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HOWL! Festival Begins Early in 2010
A full month of celebrating the East Village
Chi Chi Valenti and a photo of Allen Ginsberg (Photo: Mark Tusk)
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Although the HOWL! Festival, which celebrates the art of the East Village and Lower East Side, hasn’t officially begun yet, there are plenty of readings, films and performances that will hold you over until the epic group reading of “Howl,” Allen Ginsberg’s 1956 poem, on September 10 in Tompkins Square Park.
The HOWL! Festival 2010 Kick Off Party
September 1, 8 p.m.-Midnight
Bowery Electric, Free
Included in the evening’s festivities will be the music of DJ Adam; performers include dance music sensation, Yoshi, the bluesy Low Society and the gorgeous terpsichorean, Ekiani.
The Cradle Will Rock
September 2-3, 8-10 pm.
Theatre 80 St Marks, $20
A play by Marc Blitzstein about how in June 1938, director Orson Welles, producer John Houseman and the cast and crew of a new Broadway musical were locked out of their theater on opening night by armed servicemen under orders from the Federal Government. Without costumes, sets, lights or sound, Welles and Housemen found an unused theater, rented an upright piano and marched their audience up Broadway for what has become the most historic theatrical opening ever recorded. The entire libretto, performed from the audience by actors forbidden to step onto the stage, received a 40 minute standing ovation, as legend has it.
A Brown Monkey Goes to McDonalds
September 4, 8-9 p.m.
Theatre 80 St. Marks, $10
Sahil Farooqi’s play reveals the dreams and quest for acceptance of a South Asian boy who moves to America.
Vangeline Theater
September 10-11 p.m.
Theatre 80 St. Marks, $10
The Vangeline Theater fuses the post-apocalyptic vision of Butoh (the Japanese dance form that developed after Hiroshima) with the near-cinematic aesthetic of 21st Century science fiction noir. Tonight, Vangeline Theater will perform a new piece inspired by the cult film Run, Lola, Run with choreography by Vangeline. Starring Stacy Lynn Smith, Margherita Tisato, Maki Shinagawa, Pamela Herron and Vangeline, with video art by Geoff Shelton.
Cry Out
September 5, 8-10 p.m.
Theatre 80 St. Marks, $10
Written and performed by Jesse Rabinowitz under the direction of Steve Forth, Cry Out tells the strange, creative journey of Allen Ginsberg, whose shocking poetry, radical vision and compassionate activism changed the course of American society in the late 20th century. Weaving Ginsberg’s explosive and innovative poetry with vignettes of his remarkable life, Cry Out will move and inspire, educate and awaken.
Sister Son/Ji
September 6, 4-6 p.m.
Theatre 80 St. Marks, $10
Poet/playwright Sonia Sanchez unflinchingly examines the paradoxical notions of liberation within in the Black Power Movement.
The Beat Legacy in Film, Words and Music
September 7, 8-9:30 p.m.
Theatre 80 St. Marks, $10
Tonight’s program celebrates Allen Ginsberg, Williams Burroughs and John Cage. More information can be found here.
Bitches Guide to the Lower East Side
September 8, 8-10 p.m.
Theatre 80 St. Marks, $7
One New Year’s Eve, Jennifer Blowdryer was out of the East Village, sponging free drinks at the Oak Room and feeling inordinately out of place, when she and her bitchy friend Gerry Visco started brainstorming about hack writing projects so they could pay their rent. Instead, Blowdryer ended up writing up a typically jarring and uncommercial Bitches Guide to the Lower East Side, covering such wide ranging topics as bed bugs, gleaning, and couch creatures. Appearing with Jennifer will be Shecky Beagleman, doing her “Crack Dance”; Anne Hanavan, who will fill everybody in on the drug bodegas of yore; and photographer Jean-Paul Niko, will project the LES photos he’s been compulsively shooting of these once mean streets and the people who love them.
Viva Loisaida
September 9, 10-11 p.m.
Theatre 80 St. Marks, $5
Marlis Momber’s 1978 documentary about the Lower East Side chronicles what life was like for the director and her fellow immigrants in the mid-1970s. The film opens with a scene in the old Tompkins Square bandshell and goes on to highlight the huge murals and the grassroots art and political organizations which contributed to the EV/LES’s diversity.
The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg
September 9, 8-9:30 p.m.
Theatre 80 St. Marks, $10
The re-release of Jerry Aronson’s biopic, timed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Howl,” suits this documentary and proves Ginsberg central to all radical artistic and political movements of the past 60 years. The feature-length film, segmented by decade, provides ample footage of Ginsberg’s life; but extras added into this package, including footage of his memorial and 35 interviews with artists inspired by the visionary poet—from Beck to Lawrence Ferlinghetti—solidify Ginsberg as an American cultural icon.