this week in literature

CHARLES BUKOWSKI MEMORIAL READING

Who: Kat Georges, Peter Carlaftes, Jennifer Blowdryer, Puma Perl, Michael Puzzo, Danny Shot, Richard Vetere, George Wallace, more
What: Annual tribute to Charles Bukowski
Where: The Bitter End, 147 Bleecker St. between Thompson & La Guardia
When: Wednesday, August 16, $10, 6:00
Why: “What sort of cultural hangover keeps Charles Bukowski in print and popular more than twenty years after his death?” S. A. Griffin asks in his Three Rooms Press essay “Charles Bukowski: Dean of Another Academy.” “In light of the fact that a good portion of what has been published since his passing in 1994 may not be the man’s best work, along with some heavy editing at times, why does Charles Bukowski remain relevant well into the 21st century?” The sixteenth annual Charles Bukowski Memorial Reading takes place August 16 at 6:00 at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village in honor of what would have been the 103rd birthday of the author of such books as Pulp, Factotum, Post Office, On Cats, and Love Is a Dog from Hell, with tribute readings by musician and storyteller Jennifer Blowdryer, poets S. A. Griffin, Puma Perl, Danny Shot, and George Wallace, and playwrights Richard Vetere and Michael Puzzo, hosted by Kat Georges and Peter Carlaftes of Three Rooms Press. Bukowski, who died in 1994 at the age of seventy-three, will be celebrated through poetry, oral history, rare videos, and live performances, with a special look at what he might have thought about ChatGPT, dating apps, legalized marijuana, and other contemporary issues. As a bonus, books, CDs, DVDs, and other prizes will be given away.

ALEXA MEADE: WONDERLAND DREAMS

Alexa Meade paints Hailee Kaleem Wright, Eden Espinosa, and Brian Stokes Mitchell at Wonderland Dreams (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

WONDERLAND DREAMS
529 Fifth Ave. between Forty-Third & Forty-Fourth Sts.
Wednesday – Monday through September 10, $33.50-$44.50
www.wonderlanddreams.com
online slideshow

If you’re looking for that elusive rabbit hole to bring respite to your harried life — and we’re not talking about the proverbial rabbit hole but something more akin to the real deal — then you can’t go wrong with Wonderland Dreams.

Washington, DC–born installation artist Alexa Meade has transformed a 26,000-square-foot midtown space into an immersive version of Lewis Carroll’s classic nineteenth-century novels, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Thankfully, it’s nothing like the overhyped shows in which works by such artists as Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Gustav Klimt “come to life,” morphing in projections on the floor, walls, ceilings, and mirrored sculptures.

Everyone is invited to paint their own acrylic flowers at Wonderland Dreams (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

For Wonderland Dreams, Meade and her team hand-painted every inch of the space; as you walk, crawl, or glide through the many rooms, you’ll encounter fanciful chairs and couches, giant mushrooms and flowers, tiny houses, an inviting keyhole, a large chess set and playing cards, a hedge maze, a carousel horse, a swirling tea party, out-of-sync clocks, empty picture frames, and photographs and portraits of celebrities whose bodies Meade has painted on. Everything can be touched, handled, and ridden on; essentially, it’s a gigantic playhouse for kids and adults. Be sure to pick up 3D glasses to enhance your experience in several cool rooms, and stop by the café and the gift shop for bonus surprises, even if you’re not seeking to eat, drink, or buy anything.

In July, I attended Broadway Night, during which stars Eden Espinosa (Wicked, Rent), two-time Tony winner Brian Stokes Mitchell (Man of La Mancha, Kiss Me, Kate), and Hailee Kaleem Wright (Six, Paradise Square) donned black-and-white jumpsuits and then, standing in a full-length empty frame, were painted all over by Meade, who is currently the artist-in-residence at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario; the actors held the palette as Meade covered every bit of their skin, including their faces, necks, hands, and wrists. They then posed in the frame, individually and together, as if the paintings were, well, coming to life. The next Broadway Night is August 21, with guests to be announced; the Grand Finale closing party is set for September 9.

