this week in lectures, signings, panel discussions, workshops, and Q&As

HANK WILLIS THOMAS: THE TRUTH IS I SEE YOU

Hank Willis Thomas installation in MetroTech Commons explores different aspects of truth around the world (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MetroTech Commons, Brooklyn
The Truth Booth: Thursday, October 15, free, 12 noon – 8:00 pm
Fall Talks: The New School, Wednesday, October 21, $10, 6:30
Installation continues through June 3, 2016
publicartfund.org
the truth is i see you slideshow

Throughout his career, Brooklyn-based visual artist Hank Willis Thomas has attempted to uncover the truth while investigating race, popular culture, gender, branding, and commodification. In works such as “B®ANDED,” “Unbranded,” “What Goes without Saying,” and “All Things Being Equal . . . ,” Thomas strips away the surface of media and advertising to get to the heart of black identity in America. For his latest work, the Public Art Fund project “The Truth Is I See You,” Thomas has filled the main walkway in MetroTech Commons with twenty-two speech bubbles of varying sizes, mounted near the tops of lampposts, each a quote about truth, in English on one side and in a foreign language spoken in Brooklyn on the other. Each bubble is accompanied by a placard that gives the translation and pronunciation of the phrase in the second language, all of which are from a poem written together by Thomas and ©ause Collective cofounder Ryan Alexiev: “The truth is I love you / The truth is I know you /The truth is I see you / The truth is I hear you / The truth is I feel you / The truth is I respect you / The truth is I follow you / The truth is I choose you / The truth is I remember you / The truth is I remind you / The truth is I liberate you / The truth is I believe you / The truth is I am you / The truth is I understand you / The truth is I need you / The truth is I miss you / The truth is I reflect you / The truth is I accept you / The truth is I trust you / The truth is I support you / The truth is I balance you / The truth is I welcome you.”

Visitors will be able to share their own thoughts on truth on October 15 in MetroTech Commons (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Among the languages are Swahili, Italian, French, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Yiddish, Vietnamese, and Hebrew. In the center of the path is a video monitor playing “In Search of the Truth,” consisting of clips of various people finishing the statement “The truth is . . .” that they recorded in the large, inflatable “Truth Booth,” a collaboration between Thomas, Alexiev, and Jim Ricks of the ©ause Collective that has been traveling around the world, stopping in Afghanistan, Ireland, and South Africa as well as the U.S. so far. Meanwhile, across the commons, a metal tree with bare branches holds aloft a half dozen cushiony speech bubbles that spell out “The truth is I love you,” along with question marks. “The Truth Is I See You” makes a powerful statement about inclusion, referencing America’s supposed melting pot, particularly in a borough containing so many different ethnicities. On October 15 from 12 noon to 8:00, “The Truth Booth” will be in MetroTech Commons, where visitors are invited to add their own thoughts about truth. Thomas also has contributed to the Public Art Fund group show “Image Objects” in City Hall Park (through November 20); his sculpture, “Liberty,” features a purple arm spinning a basketball atop a plinth. And on October 21, Thomas will be at the New School for a Public Art Fund Talk as part of the “Public Context, Private Meaning” series. (Thomas can also be seen in Thomas Allen Harris’s 2014 documentary, Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, based on the book Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present by his mother, Deborah Willis.)

LIVE FROM THE NYPL: TA-NEHISI COATES / KHALIL GIBRAN MUHAMMAD

Ta-Nehisi Coates will discuss his incendiary new book at the New York Public Library on October 13 (photo by Nina Subin)

Who: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Khalil Gibran Muhammad
What: Live from the NYPL
Where: New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Celeste Bartos Forum, Fifth Ave. at 42nd St., 917-275-6975
When: Tuesday, October 13, $25-$40, 7:00
Why: With Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau, July 2015, $24), Atlantic national correspondent Ta-Nehisi Coates has written one of the most important books ever about the history of institutionalized racism in the United States, an intimate, angry, and eye-opening treatise in the form of a cautionary tale being told to his adolescent son. Coates, who also wrote the 2008 memoir The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, holds nothing back in the new book, telling his son about the danger the black body is in every day in America. He writes about his childhood, the lessons he learned from his father, his experiences attending Howard University (which he calls the Mecca), and the tragedies involving Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Renisha McBride, John Crawford, and other African Americans killed by white police officers. Although the book is a mere 156 pages, it is a dense read; you’ll want to pore over passages again and again to get the full effect of what Coates is saying. And nearly every page is filled with quotes you’ll want to remember and share with others, stinging indictments of the current state of the nation. “Race is the child of racism, not the father. And the process of naming ‘the people’ has never been a matter of genealogy and physiognomy so much as one of hierarchy,” he explains early on. “Difference in hue and hair is old. But the belief in the preeminence of hue and hair, the notion that these factors can correctly organize a society and that they signify deeper attributes, which are indelible — this is the new idea at the heart of these new people who have been brought up hopelessly, tragically, deceitfully, to believe that they are white.” Between the World and Me is a book that should be required reading in every high school in America. Coates will be at the New York Public Library on October 13 to discuss the state of racism and more with Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture director Khalil Gibran Muhammad.

