twi-ny recommended events

REID FARRINGTON: THE PASSION PROJECT

Laura K. Nicoll takes an unusual look at Joan of Arc in Reid Farrington’s THE PASSION PROJECT, now playing at the 3LD Art + Technology Center (photo by Paula Court)

3LD Art + Technology Center
80 Greenwich St.
September 16-25, $20
www.3ldnyc.org
www.reidfarrington.com

Initially presented in November 2007 at the PS/K2 Festival in Copenhagen and staged several times at the downtown 3LD Art + Technology Center over the last few years, Reid Farrington’s The Passion Project is back for a special limited engagement at the Greenwich St. institution through September 25. The thirty-minute piece puts a solitary dancer inside a ten-foot-by-ten-foot square, surrounded by more than a dozen small wooden-framed screens on which are projected scenes from Carl Th. Dreyer’s epic 1928 silent classic, The Passion of Joan of Arc. The performer, Laura K. Nicoll, picks up various screens and moves them around, trapped much like the captured Joan of Arc (Maria Falconetti) is in the film, creating a living, breathing three-dimensional effect filled with powerful emotion. “I’ve been with the project for two years now and it’s so incredibly satisfying to perform,” Nicoll told twi-ny. Monday night’s show will benefit Foxy Films’ newest production, Farrington’s multimedia A Christmas Carol or Dickens: The Unparalleled Necromancer, which will run December 1-20 at the Abrons Arts Center. (For a look at Farrington’s Gin & “It,” which played PS 122 in April 2010, click here.)

Update: The Passion Project is a breathtaking tour de force for both creator and director Reid Farrington and performer Laura K. Nicoll. For thirty mesmerizing minutes, Nicoll, barefoot and dressed in sackcloth and ashes, a sullen yet determined look on her face, places and re-places small wooden-framed white screens on hooks dangling from rope knots (that evoke nooses), moving the screens to capture images being projected into the air that have been taken from three different versions (1928, 1935, and 1980) of Carl Th. Dreyer’s silent classic The Passion of Joan of Arc. With whirlwind fury, Nicoll shoots out a screen to show one of the characters discussing Joan of Arc’s fate, or holds another screen in front of her as she walks across the floor, moving with the characters, or suddenly falls to the ground with a screen outstretched to grab yet another part of the story. At other times she sits down next to a small close-up of Joan’s aching face or wanders out of the ten-foot-by-ten-foot area and approaches an audience member, looking into their eyes before continuing on. Translations are shown on three sides so the viewers, who are strongly encouraged to make their way around the set, experiencing the piece from multiple angles, can follow the plot, although every detail is not critical. What is critical is not to miss a moment of Nicoll’s awe-inspiring performance, including the dazzling finale.

CLIMATE WEEK: REFLECTING THE STARS

“Reflecting the Stars” seeks to give the night sky back to the people (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Pier 49, Hudson River Park at Bank St.
Climate Week runs September 19-26
Through October 25, free
www.thewindmillfactory.com
www.climateweeknyc2011.org

Born and raised in Kentucky, Jon Morris couldn’t help but notice something as he moved to Los Angeles and then here to New York City: the disappearance of so many stars and constellations in big-city skies as a result of light pollution and other environmental problems. So he resolved to do something about it. He and his artists collective, the Windmill Factory (so named with more than a subtle nod to Don Quixote), which specializes in “manufacturing the sublime,” has installed “Reflecting the Stars” on the old pilings jutting out into the river from Pier 49 in Hudson River Park. Divers have attached radio-controlled, solar-powered LED lights encased in rusting steel pipe caps on more than two hundred of the wooden posts, and each evening, from sunset to midnight, blue and white lights go on and off in various patterns. In addition, visitors can push buttons on a board to see nine constellations that can are longer visible with the naked eye in the city sky, including Perseus, Hercules, Canis Major, Andromeda, Aquila, Boötes, Pegasus, the Little Dipper, and Draco. Engineered by Adam Berenzweig, designed by Rich Schwab, and manufactured by Andy Baker at Kontraptioneering, “Reflecting the Stars” is more than just a cool site — and one, by the way, that is that much cooler if you can gain access to one of the surrounding roof decks to look down on it. It also sends an important environmental message, a plea for people to take back nature and the skies from industrial pollution, particularly the lights left on all night in office buildings and the neon logos that blast across the city all night long. “It raises questions about the way we live,” Morris said at the project’s public unveiling on August 31. With a Buddhist’s calm, Morris stressed how people need to regain their “connection to the stars, to the moon, to the universe.”

