Event Calendar
Edwina Sandys Art
Saturday, November 12, 2 pm
The first comprehensive volume about the witty, provocative, and beautiful art of Edwina Sandys—sculptor, painter, and passionate modern woman. This exciting chronicle, with text by Caroline Seebohm, spans four decades of Edwina Sandys' work. Copies of Edwina's books will be available for purchase and signing. Original work used in the book will be on display during the talk.
Preppy: Cultivating Ivy Style
Jeffrey Banks
Saturday, December 10, 2 pm
The authoritative fashion history of the roots, growth, and offshoots of the quintessentially American preppy style. Co-authored by Jeffrey Banks and Doria de La Chapelle and foreword by Lilly Pulitzer, Preppy offers the first definitive and in-depth volume on preppy fashion, exploring its evolution from its pragmatic origins and presence on elite Eastern campuses in America to its profound influence internationally and metamorphosis on the runway.
Sand Queen
Helen Benedict
with actor Nicole Quinn
Saturday, September 10, 2:00 p.m.
Culled from real life stories of female soldiers and Iraqis, Sand Queen offers a story of love, courage and struggle from the rare perspective of two young women on opposite sides of a war. Helen Benedict is the author of five novels and five books of nonfiction. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
Out of the Box
Bruno Pasquier-Desvignes
Saturday, September 17, 5:00 p.m., reservations recommended
A screening of Out of the Box, a film by Lio Spiegler. An anecdotal biography of the French artist Bruno Pasquier-Desvignes. Full of color and laughter, including scenes from Bruno's Integrarte workshops at HOH. Reception to follow the screening.
French born Pasquier-Desvignes has spent many years in Jamaica and has traveled extensively in Mexico, Nepal, Bali and Australia. He has shown his art, made from a variety of media, in Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Bogota, Lima, Buenos Aires, and Sydney. For more information, visit www.brunopd.com.
Opera and Vaudeville:
A Surprising History of High Art
on the Popular Stage
Trav S.D.
Saturday, October 1, 4:00 p.m.
Trav S.D.,
author of the book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That
Made Vaudeville Famous, will discuss the common origins of
opera and vaudeville and some American impresarios who straddled
both worlds, such as Barnum, Keith and Albee, Oscar Hammerstein
I, Tony Pastor, along with singers like Enrico Caruso, Lillian Russell,
Fay Templeton, and Nora Bayes. Trav S.D. will also discuss current
trends in opera and the revival of song in taverns. Free.
ArtsWalk Literary Series
Sunday, October 9, 2:30 - 7:30 p.m.
In collaboration with the CCCA and Artswalk, HOH hosts and afternoon of readings.
2:30--4:00 p.m.
Mary Johnson, Author of the memoir An Unquenchable Thirst
Dara Lurie, Author of the memoir and writers’ guide Great Space for Desire
4:15-5:45 p.m.
L.S. Asekoff, Author of the poetry collections The Gate of Horn; Dreams of a Work; and North Star and the verse novella Freedom Hill
Carole Maso, Author of The Truth about Marie, The Room Lit by Roses: A Journal of Pregnancy and Birth, and the forthcoming Mother and Child
6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Paul LaFarge, Author of the novels Luminous Airplanes, Haussman, or the Distinction and The Artist of the Missing and the story collection The Facts of Winter
Gary Shteyngart, Author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story
Photo above by Chad Weckler
NYFA Artists & Audience Exchange
Allyson Strafella
Saturday, October 15, 3:00 p.m.
Join artist Allyson Strafella, 2011 Artist Fellowship recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) in drawing, discuss her work.
"I began drawing out of the need to communicate, to find my own language; I was looking for a way to record my thoughts and ideas. I began
writing with a typewriter, a tool that could keep up with my thoughts. However, I employed no rules of the written language: no capitalization,
no punctuation, no paragraphs. The writing slowly transformed-the words left the page and what remained has become my language: drawing." This presentation is co-sponsored by Artists & Audience Exchange, a NYFA public program, funded with leadership support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). At left is Split, typed colons on yellow tracing paper, 8" x 10", 2005
Poetry by
Elizabeth Elliott
Sunday, October 16, 2:00 p.m.