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE IN NEW YORK

William Kentridge invades New York this fall with an opera at the Met, a performance at BAM, and a number of discussions and lectures (photo courtesy the Metropolitan Opera)

William Kentridge invades New York this fall with an opera at the Met, a multimedia performance at BAM, and a number of discussions and lectures (photo courtesy the Metropolitan Opera)

When William Kentridge comes to town, he really comes to town. Back in 2010, the South African multidisciplinary artist was all over New York City, with the smashing “Five Themes” retrospective at MoMA, his production of Shostakovich’s The Nose at the Metropolitan Opera, a unique artist book at Dieu Donné, a screening of some of his animated films accompanied by live music at the World Financial Center, and a performance of his one-man show “I am not me, the horse is not mine” at MoMA. He’s back in the city this fall, with a host of wide-ranging events, exhibits, and performances all over town. On October 12 (free, 7:00), he’ll be giving a lecture, “The Sentimental Machine,” at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture. On October 13 ($30, 6:30), he’ll be at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in conversation with printer Andrew Hoyem in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium discussing the limited-edition letterpress book The Lulu Plays, delving into the nature of human imagination and time. On October 14 (free, 5:00), Kentridge will deliver the Belknap Lecture at Princeton, “O Sentimental Machine,” about his Trotsky-inspired multimedia installation.

From October 22 to 25 ($30-$100), Kentridge teams up with longtime collaborator Philip Miller for the audiovisual chamber opera Refuse the Hour at the BAM Harvey, a wildly inventive lecture-performance with dance, music, projections, and more, a companion piece to his wildly inventive “The Refusal of Time” 2013 installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In conjunction with Refuse the Hour, Kentridge will be at BAM Rose Cinemas on October 24 ($15, 5:00) for a discussion with physicist and Refuse the Hour collaborator Peter Galison, moderated by Dennis Overbye. From November 2 to December 31 (free), the Marian Goodman Gallery will be showing works by Kentridge in the third-floor project room. From November 4 to 8 ($10-$40), The Lulu Plays will be on view at the IFPDA Print Fair at the Park Avenue Armory. And from November 5 through December 3 ($27-$335), there will be eight performances of Kentridge’s four-hour-plus version of Alban Berg’s Lulu at the Met, featuring Marlis Petersen in the title role, Susan Graham as Geschwitz, Paul Groves as the painter and the African prince, and Johan Reuter as Dr. Schön and Jack the Ripper, conducted by Lothar Koenigs. We’re exhausted just reading about all the sixty-year-old Kentridge has planned; we can’t even begin to imagine doing it all, but we’re going to see as many of these events as we can, and we urge you to do the same.

PALEYFEST NY

The real Tatiana Maslany will be at PaleyFest NY on October 18 to talk about her hit BBC America show, ORPHAN BLACK

The Paley Center for Media
25 West 52 St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
October 10-19, $10 (Viewing Room) – $50 (main theater)
paleycenter.org

It’s time to stop all that binge-watching, get off the couch, and actually go outside, where you can see the real deal at PaleyFest NY, taking place October 10-19 at the Paley Center for Media in Midtown. Each day, the Paley Center will be featuring a panel discussion on a different series, with many of the stars and creators in person to talk about the show. Some events ($50) are already sold out, but you can still get a ticket ($10) to watch them projected live in the Viewing Room. Things kick off on October 10 with “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog Reunion,” gathering together Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day, and Joss Whedon. That is followed by Pretty Little Liars (Lucy Hale, Ashley Benson, Troian Bellisario, Sasha Pieterse, I. Marlene King, Oliver Goldstick, Joe Dougherty), The Affair (Dominic West, Ruth Wilson, Maura Tierney, Joshua Jackson, Josh Stamberg, Julia Goldani Telles, Sarah Treem), Ash vs Evil Dead (Bruce Campbell, Lucy Lawless, Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo, Jill Marie Jones, Sam Raimi, Craig DiGregorio), Mr. Robot (Rami Malek, Christian Slater, Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, Sam Esmail), Fargo (Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Jean Smart, Noah Hawley, Warren Littlefield), The Mindy Project (Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, Ed Weeks, Beth Grant, Xosha Roquemore, Matt Warburton, Charlie Grandy, Tracey Wigfield, Lang Fisher, Chris Schleicher, David Stassen), Orphan Black (Tatiana Maslany, Jordan Gavaris, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Kristian Bruun, Graeme Manson), and Transparent (Jeffrey Tambor, Judith Light, Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass, Gaby Hoffmann, Jill Soloway).

