this week in literature

THE DAY EAZY-E DIED

National Black Theater
2031 Fifth Ave. between 125th St. & 126th Sts.
Tuesday, May 11, $10, 7:00
www.facebook.com/pages/The-Day-Eazy-E-Died
www.imagenation.us

In 1995, Compton rapper Eazy-E, born Eric Lynn Wright in 1963, died of AIDS at the age of thirty-one. The profound effect the influential performer, producer, and member of N.W.A had is central to James Earl Hardy’s book THE DAY EAZY-E DIED, now being turned into a film, about a young Harlem man whose life is turned inside out when Eazy-E’s illness goes public. On Tuesday, May 11, Hardy, writer-director Kirk Shannon-Butts, producer Trevite Willis, and musical genius Daniel Bernard Roumain will come together for a special multimedia screenplay reading at the National Black Theater, followed by a Q&A and reception. The evening is hosted by ImageNation, an organization that “fosters media equity, media literacy, solidarity, cross-cultural exchange and highlights the humanity of Pan-African people worldwide.”

MORE OR LESS I AM

Multiple locations
Through May 14
www.colombari.org

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself / And what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” So begins Walt Whitman’s epic poem “Song of Myself,” from 1855’s revolutionary LEAVES OF GRASS. New York–based Compagnia de’ Colombari is currently traveling across the city performing their brand-new musical theater adaptation of the master work, in a production conceived and directed by Karin Coonrod and featuring an original score by violinist Colin Jacobsen and cellist Eric Jacobsen of Brooklyn Rider and guitarist Kyle Sanna and flutist Alex Sopp. Leading the cast is Obie winner Michael Potts (LENNON), Jorge Rubio, Michael Rogers, Elliot Villar, and Sarah Heltzel. The company will be at the World Financial Center on May 7, Whitman’s Long Island birthplace in West Hills on May 8, the Wadleigh School in Harlem on May 10, the Old Stone House in Brooklyn on May 11, Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem on May 12, and Grant’s Tomb on May 13 before culminating with a special ticketed show ($15) at Joe’s Pub to round out the tour.

TWI-NY TALK: CHUCK PALAHNIUK

: Chuck Palahniuk will be celebrating the release of TELL-ALL at the Great Hall at the Cooper Union on May 6 (photo by Shawn Grant)

CHUCK PALAHNIUK: TELL-ALL (Doubleday, May 4, 2010, $24.95)
The Great Hall at the Cooper Union
7 East Seventh St. at Third Ave.
Thursday, May 6, $30, 6:00
www.chuckpalahniuk.net
www.strandbooks.com
www.randomhouse.com

There’s a critical moment in every Chuck Palahniuk book when readers have to decide whether to forge ahead or return it disgustedly to the shelf, perhaps never to be opened again. In such bestselling novels as FIGHT CLUB, CHOKE, HAUNTED, RANT, and PYGMY, Palahniuk describes, in great detail, gut-twisting (literally) scenes of intense, brutal sex and/or violence, often told in a complex narrative style that takes some getting used to. Stick with it and you’re rewarded with some of the most intelligent, darkest satirical writing of the last fifteen years that’s as fun as it is challenging.

His latest work, TELL-ALL, is told from the point of view of Hazie Coogan, the longtime caretaker and protector of former Hollywood starlet Katherine Kenton. It’s a wry mash-up of SUNSET BOULEVARD and THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, with Palahniuk bold-facing a vast array of celebrity characters centered around Lillian Hellman, from George Cukor and Adolph Zukor to Christian Dior and Coco Chanel, from Rita Hayworth and Lucille Ball to Peter Lorre and Clifton Webb, and, perhaps most appropriately, famous gossip columnists Walter Winchell, Hedda Hopper, and Louella Parsons.

Palahniuk, a journalism major and former movie projectionist who splits his time between his home state of Washington and Oregon, will be making his sole New York City appearance in support of TELL-ALL on May 6 at the Great Hall at the Cooper Union, a much-anticipated event that will include Julie Halson performing selections from the book as Katherine Kenton and Hazie Coogan; tickets are $30, and all attendees get a poster and a signed hardcover. Palahniuk took a break from his schedule, which will also take him to Portsmouth, Boston, Asheville, Chicago, and other cities, to answer a few questions we had for him over e-mail.

twi-ny: Your rabid fan base, known as the Cult, has a habit of coming to your readings and signings dressed up as characters from your books, tying Christmas trees to the tops of their cars, and mimicking other elements from you stories. What do you think it is about you and your books that attract this kind of worship? When we attend readings by the likes of Paul Auster, Haruki Murakami, and Tom Robbins, things tend to be a bit more subdued, which in no way are we implying is preferable, of course.