Elizabeth Elliott has taught poetry in the Gallatin School of New York University. She will be reading from her three books of poetry and from her newest book, Placate the Jaws.
The Photographer and the Photobook:
Creating and Self-Publishing
Karen Davis
Sunday, October 23, 2:00 p.m.
The self-published photobook is an exciting new avenue for photographers to present their work directly to the public. In addition, the photobook itself can be a work of art. This talk by Karen Davis reviews landmarks in photobook publishing including works by Lee Friedlander, Robert Frank, Ed Ruscha and Ryan McGinley; the revolution in print-on-demand (POD) publishing; steps to take in preparing your work for POD publishing including your images, text and design considerations and examples of working with online publishing programs. Resources including urls of popular online publishers is provided.
Free at Last
A dramatic reading and discussion of
A True Story
by Mark Twain
Sunday, May 29, 2011 at 3:00 p.m.
Presented by Dr. John Cooley with Carline Murphy and Azouke Legba, A True Story was told to Mark Twain and his family in 1874 by their cook, Mary Ann Cord. They were so moved by Mrs. Cord's slave narrative of cruelty, family loss, and survival, that Twain reconstructed it on paper, "repeated word for word as I heard it." Co-sponsored by the Hudson Opera House and The Olana Partnership.
A True Story was published in Atlantic Monthly magazine in November, 1874. Mary Ann Cord, born into slavery in Virginia in 1798, came to Elmira, New York after the Civil War, and worked at Quarry Farm, the Clemens' summer home, until her death in 1888.
CLMP's 6th Annual Hudson Valley Literary Festival
All LIT Up!
Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
p.m.
Buy small press books and literary magazine and meet people who publish them at HOH. Presented by The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, with Fence Books, Hudson Wine Merchants, & HOH. Free.
The 6th Annual Hudson Valley Literary Festival: All LIT Up is back after a one-year hiatus. The daylong festival, produced by The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, with The Hudson Opera House and
Hudson Wine Merchants, celebrates literature and literary publishing.
From 11 AM – 4 PM a Literary Magazine & Small Press Book Fair will take place at the Hudson Opera House (327 Warren Street). Hundreds of books and
magazines published by regional and national independent literary publishers will be on sale for only $2 an issue and $4 a book, with many publishers there to meet & greet! Shoppers can discover hundreds of literary publications they would never see in a single store and take advantage of the bargain prices.
At 5 PM a reading & reception at Hudson Wine Merchants (341½ Warren Street) will feature Rebecca Wolff, Jonathan Dixon, and Monica Youn. Rebecca Wolff is the author of three books of poems (Manderley, Figment, The King) and a forthcoming novel called The Beginners. Jonathan Dixon is the author of Beaten, Seared, and Sauced, a memoir of his recent education at the Culinary Institute of America. Monica Youn's second poetry collection Ignatz, was a 2010 finalist for the National Book Award. A wine and cheese reception will follow the readings.
This festival is brought to you by CLMP, the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (www.clmp.org), serving the community of independent literary publishers since 1967. These events are made possible in part through support from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
Three Short Women
With Three Tall (True) Tales
Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 2:00
p.m.
Three memoirists, Nancy
Bachrach, Julie Metz and Alice Eve Cohen have each
written compelling, highly praised memoirs about a central role
in a woman's life. Here are three complicated relationships: with
a lying spouse...a lunatic mother...and an unexpected baby. From
three short women...who've found humor in chaos. Free.
Vanishing Animals
Short Films & Lecture
Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 2:00 p.m.
