Outings and such
I went to hear Tony Kushner last night at the University of Chicago's Artspeaks program. He was interviewed by Charlie Newell, the artistic director at Court Theatre, which is currently mounting a production of Kushner's adaptation of Corneille's The Illusion. I could listen to him talk forever. "The only obligation an artist has is to tell the truth." And he certainly does his best to live up to that. He talked about playwriting and directing, why colleges should not have undergraduate theatre programs, family, psychoanalysis, and a variety of other things.
Tonight, I went to the local library for a panel discussion on Octavia Butler and Afro-Futurism. It was one of several programs going on to lead up to the premiere of jazz flutist Nicole Mitchell's Xenogenesis II: Intergalactic Beings , inspired by Butler's trilogy. In addition to Mitchell were John Corbett, music writer and co-founder of Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery, who is an expert on Sun Ra, who was connected with Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and also Madhu Dubey, a professor of feminist theory and African-American literature at the University of Illinois-Chicago. It was a wide-ranging discussion of literature and music. When I got home, the president of the Friends of the Library called and asked if I would do a post on their blog about it. I said yes, but I wish she'd asked me before the program so I would have known to take notes!
I've been going through my books looking for thin paperbacks to take to Amsterdam to release at the BC convention. If I were going straight there, it wouldn't be as difficult, but whatever I take, I'll have to haul to Florence and then to Amsterdam, so I'm trying to be circumspect. I'm taking a couple to read on the plane and then release. And I have to factor in the guidebooks and such. I'm also debating about which edition of The Inferno to take with me. I'm leaning toward my Dorothy L. Sayers translation, because it's a small Penguin paperback. The Pinsky is a dual-language edition, which I like, but it's significantly bigger, not as easily carried about. I suppose I'll make up my mind at the last minute, as usual!
Tonight, I went to the local library for a panel discussion on Octavia Butler and Afro-Futurism. It was one of several programs going on to lead up to the premiere of jazz flutist Nicole Mitchell's Xenogenesis II: Intergalactic Beings , inspired by Butler's trilogy. In addition to Mitchell were John Corbett, music writer and co-founder of Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery, who is an expert on Sun Ra, who was connected with Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and also Madhu Dubey, a professor of feminist theory and African-American literature at the University of Illinois-Chicago. It was a wide-ranging discussion of literature and music. When I got home, the president of the Friends of the Library called and asked if I would do a post on their blog about it. I said yes, but I wish she'd asked me before the program so I would have known to take notes!
I've been going through my books looking for thin paperbacks to take to Amsterdam to release at the BC convention. If I were going straight there, it wouldn't be as difficult, but whatever I take, I'll have to haul to Florence and then to Amsterdam, so I'm trying to be circumspect. I'm taking a couple to read on the plane and then release. And I have to factor in the guidebooks and such. I'm also debating about which edition of The Inferno to take with me. I'm leaning toward my Dorothy L. Sayers translation, because it's a small Penguin paperback. The Pinsky is a dual-language edition, which I like, but it's significantly bigger, not as easily carried about. I suppose I'll make up my mind at the last minute, as usual!