Chuck Palahniuk: After twenty years as part of the Cacophony Society, I see that people love events which allow them to act out and participate in consensual ways. No one wants to be the lone fool, but if everyone is dressed as Santa Claus it’s safe and communal and still fun. As the person onstage I’m especially aware of being a lonely idiot so I stage book events to include games and costumes and prizes and activities, each linked to either the book I’m pimping or to the piece I’ve written specifically to read at that event. Yes, this extra effort takes me all winter to orchestrate — even at this moment, my props and prizes are already shipped to each venue, including the Cooper Union — but this structure and preparation also allows me to relax and have a good time. Once I’m traveling and bone-tired and starving I still have the assurance of my structured insanity to keep me sane.

twi-ny: Your new book, TELL-ALL, deals with Hollywood celebrity. Who are some of your favorite old-timers? Bette Davis or Joan Crawford? Clara Bow or Theda Bara? Marilyn, Mamie, or Mansfield?

CP: No one will ever be as bitter and lovely as Geraldine Fitzgerald — I’ll sit through all of WUTHERING HEIGHTS just to hear her say, “Ïf Cathy dies . . . perhaps then I might live.” That’s a guesstimate of the quote. However, I burn a perpetual candle beside a shrine to Gloria Grahame; nobody played more or better floozies and bitches. You know she was polishing Jim Stewart’s apple in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE or why else would he give her all that money?

twi-ny: Your only New York City appearance will be on May 6 at the Great Hall of the Cooper Union, where presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln gave one of his most memorable speeches, 150 years ago this past February. How do you think Lincoln would do if he were to run in 2012? How do you think he might respond to TELL-ALL and Julie Halston?

CP: Now you’ve lost me — you’re SUCH a name-dropper! I have no idea who Julie Halston is. Or Abraham Lincoln, I can’t even find him on IMDB. Are you referring to the character on the old MOD SQUAD? Wasn’t Peggy Lipton cool . . . sigh.

twi-ny: In your introduction to David Mack’s KABUKI: THE ALCHEMY, you write, “Art is the lie that tells the truth better than the truth. . . . [David Mack builds] a metaphor that allows people to see and explore their own experience.” The same can be said for your writing, which is also very visual and cinematic. Do you have any interest in perhaps collaborating with an artist such as David Mack, or writing a graphic novel or comic book? Your website features Kissgzs’s adaptations of INVISIBLE MONSTERS and LULLABY; might there be more of those in the future?

CP: Frankly, I won’t rule out anything except suicide.

EVENING LECTURES AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM

David Goldblatt, detail, “The farmer’s son with his nursemaid, on the farm in Heimweeberg, near Nietverdiend in the Marico Bushveld. Transvaal (North-West Province),” silver gelatin print, 1964

IN CONVERSATION: DAVID GOLDBLATT AND JOSEPH LELYVELD
GIDEON SHIMONI: THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE IN APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA
Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd St.
May 4 & 13, $15 each, 6:30
212-423-3337
www.thejewishmuseum.org

For decades, South African native David Goldblatt has been documenting the people of his home county; more than 150 of his black-and-white images are currently on view at the Jewish Museum in the exhibition “South African Photographs: David Goldblatt,” which runs through September 19. In conjunction with the show, Goldblatt will be participating in a special program on May 4, in conversation with New York Times executive editor and South Africa correspondent Joseph Lelyveld. The South African theme continues on May 13 when author Gideon Shimoni presents the lecture “The Jewish Experience in Apartheid South Africa.” And on May 17, Richard Turnbull’s Daytime Lecture Series will look at “David Goldblatt and the South African Condition,” part of the series “Conscience and the Camera: The Rise of Social Documentary Photography.” (Also through September 19, the museum is screening four films by William Kentridge in “South Africa Projections.”)

