this week in literature

NYC FABMANIA WEEK

On February 7, 1964, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr landed at JFK to a wild welcome as they came to America for the first time to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. New York City is paying tribute to that seminal moment in the history of the Fab Four with Fabmania Week, featuring a host of special events celebrating this golden anniversary. The centerpiece of it all is the fortieth anniversary of the Fest for Beatles Fans, taking place February 7-9 at the Grand Hyatt in Midtown ($32.50-$225). Among the many guests are Cousin Brucie (broadcasting live), Donovan, Billy J. Kramer, Peter Asher, Chad & Jeremy, Freda Kelly, Bob Guren, and Allan Tannenbaum; the Fest also features a re-creation of the Cavern Club, screenings of Ryan White’s Good Ol’ Freda, a marketplace of memorabilia, look-alike and costume contests, and yoga sessions in an ashram, in addition to book signings, art exhibitions, and other tributes. On February 6, Donovan, Asher, Kramer, Kelly, Vince Calandra, and moderator Martin Lewis will take part in the friends-of-the-Beatles panel discussion “It Was 50 Years Ago Today . . . Celebrating 50 Years of the Beatles in the USA” at the 92nd St. Y ($15-$29, 8:15). The Morrison Hotel Gallery exhibit “50th Anniversary of the Beatles’ First US Tour,” curated by Julian Lennon, opens on February 7 and runs through February 28, consisting of twenty-five images, some never before shown in public, of John, Paul, George, and Ringo taken by such photographers as Ken Regan, Charles Trainor, Curt Gunther, Robert Whitaker, Rowland Scherman, and Terry O’Neill.

Curt Gunther’s photograph of the Beatles playing with slot cars is included in Morrison Hotel Gallery exhibit curated by Julian Lennon (photo © Curt Gunther, 1964)

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will be home to the multimedia exhibition “Ladies and Gentlemen . . . the Beatles!” from February 6 through May 10, examining the effects Beatlemania had on American pop culture during the mid-1960s, comprising interviews, instruments, posters, music, and an oral history booth where fans can share their own memories; there will also be a free symposium on February 9 in the library’s Bruno Walter Auditorium with presentations by Bruce Spizer (“The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania in America”), Dennis Elsas (“It Was 50 Years Ago Today — The Beatles Invade America”), Chuck Gunderson (“Some Fun Tonight! The Backstage Story of the 1964 Summer North American Tour”), Allan Kozinn (“Studio Days / Touring Years”), and Russ Lease (“The Drop-T Logo and the Most Significant Drumkit in Popular Music History”), emceed by curator Robert Santelli. On February 8, the Town Hall will hold the “America Celebrates the Beatles’ 50th Anniversary All-Star Concert” ($63-$272, 7:30), with a wide-ranging lineup playing songs by and inspired by the Liverpudlian quartet, including Melissa Manchester, Tommy James, Al Jardine, Danny Aiello, Marshal Crenshaw, Larry Kirwin, Aztec Two-Step, Melanie, along with appearances by such Beatles fans as Dick Cavett, Len Berman, the Amazing Kreskin, and Charles Grodin. And on February 8 & 9 at 1:00, the Paley Center will present “The Beatles Invasion 50-Year Celebration: See the Fab Four on the Big Screen, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,” with showings of the complete Ed Sullivan Show broadcast from February 9, 1964, and the Maysles brothers’ original What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. documentary.

FIRST SATURDAY: LOOKING BACK TO LOOK FORWARD

Shukree Hassan Tilghman’s MORE THAN A MONTH is part of free Black History Month celebration at Brooklyn Museum on February 1

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, February 1, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The February edition of the Brooklyn Museum’s free First Saturdays honors Black History Month with programs related to African American art and culture. The evening will include pop-up gallery talks focused on works by African American artists currently on view at the museum, a camera phone workshop by Instagram activist Ruddy Roye, a Hands-On Art workshop in which participants learn how to hand-color historical photographs, a screening of Shukree Hassan Tilghman’s 2012 documentary More Than a Month about Black History Month, live music by Tysmé, Honey Larochelle, and Chris Faust, a dance performance by Niles Ford Urban Dance Collective, a movement workshop led by the Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory, a fashion show hosted by Global Village, and a talk by transgender activist Janet Mock about her new book, Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love and So Much More, moderated by Michaela Angela Davis. In addition, the galleries will be open late, giving visitors plenty of opportunity to check out “Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey,” “War / Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath,” “Twice Militant: Lorraine Hansberry’s Letters to ‘The Ladder,’” “Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt,” “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas,” “Connecting Cultures: A World in Brooklyn,” “The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk,” and other exhibits.