An afternoon of shorts by internationally-known filmmakers and
artists including Dan Devine, Sana Arjumand, Gary Leib, Mary
Lucier, Julia Oldham, Lenore Malen, and a lecture by master
beekeeper Chris Harp, HoneybeeLives.org.
Discussion to follow. Video still from I Am The Animal, Pt.
1, 2009, by Lenore Malen. Supported in part by NYFA (2009) and
The Guggenheim Foundation (2009).
Dan Devine has exhibited throughout the US
and Europe, and has had recent solo shows at Pierogi Gallery,
Brooklyn, NY. Since 2007 his installation "Sheep Farm,"
at The Fields Sculpture Park has been a working sheep farm that
also serves as a living landscape and studio for video, performance
and photography. He lives in Ghent, NY.
Chris Harp,
lectures on organic beekeeping throughout the Northeast. He
has served on the Board of Directors for the Catskill Mountain
Beekeepers' Club, and is currently on the advisory board of
the Ulster County Beekeepers Association. He was a consultant
for the CNG (Certified-Naturally-Grown) Apiary Standards for
their Certification Program. He lives in New Paltz, NY.
Gary Leib's
illustrations and cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker,
Musician Magazine, The New York Observer, Raw, Blab and as weekly
features in The New York Press for many years. Leib was a founding
member of the Grammy-nominated band Rubber Rodeo, which recorded
two albums for Mercury Records. He has created original music
for independent and feature films, including the critically
acclaimed Ironweed. He lives in NYC and Chatham, NY.
Mary Lucier, an internationally know video
artist is represented in many public and private collections
including the Whitney Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art and the Museum of Modern Art, NY. She has been the recipient
of numerous grants and awards, among them, Creative Capital,
The Guggenheim Foundation, The American Film Institute, the
Jerome Foundation. She lives in NYC and Cochecton, NY
Lenore
Malen, known for her photo and video installations,
received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (2009) and a NYSCA
award (2009) for her 2 part video I Am The Animal. Part I is
a documentary that addresses the issue of bee colony collapse
at the same time that it presents a window onto the world of
local beekeepers by means of interviews punctuated by bee film
clips from various sources, including cartoons. Pt.2 simulates
the spatial and temporal flow of the hive into the landscape.
The hive is re-imagined as human culture. She lives in NYC and
Hudson, NY
Julia
Oldham is a video artist whose performative works
explore science and desire. She uses her body to understand
the behaviors of insects, to examine the fundamental constants
of the universe, and to measure electrical emanations from plant
forms. Oldham's work has been screened/exhibited at Art in General
in New York, NY; MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, NY; PPOW in New
York, NY; The Drawing Center in New York, NY; The Museum of
Contemporary Art in Chicago, IL; the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum
in Washington, DC.
Here Comes Another Lesson
Stephen O'Connor
Saturday, January 15, 2011 at 2:00 p.m.
Stephen
O'Connor is the author of the short story collections,
Here Comes Another Lesson (just out from Free Press) and Rescue.
His nonfiction books include: Will My Name Be Shouted Out?, a
memoir and Orphan Trains, The Story of Charles Loring Brace and
the Children He Saved and Failed, narrative history.
His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Threepenny Review, Conjunctions, The Quarterly, Partisan Review, Electric Literature, TriQuarterly, and many other places. His poetry has been in Poetry Magazine, The Missouri Review, Agni, Knockout, and Green Mountains Review. His essays and journalism have appeared in The New York Times, Doubletake, Agni, The Nation, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe and elsewhere.
He is the recipient of the Cornell Woolrich Fellowship in Creative
Writing from Columbia University, the Visiting Fellowship for Historical
Research by Artists and Writers from the American Antiquarian Society,
and the DeWitt Wallace/Reader's Digest Fellowship from the MacDowell
Colony. Will My Name Be Shouted Out? was named 1996 "Book of
the Year" by Kappa Delta Pi, an education honor society. Orphan
Trains was designated 2001 best book on "the roots of juvenile
crime" by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
He teaches in the writing MFA programs of Columbia University and Sarah Lawrence. For eight years he directed and taught in Teachers & Writers Collaborative's flagship creative writing program at a public school in New York City. He has received a B.A. from Columbia University, and an M.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, both in English literature.
