Reading at Unnameable Books in Brooklyn

Here're some photos from the reading this past Sunday at Unnameable Books in Brooklyn with Chris Stackhouse and Geoffrey Jacques. It's always fun to read with Chris (though no simultaneous poems this time), and it was an honor to read with Geoffrey. C was there, as was our good friend Victor, and other friends like Tisa, Erica, Tonya, and Alisoun. Chris, Geoffrey and I ended up with a packed room and sold all the store's copies of our books (Seismosis flew out of there, as did Chris's book and Geoffrey's, paid in full!). All the photos are by C (thank you!).

Unnameable Books introducing the reading, Chris and Geoffrey at right

Chris reading (and rolling us in stitches)

The audience (Tisa in the middle)

Yours truly, and Chris at right

Geoffrey Jacques - "What ever happened to the beautiful language?" ("Viewers Like")

Me, having a great time afterwards

Tisa, snapping a photo outside

Victor

Mary Reilly!

Geoffrey and Chris

Kenna's "Say Goodbye to Love"

I've listened to this song countless times since I discovered it a few weeks ago. It's by Kenna, a young AfroBohoNerd Ethiopian-American from Virginia Beach who's put a few CDs out, but has had a hard time blowing up since his music doesn't fit easily into categories. (Malcolm Gladwell mentions him in Blink, I believe.) But his most recent effort, Make Sure They See My Face, produced by Neptunes Chad Hugo and Pharrell (Williams), is finally getting him some attention. Below's the direct YouTube link to a great KennaChannel version of his hot new song, "Say Goodbye to Love," featuring Kenna in all of his geeky cuteness. And here he is on Ellen. Enjoy!

Juicy Mother 2 at Bluestockings Book Store

Yesterday evening C and I went to the book party for Juicy Mother 2, edited by Jen Camper, at Bluestockings Bookstore on the Lower East Side. A strip from our dear friend Victor Hodge's Black Gay Boy Fantasy appears in the collection, and Victor drove up from Washington for the even. One of Victor's close friends, Dave Hooper, also from Washington, has work in the anthology, so we got to meet him, as well as Jen (whom I remembered from the old OutWrite conferences years ago in Boston); former DC Comics writer Ivan Vélez; DC Comics editor and Bitter Girl artist Joan Hilty; Hothead Paisan creator Diana DiMassa; and other artists in the anthology like Chitra Ganesha, Fly, Katie Fricas, and Carlos Quispe. Below are some photos from the event:

The packed audience

Juicy Mother 2 editor Jen Camper

A shot of one of Victor's panels

Carlos, Ivan, Dave (speaking), Victor, and Fly

Joan, Diana (quipping memorably), Carlo, and Ivan

Dave and Victor talking about working the for man (the federal government)

C relaxing outside

Victor, Ivan and Joan chatting and signing books

Dave

Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Let me be one of the last to add to the growing chorus of congratulations to our former Vice President and almost-President, Al Gore, Jr., who, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize for their work to bring international attention to the problem of global warming.



The citation reads:

"for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change"

This is a well-deserved and marvelous honor, though I must admit that I would much rather have had Gore finishing the second of two terms today, and advocating for change on global warming rather than the ongoing, walking catastrophe that occupies the White House as I type these words. Nevertheless, a great honor for Gore, the IPCC, and all who have tried bring greater awareness and action to this utterly crucial issue.

Lessing the Nobelist + Events in Profusion!

First I woke to the news of, and then read an email from Reggie confirming that Doris Lessing, the 87-year-old Persian-Zimbabwean-British author had received the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. She wasn't on the list I wrote up a few days ago, in part because I thought she'd been passed over for good and because, having honored an English-language writer just a few years ago, and given that no Arab-language author has won in a while, I figured the Swedish Academy would select from that literary garden. But Lessing, only the 11th woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, is a prolific and important author, acclaimed both for her short stories (which I must admit I do not teach) and for her novels, especially the 1960 work The Golden Notebooks, which placed the theme of late 20th century Western bourgeois feminism at the center of contemporary literary and intellectual discourse. While this wasn't the only work to do so, it was one of the most important, and its resonance can be felt in a great deal of Western literature that followed. While there are other writers I admit to championing more, I'm glad Lessing was finally honored, and, to echo Reggie, it remains the case that the Nobel committee likes and succeeds in surprising. At the same time, her work has been insistently political, progressive and visionary, and on a number of levels falls within the general trend of recent literature Laureateships; the "linguistic" writers, at least these days, are not being recognized.

Of course I'd like to write more, but I must get back to reading short stories (6 due marked up with notes for tomorrow + so many exercises), so please post comments if you'd like on Lessing or other topics (there are so many I really would like to write about, but just don't have the time), and please check out the following upcoming events!

Congratulations also to Greg Pardlo, who launches his award-winning first book of poems, Totem, this weekend!

