Times Square Red, Times Square Blue 20th Anniversary
Event Details: TicketsWednesday, June 12, 2019, 8:00 pm
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Join us to celebrate the 20th anniversary republication of Samuel Delany’s Times Square Red, Times Square Blue with an evening of readings from and poetic responses to this crucial text. A critique on the neoliberal pursuit of ‘morality’ and ‘safety’ for the sake of so-called urban renewal, Delany’s work is equally an examination of the radical potential created by moments of interclass urban contact and intimacy.
In the twenty years since its first publication, the social theory and personal stories contained in Times Square Red, Times Square Blue have become even more urgent, necessary, and galvanizing as we imagine other ways to be in relation to each other in a changing urban environment.
With readings by: Samuel Delany, Andrew Durbin, Karen Finley, Precious Okoyomon, and El Roy Red
Presented in partnership with New York University Press and Times Square Arts
Samuel R. Delany’s science fiction and fantasy tales are available in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories. His collection Atlantis: Three Tales and Phallos are experimental fiction. His novels include science fiction such as the Nebula-Award winning Babel-17 and The Einstein Intersection, as well as Nova and Dhalgren. His four-volume series Return to Nevèrÿon is sword-and- sorcery. Most recently, he has written the sf novel Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. His 2007 novel Dark Reflections won the Stonewall Book Award. Other novels include Equinox, Hogg, and The Mad Man. Delany was the subject of a 2007 documentary, The Polymath, by Fred Barney Taylor, and he has written a popular creative writing textbook, About Writing. He is the author of the widely taught Times Square Red / Times Square Blue and has written a Hugo-Award winning autobiography, The Motion of Light in Water. All are available as both e-books and in paperback. Delany is the author of several collections of critical essays. His interview in the Paris Review’s “Art of Fiction” series appeared in spring 2012. In 2013 he was made the 31st Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master of Science Fiction. In 2015 he was the recipient of the Nicolas Guillén Award for philosophical fiction. His novella The Atheist in the Attic appeared in February. He lives in Philadelphia with his partner, Dennis Rickett.
Andrew Durbin is the author of Mature Themes (2014) and MacArthur Park (2017), both from Nightboat Books. A monograph on the work of Raymond Pettibon is forthcoming from David Zwirner Books in April 2018. He is the U.S. Editor of frieze and lives in New York.
Born in Chicago, Karen Finley received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Working in a variety of mediums such as installation, video, performance, public art, visual art, entertainment, television and film, memorials, music, and literature, she has presented her work worldwide in various venues such as The Bobino in Paris, The ICA in London and Lincoln Center in NYC. Finley lectures and gives workshop at universities and museums internationally. Her work is in collections such as the Museum of Contemporary art and the Pompidou. She is the author of eight books, including a 25th anniversary edition of Shock Treatment (City Lights 1990 and 2015), Reality Shows, (Feminist Press 2011), and George and Martha (Verso 2008). Her most recent book, Grabbing Pussy, was published by OR Books in 2018. Her recent work includes, Artist Anonymous – a social practice self help open meeting for those addicted to art presented at Museum of Art and Design (2014), and Written in Sand, a performance of music and her writings on AIDS, Open Heart, a Holocaust memorial at Camp Gusen, Austria; Broken Negative, where Finley reconsiders her infamous chocolate performance that brought her to the Supreme Court, in Finley vs. NEA; and at the New Museum, NYC Sext ME if You Can, where Finley creates commissioned portraits inspired by “sexts” received from the public. Finley creates interactive walks such as Mandala: Reimaging Columbus Circle Columbia Graduate school of Architecture and Elastic City.A recipient of many awards and grants including a Guggenheim Fellowship, NYSCA and NEA fellowships. In 2015 she was awarded the Richard J Massey Foundation Arts and Humanities award.
Precious Okoyomon lives and works in New York, NY with her toy poodle Rainbow. She is the author of Ajebota (Bottlecap Press, 2016) and But Did You Die (forthcoming,Wonder Press). She has exhibited or performed at the 13th Baltic Triennial, the Contemporay Arts Center in Cincinnati, Exo Exo (Paris), The Kitchen (NYC), Serpentine Galleries (London), and MoMA PS1 (NYC).
El Roy Red works in the space btwn hope & efficacy until they reach actualization. Galvanized in Black/Brown queer liberation, Red utilizes writing, movement, ritual & performance to facilitate healing, growth, & alternative futures. #postafrofuturism They have shared work in Chicago with Rec Room and in Brooklyn with On and Off & Group Huddle. In addition, they’ve read and performed in Berlin with Queeries into Collective Feminism, a residency challenging hierarchal structure and white feminist supremacy. Their work can be found in the 3rd issue of Hand Job Zine, “Femme Armor” and on their blog http://everydaydiscoveries.tumblr.com. Red is honored to launch their forthcoming chapbook, Negro Amigo: American Incantations at the Poetry Project during this reading. #transfemininemystique #cosmicthot #qtpoc #trans #black #feminist #poet #hoodwitch #warrior #lover #healer #mover #maker #connector IG/FB: El Roy Red SC/TW: great_lakes