Jorge Martin
Before Night Falls
Close Encounters with Music
Sunday, November 21, 2010 at 3:00 p.m.
Join Close
Encounters with Music's Composer-in-Residence, Jorge
Martin as he talks about his first full-length opera, Before Night
Falls. It is based on the autobiography of Reinaldo Arenas, the
Cuban novelist who chronicled the persecution of gays under Fidel
Castro. Martin has received awards from the Cintas Fellowship and
the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His talk is illustrated
musically and visually. $15 includes light refreshments.
Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
Legal Issues in Contemporary Art: Copyright
Monday, November 15, 2010 at 6:00 p.m.
A talk with Elena M. Paul, Esq. from Volunteer
Lawyers for the Arts regarding copyright issues. With
the recent increase in copyright issues and lawsuits, visual and
performing artists need to be aware of copyright laws and the legal
issues that may affect their practice and the presentation of their
art work. The talk will focus on copyright law, with a primer on
some of the more pressing legal concerns for artists today, such
as digital media, the use of appropriated logos and images, fair
use, as well as moral rights. She will also discuss the legal issues
related to blogs, websites, and website aggregators. Free.
Broadcast Day at The Met
Ed Beaty
Saturday, November 6, 2010 at 4:00 p.m.
A talk with Ed Beaty, broadcast production for the Metropolitan Opera, as he shares a behind the scenes look at how the Met Opera Broadcasts get on the air. Ed Beaty retired to Hudson after 37 years and over 1,000 broadcasts for the Metropolitan Opera. He was in charge of broadcast production and the broadcast archives. In addition to the Met he also did thousands of other broadcasts ranging from football to Bob & Ray to Romper Room.
Poetry Reading
Lee Gould
Stuart Bartow
Barbara Louise Ungar
Saturday, October 10, 2010 at 2:00 p.m.
Stuart Bartow is the author of two full-length
poetry collections, Whelk (Pgymy Forest Press, 2001) and Reasons
to Hate the Sky (WordTech, 2008), as well as four chapbooks, including
The Stars Belong to No One, winner of the Owl Creek Chapbook Prize
(1994) and The Perseids, winner of the Palanquin Prize from the
University of South Carolina (1997). This year his poem, "Shinto,"
won the California State Poetry Society's annual poetry contest.
He has published innumerable poems in various journals, and is a
seasoned reader; he can be heard bimonthly on WAMC's Vox Pop poetry
show, reading work of his own and others. He is professor of English
at Adirondack Community College in upstate New York, where he teaches
British and World Literature.
Lee Gould will be reading from her new chapbook
Weeds from Finishing Line Press. Marie Ponsot calls Gould's poems
"radically lively" catching "both reality and the wildness under
it..." while Peg Boyers refers to Gould's "vibrant, accessible often
darkly funny free verse."
After teaching at Goucher College, Lee
retired to the Hudson Valley where she continues to teach, write
poems and reviews, gardens, makes far too much jam and explores
the marvels of Columbia County and Hudson where she serves on the
Democratic Party Committee. Her poems and reviews have appeared
in Quarterly West, The Gay and Lesbian Review, the Berkshire Review,
Chronogram, Magma, Phoebe, Passager, Women and the Environment and
other journals.