***

AUDIOLOGO performs tomorrow night:

Audiologo on electronics, voice, & various theatrics playing with the multi-genre creative force that is MuthaWit @ BAMCafé Live,
Friday, October 12, 9pm
Brooklyn, NY
*FREE*

A little bit on the upcoming show from MuthaWit founder Boston Fielder:

"MuthaWit is returning to NYC this Friday night to perform at the internationally acclaimed Brooklyn Academy of Music a.k.a. BAM. This unique BAMcafe LIve show will debut several new compositions along with elements of a theatrical piece we are developing called, "Hants, Saints n Panties."* So, not only will you get the aggressively ethereal music of MuthaWit, but also storytelling and acting. To make the night even more special the program will be filmed for television. We hope to have all of you beautiful people in the audience for that. Oh, did I mention that the show is free? It is, so I truly hope you'll join us. The particulars:

MuthaWit @ BAMcafe Live
Fri, Oct 12 at 9pm(doors open at 8pm so get there early!)
BAMcafé (Brooklyn Academy of Music)
30 Layette Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11217
Cost : Free
INFO: http://www.bam.org/events/bamcafelive.aspx
DIRECTIONS: http://www.bam.org/visitor/index.aspx

"We are incredibly excited about this show. You're going to thank yourself you attended. It's just going to be one of those thangs!"

+

• Sunday, October 14
Sounded Text: A Symposium on Music, Performance, and New Media
Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ
@ 2pm
INFO & DIRECTIONS: http://soundedtext.artdocuments.org/
FREE

Audiologo performs The Mark, a sound, text, video, and performance piece exploring intergenerational questions of African American women’s racialized bodies, histories of trauma, and the call of memory and legacy within a speculative experimental narrative. Also on the bill are exciting new performance works by composers/performers Anne Hege and Andrea Mazzariello aka massey.

Sounded Text features lectures, presentations, and performances from renowned interdisciplinary performance artist and Columbia University professor--Visual Arts Division/Spanish and Portuguese--Coco Fusco, new media artists/musicians/scholars Mendi + Keith Obadike, poet/scholar Timothy Liu, and composer/vocalist Amy X Neuburg, plus the House of Sound group installation exhibition.

Can't get to Princeton? You get another chance to see myself, Anne Hege and Andrea Mazzariello (aka massey) in NYC.

• Friday, October 19
The Tank
279 Church Street (between Franklin & White)
NYC
7:30pm
INFO: http://www.thetanknyc.org/
DIRECTIONS: http://www.thetanknyc.org/?q=contact
$5.00

Audiologo performs The Mark, a sound, text, video, and performance piece exploring intergenerational questions of African American women’s racialized bodies, histories of trauma, and the call of memory and legacy within a speculative experimental narrative.

Also on the bill are exciting new performance works by composers/performers Anne Hege and Andrea Mazzariello aka massey.

***

More on Sounded Text at Princeton, from Dr. SWEAT (who'll be in Chicago soon, I think!):

Hi all, I'm sending word about this upcoming symposium. K and I are tying to work out some new stuff here. I'm also really looking forward to hearing the other artists.

Mendi

Keith and I are performing and presenting on a panel on Sunday at Sounded Text: A Symposium on Music, Performance and New Media at Princeton University. This two-day symposium explores relationships of the performative body to music, text and new media, featuring: Coco Fusco, Mendi + Keith Obadike, Timothy Liu, and Amy X Neuburg.

http://soundedtext.artdocuments.org/

Keynote address: Coco Fusco
October 13, 4pm
Taplin Auditorium at Fine Hall, Princeton University [map] [complete campus map]

Guest Artists Performance + Panel Discussion
Performance - featuring works by Mendi + Keith Obadike, Timothy Liu (in collaboration with Samson Young) and Amy X Neuburg

October 13, 8pm
Taplin Auditorium at Fine Hall, Princeton University [map] [complete campus map]

Guest Artists Panel Discussion
Mendi + Keith Obadike, Timothy Liu and Amy X Neuburg

October 14, 11am
Betts Auditorium at the School of Architecture Building, Princeton University [map] [complete campus map]

***

Also on Friday, but in Chitownia, two of my senior colleagues read with Polish poet Adam Zagajewski:

Reginald Gibbons, Mary Kinzie, and Adam Zagajewski @ Hotel Allegro

The Association of Literary Scholars and Critics presents this reading by three major American poets at 8:15 PM. Free, but reservations are required: call 617-358-1990 by 9 October. 171 W Randolph. For more information (and to read samples of the poets' work), visit the Poetry Foundation website.

***

At NURTURE ART in Manhattan, starting tomorrow:

A reminder that the latest in our Emerging Curators Program, Subjects of Power and Devotion, opens at NURTUREart Gallery at 910 Grand Street tomorrow, October 12th with a reception from 7-9 p.m. Curated by Fabian Goncalves Borrega, the show features Katia Fuentes, Luis Delgado, Amy Tamayo, Mary Daniel Hobson, and Leah Oates.