“Reflecting the Stars,” which continues through October 25, is one of the highlights of Climate Week, as the Clean Revolution descends on New York September 19-26. Among the many lectures, panel discussions, installations, cocktail receptions, and other educational and informational gatherings are “The Lexicon of Sustainability Project,” “Innovations in Energy Efficiency Finance,” “Apartment Building Recycling Training,” “Plug-In Cities: What EV Means for the Future of Urban and Regional Transportation,” “Feeding Hope: Living Democracy with Vandana Shiva & Frances Moore Lappé,” “Dr. James Hansen: Climate Change or Just Mother Nature Acting Out,” and the grand finale, “Meditations on a Warming Planet: An Audience Participation Performance” on September 26 at 6:00 on the Sheep Meadow in Central Park.

NEW YORK CITY APPLE DAY

Orchard St. between Broome & Grand Sts.
Sunday, September 18, free, 11:00 – 4:30
www.lowereastsideny.com/events/nyc-apple-day

The apple is the official state fruit of New York, and the city will be celebrating that tasty delight at the annual New York City Apple Day festival. Held on September 18 on Orchard St., of course, the all-day event will be able to pick up all kinds of apples from upstate orchards, check out the Competitive Eaters-sanctioned National Apple Pie Eating Championship, and try apple treats from such vendors as 88 Orchard, An Choi, BabyCakes, Café Grumpy, Fatta Cuckoo, Georgia’s East Side BBQ, Katz’s, Melt, Mortgage Apple Cakes, the Roasting Plant, Roni-Sue’s Chocolates, Saxelby Cheesemongers, the Sweet Life, and many others. Sponsored by the Lower East Side Business Improvement District, New York City Apple Day also includes a running tour, children’s activities, glass demonstrations, and more.

BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL 2011

Jhumpa Lahiri will receive the BoBi (Best of Brooklyn) Award at this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival

Multiple venues in Brooklyn
Sunday, September 18, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
www.brooklynbookfestival.org

Three’s just something about Brooklyn that both raises many of the world’s best writers and lures them to the Borough of Kings to do their most insightful writing. On Sunday, more than 250 writers will come together for the sixth annual Brooklyn Book Festival, with panel discussions, signings, lectures, workshops, live performances, and other events taking place at Borough Hall, Columbus Park, St. Francis College, St. Ann’s Church, and the Brooklyn Historical Society. This year’s BoBi (Best of Brooklyn) Award goes to Jhumpa Lahiri, who will be at St. Ann’s at 2:00 to speak with Liesl Schillinger. Everything is free, although some of the events require advance ticketing available one hour before program time. Below are our top ten recommendations; other participants include Colson Whitehead, John Sayles, Lawrence Block, Susan Isaacs, Madison Smartt Bell, Edmund White, Alina Simone, DJ Spooky, Pete Hamill, Russell Banks, Nicole Krauss, Larry McMurtry, Jennifer Egan, Tom Perrotta, Cory Doctorow, Dean Haspiel, J Hoberman, Phillip Lopate, Nick Bertozzi, Rita Williams-Garcia, and many more.

Laugh Your Head Off: Teen beauty pageant contestant Mad Libs! with Jon Scieszka, Libba Bray, Paul Acampora, and Tommy Greenwald, moderated by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Youth Stoop, Borough Hall Plaza / Columbus Park, 10:00 am

The Phantom Tollbooth at 50: Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer in conversation with Leonard Marcus, St. Francis Auditorium, 180 Remsen St., tickets required, 12 noon

Epic Confusion: Readings and discussion with Nadia Kalman, Chuck Klosterman, and Sam Lipsyte, moderated by Tiphanie Yanique, St. Francis McArdle Hall, 180 Remsen St., 12 noon

Words of Personal: Readings by Jonathan Safran Foer, Joyce Carol Oates, and Nina Revoyr, followed by a Q&A moderated by Brigid Hughes, St. Francis Auditorium, 180 Remsen St., tickets required, 2:00

Gumshoes: Eoin Colfer and Walter Mosley, moderated by David L, Ulin, St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church, 157 Montague St., 3:00

Making Difficult Choices: Panel discussion with Cory Doctorow, Jacqueline Woodson, and Gayle Forman, moderated by Caragh O’Brien, Youth Stoop, Borough Hall Plaza / Columbus Park, 3:00

Comics Writ Large and Small: Panel discussion with Craig Thompson, Anders Nilsen, and Adrian Tomine, moderated by Meg Lemke, St. Francis Auditorium, 180 Remsen St., tickets required, 3:00

CATCH-22 at 50: Examining the classic novel with Tracy Daugherty, Bruce Jay Friedman, and Troupe, North Stage, Borough Hall Plaza / Columbus Park, 3:00

Where Are We? Panel discussion with Deborah Eisenberg, Fran Lebowitz, and Wallace Shawn, moderated by Harold Augenbraum, St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church, 157 Montague St., 4:00

Kickstarter Conversations: A Symposium on Creative Ideas with Ted Rall, Nelson George, and Meaghan O’Connell, moderated by Yancey Strickler, North Stage, Borough Hall Plaza / Columbus Park, 4:00

CRAIG THOMPSON: HABIBI

Multiple venues
September 17-20, free – $40
www.dootdootgarden.com
www.habibibook.com