Every room holds a different surprise in Wonderland Dreams (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

There are various places where visitors are encouraged to put on masks, hats, coats, and other props for further immersion into the world of Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Red Queen, the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee. In the back is a studio where you can paint an acrylic flower and add it to the wall. There’s also the family-friendly Mad Hatter’s Adventure on Saturday and Sunday mornings at ten.

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense,” Alice says in the first book.

As Meade reveals in Wonderland Dreams, there’s nothing wrong with that.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

NEW YORK CITY POETRY FESTIVAL 2023

You can relax with a wide range of poetry at annual festival on Governors Island (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

NEW YORK CITY POETRY FESTIVAL 2023
Governors Island
Colonels Row
July 29-30, free with RSVP (donation suggested), 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
newyorkcitypoetryfestival.com
new york city poetry festival slideshow

Hosted by the Poetry Society of New York, the twelfth annual New York City Poetry Festival returns to Governors Island this weekend, honoring Gotham’s literary heritage with stages named after such iconic landmarks as the Algonquin, the White Horse, and Chumley’s. Poets from dozens of publishing houses, university presses, and nonprofit organizations read their works, in addition to the Ring of Daisies open mic and other places where poetry just pops up. There should be lots of booths, with food and drink.

Walking across the big Colonels Row field, you can listen as one poem from one location morphs into one from another and then one from another in a kind of audio rainbow of words and expression. The 2023 headliners are Danez Smith, Franny Choi, Saeed Jones, and torrin a. greathouse. The festival also comes with a content warning, which reads in part: “We at the Poetry Society of New York want to acknowledge that the content of this festival may potentially cover triggering and graphic topics ranging from mental illness to imagery of painful human experiences. We have asked our readers to give content warnings before their readings. . . . We aim to create a safe space for both our readers and our attendees, so please be mindful that you may encounter themes that are uncomfortable to engage with.” The lineup should be posted here any time now.

KOREAN ARTS WEEK AT LINCOLN CENTER: ONE DANCE BY SEOUL METROPOLITAN DANCE THEATRE

SUMMER FOR THE CITY AT LINCOLN CENTER: ONE DANCE
David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
20 Lincoln Center Plaza
July 20-22, $24-$190 (use code KCCNYOD for 20% discount)
Korean Arts Week runs July 19-22, free
www.davidhkochtheater.com
www.lincolncenter.org

“All on the same line, in the same shape, with the same heart, it’s a heartfelt piece that brings us together,” Seoul Metropolitan Dance Theatre artistic director and choreographer Hyejin Jung says in a promotional video for One Dance (Il-mu), making its North American premiere at the David H. Koch Theater during Korean Arts Week, part of Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City program. The four-act, seventy-minute work, which melds traditional and contemporary Korean dance in stunning re-creations, debuted in May 2022 at the Sejong Grand Theater in Seoul.

One Dance is choreographed by Jung, Sung Hoon Kim, and Jae Duk Kim, with music by Jae Duk Kim and mise-en-scène by Ku-ho Jung, incorporating dazzling costumes and such props as bamboo sticks, swords, poles, and ritual objects. “I don’t think the beauty of Korea is an intricate technique but rather a symbolism of emptiness and abundance,” Ku-ho Jung explains in the video. “It’s really important to show the symbolism of the nuances. In fact, the process of staging One Dance was to show the Korean nuances by emptying out a lot of the material and focusing on the moves.”

One Dance is divided into four sections — “Munmu”/“Mumu,” “Chunaengmu,” “Jungmu,” and “New Ilmu” — with fifty-four dancers paying homage to courtly processions, ancient martial arts traditions, and contemporary styles through movement, music, and song. Ticket prices begin at $24; you can use code KCCNYOD for a 20% discount.

