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Graphic Arts Exhibition at The New York Public Library Sheds Light on Aesthetic and
Social Ideals of Early 20th-Century Eastern Europe
The radical early 20th-century experiments in modern art and design of east-central and eastern Europe are explored in
the exhibition Graphic Modernism from the Baltic to the Balkans, 1910-1935, opening October 5, 2007
at The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library. The progressive writers and visual artists of this
region relied on abstract compositions based on geometric forms to convey both aesthetic and social ideas. Their work represents
a revolutionary attempt to create a new visual vocabulary appropriate for a modern era. The interplay between post-World War
I national revivals and the broader European modernist artistic and literary movements of the early 20th century is evident
in the approximately 60 works on paper, primarily printed materials (books, book jackets, periodicals, posters, and printed
ephemera) in more than a dozen languages of eastern Europe. Drawn from eight departments and collections at The New York Public
Library, this exhibition of eastern European modernism is the first of its kind organized by the Library, and many of the
individual books and artifacts from the historic foundation collections of the Library are on display for the first time.
Graphic Modernism will be on view through January 27, 2008 in the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery at the Humanities
and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Admission is free. To complement the exhibition, there will be
a free series of public programs at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, a free series of films at the Donnell Library
Center, and a notable companion volume, Graphic Modernism from the Baltic to the Balkans, 1910-1935, published by
The New York Public Library (see separate release). For further exhibition and program information, telephone 212.869.8089
or visit www.nypl.org/ .
Press Release
Companion Volume, Free Lecture Series, and Free Film Screenings, Complement Graphic
Modernism Exhibition at The New York Public Library
The modernist movements of the early 20th century suffused the arts, the humanities, and the social beliefs of the time.
There was a utopian faith in the power of art to transform reality: aesthetically, socially, and politically. In conjunction
with the free exhibition Graphic Modernism from the Baltic to the Balkans, 1910-1935, on
view from October 5, 2007 through January 27, 2008 at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue
and 42nd Street, there is an accompanying Graphic Modernism Lecture Series at the Humanities and Social Sciences
Library and a film series, Featuring...Modernism in Motion, at the Donnell
Media Center, focusing on some of the other elements of this confluence of aesthetics and ethics, progressive design and directed
action. A book of the same name, Graphic Modernism from the Baltic to the Balkans, 1910-1935,
has been published by The New York Public Library as a companion volume to the exhibition.
Press Release
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Restores and Edits Historic Film
of George Balanchine and Suzanne Farrell Performing in Balanchine's Don Quixote
The Jerome Robbins Dance Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has restored and preserved the
1965 film of a historic performance of George Balanchine's three-act ballet Don Quixote and has edited the two-camera, uncut
film into a complete, edited videotape version available for public viewing at the Library. The project was completed with
the participation of Suzanne Farrell, the ballerina for whom the lead role of Dulcinea was created and who is currently the
Artistic Director of The Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The premiere screenings
of the newly edited Don Quixote recording will take place September 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and September
18 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
Press Release
The New York Public Library's Bronx Library Center is Now Open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Seven Days a Week
The New York Public Library's Bronx Library Center is now open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The new schedule
represents a significant expansion of open hours, building on the City's investment in library service citywide this past
July, when it provided funding for each location to be open six days a week. In addition to the six-day service now available
at all Library locations, additional hours are now offered at 11 branch libraries located in the central and northwest Bronx.
Press Release
| 92ND STREET Y UNTERBERG POETRY CENTER |
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| 2007/2008 SEASON PREVIEW |
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| New York, NY, August, 8, 2007—With a new culture season upon us, the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry
Center offers a preview of events for the 2007/2008 season. Tickets are available at 212-415-5500 or online at www.92Y.org/poetry. |
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| READINGS |
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The 2007/2008 season brings an international flavor to the Poetry Center, beginning with Nobel
Prize-winning West Indian poet Derek Walcott (September 17). Mario Vargas Llosa, who hails from Peru, reads
from his newest novel, Falling Man (October 15); Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian novelist, will appear
with literary superstar Dave Eggers. Accompanying them is Sudanese civil war refugee Valentino Achak Deng, around
whom Eggers based his latest fictionalized biography, What is the What (January 7); Ireland's Roddy Doyle and
Scotland's A.L. Kennedy share the stage to present their newest writing (January 23); Turkish novelist Elif Shafak
reads from her latest novel (February 11); and Hungarian Imre Kertész, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature,
returns to the Y in the spring. He is accompanied by his dear friend and countryman, pianist András Schiff, who also
performs (April 17). The many poets who take the podium include Mary Jo Bang, Adam Zagajewski, Franz Wright and Li
Young Lee. Finally, in the latest of several Poetry Center appearances, poet and translator Anne Carson reads some
of her work (March 26).
