For Immediate Release:

OCTOBER PUBLIC PROGRAMS

The City University of New York Graduate Center announces the following public programs to be held during the month of October at the Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street.

Through Saturday, October 27

Anna Vivante: Vanitas
(art exhibition) Monday – Saturday, 12:00 – 6:00 PM
Forty-six of Anna Vivante’s black and white photographs, on view in the Exhibition Hallway, juxtapose images of human and animal skulls with living organisms and objects whose intriguing formal affinities invite prolonged contemplation. The Exhibition Hallway is located on the first floor of the Graduate Center, adjacent to the Martin E. Segal Theatre; free, for information contact 212-817-7394.

Tuesday, October 2 - Saturday, December 8          

Jim Dine Selected Prints, 1996-2006 
(art exhibition) Tuesday – Saturday, 12:00 – 6:00 PM
The Amie and Tony James Gallery presents this exhibition of forty-seven prints, two livres d’artiste (books illustrated by the artist), and a recently published portfolio highlights the technical innovation and deeply personal imagery of the Pop Art master’s printmaking oeuvre. Jim Dine Selected Prints, 1996-2006 features such recurrent subjects as Dine’s iconic hearts, robes, and self-portraits, as well as captivating images of flowers and birds that have a highly personal significance for the artist. Of particular importance are the many recent prints inspired by the hero of Carlo Collodi’s celebrated children’s tale, The Adventures of Pinocchio: Story of a Puppet. The gallery is located on the first floor of the Graduate Center; free, for information contact 212-817-7394.

Tuesday, October 2

Printmakers and Poets
A Conversation with Jim Dine
(discussion) 6:30 PM
In connection with the current exhibition, Jim Dine Selected Prints, 1996-2006, the Center for the Humanities and the Amie and Tony James Art Gallery present this informal conversation between renowned artist Jim Dine, poet and critic Vincent Katz, and Diane Kelder, curator of the Amie and Tony James Art Gallery.  Free, for information contact 212-817-2005. 

Wednesday, October 3

The Face of Presidential Politics

(discussion) 6:30 PM

This panel will examine the current presidential campaign, with a specific emphasis on how gender and race are presented and performed—by both the media and the candidates. Participants will include Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Associate Professor of Political Science, Princeton University; Tavia Nyong’o, Assistant Professor of Performance Studies, NYU; Jennifer Senior, Associate Editor, New York Magazine; and Gary Younge, columnist for The Nation and author of Stranger in a Strange Land: Encounters in the Disunited States. Moderated by Ruth O’Brien, Professor of Political Science, the Graduate Center, and presented by the Center for the Humanities; free, for information contact 212-817-2005.


Thursday, October 4

Music in Midtown:
A Program of Chamber Music
 (concert) 1:00 PM
Music in Midtown presents a program of chamber music featuring the Music Salon of Winnaretta Singer; Princesse Edmond de Polignac with Sylvia Kahan, narrator and piano; Mary Thorne, soprano; Olivier Fluchaire, violin; Ronald Arron, viola and Edward Arron, cello.  Concerts in this free lunchtime series include classical and contemporary works presented in the Elebash Recital Hall, a warm, intimate space with state-of-the-art acoustics. Performances feature the doctoral program in music=s renowned faculty, outstanding professional musicians selected from among the program=s doctoral students, and special guest artists.  Presented by the Ph.D./D.M.A. Program in Music; free, for more information, please contact the Concert Office at 212-817-8607, or visit www.gc.cuny.edu/MusicInMidtown.htm.

Tuesday, October 9  
 
Building Capitol: The Vernacular Architecture of the Garment District
(discussion) 6:30 PM
The Garment District well known to labor historians, but virtually unknown to historians of the city's built environment.  Andrew Dolkart, James Marston Fitch Associate Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia University and author of the award-winning Morningside Heights: A History of its Architecture and Development, will give an illustrated lecture on the vernacular architecture of the neighborhood.  He will examine the forces that resulted in the extraordinarily rapid development of showrooms, factories, and lofts.  Presented by the Gotham Center for New York City History; free, for information contact 212-817-8474.

