The PEN World Voices Festival Returns With Eye on AFRICA 2015 , may 4-10th NYC

The PEN World Voices Festival Returns With Eye on Africa conference is on in NYC ... May 4th -10th  

Here is what I hope to attend  

Be sure to check out the entire program  some events are free and ticketed (RSVP neccessary), Some require a ticket to be purchased,  There are many other events .. these are the ones I hope to attend.

http://worldvoices.pen.org/2015-festival-event-listing/day

Wed 6 PM 
Queer Futures
The Greene Space
44 Charlton Street, New York, NY 10014

Binyavanga Wainaina

Photo by Jerry Riley

The burgeoning African gay rights movement is filled with brave artists and activists. Informative and inspirational, this conversation with prominent African writers will survey today's landscape, challenging preconceived ideas about the broadened role of literature in this historic struggle for human rights.

The venue for this event has changed from that originally advertised. Please note the venue is: The Greene Space at WNYC, 44 Charlton Street, NYC

with Kehinde Bademosi, Zanele Muholi, Binyavanga Wainaina

Thursday  May  6 2015  7:30 PM

Armenian Genocide: A Dark Paradigm
SVA Theatre 23rd st between 8th and 7th
333 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10011

Eric Bogosian, Peter Balakian, and Ragıp Zarakolu

Photo by Monique Carboni (of E. Bagosian)

This year, the world commemorates the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, which counted many noted writers and cultural leaders among the dead. A panel discusses this tragedy—a glimpse into the darkest regions of the human soul—and its significance as a “dark paradigm” for later attempts by governments to silence writers and cultural leaders. This event will include readings of the works of Armenian writers killed in 1915.

with: Peter Balakian, Eric Bogosian, Maureen Freely, Nancy Kricorian, Robert Jay Lifton, Ronald Grigor Suny, Ragıp Zarakol

Thursday, May 07, 2015, 3:00pm

Finding Security in Unsafe Passages: United Nations Event about Protecting Journalists’ Safety and Rights

United Nations Headquarters, 46th Street and First Avenue, Conference Room 11, New York, NY, 10017

Karin Deutsch Karlekar

Photo by Sarah Edkins / PEN American Center

Gain an insider’s view of international efforts to promote freedom of the press and to end impunity for crimes against journalists. To mark World Press Freedom Day, this seminar will delve into the wide range of risks journalists face every day. Experts will offer safety tips, share advice for protecting sources and copyrights in all types of media, and address cybersecurity risks.

With H.E. Mr. François Delattre, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, H.E. Mrs. Bénédicte Frankinet, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Belgium to the United Nations, Herb Boyd, Susan E. Davis, Karin Deutsch Karlekar, Patrice Keats, Charles Seife, Frank Smyth

Moderated by: Jon Williams

Thursday, May 07, 2015, 6:30pm

Memoir and Memory

Sheen Center Loretto Auditorium, 18 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012

Michael Ondaatje

Photo by Jeff Nolte

Where does memory end and imagination begin? Autobiographical writing has occupied many of the most eloquent minds of our time. A panel of brilliant, envelope-pushing memoirists examines what happens when the most intimate details of a writer’s life become the subject of his or her professional work.

With Michael Ondaatje, Luc Sante, Tracy K. Smith 

Moderated by: A.M. Homes

Friday May 8 6:30

Susan Sontag, Revisited

Crosby Street Hotel Screening Room

Photo by Thomas Leuthard

Passionate and gracefully outspoken, former PEN President Susan Sontag was one of the most important literary and political thinkers of her generation. Four experts, each of whom was inspired by Sontag, consider her inspiring life and towering work and its lasting impact today: Nancy Kates, director-producer of the documentary film Regarding Susan Sontag; cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum; Sigrid Nunez, who penned the memoir Sempre Susan; and Moe Angelos, who wrote and performed the critically acclaimed one-woman play Sontag: Reborn.

with: Moe Angelos, Nancy Kates, Sigrid Nunez, Craig Seligman

Moderated by: Wayne Koestenbaum

Friday, May 08, 2015, 8:30pm

Ninety Minutes, Three Minds

Crosby Street Hotel Screening Room, 79 Crosby Street, New York, NY 10012

Adéwálé Àjàdí

Photo by Zino Saro-Wiwa

Moderated by Vanity Fair staff editor Anderson Tepper, these conversations get up close with three top African writers: Adéwálé Àjàdí (Nigeria), activist and author of the hit playAbyssinia; Alain Mabanckou (Republic of the Congo), winner of the coveted French Prix Renaudot in 2006; and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Kenya), whose first novel, Dust, was published to rave reviews last year.