A WOMAN LIKE ME

Filmmaker Alex Sichel and her onscreen alter ego, actress Lili Taylor, face mortality head-on in A WOMAN LIKE ME

A WOMAN LIKE ME (Alex Sichel & Elizabeth Giamatti, 2015)
Village East Cinemas
181-189 Second Ave. at 12th St.
Opens Friday, October 9
212-529-6799
www.awomanlikemefilm.com
www.villageeastcinema.com

When filmmaker Alex Sichel was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer a few years ago, she turned to her stock in trade: making movies. But Sichel, the writer-director of the indie gem All Over Me and an episode of HBO’s If These Walls Could Talk 2 starring Michelle Williams and Chloë Sevigny, decided to share her situation in an unusual way, combining documentary with fiction in the intimate, moving A Woman Like Me. In the film, which she codirected with Elizabeth Giamatti, Sichel shows herself going through chemotherapy, meeting with holistic healers, and dealing with family issues with her husband, Erich Hahn, who is not exactly thrilled with many of his wife’s choices and constantly being on camera himself; their seven-year-old daughter, Anastasia, with whom they have chosen not to share the details of Sichel’s illness; and Sichel’s parents and sisters, who have their own opinions about how she should be facing her cancer, which doctors say is terminal. As the film opens, Sichel’s voice floats over a black screen, talking about the Buddhist meditation on death. “The point is, we’re all going to die, and it sounds so obvious, but that’s the point that I don’t accept,” she says. “Somehow I’m going to be the exception. It’s crazy.”

Alongside the documentary part of A Woman Like Me, Sichel is also making a fictionalized account of what she’s going through, with Lili Taylor as Anna Seashell, Jonathan Cake as her husband, Walter, and Maeve McGrath as their young daughter, Zoe. “The only way you even have a chance of living longer with the disease is if you face your fear of death, and the movie is a way of trying to do that,” Sichel says in voiceover as Taylor walks over to a window, puts her hands on the glass, and looks out as, ultimately, Sichel watches the scene unfold on her director’s monitor. It’s a powerful moment, as is a scene in which Sichel and Taylor go over the script together. Sichel is bold and blunt throughout A Woman Like Me, especially when her situation worsens, but she’s able to temper her fears by having her fictional self face death in a much more positive light. Despite its serious subject matter, A Woman Like Me is a celebration of life that avoids mundane sentimentality and self-indulgence, instead intelligently and honestly depicting how one brave woman and her family come to grips with mortality. “How do you make a movie about cancer,” Sichel says into the camera after undergoing a medical test. She and Giamatti have certainly found one unusual, and successful, way. Winner of the SXSW Special Jury Prize for Directing, A Woman Like Me opens October 9 at Village East, with panel discussions taking place after the 7:00 shows on October 9, 10, 11, and 13 and the 4:30 screenings on October 10 and 11.

HOW CATS TOOK OVER THE MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE

Alexander Hammid and Maya Deren’s PRIVATE LIFE OF A CAT is part of feline festivities at Museum of the Moving Image

Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Special events October 9, 10, 23 (free with gallery admission of $6-$12)
Exhibit continues Wednesday – Sunday through January 31, $6-$12
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us

A little more than ten years ago, on May 22, 2005, YouTube cofounder Steve Chen posted a video of his cat, Pajamas, on the new social media hub. It didn’t take long until felines ruled all of cyberspace with their unbelievable cuteness and nasty tempers, whether trying to squeeze into a glass vase, gliding through the kitchen on a Roomba, playing the piano, or sneaking up on their humans like a ninja in the night. Now they have descended upon Astoria, where they have taken over the Museum of the Moving Image. Through January 31, the Queens institution dedicated to the evolution of film and television is showing “How Cats Took Over the Internet,” a fun, if relatively slight, exploration of the history of the filming of pussycats, from Thomas Edison to Steve Chen to Grumpy Cat. The exhibit is divided into such sections as “Anthropomorphism,” “The Mediated Cat,” and “Watching Cats (and Seeing Ourselves),” includes a timeline that traces the phenomenon from Meowchat, Bonsai Kitten, and Cat Scan Contest to My Cat Hates You, Caturday, and Lolcats — I Can Has Cheezburger?, tracks the impressive number of hits on YouTube, Instagram, Buzzfeed, and Tumblr, and, most important, delves into the Happiness Factor. Because when hasn’t a video of a cat doing something so charmingly stupid brightened even your darkest day? And you might just find one of your favorites in the twenty-four-minute loop that kicks off the exhibition, featuring such cat-video classics as “Cool Cat / Charlie Schmidt’s Keyboard Cat! — THE ORIGINAL!,” “Dog Baths Cat,” “Henri 4 — L’Haunting,” “8 Signs of Addiction,” “Vinyl Cat,” and “Willie Is Better Than Your Cat.”