Fetishism takes us into the realm where fantasy intervenes in representation... the substitution of an object for some dangerous, powerful but forbidden force.
--Stuart Hall

Subjects of Power and Devotion addresses the object's mysterious ability to attract our attention, our desire, and our intrigue. This ability can simply (or not so simply) derive from the aesthetics of the object, or in many cases the object functions as a placeholder for emotional or otherwise significant human experiences. In the photographs collected for Subjects of Power and Devotion, the objects under the artist's gaze are diverse, from human bodies to fragmentary landscapes, but all explore the way we honor, fetishize, and encode desire, memory and power into material substance, including our own bodies.

Subjects of Power and Devotion is a NURTUREart Emerging Curators' Program Collaboration. Learn more about all NURTUREart's programs and opportunities for emerging artists and curators at

www.nurtureart.org.

***

This Sunday in the Bkyn:

Unnameable Books October: Readings and Chairs

Dear ones,

I'm sorry I haven't written lately. I know you must miss me, and it is terrible to be out of touch. I miss you too, gentle readers. I also owe a letter to my grandmother in New Hampshire -- I promise to write her next week. In the meantime, there are several events here on Bergen Street that you ought to know about.

We've recently purchased some fo! lding chairs, which allow for readings to last longer, and now with greater comfort and formality. Everything is new and improved. We are moving, ever more slowly and steadily, toward a regular biweekly reading series here on Sunday afternoons. The first of these, or one of the first, is coming

THIS SUNDAY! AT 5:00 PM!!! STARRING JOHN KEENE, CHRISTOPHER STACKHOUSE AND GEOFFREY JACQUES!!!!!!!! see below for details.

We have many wonderful books here in the store -- a first american edition of Anti-Oedipus, an old collected Jarry, the nearly complete translated works of Edmond Jabès (which are mostly out of print), a bunch of scarce Aleister Crowley, some lovely rare art books printed by an italian fine-printer with essays by Roland Barthes, The Function of the Orgasm, Practical Electricity for Home Study, etc. etc. etc. All these excellent books and more -- more,! frankly, than can fit in the store -- are seeking new homes. All I ask for, in exchange, is a handful of cash.

As ever, we are also carrying a fine selection of the latest fall fashions, in which you can read up-to-minute imaginative missives of war, peace, love and destruction, in lyric, narrative and fragmented forms, fiction and non-fiction, truth and lies -- we even have that OJ Simpson book! We are about to reorganize the front of the store to make your browsing experience all the more lovely. In the process, I fear that the comfy blue chair, through no fault of its own, will be banished to the basement, making room for MORE NEW BOOKS for the Christmas season. The smaller, more stylish, less comfy, green chair, of scandinavian design, though not from Ikea, will remain in its place, the used fiction section, for all your sedentary pleasures.

UPCOMING READINGS:

Please mark your calendars:


1. Sunday, October 14 at 5 PM
Geoffrey Jacques
Christopher Stackhouse
John Keene

Unnameable Books
[formerly "Adam's"]
456 Bergen St.
Brooklyn, NY 11217
unnameablebooks@earthlink.net
(718) 789-1534
*www.unnameablebooks.net*

***

If you're in Chicago, then check out KRISTA FRANKLIN'S ART EVENT:

2nd Sun Salon & Naïveté Studios presents
a first look at Krista Franklin's

"Seed (The Book of Eve)"
The Octavia E. Butler Artist Book

an exhibition of prints & projections from "Seed (The Book of Eve)" & a reading of brief excerpts of Ms. Butler's novels featuring:

Tyehimba Jess
D. Denenge Akpem
Quraysh Ali Lansana
Rev. Kim Crutcher
Rone Shavers
Toni Asante Lightfoot
Amanda Torres
Emily Evans
& Krista Franklin

Sunday, October 14, 2007
2pm
@ Naïveté Studios
4863 N. Ravenswood Ave.
Chicago, IL 60640

For more information call:
773-771-9385

Light refreshments will be served. Prompt arrival is suggested.

"Seed (The Book of Eve)" is a handmade artist book of visual interpretations of the novels and stories of science-fiction writer Octavia E. Butler. Being developed page-by-page, "Seed (The Book of Eve)" is a series of mixed-media collages--some that include excerpts and lines from the novels themselves.

Created on pages that are the size of the paperbacks of many of Ms. Butler's books, the collages are imaginings, or re-creations, of passages and ideas from her novels.