WORLD NOMADS LEBANON

Bernard Khoury will give a free talk on Lebanese architecture and public space at FIAF on May 6

French Institute Alliance Française
Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th St.
Le Skyroom, 22 East 60th St.
Tinker Auditorium, 55 East 59th St.
May 1-29, free – $40
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

This year FIAF’s annual spring journey heads to Lebanon for a month of live performance, film screenings, art, talks, and more. The festival, which covered Africa in 2008 and Haiti in 2009, begins May 1 with the Bassam Saba Ensemble playing in Florence Gould Hall, followed on May 2 by three consecutive free talks at Le Skyroom, with writers Elias Khoury, Rawi Hage, and Alexander Najjar in conjunction with the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. On Tuesdays from May 4 through May 25, CinémaTuesdays will present such films as Maroun Bagdadi’s HORS LA VIE, Jocelyne Saab’s ONCE UPON A TIME: BEIRUT, and Simon El-Habre’s THE ONE MAN VILLAGE in Florence Gould Hall. Meanwhile, the Film Society of Lincoln center will be hosting “The Calm After the Storm: Making Sense of Lebanon’s Civil War,” more than thirty films that give a fascinating overview into the history of the embattled nation. On May 21, Wajdi Mouawad and Jane Birkin will team up for staged readings of his “Je t’embrasse pour finir” (in French) and “La sentinelle” (in English); admission is free but advance reservations are required; author, actor, and director Wajdi will also be giving a free talk May 19 in Le Skyroom. World Nomads will also feature a trio of architecture talks on successive Thursdays, with Bernard Khoury on May 6, “Public Space: Memory, Boundary, Catastrophe” on May 13, and “Modern Architecture in Beirut: Reconstruction & Cultural Identity” on May 20. During the festival, the FIAF Gallery will be displaying “Cedrus Libani: Roots & Memory,” an exhibition of new and old work by Lebanese-American artist Nabil Nahas, while “My Umi Said . . . New Work from Lebanon” features multimedia pieces by five progressive Lebanese artists, held off-site at Kleio Projects (May 7-28, 153½ Stanton St.).

TWI-NY TALK: LENORE SKENAZY

Writer and mom Lenore Skenazy has a novel idea for May 22

TAKE OUR CHILDREN TO THE PARK . . . AND LEAVE THEM THERE DAY
Saturday, May 22, free
www.freerangekids.com

On May 22, Lenore Skenazy wants you to take your kids to the park — and leave them there. Alternately referred to as America’s Worst Mom and a national hero, Skenazy, a longtime New York City-based newspaper columnist, is the creator of the website and growing movement Free-Range Kids, which she considers “a commonsense approach to parenting in these overprotective times.” The married mother of two boys launched the site, freerangekids.com, in April 2008 after getting attacked for her New York Sun column “Why I Let My Nine-Year-Old Take the Subway Alone.” A year later, her book FREE-RANGE KIDS: HOW TO RAISE SAFE, SELF-RELIANT CHILDREN (WITHOUT GOING NUTS WITH WORRY) was published in hardcover; it has just been released in paperback as well.

Within moments of each new post on the site, which examines child-related news stories, court cases, school dilemmas, and other parental topics, dozens and dozens either cheer her on or lambast this decidedly non-helicopter mom. As one would expect, her latest venture, Take Our Children to the Park . . . and Leave Them There Day, is stirring up its fair share of controversy, which promises to only get more heated as May 22 approaches.

twi-ny: Again and again on your website, you cite statistics that are either misinterpreted or ignored by the media and government bodies about children’s safety. Why is it so hard for news and community organizations to get their facts straight?

Lenore Skenazy: Here’s the amazing news: We are currently enjoying a historic thirty-seven-year drop in crime, nationwide. In New York, the 2009 murder rate was the lowest in nearly fifty years! We are on par with the early ’60s, crime-wise. That was still the sweater set and college-boys-with-pipes era!

These statistics are hard to believe because on TV, it’s all crime all the time — from CNN to CSI. One woman once said, “How dare you say children are as safe as we were when we see abductions on TV every day!” The thing is: We see the same abductions on TV every day. We’ve been seeing the sad story of Etan Patz for thirty years, for example, and people still cite it as a reason they won’t let their kids walk to school. This, despite the tens of millions of children who have been born, gone to school, graduated and had their own kids since then — who were not abducted at the bus stop. And whose stories we don’t see on TV.