Korean Arts Week runs July 19-22 and also includes a bevy of free events: the digital artwork WAVE by d’strict, a K-Lit symposium, a family-friendly showcase by KTMDC Dance Company, Musical Theatre Storytime with KPOP composer Helen Park, silent discos with BIAS NYC and DJ Peach, a guided meditation set to Korean traditional music, a screening of Bong Joon Ho’s horror favorite The Host, and concerts by Crying Nut, Say Sue Me, Yerin Baek, Dongyang Gozupa, and Gray by Silver.

BOB DYLAN’S PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN SONG

André De Shields, Odessa Young, and Meshell Ndegeocello will channel the thoughts of Bob Dylan at 92Y on July 17

Who: André De Shields, Odessa Young, Meshell Ndegeocello and Her Band
What: Dramatic reading and musical performance
Where: Kaufmann Concert Hall, 92nd St. Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. at Ninety-Second St.
When: Monday, July 17, $40, 7:30
Why: “The song of the lone wolf, the outsider, the alien, the foreigner, and night owl who’s wheeling and dealing, putting everything up for sale and surrendering his self-interest. On the move aimlessly through the dingy darkness — slicing up the pie of sentimental feelings, dividing it into pieces all the time, exchanging piercing penetrating looks with someone he hardly knows,” Bob Dylan writes about “Stranger in the Night” in his book The Philosophy of Modern Song (Simon & Schuster, $45, November 2022).

He continues, “Tramps and mavericks, the object of each other’s affection, enraptured with each other and creating an alliance — ignoring all the ages of man, the golden age, electronic age, age of anxiety, the jazz age. You’re here to tell a different story, a bird of another feather. You’ve got a tough persona, like a side of beef, and you’re aroused and stimulated, with an ear-to-ear grin, like a Cheshire cat, and you’re rethinking your entire formless life, your entire being is filled with a whiff of this heady ambrosia. Something in your vital spirit, your pulse, something that runs in the blood, tells you that you must have this tender feeling of love now and forever, this essence of devoted love held tightly in your grip — that it’s essential and necessary for staying alive and cheating death. Intruders, oddballs, kooks, and villains, in this gloomy lifeless dark, fight for space. Two rootless alienated people, withdrawn and isolated, opened the door to each other, said Aloha, Howdy, How you doing, and Good Evening. How could you have known that the smooching and petting, eros and adoration was just one break down mambo hustle away — one far sided google eyed look and a lusty leer — that ever since then, that moment of truth, you’ve been steamed up, head over heels, each other’s hearts’ desire. Sweethearts and honeys right from the beginning. Right from the inaugural sidelong sneak peek, the origin — the starting point. Now you’re yoked together, one flesh in perpetuity — into the vast eternity — immortalized.”

A living legend, Dylan himself has been immortalized as the ultimate iconoclastic, unpredictable singer-songwriter rock star over the course of his seven-decade career, during which there has also been an endless debate about the quality of his voice. Dylan himself reads the audiobook, joined by Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Oscar Isaac, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Sissy Spacek, Alfre Woodard, Jeffrey Wright, and Renée Zellweger. Like him or hate him, Dylan is still a master of vocal phrasing, as a singer and a narrator, in this case delving into sixty-six wide-ranging tunes.

There’s no argument about the mellifluous tones of Emmy, Grammy, and Tony winner André De Shields (Hadestown, Ain’t Misbehavin’), who will be at the 92nd St. Y on July 17 to present dramatic readings from The Philosophy of Modern Song and live musical performances of some of the songs Dylan waxes poetic about in the book; the special Unterberg Poetry Center event, directed by Michael Almereyda (Another Girl Another Planet, Hamlet, Paradise), also features Australian actress Odessa Young (The Daughter, High Life) and German-born American artist Meshell Ndegeocello and Her Band (Plantation Lullabies, Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape).

Writing about Tin Pan Alley themes, Dylan explains in the book, “It is important to remember that these words were written for the ear and not for the eye. And as in comedy, where a seemingly simple sentence can transform into a joke through the magic of performance, an inexplicable thing happens when words are set to music. The miracle is their union.” That union is what Almereyda, De Shields, Young, and Ndegeocello will be celebrating Monday night at the 92nd St. Y.

