this week in literature

SECRETARY STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT ON WORLD AFFAIRS

Madeleine Albrigh (center) gets ready for speech during her fiftieth college reunion at Wellesley (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Madeleine Albright (center) gets ready for speech during her fiftieth college reunion at Wellesley (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

92nd St. Y, Kaufmann Concert Hall
1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd St.
Sunday, December 13, $27, 4:00
212-415-5500
www.92y.org

This past June, we attended a rousing speech by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright as she discussed international diplomacy and the founding of the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs at her alma mater, Wellesley College. The inspirational Dr. Albright has a refreshing, unique take on world politics, and she tells it like it is with great candor and humor. She’ll be at the 92nd St. Y on December 13, sharing her insights in a special program moderated by Tom Oliphant and followed by a signing of her latest book, READY MY PINS: STORIES FROM A DIPLOMAT’S JEWEL BOX (Harper, September 2009). Dr. Albright will follow that up with a talk to high school groups only on December 14 at the Museum of Arts and Design, where she will show how she incorporated her brooch collection into her diplomatic methodology.

EARVIN “MAGIC” JOHNSON

whenthegamewasours

NBA Store
666 Fifth Ave. at 52nd St.
Tuesday, December 8, free, 5:30 – 7:00
212-515-6221
www.nba.com/nycstore
www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com

Local basketball fans haven’t had much to smile about this season, as the Knicks and Nets battle it out for lottery position in next year’s draft and the Knicks keep dreaming that LeBron James will be leaving Cleveland. (Note to Knicks — keep dreaming.) But if it’s a b-ball smile you’re after, then head over to the NBA Store in Midtown today to meet the one and only Magic Johnson, who can still smile like nobody’s business. Johnson is out on the road in support of his latest book, WHEN THE GAME WAS OURS (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, November 2009, $26), written with his archnemesis and longtime friend, Larry Bird. The stellar rivals redefined the game in the late 1970s and 1980s, from the 1979 NCAA championship pitting Magic’s Michigan State Spartans against Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores through classic NBA finals in 1984, 1985, and 1987. Cowritten with journalist Jackie MacMullan, WHEN THE GAME WAS OURS looks back at a very different time, when two supreme players left it all out on the court, day after day. We may never see their like again.

JUST WORKING ON MY NOVEL

The multitalented Jean Grae gets into literary criticism at the Tank

The Tank
345 West 45th St.
Monday, December 7, free, 7:30
www.thetanknyc.org
www,jeangraesblog.blogspot.com
www.russmarshalek.squarespace.com

Journalist and novelist Masha Hamilton (31 HOURS), who founded the Camel Book Drive and the Afghan Women’s Writing Project, and the unpredictable and outrageous rapper/DJ/writer Jean Grae, who is four chapters into her online collection “The State of Eh,” are hosting the latest bimonthly literary gathering known as Just Working on My Novel, in which they will read from their own published and unpublished works and critique that of others. To join them onstage and read from your own writings, e-mail russ@russcomm.net to see if there are any spots left. And you needn’t be a writer to come to this free event at the Tank, where you can offer your own opinions and marvel at the amazing Ms. Grae.

BROOKLYN COMICS AND GRAPHICS FESTIVAL

brooklyncomics

Our Lady of Conservation Church, 194 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Bedford Ave., 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Secret Project Robot, 128 River St. at Metropolitan Ave., 1:00 – 6:00 pm
Death by Audio, 49 South Second St. between Kent & Wythe, 9:00 – ?
Saturday, December 5, free
www.comicsandgraphicsfest.com

Many of the finest practitioners of the graphic novel will be on hand for what looks to be quite the excellent free three-part festival in Williamsburg today. The stellar lineup of guest artists includes Charles Burns, Dash Shaw, R. Sikoryak, Kim Deitch, Gary Panter, Adrian Tomine, and more than a dozen others, along with such exhibitors as Drawn & Quarterly, Le Dernier Cri, Nieves, House of Twelve, the collective Uninhabitable Mansions, and many more. Exhibitors and signings will take place at Our Lady of Conservation Church, with the exact schedule available at the above Web Site. Five panel discussions will be held down the street at Secret Project Robot every hour beginning at 1:00, including the great Ben Katchor talking about the great JULIUS KNIPL, REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHER and THE JEW OF NEW YORK, as well as his other works that chronicle old-time city life, at 3:00, followed by Bill Kartolopoulus moderating “Flatlands: Comics on the Picture Plane” with Lisa Hanawalt, Mark Newgarden, Ron Regé Jr., and David Sandlin. The fest concludes at Death by Audio, with live performances by such artists and bands as Kites, Ambergris, Sam Gas Can, Boogie Boarder, Nick Gazin, Graffiti Monsters, and Dubbknowdubb.

