Tag Archives: american museum of natural history

PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL OF INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE

Multiple venues
April 29 – May 5, free – $30
www.worldvoices.pen.org

“Without literature, it’s all just words,” PEN America president Peter Godwin writes in his opening letter to the ninth annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. The organization that fights for freedom and first amendment rights this year celebrates the idea of bravery in art, politics, and personal everyday life during the weeklong festival comprising more than fifty readings, live performances, discussions, workshops, master classes, and more. Below are just some of the many highlights for this annual tribute to the power of the written word and how it can and does make a difference throughout the world, featuring such participants as Martin Amis, Joy Harjo, Paul Auster, Ai Weiwei (via Skype), Salman Rushdie, Sapphire, Sonia Sotomayor, Lewis Lapham, Amy Wilentz, Naomi Wolf, Fiona Shaw, Oskar Eustis, Fran Lebowitz, Edna O’Brien, Colm Tóibín, Lynne Tillman, and many more at such venues as Joe’s Pub, the New School, the Standard, and NYU.

Monday, April 29

Opening Night Reading: Bravery, with A. Igoni Barrett, David Frakt, Darrel Vandeveld, Joy Harjo, Jamaica Kincaid, Ursula Krechel, Earl Lovelace, Vaddey Ratner, Mikhail Shishkin, and Najwan Darwish, hosted by Baratunde Thurston, the Great Hall of the Cooper Union, $20, 7:00

Tuesday, April 30

2013 PEN Literary Gala, with Philip Roth, American Museum of Natural History, $1,000, 7:00

An Evening with McSweeney’s, with Francisco Goldman, Clancy Martin, Wyatt Mason, José Luís Peixoto, Francesco Pacifico, and others, Joe’s Pub, $15, 9:00

Wednesday, May 1

Bravery in Poetry, with Hilton Als, Paul Auster, Henri Cole, Edward Hirsch, Mary Karr, Yusef Komunyakaa, Eileen Myles, Sapphire, and others, Tishman Auditorium, the New School, $30, 7:30

Speaking in Languages on the Edge, with Gillian Clarke, Joy Harjo, Natalio Hernandez, Bob Holman, and others, Joe’s Pub, $15, 9:30

Thursday, May 2

Master/Class: Jamaica Kincaid with Ru Freeman, Tishman Auditorium, the New School, $20, 6:30

Master/Class: Sapphire with Nicole Sealey, Tishman Auditorium, the New School, $20, 8:30

Obsession: Andrew Solomon on Sleep, with Andrew Solomon and Joan Golden-Alexis, hosted by Katie Halper, the Standard, East Village Hotel, $20, 9:00

Friday, May 3

African Writers Workshop with Igoni Barrett, NYU Africa House, 10:00 am

The Literary Mews: Outdoor Indie Book Fair (with readings by Epiphany magazine, Four Way Books, St. Petersburg Review, Gigantic magazine, and Open Letter Books), presentation by photographer Nancy Crampton, Irish Song Workshop with Pádraig Ó Cearúill, Magically Grimm: German Folk Songs with Tine Kindermann & Band, Kasperl-Puppet Theater, The Griot: African Storytelling, and Chapbook Binding, Washington Mews, NYU, free, 10:00 am – 4:00

The Testament of Mary: A Discussion on the Broadway Show, with star Fiona Shaw, writer Colm Tóibín, and director Deborah Warner, moderated by Jeremy McCarter, Tishman Auditorium, the New School, free, 1:30

The Novelist as Truthteller: The Achievement and Legacy of Vasily Grossman, with Agata Tuszynska and Martin Amis, moderated by Edwin Frank, the Public Theater, $15, 6:30

A Literary Safari, with Michal Ajvaz, Nadeem Aslam, Loree Burns, Dror Burstein, Gillian Clarke, Mia Couto, Eduardo Halfon, Natalio Hernandez, Nick Holdstock, Randa Jarrar, John Kenney, Tararith Kho, Jaime Manrique, Margie Orford, Jordi Punti, Noemi Szecsi, Padma Venkatraman, Gerbrand Bakker, James Kelman, Téa Obreht, and others, Westbeth Center for the Arts, $15, 6:30