"This project is supported by a Community Arts Assistance Program grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Illinois Arts Council, a state agency."

www.kristafranklin.com
www.myspace.com/kristacfranklin

Hanifah Walidah Event Tonight

From Tisa B and Erica D, Hanifah Walidah's event tonight, if you're in New York::

What happens when 30 women of color--straight, gay and trans--get together in a classic Brooklyn Brownstone? A house party, of course. U People documents the humor, tensions, and tenderness shared among this eclectic group of often misunderstood individuals who one day joined forces on a less than typical music video shoot. The documentary dares to echo the oft despised question “who are you people?” to which the unabashed heroines and heroes candidly shout back. more...

PLEASE JOIN US FOR A PRE-SCREENING OF U PEOPLE THE FILM AND THE DEBUT OF HANIFAH WALIDAH HOT NEW MUSIC VIDEO “DO YOU MIND”.

See and distribute flyer on events page

All proceeds go to the U People Completion Fund. Purchase below via Pay Pal.

NYC Screening @ Culture Project, Mon. Oct. 8, 2007
Buy NYC Tickets Here
Subway Directions
Several different subway lines bring you within walking distance of the theater
Take the 6 to Spring Street, then walk west to Mercer and one block south to Broome.
Take the C or E to Spring Street, then walk east to Mercer and one block south to Broome.
Take the N or R to Prince Street, then walk west to Mercer and two blocks south to Broome.
From our old home at 45 Bleecker, walk two blocks east to Mercer and four blocks south to Broome.
We are also convenient to the Canal St. station (at Lafayette), which gets the J, M, Z, the N, Q, R, W, and the 6 lines.

Sautumner Cont. + Nobelaureation + Beisbol

S/aut/um/n/er Cont.
It's amazing how quickly a week flies by, particularly when you're making your way through a thicket of short stories and critical papers. So far so good with all three classes, all three of which will be immersed in the literary art of Junot Díaz, who's scheduled to visit in early November. His new novel, which I'm reading now and which is one of my October book picks, is one of the most remarkable I've read in a long time, particularly for its sheer verbal daring and verve. The stories he tells are also deeply compelling.

The warm weather has thrown my compass off, though. Yesterday it was so humid it felt like July, and all the surfaces in the kitchen are tacky, as if they'd just been sprayed with adhesive. Even the leaves on the trees are still green. Maybe it was this warm last fall in Chicago, though I can't remember much, of course, from last fall except my class, the Cave Canem 10th anniversary celebration, and taking on the new administrative post....

UPDATE: I knew the Chicago Marathon was running today, which was enough to keep me far away from downtown, but I hadn't realized until I spoke with C this evening that in fact, it was so hot that someone fell dead during the race (I'm sorry to hear this occurred) and the officials finally called the event off, though not before Patrick Ivuti of Kenya--by an eyelash--and Ethiopian Berhane Adere respectively won the mens' and women's races.

Nobelaureation
Every year I engage in a bit of prognosticating about the Nobel Prize in literature, which'll be announced this upcoming week. Reggie H. sent me a link to Marlon James's picks, which are intriguing. I've said before that Adonis (Adunis), Saadi Youssef, or Mahmoud Darwish are likely pics, especially given that only one Arabic-language writer (the late Egyptian fiction writer Naguib Mahfouz) has received the prize, that a playwright and screenwriter (Harold Pinter) and a novelist (Orhan Pamuk) were the last two selections, and that the Middle East is a political flashpoint, and the Swedish Academy appears eager these days to make political statements with the awards. By this measure, Nuruddin Farah, the Somali novelist, and Assia Djebar, the utterly original Algerian-French author, are also likely considerations. There is the question of genre, though, and the additional issue that some nations, like Brazil, Vietnam, and Indonesia have never had a writer honored, while others, like India and China, have had their greatest writers selected only once (or infrequently). So Rubem Fonseca, Sergio Sant'Anna or Ferreira Gullar of Brazil; Duong Thu Thuong of Vietnam; Pramoedya Ananta Toer of Indonesia; any of India's acclaimed authors, but in particular Salman Rushdie, for example; and China's Mo Yan, may be tipped. Among the American authors, there's always John Ashbery, of course, who probably should be honored for his influence on English-language poetry alone; others include the oft-suggested Philip Roth, as well as W. S. Merwin, and E.L. Doctorow (nominated this year for a Neustadt International Prize). More unusual selections would be one of my favorite writers, Jay Wright, or the much younger Richard Powers, one of the most prodigiously talented contemporary fiction writers. Canada's authors, who've never received a Nobel Prize, both Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood would make excellent candidates. The former is one of the greatest living short stories writers in the English language, and the latter is one of the most important novelists, as well as a notable poet. Maryse Condé and Kamau Brathwaite are also excellent, perennial candidates, as is another writer whose despite being a nonagenarian continues his singular work, Wilson Harris. There are many other highly acclaimed, deserving writers, like Claribel Alegría of Nicaragua, Haruki Murakami of Japan (one of my favorites), David Malouf of Australia, Luisa Valenzuela of Argentina, Juan Goytisolo, Javier Marías and Julián Ríos of Spain, Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru (a politically repellant pick, but a great author), Yoel Hoffmann, David Grossman, A.B. Yehoshua, and Amos Oz of Israel, or Carlos Fuentes of Mexico. A few years ago, Vargas Llosa wrote, apropos of Fonseca, that the time of the linguistically-oriented work, as embodied in the work of French 1985 laureate Claude Simon, had passed, though subsequent winners, like Toni Morrison, José Saramago, Camilo José Cela, and Elfriede Jelinek have belied this to some degree, it's clear that political engagement of some sort must also be part of the mix. Certainly it has been the case with Pamuk, Pinter, Jelinek, Coetzee, Kertesz....