Barbara Louise Ungar's most recent poetry collection,
Charlotte Bronte, You Ruined My Life, was a 2009 finalist for the
National Poetry Series and Sarabande Books' Morton Prize. Her last
book, The Origin of the Milky Way, won the 2006 Gival Press Poetry
Award, the Adirondack Center for Writing Award for Best Book of
Poetry 2007 (co-winner), a silver Independent Publishers Book Award,
and an Eric Hoffer Notable for Poetry Award. She is also the author
of Thrift (WordTech Editions 2005), and the chapbooks Sequel (Finishing
Line Press 2004) and Neoclassical Barbra (Angel Fish Press 1998),
as well as the monograph Haiku In English (Stanford 1978, reprinted
in Simply Haiku 2007-9). A professor of English at the College of
Saint Rose in Albany, she lives in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Author Da Chen
Saturday, August 7, 2010 at 2:00 p.m.
New York Times best selling novelist, memoirist, children's book author & speaker. Da Chen grew up in the deep south of China, running barefoot in muddy fields and riding the backs of water buffaloes. In his tiny Fujian village, water was fetched from an ancient well swimming with snakes, and the only lights that burned in most households were hissing kerosene lanterns. As the grandson of a disgraced landowner, he was a victim of communist political persecution and hollowing poverty during the Cultural Revolution. His family was beaten, his father thrown in reform camp, and young Chen, at the age of nine, was threatened with imprisonment. Unfailing family love helped him survive in a dysfunctional society and he found unexpected love and friendship with four other hoodlum outcasts, but dreams made him soar above the poverty and persecution. His first encounter with a Christian woman, a Baptist professor, was life changing. She taught him English and opened the possibility of another world. He excelled in college at Beijing Languages and Culture University, and stayed on as a professor of English after graduating top in his class. Da arrived in America at the age of 23 with $30 in his pocket, a bamboo flute, and a heart filled with hope. He attended Columbia University School of Law on a full scholarship, and upon graduating, worked for the Wall Street investment banking firm of Rothschilds, Inc.
His books are used as textbooks in Yale, Vassar, Wellesley, in the New York State University system, and in high schools and middle schools throughout the country. He lives in upstate New York with his family. The talk at HOH is free and open to families of all ages.
The Legacies of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs
in Hudson and Beyond
Saturday, June 5, 2010 at 4:00 p.m.
How might New York and other urban centers emerge from the current
economic crisis? Roberta Brandes Gratz and Stephen Goldsmith revisit
the New York of the 1960s and 1970s - particularly the clash of
wills between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs-to tell a deeply revisionist
story of how New York City emerged from crisis and how that regeneration
can inform our response to the current crisis. Two books, The Battle
For Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs,
Nation Books, 2010. Roberta Brandes Gratz; and What We See: Advancing
the Observations of Jane Jacobs, New Village Press, 2010. Edited
by Stephen A. Goldsmith & Lynne Elizabeth, New Village Press, 2010
will be discussed. Copies of both books will be available for purchase
and signing. Program will be introduced by Joan K. Davidson Commissioner
of the Hudson Fulton Champlain Quadricentennial.
Roberta Brandes Gratz
is an award-winning journalist and urban critic, lecturer and author.
Gratz was appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the New York City
Landmarks Preservation Commission in February 2003. Her articles
have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine,
The Nation, Tikkun, Planning Magazine, New York Newsday, Daily News,
Planning Commissioners Journal and others. She is a native and resident
of New York City.
White Suits in Summer
Rosary
Hartel O'Neill
Monday, November 2, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in NYC
A reading of Rosary's play White Suits in Summer, set in New Orleans on the eve of Katrina. Starring Gary Schiro, Bob Burns, Alexandra Napier and Nancy Rothman. Free, reservations recommended.
The
Hudson:
America's River
Fran Dunwell
Saturday, December 5, 2010 at 2:00 p.m.
Drawing on her recently-published book The Hudson: America's River,
Fran Dunwell recounts how the Hudson powered the growth of the country's
greatest industrial and financial empire and also produced leading
American artists, writers, engineers and environmentalists. Her
dramatic tales bring to life the stories of visionary people who
change the direction of our national history even today, inspired
by their deep relationship with the river. Copies of The Hudson:
America's River will be available for purchase. All royalties from
sale of the book are being donated to the Natural Heritage Trust
for conservation of the river.