Master/Class: Fran Lebowitz with A. M. Homes, Tishman Auditorium, the New School, $20, 6:30

Saturday, May 4

Asia Society Presents: Monkey Business, with Paul Auster, Mina Ishikawa, Genichiro Takahashi, and Charles Simic, facilitated by translators Motoyuki Shibata and Ted Goossen, Asia Society, $12, 2:00

Revitalizing Endangered Languages, with Gillian Clarke, Natalio Hernandez, Daniel Kaufman, and Lorna Williams, moderated by Nick Holdstock, the Public Theater, $15, 3:00

An Evening with Lapham’s Quarterly, with Lewis Lapham, Oskar Eustis, Maryann Plunkett, Jay O. Sanders, and others, Joe’s Pub, $15, 7:00

Obsession: Naomi Wolf on Truth, with Naomi Wolf and Ben Schrank, hosted by Katie Halper, the Standard, East Village Hotel, $20, 9:00

Sunday, May 5

Granta: 2013 Best of Young British Novelists, with Hari Kunzru, Sigrid Rausing, John Freeman, and several 2013 Best Young British Novelists, Joe’s Pub, $15, 2:00

Burma: Bones Will Crow, with Khin Aung Aye, James Byrne, and Zeyar Lynn, moderated by Phillip Howze, the Public Theater, $15, 3:00

Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture: Sonia Sotomayor, the Great Hall of the Cooper Union, $30, 5:00

MARGARET MEAD FILM FESTIVAL: WHOSE STORY IS IT?

BAY OF ALL SAINTS examines the water slums of Bahia, Brazil, known as the palafitas

American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th St.
November 29 – December 2, $12-$45
212-769-5200
www.amnh.org

The thirty-sixth annual Margaret Mead Film Festival, held at the American Museum of Natural History in honor of the revolutionary work done by the master cultural anthropologist, focuses this year on the narrative itself. “The stories build bridges, dissolve ownership,” North American ethnology curator Peter M. Whiteley explains in the festival brochure. “Whose story is it? It is mine, yours, now via film, all the world’s. The local is made global, the unfamiliar familiar, and the universe of human understanding is expanded.” From November 29 through December 2, viewers will be taken to contemporary Pakistan in Saida Shepard and Samina Quraeshi’s The Other Half of Tomorrow, India and Burma in Patrick Morell’s Nagaland: The Last of the Headhunters, the slums of Bahia, Brazil, in Annie Eastman, Diane Markrow, and Davis Coombe’s Bay of All Saints, a “shack side” district of South Africa in Benjamin Kahlmeyer’s Meanwhile in Mamelodi, and Tajikistan for a look at an unusual sport in Najeeb Mirza’s Buzkashi! Two food-themed films, Valérie Berteau and Philippe Witjes’s Himself He Cooks, which goes inside the Sikh tradition of langar in the Golden Temple of Amritsar, and Rob and Lisa Fruchtman’s Sweet Dreams, about a group of Rwandan women opening the country’s first ice-cream shop, are being presented in conjunction with the museum’s new exhibit, “Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture.” There will also be a tribute to legendary filmmaker George Stoney, featuring screenings of Man of Aran and How the Myth Was Made, a Bhangra Dance Party with DJ Rekha, an African drumming performance in the Hall of Birds of the World, a Mead Arcade with online games, and several Mead Dialogues, including “Re-Seeing the Century: The Expedition on Film,” “Through Navajo Eyes,” and “Sun Kissed.” The Mead is one of the city’s most important film festivals, offering penetrating, educational, joyful, and frightening looks at a world outside our own — and sometimes a lot closer to home that we could ever imagine.