And whom are you picking? (Brilliant as they are, Edwidge Danticat and Zadie Smith are still too young to win it just yet.)

Béisbol Been Bery, Bery Bad to Chicago (Again)
One week into the baseball playoffs, and the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies are out, while the two less heralded teams from Arizona (the Diamondbacks) and Colorado (the Rockies) are now in the National League Championship series. Arizona has a young, gung ho team of budding stars (Chris Young, Eric Byrnes, Brandon Webb) with several very sharp starting pitchers, while Colorado brings a battery that would make the Yankees jealous. I can't see which of these teams will win, though if Arizona's lineup keeps hitting, I think they have the edge.

Speaking of the Yankees, their convicted-felon-but-pardoned owner has just nnounced that unless they somehow sneak past Cleveland, now up 2-0, he is canning manager Joe Torre, who led the Yankees to four World Series wins (1996, 1998-2000), and 13 straight post-season trips, but hasn't won it all for the loudmouth since W took office. Poor guy; every year he has a threat like this hanging over his head, internal team dramas (including a known steroid user, the Stray-Rod scandal, etc.) and shaky starting pitching, usually consisting of people older than me on the mound, and every year he takes the team to its limit. After the way Cleveland has played, including Fausto Carmona (above, AP Photo/Tony Dejak, Pool) surviving a mid-game midge attack, though, I think Yankee fans ought to begin saying their goodbyes to Torre. The team is not hitting--A-Rod is again swinging like he's never seen a breaking pitch--and Cleveland's pitching is a major reason why. It's kind of sad, but they almost appear to want things to end. It would at least a few less weeks of tension and the overbearing Steinbrenner, after all. Their main nemeses, the Boston Red Sox, are tormenting the Angels of Los Angeles-Anaheim, and appear set to extend their overhyped road show on national TV screens perhaps into the World Series, though I'm hoping for Cleveland to pull an upset.

Back to the Cubs: they looked like they didn't know why they were on the field. Not that I was surprised, but this time, they couldn't blame it on poor Steve Bartman. Now Cubs fans, where's that goat?

Quick Cuts

Tonight is the first meeting of the third of my three classes, the graduate workshop. Over the years this has become one of my favorite classes to teach, and I doubt this year's group will prove any different.

There's always so much going on that I want to write about, but it takes an almost orisha-inspired effort to get anything into the little composition screen here. I'm not sure why. I think I'm going to try very short blurb-like posts for a while and see how that goes. Maybe I'll be able to get things out more quickly, and draw readers and commentators back.

The Chicago Police Department has a terrible reputation among many of Chicago's Black and poor residents, and here's one reason why. These accounts, of "savage beating" of suspects, of torturing to obtain false confessions, and of soliciting murder against other cops who might blow the whistle on the thuggery, are outrageous, yet not much of a surprise to those who've heard about all of it before, especially people who lived in the wards and areas where Jon Burge, Jerome Finnigan and fellow goons had free reign. Yet they were so out of control they also beat up businesspeople on occasion. It's also important to consider the links, via those forced confessions, to those wrongly placed on Death Rowby these cop's lies, which casts Chicago's corrupt Republican ex-governor George Ryan's commutation of sentences in a different light, and underlines why it was such a deeply and startlingly important and heroic act. If you're looking for script material, here it is.

Randall H. sent to the Cave Canem list a link to Robin Givhan's Washington Post piece on the endearing thrall of the "Aryan" at the Milan and some of the US's fashion shows (Cf. Calvin Klein). This season I guess instead of the models' challenge being "can't you be thinner?" this season it's "can't you be whiter?" No matter that Italy itself is ethnically and racially diversifying once again (as it did during the long period between Greek and late Roman rule), or that the designers showing at the houses almost all come from societies that are increasingly diverse; or rather, perhaps that is the point, to assert this narrow and suffocating aesthetic template as an act of resistance, defiance, supremacy, a last--it's clear, even if you don't buy into the whole Eurabia nonsense--gasp. I do wish Givhan recognized that there many more kinds of women out there being overlooked by this global industry, but the US's racial and racist imaginary seems to leave our media spellbound or worse. Nevertheless, her general point is important, as fashion is a global industry, and these images circulate throughout the world, their power not restricted to the elite who can actually afford the actual clothes.

