this week in literature

BROOKLYN MUSEUM FIRST SATURDAY: BEYOND THE BLUES

Joseph Kosuth, “276 (On Color Blue),” neon tubing, transformer, and electrical wires, 1993 (© 2016 Joseph Kosuth / Artists Rights Society, New York. Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, April 1, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum focuses on numerous aspects of the word “blue” in its April First Saturday program, “Beyond the Blues.” There will be live music and dance by the Martha Redbone Roots Project, Geko Jones and Chiquita Brujita with Fogo Azul and Aina Luz, the Brooklyn Dance Festival (with a workshop), and Queen GodIs with special guests; the pop-up poetry event “An Address of the Times” with Pamela Sneed, Heather Johnson, t’ai freedom ford, and Timothy Du White; a screening of Marcie Begleiter’s Eva Hesse, followed by a discussion with Helen Charash (Hesse’s sister) and producer Karen Shapiro; a hands-on art workshop in which participants can make marbled paper using the Japanese suminagashi (“floating ink”) technique; an Emerging Leaders of New York Arts booth where participants can write postcards in support of the arts, take part in a public art project, and take a #SaveTheNEA selfie; the lecture performance #sky #nofilter by Chloë Bass exploring racial trauma; and a “New York City Participatory Budgeting” program where people can propose and vote on projects in their community. In addition, you can check out such exhibits as “Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller,” Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty,” “Infinite Blue,” “A Woman’s Afterlife: Gender Transformation in Ancient Egypt,” and, at a discounted admission price of $12, “Georgia O’Keefe: Living Modern.”

KORY STAMPER: WORD BY WORD

Word nerd Kory Stamper will be at the Upper East Side B&N on March 28 to launch her new book

Barnes & Noble
2289 Broadway at 82nd St.
Tuesday, March 28, free, 7:00
212-362-8835
barnesandnoble.com
korystamper.wordpress.com

We’ve been Kory Stamper groupies ever since we happened upon one of her “Ask the Editor” videos on YouTube nearly seven years ago. Since 2010, Merriam-Webster associate editor Emily Brewster, editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski, and associate editor Stamper have been making short videos delving into the etymology and usage of words and phrases, from the serial comma and “It is I vs. It is me” to weird plurals and “lay vs. lie.” In introducing her “harm·less drudg·ery | defining the words that define us” webiste in December 2011, Stamper, explained, “We might as well start this blog with a confession: I never planned on being a lexicographer.” Stamper has now written her first book, Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries (March 14, Penguin Random House, $26.95), in which she goes behind the scenes of how dictionaries are put together, making the most of her playful sense of humor. “Language is one of the few common experiences humanity has,” she writes in the preface. “Not all of us can walk; not all of us can sing; not all of us like pickles. But we all have an inborn desire to communicate why we can’t walk or sing or stomach pickles. To do that, we use our language, a vast index of words and their meanings we’ve acquired, like linguistic hoarders, throughout our lives.” Among the book’s chapters are “Hrafnkell: On Falling in Love,” “Irregardless: On Wrong Words,” “Bitch: On Bad Words,” and “Nuclear: On Pronunciation.” Describing her initial meeting with M-W director of defining Steve Perrault, who would become her boss, she remembers, “Apparently, neither of us enjoyed job interviews. I, however, was the only one perspiring lavishly. ‘So tell me,’ he ventured, ‘why you are interested in lexicography.’ I took a deep breath and clamped my jaw shut so I did not start blabbing. This was a complicated answer.” On March 28, you can join the ever-growing number of word nerds as they throng the Upper West Side B&N to venture even further (farther?) down the hallowed halls of M-W and hear from one of its superstars, there to share her inside info and regale all with her morphological magic.

CHEECH IS NOT MY REAL NAME . . . BUT DON’T CALL ME CHONG

cheech is not my real name but

Who: Cheech Marin, Geraldo Rivera
What: Discussion and book signing
Where: Barnes & Noble Union Square, 33 East 17th St., 212-253-0810
When: Wednesday, March 15, free, 7:00 (wristbands given out to book purchasers starting at 9:00 am)
Why: South Central-born Richard Anthony Marin, better know as half of the drug-based comedy team Cheech & Chong, will be at the Union Square B&N on March 15, celebrating the launch of his memoir, Cheech Is Not My Real Name . . . But Don’t Call Me Chong (Grand Central, March 14, $27). Cheech has made such movies with Tommy Chong as Up in Smoke, Nice Dreams, Things Are Tough All Over, and Still Smokin’, starred in the television show Nash Bridges with Don Johnson, and lent his talent to such children’s movies as The Lion King, Spy Kids, and Cars. At B&N, the actor, comedian, musician, and art collector will be discussing his life and career with controversial Emmy- and Peabody-winning journalist Geraldo Rivera. Wristbands will be given out starting at 9:00 in the morning to those with proof of purchase of the book at the Union Square B&N or B&N online; after the talk, Cheech will sign and personalize the new book only, no other paraphernalia or memorabilia.

