1. Can’t join us in person? Tune in online!

    Can’t make it to the Library for the Performing Arts tonight for “Platinum Punk,” Debbie Harry and Chris Stein’s conversation with Will Hermes? Didn’t snag tickets to tomorrow’s sold-out installment of LIVE from the NYPL with Sandra Day O’Connor, Madeleine Albright and moderator Anne-Marie Slaughter? If you can’t join us in person, you can still join us online. We’ll be live-streaming both events!

    Click here to watch tonight’s program - part of the Rhapsodic City: Music of New York series - with Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, and Will Hermes, starting at 6pm EDT. 

    And tune in here tomorrow night at 7pm EDT, to watch Sandra Day O’Connor and Madeleine Albright in conversation with Anne-Marie Slaughter.

  2. It’s FLAMENCO time!!! Opening this week at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in the Vincent Astor Gallery is the free multimedia exhibition 100 Years of Flamenco in NYC . The exhibition featuresall things Flamenco including costumes, photographs, posters and video. Doing the Flamenco while visiting the exhibition is optional. 

    It’s FLAMENCO time!!! Opening this week at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in the Vincent Astor Gallery is the free multimedia exhibition 100 Years of Flamenco in NYC . The exhibition featuresall things Flamenco including costumes, photographs, posters and video. Doing the Flamenco while visiting the exhibition is optional. 

  3. The Jerome Robbins Dance Division yields some cool suprises:  The collection contains a number of items relating to current events in the 1950s and ‘60s. In particular, Robbins was keenly interested in the civil rights movement.  One treasure discovered in the audio collection is “Project 65: Mississippi Summer,” a two-hour radio documentary produced in 1965 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, exploring the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. The doc allows activists, locals, blacks, whites, mayors, tenant farmers, and schoolchildren to speak for themselves, creating a multi-faceted portrait of the struggle for African-American civil rights. Fannie Lou Hamer describes being beaten in a Winona, Mississippi jail; a young volunteer from Wisconsin canvases for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party; the president of the pro-segregation White Citizens’ Councils defends their purpose; farmer Hartman Turnbow describes his attempt to register to vote and the subsequent firebombing of his home.  Also in the Jerome Robbins Audio Collection is an archival recording of a 1964 gathering of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Greenwood, Mississippi, at which Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier (who are heard on the tape delivering speeches) appeared to present funds raised for SNCC; and radio news reporting about race riots in Detroit, Milwaukee, and other cities in July, 1967. Another gem to emerge from the collection is a complete audio recording of the television program Night Beat, on which John Wingate interviews Jack Kerouac and Earle Hyman. Hyman discusses his struggles and triumphs as an African-American actor and his love of theater. Kerouac, on the occasion of the publication of The Subterraneans, defines Beat vocabulary for his host and discusses the controversy surrounding the “Beat Generation,” his writing process, his cats, his painting, and his study of Buddhism. These extremely rare sound recordings are now available for research use on-site at the Library for the Performing Arts, along with a two-hour lecture-performance by Stephen Sondheim at the 92nd Street Y in 1971, a radio interview with Lee Harvey Oswald, a recording of Arthur Miller’s biblical musical Up From Paradise, archival recordings of traditional Japanese music, and other audio materials reflecting Jerome Robbins’s wide-ranging, ever-searching intellect. - Imogen Smith

    The Jerome Robbins Dance Division yields some cool suprises: 

    The collection contains a number of items relating to current events in the 1950s and ‘60s. In particular, Robbins was keenly interested in the civil rights movement. 

    One treasure discovered in the audio collection is “Project 65: Mississippi Summer,” a two-hour radio documentary produced in 1965 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, exploring the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project.

    The doc allows activists, locals, blacks, whites, mayors, tenant farmers, and schoolchildren to speak for themselves, creating a multi-faceted portrait of the struggle for African-American civil rights. Fannie Lou Hamer describes being beaten in a Winona, Mississippi jail; a young volunteer from Wisconsin canvases for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party; the president of the pro-segregation White Citizens’ Councils defends their purpose; farmer Hartman Turnbow describes his attempt to register to vote and the subsequent firebombing of his home. 

    Also in the Jerome Robbins Audio Collection is an archival recording of a 1964 gathering of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Greenwood, Mississippi, at which Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier (who are heard on the tape delivering speeches) appeared to present funds raised for SNCC; and radio news reporting about race riots in Detroit, Milwaukee, and other cities in July, 1967.

    Another gem to emerge from the collection is a complete audio recording of the television program Night Beat, on which John Wingate interviews Jack Kerouac and Earle Hyman. Hyman discusses his struggles and triumphs as an African-American actor and his love of theater.

    Kerouac, on the occasion of the publication of The Subterraneans, defines Beat vocabulary for his host and discusses the controversy surrounding the “Beat Generation,” his writing process, his cats, his painting, and his study of Buddhism.