With Adéwálé Àjàdí, Alain Mabanckou, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
Moderated by: Anderson Tepper

Saturday, May 09, 2015, 7:30pm

Mona Eltahawy: Headscarves and Hymens
Crosby Street Hotel Screening Room, 79 Crosby Street, New York, NY 10012

Mona Eltahawy

Photo by Dirk Eusterbrock

Cairo-based Egyptian writer and activist Mona Eltahawy, a fearless advocate for human rights in her home country and in the Arab world at large, discusses her new book,Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, which rails against what she views as a "toxic mix of culture and religion."

With Mona Eltahawy, Robin Morgan

Sunday, May 10, 2015, 6:00pm
The Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Great Hall, The Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street, New York, NY 10003

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Named for the former PEN president and fierce defender of the freedom of expression, the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture is a defining event of the PEN World Voices Festival. Nigerian-born novelist, 2013 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Festival co-curator Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie joins the luminaries who have commanded the podium, including Colm Tóibín, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Orhan Pamuk, Umberto Eco, Nawal El Saadawi, Wole Soyinka, and Salman Rushdie. A conversation with writer and PEN President Andrew Solomon will follow.

With Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Andrew Solomon

Note: this is sold out but a live stream will be available Due to popular demand we’re livestreaming this special event. Join us in the Cooper Union’s state-of-the-art Frederick P. Rose Auditorium for our screening of this occasion as it happens. Seating is limited, so book quickly.

http://worldvoices.pen.org/

Penny Arcade Peewee Nyob Peggy Shaw Shane O'Neill Jorge SocarrásJohn Masterson Nancy Jones Jack Waters Sean Apparicio Michael A TikiliJoan Gibbs Joan Lipkin Nick Hallett Nicky Paraiso Mary Shanley Nedra Johnson Nona Hendryx Jill Sternheimer Jim Fouratt Critic Jim Eigo Richard Dworkin Chris Cochrane Alex Alvina Chamberland Neil Arthur James Andy Campbell Kelly Cogswell Alok Vaid-Menon Alejandro Rodríguez Lisa E. Davis

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PEN World Voices Festival is made possible in part through the generosity of Kaplen Brothers Fund, Ford Foundation, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, The Embrey...

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SPANDAU BALLET returns to the US .. and shows how they are better now than ever

If you are anywhere near Westbury Music Fair ... I suggest you go tonight  (May 3rd) to see SPANDAU BALLET . Live they are as the Brits say ... "BILLIANT"  Their film "Soul Boys of the Western World"

  is in limited release in the US  (now at IFC in NYC) and will explain what happened to a band that sold over 25 million records worldwide ...and its one of the best best music docs I have seen on how success confronts high school lads with a band dream . I presented them in their US debut in the early '80's and were thrilled to intro them  at their first US come back date at SXSW last year .. when they proved not to be a nostalgic band but a band with problems solved that had not lost their creative juices and actually were playing better than ever . Gary Kemp has written new songs to show off their chops and Tony Hadley remains along with Boy George the best Brit Pop singer to come along since David Bowie ... this is the last show in the US ...next leg Australia ...but they will be back playing some festival dates in the Summer . Yes they went from dancefloor club hits like To Cut A Long Story Short

to literally pop anthems like TRUE  Here played live in 2009 as part of the European REFORMATION show.




 and Through the Barricades  note the hair and clothes

.. but they can still simmer despite what ever the genre . If you went to the original Danceteria or Hurrah you heard Mark Kamins and Shawn Cassette mix them in at peak moments ..... artist who can cross genres and make hook filled songs are what makes a musical journey possible through the growing up process in public... I have my fingers crossed that they repeat their version of Lou Reed's Satellite of Love


that stopped the show at SXSW when they performed at the Lou Reed Memorial concert organized by Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo      

here is a review from Newsday of the Beacon NYC show May 2nd Newsday review of May 2nd 2015 SPANDAU BALLET NYC live show

And first person blog Beacon show review of Paul Hallasy (gay stand up comic) who had been at their US debut show I presented as part of the Modern Classix series at the Underground 