CELEBRATING LOU REED — 1942-2013: THE RAVEN & THE POETRY OF LOU REED / LOU REED: DRONES

The life and legacy of Lou Reed will be celebrated on July 30 with free all-day festival at Lincoln Center

The New York Public Library is celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary of Lou Reed’s birth with a two-part exhibition and two live programs

Monday, March 13, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, free with advance registration, 7:00
Wednesday, March 15, New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Celeste Bartos Forum, 476 Fifth Ave. at 42nd St., free with advance registration, 6:00 – 10:00
www.nypl.org/loureed
www.loureed.com

In honor of what would have been Lou Reed’s seventy-fifth birthday on March 2 — the legendary Brooklyn-born musician passed away in October 2013 at the age of seventy-one — the New York Public Library is paying tribute to the Velvet Underground leader and solo star with a pair of exhibitions and two live programs. “Celebrating Lou Reed: 1942-2013” consists of items from the Lou Reed Archives, newly acquired by the library under the guidance of Reed’s widow, multimedia artist Laurie Anderson. The show runs through March 20 at the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and the main branch at Fifth Ave. and Forty-Second St. In addition, on March 13 at 7:00 in the Bruno Walter Auditorium, “The Raven & the Poetry of Lou Reed” features a performance of Reed’s The Raven, based on the Edgar Allan Poe tale, and other poetry, with music and spoken word by Anderson and special guests. On March 15 in the Celeste Bartos Forum, the soundscape installation “Lou Reed: Drones” will be performed from 6:00 to 10:00, led by original Reed collaborator Stewart Hurwood, along with tai chi demonstrations led by Ren Guangyi at 7:00 and 9:00. Admission to all events is free, but advance registration is necessary for the live programs.

BROOKLYN MUSEUM FIRST SATURDAY: FUTURE FEMINISMS

Alfred Stieglitz, “Georgia O’Keeffe,” gelatin silver print, circa 1920–22 (© Georgia O’Keeffe Museum)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, March 4, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum goes feminist to the hilt with the First Saturday program “Future Feminisms,” part of its 2017 theme “A Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism at the Brooklyn Museum.” There will be live performances by Charlotte Dos Santos, Buscabulla, and Natasha Diggs with #SoulInTheHorn; a Blues Lounge Bar; a screening of Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’s The Trans List, followed by a discussion with writer Kate Bornstein and DJ and philanthropist Lina Bradford, facilitated by the Sylvia Rivera Law Project; a hands-on art workshop in which participants can make wearable handmade paper flowers inspired by the new exhibit “Georgia O’Keefe: Living Modern”; a Postcard Write-In hosted by Forward March NY; a Scholar Talk with Linda Grasso about her upcoming book Equal Under the Sky: Georgia O’Keeffe and Twentieth-Century Feminism; a screening of Suha Araj’s The Cup Reader and Pioneer High; pop-up gallery talks on “Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty,” hosted by teen apprentices; a tour of “Georgia O’Keefe: Living Modern” led by guest curator Wanda Corn; and the Brooklyn premiere of Fatimah Asghar and Sam Bailey’s web series Brown Girls, followed by a talkback with members of the cast and crew, moderated by Lindsay Catherine Harris. In addition, you can check out such exhibits as “Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller,” “The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago,” “Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty,” “Infinite Blue,” “A Woman’s Afterlife: Gender Transformation in Ancient Egypt,” and, at a discounted admission price of $12, “Georgia O’Keefe: Living Modern.”