Wednesday, October 10 

The Veiled Monologues
An Evening with Dutch Playwright Adelheid Roosen
 (play reading & discussion) 6:30 PM
The Veiled Monologues, based on Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, investigates the daily life of Islamic women living in the Netherlands.  Excerpts will be read, followed by a discussion with Adelheid Roosen, Heather Ruffo, and Dalia Basiouny.  Ruffo is an actress who wrote and starred in the acclaimed production of 9 Parts of Desire; Basiouny is a Ph.D. student in theatre whose dissertation is on US-Arab women writers-performers.  Presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center; free, for information contact 212-817-1861.

Monk at 90: Gary Giddens & Jason Moran in Conversation
(discussion) 6:30 PM
On the 90th anniversary of Thelonious Monk’s birth, join Gary Giddins and Jason Moran for music and conversation about the legendary jazz pianist and composer. Moran, a leading jazz pianist and composer of the past decade, will soon debut a major commission, In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall 1959. Gary Giddins is the author of nine books, including Weather Bird, Satchmo, and Visions of Jazz: The First Century, for which he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. Presented by the Center for the Humanities; free, for information contact 212-817-2005.

Thursday, October 11

Representing Cuba: Sujatha Fernandes & Elio Rodríguez in Conversation

(discussion) 6:30 PM

Elio Rodríguez, a prominent Cuban artist whose work deals with race, desire, and sexuality, speaks with Sujatha Fernandes, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Queens College and author of Cuba Represent! Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures. Presented by the Center for the Humanities; free, for information contact 212-817-2005.


Friday, October 12

Iberian Instrumental Traditions:  The Guitar’s Ancestors
With Manuel Minguillón
(lecture-recital) 3:00 pm
The center for Iberian Music presents this lecture-recital with early-guitar specialist Manuel Minguillón, who will perform on original instruments.  His rare instrument collection will be on display at the event.  Free, for information contact 212-817-1819.
 
Lincoln Kirstein Centennial Reading

(reading & discussion) 6:00 PM

This evening celebrates Lincoln Kirstein’s own poetry and the poets that meant the most to him, including Hart Crane and W. H. Auden. Participants include Hilton Als, author of The Women; Martin Duberman, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at Lehman College and the Graduate Center and author of The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein; Nicholas Jenkins, editor of BY WITH TO & FROM: A Lincoln Kirstein Reader; and Edward Mendelson, Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. Presented by the Center of the Humanities and co-sponsored by the Poetry Society of America; free, for information contact 212-817-2005.


Saturday, October 13

A Klezmer Hootenany with Yale Strom and Guests
(concert) 6:30 pm
Join Yale Strom and guests for a performance by klezmer musicians from around the world who rarely, if ever, have shared the same stage. Musicians from Hungary, Germany, Ukraine, Israel, Canada and throughout the US have come to NYC to celebrate the revival of klezmer music, a renaissance that began thirty years ago in California. This “Klezmer Hootenany” will include a Yiddish sing along (lyrics provided), khasidic melodies, stage music of the Yiddish theatre and stories from the hinterlands of Eastern Europe.  Yale Strom (violin, composer, filmmaker, writer, photographer, and playwright) is a pioneer among revivalists in conducting extensive field research in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans among the Jewish and Rom communities.  The evening is moderated by Ellen Kushner, host of Sound and Spirit, National Public Radio, and presented by the Center for Jewish Studies and the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center.  Free, for information contact 212-817-1861.

Monday, October 15

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.: History and Social Action
An Appreciation on the 90th Anniversary of His Birth
(discussion) 6:00 PM
At this event dedicated to the late historian and longtime Graduate Center faculty member, speakers will include Alan Brinkley, Allan Nevins Professor of History and Provost, Columbia University; Blanche Weisen Cook, Distinguished Professor of History, John Jay College; Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History, Columbia University; David Levering Lewis, biographer; David Nasaw, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Chair in American History, the Graduate Center; Adam Rothman, Associate Professor of History, Georgetown University; Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University; and Sean Wilentz, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Princeton University. Presented by the Center for the Humanities; free, for information contact 212-817-2005.  