BEYOND PLANET EARTH / CREATURES OF LIGHT

Splendid AMNH exhibit takes visitors on an informative journey deep into space (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West & 79th St.
Tickets: $19-$33 (timed tickets needed for certain exhibitions)
212-769-5100
www.amnh.org

The American Museum of Natural History regularly takes visitors from the depths of the oceans to the outer limits of space, but the institution is now going a little deeper and farther in two special exhibitions. Much has been said recently about the government ending various NASA programs, but the AMNH’s “Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration” (through August 12) makes a strong case for the importance of journeying through the galaxy. The beautifully rendered exhibit visits the moon, Mars, Europa, and the Milky Way as well as the Itokawa Asteroid and the International Space Station, with focuses on the changing nature of space suits, the possibility of Earth being hit by an asteroid, the search for life on Jupiter’s Europa moon, the expandable Bigelow Aerospace module, the exquisite liquid mirror telescope, and the use of robotics in space, through life-size models, photographs, and interactive displays that even involve smell. Curated by Dr. Michael Shara, “Beyond Planet Earth” looks back at the space race between America and the Soviet Union, from Sputnik to the manned moon landings, while also examining the privatization of space tourism, led by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. There is also a free app that creates three-dimensional animated images of a lunar elevator, a Mars spacecraft, the Curiosity rover, and other cool items featured in the exhibit.

The Bloody Bay Wall is one of the highlights of bioluminescent exhibit

“Creatures of Light: Nature’s Bioluminescence” (through January 6, 2013) explores the vast array of organisms that have the ability to light up, from fireflies and fungi to glowworms and jellyfish, from fluorescent corals and dinoflagellates to anglerfish and vampire squid. The exhibit travels from a New Zealand cave to Mosquito Bay on Vieques Island to the dazzling, interactive Bloody Bay Wall, consisting of hundreds of photographs of coral stitched together from images taken in the Cayman Islands. It also goes some 2,300 feet below the surface of the ocean, revealing bioluminescent plants and animals that glow in order to find mates, catch prey, and defend themselves against predators. Enhanced by informational iPad kiosks with a free app, the re-created environments — as well as a display of real flashlight fish — offer fascinating details about creatures rarely seen by the naked eye. Other current exhibits at the museum include “Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging Technologies,” the Journey to the Stars space show narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, the Flying Monsters IMAX film narrated by Sir David Attenborough, and the just-opened “Spiders Alive!”

THE BUTTERFLY CONSERVATORY: TROPICAL BUTTERFLIES ALIVE IN WINTER

Butterflies will continue spreading their wings through May 28 at the American Museum of Natural History (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

American Museum of Natural History
Hall of Oceanic Birds, Second Floor
Central Park West & 79th St.
Through May 28
Timed tickets: $25 adults, $14.50 children, includes museum admission
212-769-5100
www.amnh.org
butterfly conservatory slideshow

There are only a few more days to see hundreds of butterflies from dozens of species flying free in the conservatory at the American Museum of Natural History, using their amazing proboscis to suck up orange juice, resting on leaves, and eating a sugar-and-water mixture from colorful hanging disks. The butterflies will land on you, so don’t make any sudden movements or scratch that itch — it might be a blue morpho resting on your head. Many of these insects from the Order Lepidoptera live for only a few weeks, so there living life to the fullest while they can. Make sure to check out the pupae case, where butterflies burst out of their cocoons every day. (Don’t miss the golden necklaces that form on the queen casings.) For a taste of what you’re in for, visit the excellent Web site listed above; there you’ll find a live Web cam, prerecorded movie clips, a navigable virtual tour, and plenty of reading material on the butterfly’s anatomy, metamorphosis, evolution, and defense mechanisms as well as current methods of ecology and conservation.

CHRISTMAS TREES 2011

The Met’s Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche is one of many holiday trees that will remain up into the new year (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Christmas might be over, but many of the city’s most popular trees are scheduled to remain up into the new year and some until the Epiphany, celebrated on January 6. So there’s still time to check out the Origami Holiday Tree at the American Museum of Natural History (through January 2), the South Street Seaport Chorus Tree light show (Monday through Friday through January 4), the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree (January 7), the Winter Garden Holiday Lights at the World Financial Center (January 7), and the Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (January 8 ) in addition to the Lincoln Square Christmas Tree in Dante Park and trees at Bryant Park, Historic Richmond Town, Madison Square Park, Washington Square Park, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, and Morningside Park. It’s also the time of year when Christmas trees start showing up on the streets wrapped in black plastic, looking like so many body bags. The city recycles its trees, and you should too. Tree recycling is already under way in Battery Park City, where you can leave your tree, sans decoration, through January 27. The city will also be picking up trees curbside January 3-14, or you can participate in the annual MulchFest, which takes place at various sites January 2-8.