BROOKLYN MUSEUM FIRST SATURDAY: “I SEE MYSELF IN YOU” AND BEVERLY BUCHANAN’S “RUINS AND RITUALS”

Beverly Buchanan (American, 1940–2015). Untitled (Double Portrait of Artist with Frustula Sculpture) (detail), n.d. Black-and-white photograph with original paint marks, 8½ x 11 in. (21.6 x 27.9 cm). Private collection. © Estate of Beverly Buchanan

Beverly Buchanan, detail, “Untitled (Double Portrait of Artist with Frustula Sculpture), black-and-white photograph with original paint marks, n.d. (Private collection / © Estate of Beverly Buchanan)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, February 4, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum continues its 2017 First Saturdays theme, “A Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism at the Brooklyn Museum,” on February 4 with a focus on the exhibitions “I See Myself in You: Selections from the Collection” and Beverly Buchanan — Ruins and Rituals.” There will be live performances by Courtnee Roze, OSHUN, Leikeli47, and Everyday People (DJs mOma, Rich Knight, and Lola Chung, hosted by Saada Ahmed and Chef Roblé Ali); a tour of “Beverly Buchanan — Ruins and Rituals” led by curator and artist Park McArthur; an interactive performance inspired by the graphic novel The Other Side of Wall Street by Black Gotham Experience (William Ellis, Adrian Franks, Kamau Ware, and Cliff Washington) with DJ GoodWill; excerpts from SHE’s multimedia choreoplay by Jinah Parker, followed by a discussion with the dancers and Kevin Powell; a hands-on art workshop in which participants can make miniature homes inspired by “Beverly Buchanan — Ruins and Rituals”; a screening of Fit the Description, followed by a community talk with retired detective Clifton Hollingsworth Jr., founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, and U.S. Air Force veteran and composer and producer Malik Abdul-Rahmaan; pop-up gallery talks on African diaspora artists and revolutionaries, hosted by teen apprentices; a community resource fair with booths from Cultural Row Block Association on Eastern Parkway (CuRBA), Brooklyn Navy Yard, Black Youth Project 100, NYC Books Through Bars, the Safe OUTside the System Collective from the Audre Lorde Project, and others; a book club discussion about Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider facilitated by Glory Edim and Jessica Lynne; a kids corner with drumming and storytelling by Garifuna artist James Lovell; and screenings of A Nick in Time and American Falls, part of Bé Garrett’s Legacy Projects, followed by a Q&A with members of the casts; In addition, you can check out such exhibits as “Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller,” “The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago,” “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas,” “Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty,” and “Infinite Blue.”

AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUTE TO ELIE WIESEL: A COMMUNITY READING OF “NIGHT”

The late Elie Wiesel will be honored with a marathon reading of his first book, NIGHT, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on January 29 (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Who: Elisha Wiesel, Andre Aciman, Ambassador Katalin Bogyay, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Ambassador Dani Dayan, Ambassador François Delattre, Tovah Feldshuh, Joel Grey, Sheldon Harnick, Jessica Hecht, Fanya Gottesfeld Heller, David Hyde Pierce, Bill T. Jones, Daniel and Nina Libeskind, Sheila Nevins, Itzhak Perlman, Ron Rifkin, Geraldo Rivera, Daryl Roth, Brita Wagener, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, more
What: Marathon reading of Elie Wiesel’s Night
Where: Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, Edmond J. Safra Hall, 36 Battery Pl., 646-437-4202
When: Sunday, January 29, free, 3:00 – 8:00
Why: “In retrospect I must confess that I do not know, or no longer know, what I wanted to achieve with my words,” Elie Wiesel wrote in a 2006 translation of his seminal 1960 memoir, Night, about his and his father’s experience in Auschwitz. “I only know that without this testimony, my life as a writer — or my life, period — would not have become what it is: that of a witness who believes he has a moral obligation to try to prevent the enemy from enjoying one last victory by allowing his crimes to be erased from human memory.” The Museum of Jewish Heritage and National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene are honoring the legacy of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Wiesel, who passed away last July at the age of eighty-seven, with a free five-hour marathon reading of Night on January 29 from 3:00 to 8:00. Among the participants are Tovah Feldshuh, Joel Grey, Sheldon Harnick, Jessica Hecht, David Hyde Pierce, Bill T. Jones, Itzhak Perlman, Ron Rifkin, Geraldo Rivera, and Dr. Ruth Westheimer. There will also be free admission to the museum itself, which is currently featuring such exhibitions as “My Name Is . . . The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf” and “Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited” in addition to its Core Exhibition that places the Holocaust in context with modern Jewish history. You can join the waitlist for this sold-out event or livestream it for free on Sunday afternoon.