Wesley Zielmann playing Andy Warhol in FOREVER ART; Eliza Bent, Jasmin Hoo, and Elizabeth Stevenson’s multimedia BLUE DRESS REDUCTION; FROM DAWN TILL NIGHT (THE EARTH IS UNINHABITABLE LIKE THE MOON), Dangerous Ground’s adaptation of Fassbinder’s apocalyptic IN A YEAR WITH 13 MOONS; and Performance Lab 115’s THE RING CYCLE: Part 1, set in the world of professional wrestling. You’ll also be able to find Butoh, Henry Miller, magic, James Dean, suicide clubs, Jean Cocteau, a vegan’s foray into the world of meat, Jayne Mansfield, burlesque, Dwight Eisenhower, a Zen garden, and other interesting and unusual themes and characters. In addition, the festival includes three “playgroundzero” staged readings, the most intriguing being Saviana Stanescu’s POLANSKI, in which Grant Neale plays the controversial Polish film director interviewing himself. Every Tuesday night will feature a “commonground” theatrical cultural talk show, and on Fridays at 11:00 the “latenightzero” dance party gets the weekend going in style.

BRONX BOOK FAIR

Bronx Museum of the Arts
1040 Grand Concourse at 166th St.
Sunday, June 27, 12 noon – 5:00 pm
Admission: free
www.bronxmuseum.org

The Bronx Museum of the Arts celebrates small presses at its annual book fair, which this year includes children’s workshops, panel discussions, DJ sets from Wepa Man Victor Vargas, open studios from artists-in-residence Niang Ibrahima and Seydi Samba from Senegal, poetry readings, an ARTfarm site-specific installation, a film screening, and more. Currently the museum is exhibiting “After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy,” “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968,” “Lobby-for-the-Time-Being” by Acconci Studio, and “Urban Archives: Happy Together — Asian and Asian-American Art from the Permanent Collection.”

WORD FOR WORD: SAMANTHA BEE

Bryant Park Reading Room
42nd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Wednesday, June 9, 12:30
Series continues through September 25
Admission: free
www.bryantpark.org

If Samantha Bee’s debut literary effort, I KNOW I AM, BUT WHAT ARE YOU?, has even a hint of the snarky sarcasm, witty cynicism, and no-holds-barred bawdy humor of her DAILY SHOW reports, her first book is destined for greatness. Over the course of a dozen personal essays, Bee, who is married to DAILY SHOW veteran Jason Jones, takes on “Man-Witch,” “Old Lady Hands,” “Penis Envy,” and “Gurr-Bulls,” among other strange topics. In the opening piece, “Camp Summer Fun,” she dissects her family and their penchant for divorce: “Every once in a while,” she begins, “I think about what my life would be like if my parents had stayed together and not separated while I was still a baby. Obviously, it would involve a regular commute to the maximum-security penitentiary to visit whichever of them had committed the murder that signaled the official end to their marriage.” Bee will be in Bryant Park on June 9 at 12:30 to discuss her book with comedian Ophira Eisenberg as part of the Word to Word series, which also features such upcoming authors as Kelly Cutrone on June 16, Colson Whitehead on June 23, Jennifer Egan and Jane Mendelsohn on July 7, Sebastian Junger on July 14, Gary Shteyngart on July 28, Mona Simpson on August 18, and Rick Moody on August 25.

GRAPHIC HEROES, MAGIC MONSTERS

Utagawa Kuniyoshi, “Morozumi Masakiyo Kills Himself in Battle,” color woodblock print, ca. 1848 (photo © Trustees of the British Museum)


JAPANESE PRINTS BY UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI FROM THE ARTHUR R. MILLER COLLECTION
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Through June 13
Admission: $12 (free Friday nights 6:00 – 9:00)
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

With the continuing success of manga and graphic novels in the United States, the Japan Society looks back on the career of master visual storyteller Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) in “Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters.” More than 130 color woodblock prints are on view, depicting samurai warriors, elegant women, lush landscapes, kabuki scenes, and comic images. Among the many exciting action-filled vignettes, based on both history and legend, are “Fight on the Roof of Hōryū Tower,” in which Inuzaka Shino tries to single-handedly evade capture by Inukai Kenpachi and his men, and “Ariō-maru Kills a Giant Octopus,” the valiant warrior determined to escape from the clutches of an enormous mollusk. Water figures prominently in many of Kuniyoshi’s pieces; in “Hatsuhana Prays Under a Waterfall,” Hatsuhana prays to a deity for a cure for her warrior husband’s illness, water cascading onto her head and around her body, while in “Three Women with Umbrellas in a Summer Shower,” a trio of women in blue-and-white kimonos playfully avoid a downpour. Kuniyoshi also created peaceful scenes devoid of bloody battles and gruesome characters, including such serene works as “Rainbow at Surugadai,” “Ships Between Maisaka and Arai,” and “Monk Nichiren in the Snow at Tsukahara.”

Utagawa Kuniyoshi, “Monk Nichiren in the Snow at Tsukahara,” color woodblock print, ca. 1835 (photo © Trustees of the British Museum)

Kuniyoshi shows off his absurdist sense of humor in such prints as “Sparrows Impersonating a Brothel Scene,” “Kabuki Actors as Turtles,” and “Cats Parodying the Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō.” In the deluxe catalog that accompanies the exhibit, Neil McGregor, director of the British Museum, where the show was a huge hit, writes, “Kuniyoshi was an extraordinarily gifted artist of great versatility, capable by turns of evoking pathos at the doomed fate of a samurai hero, humour with the antics of animals impersonating humans, seduction by feisty-spirited beauties from Japan’s epic past, and calm contemplation of byways in his native city of Edo.” Indeed, Kuniyoshi was a unique and inventive storyteller, displaying immense skill at creating colorful, entertaining, action-packed, and meditative tales. In conjunction with the exhibit, Hiroki Otsuka has created Samurai Beam, a comic book based on Kuniyoshi’s work.