White Suits in Summer
Rosary
Hartel O'Neill
Sunday, October 25, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. at HOH
A reading of Rosary's play White Suits in Summer, set in New Orleans on the eve of Katrina. Starring Gary Schiro, Bob Burns, Alexandra Napier and Nancy Rothman. Free, reservations recommended.
The Lonely Soldier:
The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq
&
The Edge of Eden
Helen Benedict
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
Helen Benedict
reads from two of her recent books, The Lonely Soldier: The Private
War of Women Serving in Iraq (Beacon Press, April 2009) and The
Edge of Eden (Soho Press, November 2009). A Columbia University
professor, Helen has written four previous novels, five nonfiction
books, and a play. Her play based on the book, The Lonely Soldier
Monologues, was performed in New York City at The Theater for the
New City and at La MaMa in 2009.
One of her articles on the subject, "The Private War of Women
Soldiers" (Salon, March 2007) was awarded The James Aronson
Award for Social Justice Journalism in 2008. She has since written
other articles on women soldiers that have appeared in The New York
Times, The Nation, Ms., In These Times, Huffington Post, and elsewhere.
Helen Benedict's other articles and essays have appeared in the
New York Times Book Review, the Washington
Post, Glamour, The Women's Review of Books, and in many
other magazines. She is a professor of journalism at Columbia University.
Books will be available for purchase and signing.
The Lonely Soldier:
The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq
Beacon Press, April 2009
More women soldiers are fighting in Iraq than in any other American war in history, yet they face a dual challenge: they are participating in combat more than ever before, but because only one in ten soldiers is female, they are often painfully alone. This isolation, along with a military culture hostile to women, denies them the camaraderie soldiers depend on for survival and subjects them to sexual persecution by their comrades. As one soldier said, "I ended up waging my own war against an enemy dressed in the same uniform as mine."
In The Lonely Soldier, Benedict humanizes the complex issues of war, misogyny, class, race, homophobia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and more through the compelling stories of five women of diverse ethnicities and backgrounds who served in Iraq between 2003 and 2006. By following these women from their childhoods through enlistment, training, active duty in Iraq, and home again, Benedict vividly brings to life their struggles and challenges. Between their stories she weaves in accounts from numerous other Iraq War veterans, illuminating the wrenching and private war of female soldiers.
Benedict ends by showing how these women came to face the truth of war and by offering suggestions for how the military can improve—including distributing women more evenly and rejecting male recruits with records of domestic or sexual violence.
The Edge of Eden
Soho Press, November 2009
Inspired by her parents' anthropological field notes, Helen Benedict
has set her fifth novel in 1960, on the tropical Seychelles Islands,
a thousand miles off the eastern coast of Africa. Benedict's lush
descriptions of life on the islands are firmly based in the realities
of the time. The role of black magic in Seychelles culture, passed
down from the country's past as a former slave colony, the decaying
culture of British colonialism's last gasp -- these form the background
of this witty, sharp and yet heartbreaking novel about a family
unraveling and a child's desperate attempts to save it.
For a new profile of Benedict in this month's Chronogram
Magazine, visit www.chronogram.com/issue/2009/10/Books/North-of-Eden
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Nancy Wiley
Saturday, October 10, 2009 at 2:00 p.m.
Nancy Wiley
has always thought of the doll as an art form. Her one-of-a-kind
creations are shown in galleries and museums across the country.
At HOH, Nancy presents her newly released book along with original
illustrations and dolls that provide a unique interpretation of
the Lewis Carroll timeless classic. Books will be available for
purchase and signing.
click
for a video of Wiley describing the
artistic process in creating her new book "Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll -- from making the dolls, creating
the scenes and photographing the vignettes.