Tragic stories sear themselves on our brains. Then, when we ask ourselves a question like, “Is it safe for my kid to wait at the bus stop?” up pops the most graphic image: Etan. Then our brains act like Google: We assume the first thing that pops up is the most common. “Abductions are happening all the time!” Long story short: That is why it is so hard for us to keep the good news in perspective.

twi-ny: Your book FREE-RANGE KIDS is now out in paperback; what kind of effect do you think it and the website have had? What kind of response do you expect to get from your creation of Take Our Children to the Park . . . and Leave Them There Day?

LS: What’s great is that helicopter parents have existed for a while. So have Free-Range parents — folks who suspect we don’t have to be quite so worried about quite so much — but we didn’t have a name. Now we do, and a place to gather for moral support, and a book with tips, hard facts, and jokes!

Sometimes it’s hard to let your third grader stay at home while you go pick up some groceries or have your fifth grader walk home after school. The blog is a place to open up about these newly “radical” acts, and the book is a way to gain perspective: In my chapter “Why Other Countries Are Laughing at Zee Scaredy-Cat Americans,” I point out children walk to school starting in kindergarten or first grade everywhere else in the world. In my chapter “Relax! Not Every Little Thing You Do Has THAT Much Impact on Your Child’s Development,” I remind parents that we are not the only influence on our children’s lives. And, ultimately, we cannot control them or the world. (Darn!)

The response to Take Our Children to the Park . . . and Leave Them There Day has been wild. Other sites blogging about it have gotten big-time blowback: “The predators will have a field day!” “What happens if someone gets hurt?” On freerangekids.com, meanwhile, folks are psyched to have a day to start giving our kids the freedom and fun that helps them grow up happy, healthy, and maybe even a little sunburnt.

And remember: This is for kids starting at about age seven or eight. I’m not saying we should abandon our toddlers.

twi-ny: If the trend of the widespread overprotection of kids continues, including their spending less and less time outdoors and more and more time in front of their computers as well as the limiting of what they are allowed to bring to school and eat there, what do you foresee for future generations?

LS: Well, I never like to imagine the very worst — that’s too easy. “Oh, they’ll all be fat and diabetic and slurping their meals like the people in WALL-E!” I just assume that the kids who do some of what we did as kids — hang out in nature, make up games, learn to settle their own disputes, and entertain themselves — will rule.

What’s kind of funny is that all the new studies about child development point to the importance of play. That’s why every human generation — until this one — just did it automatically. It’s the preprogrammed way kids learn to create, communicate, compromise. The way they learn to grow up. We can’t do it for them, even though lately that’s what it seems like we’re trying to do. We take them to play classes and enroll them in programs, or sit them in front of a screen that plays with them.

I’m all for enrichment. My kids have done a number of extracurriculars, from piano to football. But children need some down time, too. Say, a day at the playground — without us.

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY

Multiple locations — comic book stores only
Saturday, May 1
www.freecomicbookday.com

The annual Free Comic Book Day, held the first Saturday in May, will be offering special deals and, yes, free comics at such city locations as Cosmic Comics, Rocketship, Midtown Comics, Jim Hanley’s Universe, Forbidden Planet, Bergen Street Comics, Roger’s Comics, and St. Mark’s Comics. Among the twenty-five free comic books printed just for FCBD are Archie’s Summer Splash #1, Matt Fraction and John Romita Jr.’s Iron Man/Thor, YOW! The John Stanley Library, Atomic Robo and Friends, Toy Story, Shrek, James Robinson and Eddy Barrows’s War of the Supermen, S. E. Hinton’s Fame: Lady Gaga, Mark Waid’s Irredeemable #1, Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet #1, Ben Edlund’s The Tic #1, Owly and Friends, and other previews, samplers, and special editions. We’re after Bird Hurdler ourselves, so stay at of our way. At Cosmic Comics, everything is 30% off, and the first fifty customers receive a free copy of Uncanny X-men #154 (1981). At Forbidden Planet, Steve Mannion will be signing his free comic book, Fearless Dawn #1, and the shop will be giving out bags with all of the free comics they have on a first come, first served basis. (Not all stores get copies of every free comic book.) At Jim Hanley’s Universe, there will be giveaways all day long, comedy at night, and signings by E. Max Frye (The Rising) and Dennis Calero and Jim Shooter (Doctor Solar and Magnus: Robot Fighter! ). Good luck!