MLK DAY 2014

MLK Day features a host of special events and community-based service projects throughout the city (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple venues
Monday, January 21
www.mlkday.gov

In 1983, the third Monday in January was officially recognized as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, honoring the birthday of the civil rights leader who was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Dr. King would have turned eighty-five this month, and you can celebrate his legacy tomorrow by participating in a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service project or attending one of several special events taking place around the city. BAM’s twenty-eighth annual free Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. includes a keynote speech by Angela Davis, live performances by José James and the Christian Cultural Center Choir, the NYCHA Saratoga Village Community Center student exhibit “Picture the Dream,” and a screening of Shola Lynch’s 2012 documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners. The JCC in Manhattan will host an MLK Day blood drive and “The Living Legacy of Dr. King,” consisting of the panel discussion “Leading a Socially Responsible Life” with Ruth Messinger, Harrie Bakst, and Rabbi Joanna Samuels, interactive workshops for teens, and the “Artists Celebrate the Living Legacy of Dr. King” performance with Judith Sloan, Susannah Heschel, and Joshua Nelson, the Prince of Kosher Gospel. (Admission is free but preregistration is recommended.)

The Museum of the Moving Image is screening THE NEGRO AND THE AMERICAN PROMISE on MLK Day

The Museum of the Moving Image will be open on MLK Day, with two screenings of the 1963 documentary The Negro and the American Promise as part of its “Changing the Picture” series (free with museum admission). The Children’s Museum of Manhattan will teach kids about King’s legacy with the “Martin’s Mosaic” workshop, the “Heroic Heroines: Ruby Bridges” book talk, and live performances by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem All Stars Band, while the Brooklyn Children’s Museum has such special hands-on crafts programs as “Let’s March!,” “Let’s Join Hands,” and “Dream Clouds” and live music from the Berean Community Drumline. And the Museum at Eldridge Street will be hosting a free reading of Eloise Greenfield and Jan Spivey Gilchrist’s picture book The Great Migration: Journey to the North.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN IN FOCUS 1980-2012

Fans carry Bruce Springsteen during Wrecking Ball tour (photo by Debra L. Rothenberg)

Rock Paper Photo Pop-Up Gallery
Gallery 151
132 West 18th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Wednesday, January 15, free, 6:00
www.rockpaperphoto.com
www.debrarothenberg.com

Since 1980, Northern New Jersey-raised Debra L. Rothenberg has been taking pictures of hometown hero Bruce Springsteen, capturing the Boss with the genuine glee of a true fan. “My life was breathing, photography, and Bruce Springsteen; nothing else mattered,” she recently said upon the release of her first book, Bruce Springsteen in Focus 1980-2012: Photographs by Debra L. Rothenberg (Turn the Page, September 2013, $44.95). In celebration of Springsteen’s latest record, High Hopes, Rothenberg, an award-winning photographer who has contributed to such publications as Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and, since 1999, the Daily News, will be signing copies of the book at a reception for her exhibit featuring many of her best Bruce snaps at Rock Paper Photo’s pop-up spot at Gallery 151. Part of the proceeds from sales of the book will go to the Alzheimer’s Association, the Light of Day foundation for Parkinson’s research, and the National Breast Cancer Foundation. On January 18, Rothenberg will be at the Asbury Park Musical Heritage Foundation, where another display of her Springsteen photographs continues through March 2.

