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

JOHN BOTTE: THE 9/11 PHOTOGRAPHS

John Botte, “Sept. 12, 2001, 8:00 am” (© John Botte)

Gallery at Calumet
22 West 22nd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves., second floor
Daily through September 24; artist reception September 11, 3:00 – 7:00
www.cvent.com
www.morrisonhotelgallery.com

Deep, dark, and intense, John Botte stares ahead with eyes that have seen and experienced too much, belying his otherwise youthful appearance. On September 11, 2001, Botte was an NYPD detective assigned to Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik’s inner circle. When they got the call about the attacks on the World Trade Center, they rushed to Ground Zero, among the many heroic first responders who risked their lives to help save others during that unimaginable tragedy. Botte, who has been snapping photographs since he was a small boy, was authorized by Kerik to document what was happening, so he took out his ever-present Leica Rangefinder and spent the next few days and months taking remarkable black-and-white photographs, twenty of which are currently on view at the Gallery at Calumet on West 22nd St. through September 24. Being shown to the public for the first time at this size — smaller prints were previously exhibited only once before, in Germany, and have appeared in two books, 2006’s Aftermath and the brand-new collection The 9/11 Photographs, but Botte insisted that this time “they have to be big” — the stunning large-scale works capture poignant, emotional, intimate moments that will flood viewers with memories, inviting them to step inside and remember. “There was no time for grief,” Botte recalled after being dispatched by Kerik, a collector of his work, to take pictures of the scene. “You’re just a machine with the camera.”

John Botte’s 9/11 photographs invite visitors to step inside and remember (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The exhibit, curated by Timothy White and organized by Peter Blachley and the Morrison Hotel Gallery, consists of beautifully composed photos that depict such powerful sights as a distraught cop leaning on a blue police barricade, his head hung in horror; three workers raising the American flag, recalling the famous Iwo Jima image; a group of men in white protective outfits sweeping through endless debris; and Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, Kerik, Senator Charles Schumer, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, President George W. Bush, Congressman Jerry Nadler, and Governor George Pataki surveying the damage. One of the most compelling of the photos, and the one that resonates the most with Botte, shows the smoking, twisted metal atop the pile, taken three hundred feet up. Although Botte is proud that his photographs are part of the tenth-anniversary commemoration of 9/11, it’s been a particularly rough decade for him. “I’m a dead man walking,” he said, alluding to the lung disease he developed after working at Ground Zero and that is slowly killing him. He retired from the force in 2003, his wife left him and took their daughter, and he now spends more than half of his pension on health care. As he walks around the exhibit another time, he is almost like a ghost, but his inner strength and spirit still survives in the unforgettable photos he took ten years ago. On September 11, Botte will be at the Gallery at Calumet for a special opening reception from 3:00 to 7:00; prints of his photographs are available in several sizes, with all proceeds going to the DEA Widows’ and Children’s Fund.

MICHAEL BUCKLEY: NERDS 3 BOOK LAUNCH

BookCourt
163 Court St. between Dean & Pacific Sts.
Saturday, September 10, free, 6:00 – 8:00
718-875-3677
www.bookcourt.org
www.abramsbooks.com/nerds

Nerds! No, it’s not another Revenge of the Nerds movie. Instead, it’s the third book in Michael Buckley’s NERDS children’s book series, The Cheerleaders of Doom (Abrams, September 1, 2011, $14.95). Buckley, who hit the New York Times bestseller list with his wildly popular Sisters Grimm series, is back on the list with NERDS, which began with National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society and continued with M Is for Mama’s Boy. Dedicated to “dorks, dweebs, geeks, spazzes, waste cases, and nerds everywhere [because] someday you too will change the world,” the series features such wild characters as Flinch, Choppers, Gluestick, Pufferfish, Wheezer, and Braceface and is illustrated by Ethen Beavers. Buckley, an effervescent fellow who has also written and developed animated shows for the Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, MTV, and other outlets, will be at BookCourt tonight for the official launch of The Cheerleaders of Doom, discussing the project and signing copies. Buckley’s whirlwind U.S. tour will also take him to such local spots as Clinton, New Jersey, on September 23, Huntington Station, Long Island, on October 14, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, on October 20, and Rhinebeck, New York, on October 23.