This weekend marked conductor Marin Alsop's debut as the Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She is the first woman ever to lead a major American symphony orchestra. Bravissima! I'm a big fan of hers from her recordings over the years; according to Anthony Tommasini's New York Times article, Alsop has been a dynamo since she accepted the position under a cloud of controversy and criticism concerning her abilities and her possible effects on the organization, which was reeling financially. Contrary to the predictions of the naysayers, the orchestra is revitalized, a new donor has provided a $1 million subsidy to ensure $25 tickets for patrons, subscriptions are up, and the musicians themselves are energized. In addition, her first concert wasn't stuck in the distant past. She programmed contemporary American composer John Adams's Fearful Symmetries with Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony, and to the Times' critic's ear, both were triumphs. Reggie H. says she's got an ambitious schedule coming, including performances of works by contemporary composers such as Thomas Adès, H. K. Gruber, Tan Dun, as well as the African-American composer James P. Johnson--and not in February! I swear, if I lived closer, I'd take the train down to catch some of these.

And speaking of classical and contemporary art music, after years of fairly staid repertoire, the New York Sun reports that the New York City Opera, now under the sway of Europe's operatic visionary Gérard Mortier, is announcing a 2009-2010 dedicated to "20th century works"--right up my alley! But even better is the lineup of operas, which I'm still stunned by. Mortier plans to program not just one or two works--say, Prokofiev's The Gambler and a Britten opera, like The Turn of the Screw, both of which would be great and like to have played either at the City Opera or the Metropolitan Opera in recent years (Prokofiev's opera is at the Met this season). No, Mortier really isn't playing.

The 2009-2010 season — which will be Mr. Mortier's first fully in residence, since for the next two years he is finishing his tenure as director of the Paris National Opera — will be devoted to 20th-century works. It will open, as he has said before, with Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress," and will include two other icons of American opera: Philip Glass's "Einstein on the Beach" and John Adams's "Nixon in China." The English tenor Ian Bostridge will sing in a production of Benjamin Britten's "Death in Venice."

But it doesn't end there.

In accordance with Mr. Mortier's previously expressed desire to take City Opera to other parts of the city, the first season will include a production of Messiaen's "St. Francis of Assisi," at the Park Avenue Armory and Drill Hall, where it will be performed amid an installation by the artist Ilya Kabakov. (The painter Anselm Kiefer is also lined up to design an opera set, Mr. Mortier said.) There will be other productions at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and, pending negotiations, Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater.

Get that? Operas at the Armory, in Harlem, and in Brooklyn, but not via BAM, because, as per its charter, it's the CITY opera; Lincoln Center already has the musically and socially preëminent (and horribly conservative) opera house and company just across the plaza, though along the way a number of people appear to have forgotten this. And he's going to bring Messaien's monumental opera, which had its US premiere in San Francisco, to New York City. I cannot describe what a big deal this is. He's also aiming to create more affordable pricing, more outreach to the local communities, and more African-American operagoers. To that end Bernice Johnson Reagon of Sweet Honey in the Rock has been commissioned to write a new opera, as has Philip Glass. There are other modernist and contemporary operas, by the likes of Scott Joplin, Kurt Weill, Ernst Krenek, Roger Sessions, Hans Werner Henze, Thomas Adès, Elliott Carter, Harrison Birtwistle, Anthony Davis, Mark Adamo, John Corigliano, Poul Ruuders, and so on, that I hope he programs, and I would love to see his versions of Alban Berg's Lulu, Bela Bártok's Bluebeard's Castle, and . And then the purists can still have some of their Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, Donizetti, Glück, Rossini, Bellini, Offenbach, Bizet, Massenet, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Strauss, and, let me not forget, Richard Wagner. In Mortier's hands, any opera will be a lot more interesting.

Samuel Delany on Tuesday

Ryan C. forwarded the following email from Big Rod about a special Samuel R. Delany (at right, VCU) reading and talk tomorrow evening (Tuesday, October 2, 2007):

The New York Review of Science Fiction Readings

South Street Seaport Museum presents
Samuel R. Delany
The 40th Anniversary Celebration of The Star Pit

Tuesday, Oct 2nd -- Doors open 6:30 PM
Free Admission -- $5 donation if possible
South Street Seaport Museum's Melville Gallery
213 Water Street
(directions and links below)

"Two glass panes with dirt between and little tunnels from cell to cell: when
I was a kid I had an ant colony."
-- The Star Pit

Some 40 years ago, Samuel R. Delany narrated a radio adaptation of his Hugo-nominated novella, The Star Pit, for The Mind's Eye Theatre, Baird Searles' ongoing series of radio dramas at New York's listener-sponsored WBAI-FM.� We will celebrate the 40th anniversary of this landmark broadcast with a talk by Delany about the making of the radio drama, and a performance of segments from the original work.