Born in Traverse City, Michigan, and based in Portland, Oregon, graphic novelist Craig Thompson redefined the genre with his 2003 smash, Blankets, which won the prestigious Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz awards and is on nearly all lists of the greatest graphic novels ever. He has followed that massive tome with a new massive tome, Habibi (Pantheon, September 20, 2011, $35). Habibi is a gorgeously designed tour de force for Thompson, who tells the epic love story of a pair of child slave refugees seeking their place in a complex, changing world. The tale unfolds amid spectacularly detailed panels and spreads that include filigreed borders, Middle Eastern motifs, Islamic writing, and glorious illustration depicting exciting action, intimate moments, and the spiritual search for identity. Thompson will be making several appearances in New York over the next few days, beginning with tonight’s “An Evening with Craig Thompson” at Greenpoint’s WORD bookstore ($40, 8:00), a meet-and-greet bookend event of the Brooklyn Book Festival. He’ll be participating in two discussions at the festival on Sunday afternoon, “The Heart of the Matter: Stories of Epic Love” with Alan Cheuse and Julie Orringer, moderated by Jeffrey Lependorf, at 12 noon at the St. Francis Volpe Library, and the can’t-miss all-star panel “Comics Writ Large and Small” at 3:00 at St. Francis Auditorium with Anders Nilsen and Adrian Tomine, moderated by Meg Lemke (free tickets required). On Tuesday, September 20, he’ll be at Midtown Comics Downtown on Fulton St. for a signing from 12 noon to 2:00, followed that night at 7:00 by a signing and Q&A with Bill Kartalopoulos in the Strand’s Rare Book Room.

THE KITCHEN BLOCK PARTY

A Free Neighborhood Street Fair
West 19th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Saturday, September 17, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
212-255-5793
www.thekitchen.org

For forty years, the Kitchen has been presenting cutting-edge multidisciplinary art, theater, and dance. The nonprofit organization will kick off its fall season today with a block party on West 19th St. featuring family-friendly artist-led booths and activities, including face painting, mask making, temporary tattoos, cookie decorating, and more. Among the artists participating in the annual event are Michael Paul Britto + Elia Alba, Miles Bumbray, Nathan Carter, Francisca Chaidez-Gutierrez, Michael DeLucia, Torkwase Dyson, Jonathan Ehrenberg + Bryan Zanisnik, Escape Artist + Saintchic, Brent Green + Donna K, Simone Leigh + Chitra Ganesh, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya + Timothy Hull. There will be live music and dance performances by DJ Laylo and Eli Efi, Pegasus Warning, Olabunmi and the Hamana Djembe Orchestra, and others, while food will be provided by Asiadog, Chelsea Thai, Choncho’s Tacos, Coconut Rob, and Je & Jo. You can also venture inside the venerable institution to see the exhibitions “Joe Winter: The Stars Below” and “Jennie C. Jones: Absorb/Diffuse” and pick up tickets to such upcoming events as Wally Cardona, Jennifer Lacey, and Jonathan Bepler’s Tool Is Loot, Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabako’s more more more… future, and Anna Sperber’s FOREVERANDADAY.

COLLECTING MATISSE AND MODERN MASTERS: THE CONE SISTERS OF BALTIMORE

Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd St.
Thursday – Tuesday through September 25, $12 (free Saturdays 11:00 am – 5:45 pm)
212-423-3337
www.thejewishmuseum.org

Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone were highly unusual, both as women and as art collectors. Born in the Victorian era and active in early-twentieth-century European society, they were never concerned with what was popular or a good investment. Instead, the two Baltimore sisters bought art that they wanted to live with — and that created quite a stir, because others in the art world did not understand their eclectic, avant-garde, far-ranging tastes. Through September 25, the Jewish Museum is displaying the charming exhibit “Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore,” featuring fifty paintings, sculptures, and drawings by Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro, Theodore Robinson, and, primarily, Henri Matisse, among others, as well as jewelry, embroidery, textiles, and other objects from Asia and Africa that the sisters collected. An extensive collection of letters, diaries, postcards, photographs, and other archival documents grounds the exhibit and lends insight into the sisters’ fascinating lives; they counted among their friends Matisse (who would send them photos of works in progress to titillate them), Leo and Gertrude Stein, and other seminal figures of the time. The exhibit includes an enlightening BBC film about the sisters, narrated by Michael Palin, as well as a photo series of their Marlborough Apartments that depicts how they lived with their art. The daughters of German-Jewish immigrants who amassed a fortune in the textile industry, Claribel (1864-1929) became a medical doctor, while Etta (1870-1949) served as the large family’s caretaker. Models of Victorian refinement, neither of the sisters married. After Claribel died suddenly, Etta continued to maintain her apartment as if she were still alive. Upon Etta’s death, the entire collection was bequeathed to the Baltimore Museum of Art. Walking through this engaging exhibit is like taking a stroll through the lives of these wholly original women.