RANGERS’ FASHION’S NIGHT OUT

After teaming up for an opening-night hat trick last year, Rangers Derek Stepan (r.) and Brian Boyle will team up with other stylish Blueshirts at a Fashion’s Night Out celebration at the NHL store on September 8 (AP photo/Don Heupel)

NHL Flagship Store
1185 Sixth Ave. at 47th St.
Thursday, September 8, free, 4:00 – 9:00
http://rangers.nhl.com

Back in the late 1970s and early ’80s, the New York Rangers considered themselves something of a fashion plate, making music videos and commercials for Sasson jeans. The Ooh-la-la Sasson guys included Phil Esposito, Ron Duguay, brothers Dave and Don Maloney, Swedish import Anders Hedberg, and Ron Greschner. (Duguay later married model Kim Alexis in 1993 and is still with her, while Gresch was betrothed to supermodel Carol Alt from 1983 to 1996, during which time he had to deal with regular Garden chants of “Share your wife, Greschner, share your wife!”) More recently, pesky Rangers instigator Sean Avery interned with Vogue and has been seen in the pages of GQ and hanging out with Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Hilary Rhoda. And last year Brandon Dubinsky’s spectacular playoff mustache went viral in a big way. So it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that the Broadway Blueshirts will be participating in Thursday’s citywide Fashion’s Night Out celebration, holding court at the NHL flagship store on Sixth Ave. & 47th St. At 4:00, nhl.com’s EJ Hradek will host a Q&A with Rangers All-Star goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and newly acquired $60 million man Brad Richards. At 7:00 there will be an infusion of young Rangers blood as fans can shop with Artem Anisimov, Brian Boyle, Erik Christensen, Michael Del Zotto, Ryan McDonagh, Michael Sauer, Marc Staal, Derek Stepan, and Mats Zuccarello, getting autographs, answering trivia questions, and winning prizes. Who needs runway models during Fashion Week? We can’t wait to see the Zamboni come clean things up during intermission.

HARLEM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Maysles Institute
343 Malcolm X Blvd/Lenox Ave. between 127th & 128th Sts.
September 7-11, $10
212-582-6050
www.harlemfilmfestival.com
www.mayslesinstitute.org

The sixth annual Harlem International Film Festival gets under way tonight at the Schomburg Center with the world premiere of Cary Stuart’s The (R)evolution of Immortal Technique, a documentary about the controversial Harlem-raised hip-hop artist that features appearances by Chuck D., Ice-T, Cornel West, and Woody Harrelson. Stuart and Immortal Technique will participate in a Q&A following the screening. The festival then shifts to the Maysles Institute through September 11 with such films as Miller Bargeron Jr. & Arcelious Daniels’s Stubborn as a Mule!, which looks at reparations for African Americans; Renzo Zanelli’s The Dog in the Manger, which follows Peruvian artist Brus’s battle against an American oil company in the Amazon; Judy Jackson’s War in the Mind, which examines post-traumatic stress disorder and military suicide; the world premiere of Robert Small’s Tribute to Bernie Mac!, which will be followed by a Q&A with the director and Mac’s daughter, Je’niece McCullough; and Julian A. Renner’s The Three Way, which delves into love and infidelity. Organized around such themes as “The Pain of Violence!,” “Black Superman!,” “New York!,” “The Game of Love!,” “Musical Dreams!,” and “Second Chances!,” the festival also includes more than two dozen short films. The festival concludes Sunday night with a pair of free events, a reading of the winning screenplay and the Brownstone Awards celebrating the festival’s best works.

LIVE AT BARNES & NOBLE: MOBY

Harlem native Moby will be at the Union Square B&N for a talk, signing, and acoustic performance on September 7

Union Square B&N
33 East 17th St.
Wednesday, September 7, free, 7:00
212-253-0810
www.moby.com
www.barnesandnoble.com

Born on September 11, 1965, in Harlem, Richard Hall, better known as Moby, has been making cutting-edge electronic music since the early 1980s. He is currently on the road supporting his latest project, Destroyed, a CD (Mute, May 2011) and photography book (Damiani, May 2011) that takes a long, hard look at the loneliness of life on the road. Moby, who played this weekend at the Electric Zoo Festival on Randall’s Island, will be at the Union Square B&N on September 7 at 7:00 for a talk with Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning director Lucy Walker, a signing, and a live acoustic performance; please note that he will only sign copies of Destroyed, nothing else, and people who purchase the book and/or CD will be given priority seating.