The Star Pit was first published in the February, 1967, issue of Worlds of Tomorrow and subsequently nominated for the Hugo Award. The ensuing radio drama was a landmark: A sophisticated science fiction tale brought to the airwaves a decade after most radio stations had given up on drama altogether.

Samuel R. Delany was a published science fiction author by the age of 20, and quickly became recognized as one of the most prominent figures in literary speculative fiction. He published nine well-regarded science fiction novels between 1962 and 1968, as well as several prize-winning short stories (collected in Driftglass [1971] and more recently in Aye, and Gomorrah, and Other Stories [2002]). Among his most important novels are The Einstein Intersection, Nova, and Stars in My Pockets Like Grains of Sand.� His tenth and most popular novel, Dhalgren, was published in 1975. His main literary project through the late 1970s and 1980s was the four-volume Return to Nevèrÿon series.

Delany has published several autobiographical/semi-autobiographical accounts of his life as a black and gay writer, including his Hugo award-winning autobiography, The Motion of Light in Water. He is also the subject of a recent film documentary, "The Polymath, or The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman."

Since 1988, Delany has been a professor at several universities. He spent 11 years as a professor of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a year and a half as an English professor at the University at Buffalo, then moved to the English Department of Temple University in 2001, where he has been teaching ever since. He has also published several books of criticism, interviews, and essays, and a best-selling book, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (1999), about the effort to redevelop Times Square and what it means for working-class gay men in New York City.

Press coverage: http://sfscope.com/2007/08/samuel-delany-to-celebrate-40.html

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The New York Review of Science Fiction Reading Series is in its 19th season of providing performances from some of the best writers in science fiction, fantasy, speculative fiction, etc. (The magazine has just published its 20th anniversary issue.) The series takes place the first Tuesday of every month at the South Street Seaport's Melville Gallery, 213 Water Street. Admission is free, but $5 donations are encouraged to offset costs and buy dinner for the
readers. The producer and executive curator is radio producer and talk show host Jim Freund.

Review of last event
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WHEN:
Tuesday, 10/2/07
Doors open at 6:30 -- readings begin at 7

WHERE:
The South Street Seaport Museum's Melville Gallery
213 Water Street� (near Beekman)
http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=213+Water+Street,+New+York,+NY

HOW:
By Subway
Take 2, 3, 4, 5, J, Z, or M to Fulton Street; A and C to
Broadway-Nassau. Walk east on Fulton Street to Water Street

By Bus
Take M15 (South Ferry-bound) down Second Ave. to Fulton Street

By Car
• From the West Side: take West Street southbound. Follow signs to FDR
Drive Take underpass, keep right - use Exit 1 at end of underpass. Turn
right on South Street, six blocks.
• From the East Side, take FDR Drive south to Exit 3 onto South Street

2007 Rugby World Cup

If you're looking for a sport to follow and you're not getting into the Major League Baseball season's final games (despite the Mets' near-collapse and the Cubs' possibly accursed presence), you find it still to early to champion a National Football League team, you cannot believe the National Hockey League exists and opened its season in Britain, you felt disappointed by the US Women's Soccer World blowout at the hands of Brazil and the drama surrounding the game (poor Brianna Scurry!), and you don't really care about NASCAR, the new quicker cricket, what's left of the tennis and golf seasons, etc., there's always the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

RWC 2007, a perfect combination of athleticism and beauty, is underway in Europe, and is nearing the end of the first-round games. The top teams are New Zealand's "All Blacks" squad, which is 4-0; Australia, which is also 4-0 so far; Argentina; South Africa, which walloped the highly ranked England squad, with the stunning Jason Robinson; and, it appears to some surprise, Fiji, which defeated Wales to make it into the next round.

The United States team, featuring a very diverse lineup, has had a rough tournament so far, losing all three of its games, including matches against Tonga and Samoa, against whom player Fifita Mounga suffered a terrifying injury. Their final match will be against the above-noted South Africa, which doesn't bode well for a win. There's always next time. Meanwhile, I'll keep following the scores and perhaps post again after the next or a subsequent round. Will it be New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, South Africa, England, or some other squad?