FIRST SATURDAYS: LIGHT UP THE SEASON

James Tissot, detail, “Jesus Goes Up Alone onto a Mountain to Pray,” opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, 1886−94

Brooklyn Museum of Art
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, December 5, free after 5:00 (some events require advance free tickets available an hour or two before showtime)
718-638-5000
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum’s monthly First Saturdays program welcomes in the holiday season with a flurry of free activity tonight, much of which surrounds the James Tissot exhibition “The Life of Christ,” including a rare screening of LA VIE DU CHRIST (THE LIFE OF CHRIST) (Alice Guy Blaché, 1906), a concert of liturgic music by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and a Young Voices gallery talk about the Tissot show. In addition, Pete Fornatale will discuss his new book, BACK TO THE GARDEN: THE STORY OF WOODSTOCK, in conjunction with the “Who Shot Rock & Roll” photography exhibit; there will be live performances by a trio of Dutch groups, Michael Varekamp’s Caribbean jazz ensemble, EveNi, and Lee-Ursus Alexander, in honor of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s travels to New York; the Hands-On Art workshop will teach participants how to make a stained-glass window; Beatlemania continues with a screening of Richard Lester’s 1964 classic comedy A HARD DAY’S NIGHT; and Soul Summit hosts the hot and sweaty dance party. There really is nothing quite like First Saturdays, an energizing mix of art, music, film, literature, dance, and more, held the first Saturday of every month to an ever-growing crowd.

JEREMY WADE: THERE IS NO END TO MORE

Jeremy Wade presents multimedia production at Japan Society this weekend (illustration © Hiroki Otsuka)

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
December 3-5, $20, 7:30
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Continuing its “Japan Transatlantic: Tokio-Berlin” performing arts series, the Japan Society will present the world premiere of the specially commissioned THERE IS NO END TO MORE by American choreographer Jeremy Wade this weekend. Wade, who won a Bessie Award for his 2006 DTW show, GLORY, combines text, animation, and manga video in this new multimedia production that cynically examines Japanese kawaii culture. Wade, who is currently based in Berlin, is the director and cowriter, with Marcos Rosales, of THERE IS NO END TO MORE, which will be performed by Jared Gradinger and features music by Brendan Dougherty, sets by architects Katja Mitte and Henning Ströh, and animation and video by Hiroki Otsuka.

TED RALL

yearofloving

THE YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY (NBM, October 15, 2009, $18.95)
MoCCA Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
594 Broadway, suite 401
Thursday, December 3, $5, 7:00 pm
212-254-3511
www.moccany.org
www.nbmpub.com

In the summer of 1984, Columbia student Ted Rall suddenly found himself with no money and no place to live. To survive, he went on an unending quest using the only thing he apparently had left – his sex appeal. Going to bars, protest events, parties, the dorms, and anywhere else women might be, he hooked up primarily to have a place to sleep. Rall, who has published such successful politically driven works as THE SILK ROAD TO RUIN and TO AFGHANISTAN AND BACK, tells his compelling personal story in the excellent graphic novel THE YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY, which features fab full-color illustrations by Pablo G. Callejo (BLUESMAN). Throughout the story, Rall does not portray himself as some hot stud muffin hopping from bed to bed with reckless abandon, a master conqueror of women; instead, he merely goes with the flow, doing his best to be at least a little considerate until things start getting a bit out of hand. In his foreword, Rall writes that the book “is a chronicle of desperation, of how easy it is for anyone – even a white male attending an Ivy League school – to fall off the merry-go-round of U.S.-style laissez faire capitalism.” And to put it all in proper perspective, the Happy Hooker herself, Xaviera Hollander, contributes an introduction. Rall will be discussing his “annus horribilis” and signing copies of the book at MoCCA on December 3 at 7:00.