    These extremely rare sound recordings are now available for research use on-site at the Library for the Performing Arts, along with a two-hour lecture-performance by Stephen Sondheim at the 92nd Street Y in 1971, a radio interview with Lee Harvey Oswald, a recording of Arthur Miller’s biblical musical Up From Paradise, archival recordings of traditional Japanese music, and other audio materials reflecting Jerome Robbins’s wide-ranging, ever-searching intellect.

    - Imogen Smith

  4. darienlibrary: Mr. Ferguson culls movies for the LES Heritage Film Series from more than 6,000 titles of rare 16-millimeter films that form the core of the Reserve Film and Video collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, in Lincoln Center Plaza. The collection focuses on independently produced works, including animations, experimental films and documentaries, and anyone with a New York Public Library card can reserve and check out 16-millimeter films, many of which are rare artworks. “Sean has mined the collection for films that really speak of the area — historically and aesthetically — and bring together the Seward Park community,” David Callahan, the principal librarian of the Reserve Film and Video collection, said in an e-mail. “He’s selected a range of films made over decades that reflect the film collection’s composition — documentaries, feature films and experimental works.” (via Film Series Covers a Century of the Lower East Side - NYTimes.com) Filed under: library program inspiration

    darienlibrary:

    Mr. Ferguson culls movies for the LES Heritage Film Series from more than 6,000 titles of rare 16-millimeter films that form the core of the Reserve Film and Video collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, in Lincoln Center Plaza.

    The collection focuses on independently produced works, including animations, experimental films and documentaries, and anyone with a New York Public Library card can reserve and check out 16-millimeter films, many of which are rare artworks.

    “Sean has mined the collection for films that really speak of the area — historically and aesthetically — and bring together the Seward Park community,” David Callahan, the principal librarian of the Reserve Film and Video collection, said in an e-mail. “He’s selected a range of films made over decades that reflect the film collection’s composition — documentaries, feature films and experimental works.”

    (via Film Series Covers a Century of the Lower East Side - NYTimes.com)

    Filed under: library program inspiration

  5. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and remember those who perished as well as those who survived, the Music Division of the NYPL’s Library for the Performing Arts has opened All Hands on Deck: Remembering the Titanic (1912-2012). On exhibit are sheet music of songs performed on the ship and written in its honor, as well as photos from from the films “Titanic” (1953) and “A Night to Remember” (1958). Also, save the date for two Titanic events: - a concert titled The Titanic (1912-2012): Remembering the Era, the Music and the Musicians at LPA on May 5 at 2:30 p.m. Vocalists Constance Green, Ellen Lang and Irwin Reese will recreate the music performed on board the ships along with other popular songs of the era. - 100 Years of Titanic with John Batchelor, Charles Pellegrino, and Stephen Spignesi - a panel discussion at Mid-Manhattan Library on Tuesday, May 15 at 6:30pm.

    To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and remember those who perished as well as those who survived, the Music Division of the NYPL’s Library for the Performing Arts has opened All Hands on Deck: Remembering the Titanic (1912-2012). On exhibit are sheet music of songs performed on the ship and written in its honor, as well as photos from from the films “Titanic” (1953) and “A Night to Remember” (1958).

    Also, save the date for two Titanic events:

    - a concert titled The Titanic (1912-2012): Remembering the Era, the Music and the Musicians at LPA on May 5 at 2:30 p.m. Vocalists Constance Green, Ellen Lang and Irwin Reese will recreate the music performed on board the ships along with other popular songs of the era.

    - 100 Years of Titanic with John Batchelor, Charles Pellegrino, and Stephen Spignesi - a panel discussion at Mid-Manhattan Library on Tuesday, May 15 at 6:30pm.

  6. Our fab exhibition at Library for the Performing Arts!

    nyc-arts:

    NYC-ARTS Curator’s Choice: Star Quality: The World of Noel Coward

    The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presents a look at the exhibition “Star Quality: The World of Noel Coward.” The exhibition is part of a city-wide festival celebrating Coward’s life and career. It draws upon the Coward Archives as well as public and private collections from the U.S. and abroad.

  7. Happy birthday to Langston Hughes, who was born today in 1902.  Here he is (far left) with Charles S. Johnson, E. Franklin Frazier, Rudolph Fisher and Hubert T. Delaney, on the roof of 580 St. Nicholas Avenue, Harlem, on the occasion of a party in Hughes’ honor, 1924. Head over to the Library for the Performing Arts to listen to recordings of Langston Hughes reading his poetry or head to the Schomburg Center to explore the Langston Hughes Collection. 

    Happy birthday to Langston Hughes, who was born today in 1902. 

    Here he is (far left) with Charles S. Johnson, E. Franklin Frazier, Rudolph Fisher and Hubert T. Delaney, on the roof of 580 St. Nicholas Avenue, Harlem, on the occasion of a party in Hughes’ honor, 1924.

    Head over to the Library for the Performing Arts to listen to recordings of Langston Hughes reading his poetry or head to the Schomburg Center to explore the Langston Hughes Collection.