Trojan Women - Comfort Women
(play reading & discussion) 6:30 PM
Bosnian director Aida Karic draws on an Asian-Bosnian ancient-modern connection in a new play (based on Euripides’s Trojan Women) dealing with the fate of Korean women abused as “comfort women” by Japanese officers during World War II. The event features readings of excerpts and a discussion with Randy Gener, Senior Editor, American Theatre Magazine, and Alfred Preissler, Co-Founder and Artistic Director, Classical Theater of Harlem. Presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center; free, for information contact 212-817-1861.

Wednesday, October 17

The Holocaust, Racism, and the Mentally Ill
(lecture) 6:15 PM
Martin Gittelman, Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, NYU Medical School and Editor, International Journal of Mental Health, lectures on events surrounding the murder of the mentally ill in Nazi Germany. He will focus on the beliefs and theories related to eugenics and on Nazi attitudes toward the victims. Dr. Gittelman is the author of numerous books and articles and has served as consultant for the World Health Organization. Presented by the Rosenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies; free, for information contact 212-817-1949.


Thursday, October 18
 
Music in Midtown:
A Program of Chamber Music
(concert) 1:00 PM
Music in Midtown presents a program of chamber music featuring works by Thuille and Levitan for winds, piano, and percussion with members of the D.M.A. Program in Music and CUNY faculty member, William Purvis, French horn.  Concerts in this free lunchtime series include classical and contemporary works presented in the Elebash Recital Hall, a warm, intimate space with state-of-the-art acoustics. Performances feature the doctoral program in music=s renowned faculty, outstanding professional musicians selected from among the program=s doctoral students, and special guest artists.  Presented by the Ph.D./D.M.A. Program in Music; free, for more information, please contact the Concert Office at 212-817-8607, or visit www.gc.cuny.edu/MusicInMidtown.htm.

Writing Other Lives: Janet Malcolm & Wendy Lesser in Conversation
(discussion) 6:00 PM
Wendy Lesser, the founding editor of The Threepenny Review and editor of Hiding in Plain Sight: Essays in Criticism and Autobiography, speaks with Janet Malcolm, a staff writer for The New Yorker, about her new biography of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice. Malcolm is also author of The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession, and Inside the Freud Archives. Presented by the Center for the Humanities; free, for information contact 212-817-2005.

Tuesday, October 23

Fear in America: Susan Faludi and Corey Robin in Conversation

(discussion) 7:00 PM

Corey Robin, Associate Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center and author of Fear: The History of a Political Idea, talks with Susan Faludi, the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, about her latest book, The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America.  Presented by the Center for the Humanities; free, for information call 212-817-2005.


Thursday, October 25

White, Ethnic New York: Jews, Catholics and the Shaping of Postwar Politics
(discussion) 6:30 PM
Joshua Zeitz, Professor of History at Cambridge University, will talk about his new book, White, Ethnic New York: Jews, Catholics and the Shaping of Postwar Politics. Historians of postwar America often identify race as the driving force behind the nation’s dynamically shifting political culture. Professor Zeitz instead places ethnicity at the forefront, arguing that ideological conflict among New York’s Irish Catholics, Italian Catholics, and Jews helped shape the city’s liberal politics. Presented by the Gotham Center for New York City History and cosponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies; free, for information call 212-817-8474.
 
Monday, October 29

Synagogues in Germany: A Virtual Reconstruction
(presentation) 6:30 PM
During the Nazi era, over 1,400 synagogues were destroyed. Through a student initiative at Germany’s Darmstadt University of Technology, several synagogues have been virtually recreated using computer-aided design, revealing a rich and diverse architectural history. Manfred Koob and Marc Grellert (Darmstadt University of Technology) and Carol Herselle Krinsky (New York University) will show the re-creations and provide historical and contemporary context.  Presented by Science & the Arts; free, for information contact 212-817-8215. 


Tuesday, October 30

Avishai Margalit: Sectarianism – Political and Religious

The Irving Howe Memorial Lecture

(discussion) 7:00 PM

Avishai Margalit, a leading political theorist and social critic, speaks on the varieties of sectarianism, past and present. Margalit is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and he is currently the George Kennan Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study.  His books include The Ethics of Memory, Occidentalism, and The Decent Society.  Presented by the Center for the Humanities; free, for information contact 212-817-2005.