REMEMBERING A DANCE: PARTS OF SOME SEXTETS, 1965/2019

Who: Yvonne Rainer, Brittany Bailey, more
What: Book launch and performance
Where: Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South
When: Tuesday, June 20, free with RSVP, 6:00
Why: In March 1965, Yvonne Rainer presented Parts of Some Sextets at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford and Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, a new piece for ten dancers and twelve mattresses, with text by the Rev. William Bentley (1759-1819). The work, which changed every thirty seconds, featured Rainer, Lucinda Childs, Judith Dunn, Sally Gross, Deborah Hay, Tony Holder, Robert Morris, Steve Paxton, Robert Rauschenberg, and Joseph Schlichter.

In 2019, Rainer and longtime collaborator Emily Coates revived Parts of Some Sextets at the Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center in DUMBO for the Performa Biennial, with a cast of Coates, Rachel Bernsen, Brittany Engel-Adams, Patrick Gallagher, Shayla Vie Jenkins, Jon Kinzel, Liz Magic Laser, Nick Mauss, Mary Kate Sheehan, David Hamilton Thomson, and Timothy Ward. Performa, Lenz, and the Wadsworth Atheneum have now teamed up to publish the new book Remembering a Dance: Parts of Some Sextets, 1965/2019 (September 2023, $30), which does a deep dive into the origins of the work, its revival, and its legacy, complete with photographs, letters, notes, drawings, and other paraphernalia. Edited by Rainer and Coates and designed by Mauss, the book includes contributions from Rainer, Thomson, Performa founder RoseLee Goldberg, Performa senior curator Kathy Noble, novelist Lynne Tillman, violinist Soyoung Yoon, and the late cultural critic Jill Johnston in addition to a conversation with Rainer, Coates, and Mauss.

On June 20, the eighty-eight-year-old Rainer, who stayed extremely busy during the pandemic, will be at Judson Memorial Church for the launch of Remembering a Dance: Parts of Some Sextets, 1965/2019, discussing the project and signing advance copies of the book. There will also be a special performance of Rainer’s seminal Trio A by Brittany Bailey, who performed the duet “Remembering and Dismembering Trio A” with Rainer in 2020, adding excerpts from Peter Schjeldahl’s “77 Sunset Me” (aka “The Art of Dying”) essay. Admission is free; advance RSVP is recommended in order to meet this towering figure of dance, film, feminist theory, and humanity.

DAVID BOWIE WORLD FAN CONVENTION: DERYCK TODD’S BOWIEBALL

DAVID BOWIE WORLD FAN CONVENTION: DERYCK TODD’S BOWIEBALL
Racket
431 West Sixteenth St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Saturday, June 17, 8:00, $96.83
Sold-out convention runs June 16-18
bowieconvention.com
www.bowerypresents.com

In the introduction to his revised and updated 2016 book The Complete David Bowie, Nicholas Pegg writes, “If you want to enjoy David Bowie’s work to the full, keep an open mind. What makes Bowie such a supremely fascinating artist is that his career presents an implicit challenge to conventional notions of creative continuity. He has repeatedly confounded attempts to pigeonhole him as this or that kind of artist, and the result has been one of rock music’s longest and most successful careers.”

While his career came to an end in January 2016 when the man born David Jones in Brixton died at the age of sixty-nine, the fascination with the Thin White Duke continues unabated, with museum exhibitions such as the spectacular “David Bowie Is” at the Brooklyn Museum, the pandemic livestream benefits “A Bowie Celebration” featuring a multitude of music stars, and the release of a series of posthumous live albums and box sets.