5th Annual Hudson Valley Literary Magazine & Small Press Book Fair
Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Buy small press books and literary magazine and meet people who
publish them at HOH. A reading and reception at Hudson Wine Merchants
with Joshua Ferris (Then We Came to the End, National Book Award
Finalist), Nelly Reifler, (See Through), and Ira Sher (Singer, Gentlemen
of Space) at 5 p.m. Presented by The Council of Literary Magazines
and Presses, with Fence Books, Hudson Wine Merchants, & HOH. Free.
Click for more
info and for pdf poster.
The Hourglass Solution
A Boomer's Guide to the Rest of Your Life
Jeff Johnson, PhD
Paula Forman, PhD
Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 2:00 p.m.
Join authors Jeff
Johnson and Paula Forman as they present their new groundbreaking
book of information and inspiration that says baby boomers can
reclaim the wide range of choices they knew in their 20s and 30s.
Books will be available for purchase and signing.
Laurie Stone Reading
Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 3:00 p.m.
A reading with author Laurie Stone and participants from the creative writing workshop. Free and open to the public.
Women Who Dared
Book Discussion Group Series
Sundays, April 5 & May 3, 2009 at 1:30 p.m. Facilitated by Lisa Dolan, the series is focused around biographies that explore
the lives of women who broke from convention to challenge American
society to live up to its ideals of democracy and equality. The
group meets monthly (2/1, 3/1, 4/5, and 5/3). Contact HOH for a
copy of the books being discussed and to register. The project is
free and is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities
through the New York Council for the Humanities.
Hudson Talbott
River of Dreams
The Story of the Hudson River
Sunday, March 8, 2009 at 2:00 p.m., free and open to the public
Hudson Talbott celebrates
the Hudson River and all who have been affected by its power and
beauty through the ages. Guest speaker Ned Sullivan, along with
composer Frank Cuthbert and director Casey Biggs, who will share
pieces from the musical "River of Dreams" as part of the Quadricentennial
Celebrations. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
Free Black Communities in the Antebellum North
A lecture by Myra B. Young Armstead
Speakers in the Humanities
Co-Sponsored with Operation Unite, NY
Saturday, February 21, 2:00 p.m., free and open to the public
As part of the gradual emancipation process in New York and other northern states during the antebellum period, rural enclaves of African Americans formed within established counties or townships away from towns, cities or other incorporated areas. This process of free black community formation is overshadowed in historical accounts by attention to a more common pattern in which rural blacks moved into towns and cities during the years of gradual abolition as African Americans took up urban occupations in industrializing centers. But the existence of the types of free black communities discussed in this presentation suggests an alternative, less popular response to emancipation - the purchase of farmlands and a preference for a modest, pastoral lifestyle. Parting Ways, Massachusetts; Timbuctu in upstate New York’s North Country; Guinea in Hyde Park, New York; The Hills in Westchester County; and Skunk Hollow in Rockland County are surveyed as examples of this trend.
Dr. Myra Young Armstead is Professor of History at Bard College, where she teaches in both the undergraduate history department and in the college’s new Master of Arts in Teaching Program. She received her Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago, where her training was in social history. Her teaching and research interests are in urban history, African American history, and transatlantic African diasporic history.
This Speakers in the Humanities event, Co-Sponsored with Operation Unite, NY, is free and open to the public, and is made possible through the support of the New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Book Discussion Group
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
Sunday, January 25, 1:30 - 3:00 p.m.
A free book discussion group facilitated by Lisa Dolan about Michael Chabon's novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union.
Millay Colony Artists
Saturdays, July 19, & August 16, 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.Remarkable artists (writers, composers and visual artists) from around the country and the world present their work at HOH completed during their stay at Columbia County’s Millay Colony. Occurs monthly on the third Saturday of each month. A reception with the artists follows each monthly event. Free.