GRANTA 116: TEN YEARS LATER

Tuesday, September 6, Barnes & Noble, 150 East 86th St. at Lexington Ave., free, 212-369-2180, 7:00
Wednesday, September 7, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 2920 Broadway, free, 5:00
Thursday, September 8, McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince St. between Lafayette & Mulberry Sts., free, 212-274-1160, 7:00
Friday, September 9, BookCourt, 163 Court St.
Sunday, September 18, Brooklyn Book Festival, Borough Hall Community Room, free, 10:00 am
www.granta.com

For more than thirty years, UK publisher Granta has been putting out a quarterly trade-paperback-size magazine featuring articles, essays, poems, short stories, and novel excerpts by an international collection of writers on such themes as travel, home, film, aliens, sex, and nature. They often get political, as in such issues as “The Rise of the British Jihad,” “Over There: How America Sees the World,” and “While Waiting for a War.” In their latest publication, Granta 116: Ten Years Later (Grove Press, $16.99), they have put together sixteen stories dealing with the aftereffects of 9/11, with pieces by award-winning authors Pico Iyer and Nicole Krauss, former Guantanamo prisoner Ahmed Errachidi, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay, foreign correspondents Anthony Shadid and Declan Walsh, photojournalist Elliott Woods, and translator Linda Coverdale, among others, writing about life around the world since the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Granta will be holding a series of special free events this month in conjunction with the publication of the new issue and the tenth anniversary of 9/11, beginning tonight with “The Fireman’s Family and the Soldier,” a reading and discussion at the 86th St. Barnes & Noble hosted by Peter Carey, executive director of Hunter College’s creative writing MFA program, who will introduce two of his students, Klay and Samantha Smith. On September 7, Granta teams up with Voices of Witness and the South Asian Journalists Association for “Islamophobia, the Media, and Echoes of 9/11” at the Columbia School of Journalism, with Granta 116 contributor and law professor Lawrence Joseph, journalist Todd Gitlin, civil rights attorney Alia Malek, and Granta editor John Freeman. On September 9, Granta 116 contributors Klay, Joseph, Krauss, and Jynne Martin will be at BookCourt with Freeman for the official Brooklyn launch of the new issue. Freeman will be back in Brooklyn on September 18 for the Brooklyn Book Festival, when he will be joined by Madison Smartt Bell, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, and others for the program “Conflict, Trauma and Writing: How We Tell Stories After a Crisis.”

1st IRISH 2011: A FESTIVAL OF IRISH THEATRE

Mabou Mines examines the life of James Joyce’s daughter in LUCIA’S CHAPTERS OF COMING FORTH BY DAY at 1st Irish theater festival

Multiple venues
September 5 – October 2, free – $55
www.1stirish.org

The fourth annual 1st Irish theater festival begins on Labor Day, comprising eight theatrical productions and five special events continuing through October 2. Among the plays are Teresa Deevy’s complicated love story Temporal Powers, directed by Jonathan Bank at the Mint; Brenda Murphy and Donna O’Connor’s A Night with George, about a woman’s obsession with George Clooney, presented by the Brassneck Theatre Company at the Times Square Arts Center; Deirdre Kinahan’s Bogboy, which follows the life of a heroin addict, at the Irish Arts Center; and Mabou Mines’ Lucia’s Chapters of Coming Forth by Day, a multimedia examination of James Joyce’s daughter, Lucia. On September 16, Terry Loane’s film Mickybo & Me will screen at the New York Irish Center, “The North Face – A Panel Discussion on Arts in Northern Ireland” will take place at the Bruno Walter Auditorium on September 20, the panel discussion “Challenge for the Actor” will be held at NYU Glucksman Ireland House on September 22, the Origin Theatre Laboratory will host “Breaking Ground,” featuring new work by six playwrights, on September 24 at A.R.T. New York Studios at 520, and the American Irish Historical Society and Tir Na Theatre will present a reading of Conor McDermottroe’s Dawnhurst on September 26.