Museum of the Moving Image is being overrun by cats this fall

The museum will also be hosting several special events in conjunction with “How Cats Took Over the Internet.” On October 9 at 7:00, An Xiao Mina, Matt Stempeck, Ben Valentine, and Luis Daniel will be on hand for “Not Just Cats: Llamas, Goats, and Other Animal Memes from Around the World,” discussing how cats are treated (and worshiped) across the globe. On October 10 at 2:00, “The Cat-vant Garde Film Show” consists of fourteen cat shorts made by such experimental-film pioneers as Stan Brakhage (Nightcats, Cat’s Cradle), Pola Chapelle (How to Draw a Cat), Martha Colburn (Cat’s Amore), Alexander Hammid and Maya Deren (The Private Life of a Cat), and Ken Jacobs (Airshaft). Also on October 10 from 1:00 to 5:00, you can take home your own kitten at the ASPCA Mobile Adoption Event. And on October 23 at 7:00, Kevin Allocca, Amanda Brennan, and Jack Shepherd will be at the museum for “Internet Cat Experts Tell All,” letting us know why we can’t stop watching and laughing at this endless supply of adorable and frightening kitty vids.

ONASSIS FESTIVAL NY — NARCISSUS NOW: THE MYTH REIMAGINED

Onassis Cultural Center NY
Olympic Tower
645 Fifth Ave. at 51st St.
October 8-11
www.onassisfestivalny.org

The Onassis Cultural Center is celebrating its newly renovated home in Midtown with a four-day festival built around the myth of Narcissus. As the Onassis Festival NY website explains, “From psychoanalysis to selfies, the Narcissus myth serves as an emblematic example of the unparalleled influence of Classical antiquity on our culture.” The festivities begin on October 8 with the opening-night presentation (free with advance RSVP) of choreographer Jonah Bokaer and composer Stavros Gasparatos’s specially commissioned Triple Echo, a site-specific work exploring mimesis, with solos by dancers Hristoula Harakas, Sara Procopio, and Callie Nichole Lyons, live percussion by Matt Evans, and recorded vocals by Savina Yannatou. The festival, curated by BAM director of humanities Violaine Huisman, continues through October 11 with more than two dozen free events (most requiring advance registration). Below are some of the highlights; there are also art installations by Lynda Benglis (“Now”), Blind Adam (“Columns”), Andreas Angelidakis (“Mirrorsite”), Jenny Holzer (“You Must Know Where You Stop and the World Begins”), and others, as well as satellite events at BAM and McNally Jackson.

Thursday, October 8
Triple Echo, by Jonah Bokaer and Stavros Gasparatos, featuring Hristoula Harakas, Sara Procopio, Callie Nichole Lyons, Matt Evans, and Savina Yannatou, Onassis Cultural Center Atrium and Gallery, 7:00

Friday, October 9
Narcissus & Art in the Woods: A Lecture with the Bruce High Quality Foundation, Onassis Cultural Center Gallery, 11:00 am

Narcissus & Fashion, with Sarah Lewis, Konstantin Kakanias, and Mary Katrantzou, moderated by Judith Thurman, Onassis Cultural Center Gallery, 2:30

Narcissus & Technology, with Zachary Mason and Sree Sreenivasan, moderated by Dominic Rushe, Onassis Cultural Center Gallery, 5:30

Saturday, October 10
Narcissus & Ballet, with Heléne Alexopoulos and Jennifer Homans, Onassis Cultural Center Gallery, 11:00 am

Narcissus & Acting, with Paul Giamatti and Vanessa Grigoriadis, Onassis Cultural Center Gallery, 1:00

As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (Jonas Mekas, 2000), part of the BAMcinématek series “Diaries, Notes, and Sketches: Cinematic Autobiography,” BAM Rose Cinemas, $10, 2:00 – 7:20

Narcissus & Song, with Eleanor Friedberger, BAMcafé Live, Lepercq Space, 30 Lafayette Ave., 9:00

Sunday, October 11: Family Day
Narcissus & Space: A Short Film, Moon Mirrors, with filmmakers Sharon Shattuck and Ian Cheney and astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, moderated by Matthew Stanley, Onassis Cultural Center Gallery, 10:00 am, 12 noon, and 2:00

Tell It Again! with Efi Latifi, Onassis Cultural Center Atrium, 11:15 am & 1:15 pm

Narcissus & Echo, with Benjamin Weiner, Onassis Cultural Center Atrium, 12:15 & 2:15