The Millay Colony for the Arts was founded in 1973 to honor the courageous life and work of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. The Colony offers one-month residencies to writers, visual artists and composers on the property the poet called home for more than thirty years in Austerlitz, New York. Our singular goal is to create a nurturing and inspiring space outside the pressures of daily life where artists can commit themselves fully to their work. Supporting the work of artists of all ages, cultures, communities, and in all stages of their artistic careers, the Colony offers comfortable rooms, private studios and ample time to work.
Printable PDF poster available here...
Famous by Their Birth
by Jeffrey Mousseau and Ian Sullivan
Sunday, August 24, 2:00 p.m.
A potent, fast-moving theatrical collage, drawing upon the poetry and remarkable insight of Shakespeare. This staged reading probes the complex psyches of leaders and the psychology of power.
An original work conceived by artist Jeffrey Mousseau, the staged reading examines what drives our leaders – be it ambition, greed, fame and/or vision. In it, Shakespeare’s best scenes are assembled to illuminate what goes on in the minds of those in charge. According to Mousseau, “This work is being created specifically to connect with contemporary American politics and the U.S. presidential election. The piece draws upon five of Shakespeare's most political plays (Julius Caesar, Henry V, Richard II, Richard III and Coriolanus) to examine the inner workings of power: of those who have it, seek it and lose it, and society's relationship with its leaders. The piece illuminates, in an accessible way, Shakespeare's universality and contemporary relevance by drawing allusions to current issues including the Iraq War and religion's influence in government. ” Free and open to the public.
The Spirit of the Place
Samuel Shem
Saturday, June 14, 1:00 p.m.
A novel of love and death, of mothers and sons, of doctors and patients, and a quirky small Hudson River town plagued by breakage. Filled with the ineffable Shem-humor. Samuel Shem (pen-name of Stephen Bergman, M.D., Ph.D.) is a novelist, playwright, and for three decades a doctor on the Harvard Medical School faculty. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
His new novel, and most ambitious work yet, The Spirit of the Place, tells the story of an expatriate doctor called home to Columbia, New York, in the early 1980s to face his own history and that of the place. It is a novel of love and death, mothers and sons, ghosts and bullies, doctors and patients, illness and healing. The Spirit of the Place is Shem at his finest-compassionate, capacious, funny, full of big ideas and memorable personalities. It offers an authentic, unvarnished portrait of the medical profession and underscores the crucial link between the health of individuals and the health of communities.
His novels include The House of God, Fine, and Mount Misery. He is co-author with his wife, Janet Surrey, of the hit Off-Broadway play Bill W. and Dr. Bob, the story of the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous (winner of the 2007 Performing Arts Award of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence), and We Have to Talk: Healing Dialogues between Women and Men.
Beckett at Greystones Bay
Rosary O'Neill
Sunday, June 8, 2:00 p.m.
The Hudson Opera House presents a staged reading of award-winning New Orleans playwright, Rosary Hartel O'Neill's play Beckett at Greystones Bay on Sunday, June 8 at 2:00 p.m. In Beckett at Greystones Bay, a young writer faces love, death and the challenges of creating a joyful life on the rocky coast of Ireland in the 1930's. The reading is free and open to the public.
A new two-volume anthology of her plays published by Samuel French: A Louisiana Gentleman and Other Comedies and Ghosts of New Orleans will be available for purchase and signing.
Rosary O'Neill is the author of fourteen plays produced internationally by invitation of the American embassy in Paris, Bonn, Tibilisi, Georgia, Budapest, Hungary, London and Moscow. Her play Uncle Victor was chosen Best New American Drama by the Cort Theater, Hollywood, and celebrated in the Chekhove Now Festival in New York. Blackjack was selected for Alice's Fourth Floor Best New Play Series. She was founding artistic director at Southern Rep Theater from 1987 to 2002. she has been playwright-in-residence at the Sorbonne University, Paris; Tulane University, New Orleans; Defiance College, Ohio, the University of Bonn, Germany and Visiting Scholar at Cornell.