Paul Hallasy review Spandau Ballet at Beacon

Keith haring ..dancing

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/w7towh02qhmz6zj/AACvLsugmb_TcB_k2nt3Pitsa

Monday April 20 Be Here Tseng Kwong Chi East Meets West Manifesto, 1983, from the East Meets West series Grey Gallery

Tonight : a gathering of the tribe. You know who you are . Tseng Kwong Chi
East Meets West Manifesto, 1983, from the East Meets West series. Kwong Chi was central to the documentation of who were were at a particular vibrant art and club world world-wide... he also almost invented the concept of a selfie ..placing himself in a photo with great and notorious public figures and public monuments .. style. attitude and humanity saturated his work . Grey Gallery Monday the 20th, 6PM . Be there

MARRIAGE , MEN AND WOMEM, ART, DIVORCE AND FAME KIM GORDON'S GIRL IN A BAND

MARRIAGE , MEN AND WOMEM, ART, DIVORCE AND FAME 
KIM GORDON'S GIRL IN A BAND 
Many words have been written about Kim Gordon's memoir book "GIRL IN THE BAND". Her life before during and after SONIC YOUTH. Many of them particularly by male critics have been subtly critical of her telling her personal truth about her life with and with out her ex husband and band mate Thurston Moore. Too many times critic have expressed her aloofness and called her cold . I suggest because she did not participate in the usually unauthentic, fake intimacy of critic and artist so much of what pop culture journalism basked in . I will admit to being sad when SONIC YOUTH broke up . I knew the members of the band some better than others but would not claim to be an intimate friend of any of them. We shared personally certain cultural values that in the art world resonated a resistance to the codification of almost everything by capital (my words not hers) , I always believed we saw each other in a room uncluttered with fantasy and fame. You know we lived in the same location of cultural landscape. Sara Marcus has written the most insightful review I have seen of Gordon's book , I suggest you read the review and most importantly read Kim Gordon GIRL IN A BAND . What I like best is in Gordon is her he willingness to speak directly from her experience without ever romanticizing her role. Here are two quotes form Marcus' review that are sticky : "Maybe true power lies not in managing to have it all, whatever that means, but in how one reacts when things come undone." And "Let me also say Gordon's writing is much like her singing, deadpan and spacious" Divorce is a devastating moment for a couple. Women still no matter how smart or "feminist"are, still, in my experience, suffer the most ... a class distinction based on cultural definitions of male and female . Note : I still respect both Kim and Thurston as artists and it is not my place to make a personal judgement on their private life except to gain insight in male/female relationship and how now in same sex marriage the challenge and perhaps the insight on how same sex couples navigate the ruptures in trust that sexual and emotional betrayal provided they do not just imitate heterosexual marriage.

please click the link to see Sara Marcus review


http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-kim-gordon-20150222-story.html

Remembering Chris Marker

Chris Marker: Film Maker : WHY HE MATTERS  SHORT THOUGHTS

Some of What I saw at SPRINGTIME in NICKYLAND 2015 David Cale, Joseph Keckler, Heather Mitteer, Ronald Peet and NICKY PARAISO

SPRING TIME in NICKYLAND at La MaMa

A couple of times a year La MaMa's guiding hand Nicky Paraiso steps up and reminds all of his friends and downtown people in the  know that in fact he is an actor and a crooner too. He gently reminds all of us performers, presenters and audiences that we are family ,, the downtown ARTS family . Nickyland is an intimate  family celebration and no one in town that is part of the La MaMa family will miss it ,, So I went Saturday night. The La MaMa theaters is  is chock full of performers you have see and are here to honor Nicky and have a little family fun. Across the island sat  MarthaWilson and mate and in front of me was Michael Burke,  Jackie Rudin and James Gavin..it was that kind of a night

Here is a taste (just a taste0  of what I was lucky enough to Have witnessed  Saturday night ...

The multi-gifted Joseph Keckler  singing Tim Buckley's classic Song to the Siren 

Master story teller and monologist, actor David Cale 

The wake up cal lof new talent in town was Ronald Peet .. playwrite, actor ( hearing him sing Sam Cooke made me think he was Sm Cooke!) sooo talented 

Downtown's Susan Hayworth , Penny Arcade inspired Heather Litteer shares a section of her one woman show to premier later titled Lemonade. Be prepared : Heather delivers it straight up, no chaser!