PARIS - SEPTEMBER 28: Paul Sackey of England breaks away to score his team's second try during the Rugby World Cup 2007 Pool A match between England and Tonga at the Parc des Princes on September 28, 2007 in Paris, France. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)LENS,

FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 08: Jason Robinson of England scores the opening try during the Rugby World Cup 2007 match between England and the USA at the Stade Felix Bollaert on September 8, 2007 in Lens, France. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

LENS, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 08: Salesi Sika of the USA is pursued by Jason Robinson of England during the Rugby World Cup 2007 match between England and the USA at the Stade Felix Bollaert on September 8, 2007 in Lens, France. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

ST. ETIENNE, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 26: Takudzwa Ngwenya of USA breaks past Elvis Seveali'I of Samoa to score a try during match thirty two of the Rugby World Cup 2007 between Samoa and USA at the Stade Geoffroy Guichard on September 26, 2007 in St. Etienne, France. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

ST. ETIENNE, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 26: The Samoan team do The Siva Tau (Samoan War Dance) prior to match thirty two of the Rugby World Cup 2007 between Samoa and USA at the Stade Geoffroy Guichard on September 26, 2007 in St. Etienne, France. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

MARSEILLE, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 22: Juan Manuel Leguizamon of Argentina goes over to score his team's second try during Match Twenty Six of the Rugby World Cup 2007 between Argentina and Namibia at the Stade Velodrome on September 22, 2007 in Marseille, France. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

MARSEILLE, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 08: Luke McAlister of New Zealand and Mils Muliaina (L) in action during Match Two of the Rugby World Cup 2007 between New Zealand and Italy at the Stade Velodrome on September 8, 2007 in Marseille, France. (Photo by Ross Land/Getty Images)

PARIS - SEPTEMBER 09: Bryan Habana of South Africa goes past David Lemi of Samoa during the Rugby World Cup 2007 Pool A match between South Africa and Samoa at the Parc des Princes on September 9, 2007 in Paris, France. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

LYON, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 11: Mamuka Gorgodze of Georgia takes the catch during match nine of the Rugby World Cup 2007 between Argentina and Georgia at the Gerland stadium on September 11, 2007 in Lyon, France. (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)

ST-ETIENNE, 9 September - Pedro Carvalho (POR) during match seven of the Rugby World Cup 2007 between Scotland and Portugal at the Stade Geoffroy Guichard. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

MARSEILLE, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 08: Rodney So'oialo of New Zealand is tackled by Sergio Parisse of Italy during Match Two of the Rugby World Cup 2007 between New Zealand and Italy at the Stade Velodrome on September 8, 2007 in Marseille, France. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

MARSEILLE, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 08: The New Zealand players perform the Haka prior to the start of Match Two of the Rugby World Cup 2007 between New Zealand and Italy at the Stade Velodrome on September 8, 2007 in Marseille, France. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

EDINBURGH, UNITED KINGDOM - SEPTEMBER 23: Doug Howlett of New Zealand dives over the line to score a try during the Rugby World Cup 2007 Pool C match between Scotland and New Zealand at the Murrayfield Stadium on September 23, 2007 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

TOULOUSE, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 29: Sitiveni Sivivatu of New Zealand scores the opening try during Match Thirty Four of the Rugby World Cup 2007 between New Zealand and Romania at Le Stadium on September 29, 2007 in Toulouse, France. (Photo by Ross Land/Getty Images)

Fijian team training (no photo credit available)

TOULOUSE, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 12: Mosese Rauluni of Fiji makes a pass during the Rugby World Cup 2007 Pool B match between Japan and Fiji at Le Stade on September 12, 2007 in Toulouse, France. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

CARDIFF, UNITED KINGDOM - SEPTEMBER 16: Seremaia Bai of Fiji escapes the tackle of Dave Spicer of Canada during the Rugby World Cup 2007 Pool B match between Canada and Fiji at the Millennium Stadium on September 16, 2007 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

CARDIFF, UNITED KINGDOM - SEPTEMBER 16: Seru Rabeni of Fiji hands off James Pritchard of Canada during the Rugby World Cup 2007 Pool B match between Canada and Fiji at the Millennium Stadium on September 16, 2007 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 23: Gabiriele LovobalavuSeru Rabeni of Fiji is tackled by Adam Freier (R) and Phil Waugh (L) of Australia during match twenty seven of the Rugby World Cup 2007 between Australia and Fiji at the Stade de la Mosson on September 23, 2007 in Montpellier, France. (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 23: Ifereimi Rawaqa of Fiji catches the line out throw during match twenty seven of the Rugby World Cup 2007 between Australia and Fiji at the Stade de la Mosson on September 23, 2007 in Montpellier, France. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

NANTES, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 29: Akapusi Qera of Fiji makes a break during the Rugby World Cup 2007 Pool B match between Wales and Fiji at the Stade de la Beaujoire on September 29, 2007 in Nantes, France. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

LYON, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 08: Yuki Yatomi of Japan is stopped by the Australia defence during the match three of the Rugby World Cup 2007 between Australia and Japan at the Gerland stadium on September 8, 2007 in Lyon, Fance. (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)

BORDEAUX, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 25: Christian Loamanu of Japan is snagged by James Pritchard of Canada during the Rugby World Cup Pool B match between Canada and Japan at the Stade Chaban Delmas on September 25, 2007 in Bordeaux, France. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)