MARGARET MEAD FILM FESTIVAL: 35th ANNIVERSARY

The thirty-fifth annual Margaret Mead Film Festival is sure to take viewers to places they’ve never been

American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th St.
November 10-13, $12-$40
212-769-5200
www.amnh.org/mead

“The first Margaret Mead Film Festival, held on Mead’s own seventy-fifth birthday and her fiftieth year at the [American Museum of Natural History], was meant to be a one-time celebration, but it became one of the most enduring legacies in support of visual anthropologists, inspiring generations of anthropologists and filmmakers, including myself,” writes Faye Ginsburg in the brochure for the thirty-fifth annual Margaret Mead Film Festival, running November 10-13 at AMNH. Ginsburg, an anthropology professor and director of the Center for Media, Culture, and History at NYU, will be moderating the panel discussion “How Do We Look?” on November 13 at 4:30, examining the history of the first documentary festival of its kind. Lotte Stoops’s Grande Hotel is the opening-night selection, while Meshakai Wolf’s Flames of God, introduced by Darren Aronofsky, closes things out on Sunday night. In between are such new documentaries as Robert Nugent’s Memoirs of a Plague and Alain LeTourneau and Pam Minty’s Empty Quarter along with retrospective screenings of Jean Rouch’s Jaguar from 1967, John Marshall and Adrienne Miesmer’s N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman from 1980, and Gregory Bateson and Mead’s Trance and Dance in Bali from 1952. Many of the screenings will include appearances by the filmmakers and subjects in addition to related live performances, most notably following Katja Esson’s Skydancer on Sunday afternoon. With the continual technological leaps being made these days, the world might appear to be getting smaller and smaller, but it still takes a festival such as the Mead to help open one’s eyes to what is really going on out there.

BRAIN: THE INSIDE STORY

AMNH exhibit delves deep into the evolutionary history of the human brain (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th St.
Daily through August 14, timed-entry tickets $25 adults, $14.50 children
212-769-5200
www.amnh.org

“Brain: The Inside Story” takes visitors on an eye-opening, mind-expanding journey inside the development of the human brain, both on a historical and personal level. On view at the American Museum of Natural History through August 14, the multimedia interactive exhibit features brainteasers, brain scans, preserved brains, a massive eight-foot-tall model of the subcortical brain, a deep-brain stimulation implant, and many other objects that explore the charted and uncharted wonders of the three-pound mass of tissue residing within our craniums. Incorporating cutting-edge modern technology, “Brain: The Inside Story” begins with Daniel Canogar’s walk-through installation of firing neurons and continues with a trip through the senses, from large-scale videos depicting changing states of emotion to Devorah Sperber’s inverted thread-based images of famous works of art, from challenging games (good luck tracing that star!) for children and adults to examinations of speech, language, memory, decision making, color, and sleep. Divided into such sections as “Your Sensing Brain,” “Your Emotional Brain,” “Your Thinking Brain,” “Your Changing Brain,” and “Your Twenty-first-century Brain,” the exhibit delves into the evolution of the brain, the process of reasoning, and the science of studying the brain to better understand certain diseases and to find cures. The fun and fascinating show ends with a floor-based installation of MRIs of the brains of a student dancer auditioning at Juilliard, New York Knicks shooting guard Landry Fields, and master cellist Yo-Yo Ma, concentrating on how our brains react to different forms of thought and physical activity. Also on view at the American Museum of Natural History is “The World’s Largest Dinosaurs,” “Frogs: A Chorus of Colors,” “Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging Technologies,” “Tornado Alley,” “Journey to the Stars,” “Body and Spirit: Tibetan Medical Paintings,” and “Highway of an Empire: The Great Inca Road.”