FIRST SATURDAY: ART ON THE EDGE

Screening of HEAVY METAL IN BAGHDAD is part of free First Saturday program at Brooklyn Museum

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, January 4, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum kicks off its 2014 monthly free First Saturdays program with a diverse collection of events centered around the theme “Art on the Edge.” The evening will include pop-up gallery talks, the Visual AIDS discussion “What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Museum: Art, AIDS, Activism, and the Institution,” an arts workshop with Pioneer Works on innovation and collaboration and another in which participants can make a mosaic tile inspired by the exhibition “Connecting Cultures: A World in Brooklyn,” a Center for Urban Pedagogy talk on unique design, Purring Tiger performing excerpts from the multimedia dance work Mizaru, a screening of Suroosh Alvi’s 2007 documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad, live music by Dendê and Band, Idgy Dean, and ScienZe (aka Jamal Monsanto) + the EllaVators, and a book club talk led by Barbara Browning about her dance novel, I’m Trying to Reach You. In addition, the galleries will be open late, giving visitors plenty of opportunity to check out “Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey,” “War / Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath,” “Twice Militant: Lorraine Hansberry’s Letters to ‘The Ladder,’” “Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt,” “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas,” “The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk,” and other exhibits.

BICARBONATE OF BUKOWSKI TRIBUTE READING

Bukowski fans can welcome the new year at annual memorial tribute reading at Cornelia Street Cafe

Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia St. between West Fourth & Bleecker Sts.
Friday, January 3, $8 (includes free drink), 6:00 – 8:00
212-989-9319
www.corneliastreetcafe.com

We’re not sure we’ve ever felt like Charles Bukowski probably felt after a New Year’s Eve bender, but we can’t think of a much better way to prepare for the next twelve months than at the fifth annual Charles Bukowski Memorial Reading at the Cornelia Street Cafe. On January 3, a diverse group of fans will descend on the West Village institution and read works by, about, and inspired by the author of such books as Factotum, Barfly, Poems Written Before Jumping Out of an 8 Story Window, Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts, and Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit. Hosted by Kat Georges of Three Rooms Press, the evening includes poetry readings and performances by Mike Daisey, Peter Carlaftes, Angelo Verga, Richard Vetere, Michael Puzzo, Puma Perl, and Georges, videos of Bukowski, prizes, book and CD giveaways, and, appropriately, one free drink with admission. Also appropriately, a post on the bukowski.net forum noted in the past that this is “an event that would have made Bukowski wretch.” And if you want to read your own favorite piece by Bukowski or inspired by him, you can sign up to participate as well, but you need to get there before six.

THE 40th ANNUAL NEW YEAR’S DAY MARATHON BENEFIT READING

The Poetry Project at St. Marks Church
131 East 10th St. at Second Ave.
Wednesday, January 1, $20, 2:00 pm – 12 midnight
www.poetryproject.org

Every January 1, New Yorkers flock to the Poetry Project at St. Marks Church for the annual poetry marathon, consisting of readings by the famous and not-so-famous, poets and performance artists, journalists and musicians, welcoming in the new year while also raising funds for the nonprofit literary organization. This year’s marathon will include a raffle, a three-hour prime-time spot emceed by Sean Cole, and a trio of special-edition tote bags, as well as readings by nearly one hundred and fifty regulars and newcomers from multiple disciplines, among them Anselm Berrigan, Anne Waldman, Bob Holman, Bob Rosenthal, CA Conrad, Carolee Scheemann, Dynasty Handbag, Edmund Berrigan, Edwin Torres, Eileen Myles, Elinor Nauen, Elliott Sharp, JD Samson & Emily Roysdon, Jennifer Bartlett, Jennifer Monson & Chris Cochrane, John Giorno, John S. Hall, Jonas Mekas, Justin Vivian Bond, Legs McNeil, Lenny Kaye, Lynne Tillman, Maggie Dubris, Nick Hallett, Patti Smith, Penny Arcade, Philip Glass, Rachel Trachtenburg, Steve Earle, Tammy Faye Starlite w/ Steve Earle, Thurston Moore, Yoshiko Chuma, Yvonne Meier, and Yvonne Rainer.