Pegg will serve as compère for the 2023 David Bowie World Fan Convention, taking place June 17 and 18 at Racket, the Chelsea club formerly known as the High Line Ballroom, where Bowie curated the inaugural High Line Festival in 2007, putting together a lineup that included Ricky Gervais, Arcade Fire, Air, Laurie Anderson, Deerhoof, the Polyphonic Spree, Daniel Johnston, Bang on a Can All Stars, and others. The convention, which has a bonus VIP day on June 16, features panel discussions, live performances, and a trivia evening; tickets are still available for Deryck Todd’s “BowieBall” Saturday night, with a “Best Dressed Bowie” costume contest, drag and burlesque, dancing, and live performances by vocalist Ava Cherry, musician and writer Jeff Slate, and Bowie DJs TheMenWhoFell2Earth. This year’s convention honors the fortieth anniversary of Let’s Dance and the fiftieth anniversary of Aladdin Sane, two of Bowie’s most popular records.

Below is the full schedule. In addition, Modern Rocks Gallery is hosting a photography exhibit at the Maker’s Studio in Chelsea Market, with pictures by Sukita, Terry O’Neill, Dennis O’Regan, Kevin Cummins, Brian Aris, and Duffy and an exclusive limited edition print of John Rowlands’s “The Archer.” And you can’t go wrong by starting the weekend with Raquel Cion’s one-woman show, Me & Mr. Jones: My Intimate Relationship with David Bowie, at the Cutting Room on Friday night; held in association with the convention, it is a personal and poignant exploration of fandom and the impact Bowie has had on people’s lives.

BowieBall features a costume contest, live performances, lots of dancing, and more (photo by Sam McMahon)

Saturday, June 17
Heroes, Zeroes, and Absolute Beginners, with bassist Carmine Rojas and guitarist Kevin Armstrong, moderated by Nicholas Pegg, 10:00 am

Planet Earth Is Blue, with singer and multi-instrumentalist Emm Gryner and producer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Plati, on “Space Oddity” performance aboard the International Space Station, Toy, the Hours Tour, and more, 11:00

Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fashion, with fashion designer Keanan Duffty and musicians Ava Cherry and Joey Arias, 12:15

Fantastic Voyage, with producer, arranger, bassist, and vocalist Tony Visconti and studio engineer and backing vocalist Erin Tonkon, moderated by Nicholas Pegg, 2:00

Golden Years, with guitarist Carlos Alomar, singer Robin Clark, and bassist George Murray, moderated by Nicholas Pegg, 3:00

BowieBall, live performances by vocalist Ava Cherry, musician and writer Jeff Slate, and Bowie DJs TheMenWhoFell2Earth, a “Best Dressed Bowie” costume contest, drag and burlesque, and more, hosted by Michael T, 8:00

Sunday, June 18
Red Shoes, Blue Jeans, and Glass Spiders, with guitarist Carlos Alomar, singer Robin Clark, and bassist Carmine Rojas, moderated by Nicholas Pegg, 11:00

I’ve Got to Write It Down, with Nacho; Chris O’Leary, author of Pushing Ahead of the Dame; Stephen Pitalo, author of Bohemian Rhapsodies, Thrillers & November Rains; and Nicholas Pegg, author of The Complete David Bowie, moderated by Nacho, 12:15

You Belong in Rock’n’Roll, with guitarist Kevin Armstrong and producer Tim Palmer, moderated by Nicholas Pegg, 2:00

Brilliant Adventure, with producer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Plati, moderated by Nicholas Pegg, 3:00

Everyone Says “Hi”: Tony Visconti and Friends, with guitarist Carlos Alomar, singer Robin Clark, studio engineer and backing vocalist Erin Tonkon, bassist George Murray, and producer Tony Visconti, moderated by Nicholas Pegg, 4:00

Nacho’s Videos Presents, with Nacho, Ava Cherry, Michael T, TheMenWhoFell2Earth, and more 5:45

Nicholas Pegg’s David Bowie Quiz, the Cutting Room, 7:30

Closing Party, with TheMenWhoFell2Earth DJs, Bowery Electric, 8:00 pm – 2:00 am