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| THEATER |
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The 92nd Street Y Poets' Theatre, which is the Poetry Center's ongoing series of verse
dramas, plays, and theatrical adaptations of literary texts designed to emphasize language and the aural experience of theater,
stages two productions this season—WILLIAM BLAKE AT 250, a one-person show by British actress Ruth Rosen (December
3), and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa and dramaturge Chad Gracia's adaptation of Gilgamesh,
directed by Robert Scanlan (April 28). January brings a dramatic reading called SEVEN, a performance of monologues
by seven award-winning playwrights, based on personal interviews and oral histories of seven inspiring women from some of
the world's most troubled nations (January 21). The Poetry Center and Theatre for a New Audience offer a preview of
TFANA's January 2007 production of SHAKESPEARE's Antony and Cleopatra, starring Emmy-winning actress Christine Baranski.
Baranski reads scenes from the play with other cast members after which TFANA artistic director Jeffrey Horowitz talks
with the play's director, Darko Tresnjak (March 3).
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| TALKS/INTERVIEWS |
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The Poetry Center presents the fourth season of AFTERNOON NIGHT TABLE, its series of daytime
conversations with writers, hosted this year by award-winning journalist Roger Rosenblatt. Among those who discuss
their work, their interests—and their reading choices—are Joyce Carol Oates (Nov 9), Garry Trudeau
(Dec 5), Christopher Durang (Feb 15) and Garrison Keillor (Apr 9). BIOGRAPHERS & BRUNCH offers Janet
Malcolm on Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (October 7), Arnold Rampersand on Ralph Ellison (January 20) and
Hermione Lee on Edith Wharton (April 13). CRITICS & BRUNCH series includes such varied speakers as biographer Judith
Thurman (Oct 28) and Shakespeare scholar Eric Rasmussen (Mar 2). THE CRITIC'S VOICE series features A Tribute
to Parnassus, the poetry journal closing its doors after 30 years (December 10). The Psalms: A Reading and Conversation
is our second event featuring translator Robert Alter, who discusses the 150 psalms with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist
Marilynne Robinson (December 17). Finally, music legend Paul Simon appears as part of THE LYRICIST'S VOICE series
to discuss the art of lyric writing with former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins (February 20).
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| CHILDREN'S LITERATURE |
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The Poetry Center unveils a new children's reading series this season with A Wrinkle
in Time at 45, featuring author Madeleine L'Engle's granddaughter, Charlotte Jones Voiklis. Ms. Voiklis
reads from the book and talk about L'Engle's life and work (December 15). Next up is acclaimed actor Jim Dale, the
voice behind the audio recordings of the entire Harry Potter series (February 16). In the spring, English Poet Laureate
Andrew Motion reads some of his favorite poems for children (April 5) and the Poetry Center hosts A Tribute to Maurice
Sendak (May 12), to celebrate the famed children's book author and illustrator's 80th birthday. The tribute features playwright
Tony Kushner (Sendak's Brundibar collaborator) and composer Oliver Knussen (who wrote the opera version
of Where the Wild Things Are from Sendak's libretto), along with other friends and colleagues.
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| ABOUT THE 92nd STREET Y UNTERBERG POETRY CENTER |
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For decades, the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center has served as a public literary
salon and a place for writers to learn their craft. The legendary Poetry Center opened in 1939 with a reading by William Carlos
Williams. In the following decades he was followed by virtually every great 20th century writer—Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth
Bishop, W.H. Auden, Jorge Luis Borges and Langston Hughes, to name but a few. The tradition continues in 2006: the Unterberg
Poetry Center's 67th Season. Today, the Center presents readings by poets, novelists and playwrights, and talks with critics,
biographers and scholars. Through its Poets' Theatre, the Center produces masterfully written dramas performed by accomplished
actors. The Center's extensive Writing Program gives working adults access to teachers who are practicing authors,
a rarity outside M.F.A. programs. Community outreach programs offer high-school students access to world-famous authors
and new immigrants literacy-training through literature. Young writers find support at the Center through annual readings
that pair established writers with emerging writers; and The Discovery/The Nation poetry contest, for poets who have
not yet published a book. The 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center is part of the 92nd Street Y Tisch Center for the Arts,
which is endowed through the generosity of the Joan and Preston Robert Tisch family.
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| ABOUT THE 92nd STREET Y |
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Founded in 1874 by a group of visionary Jewish leaders, the 92nd Street Y has grown into a
wide-ranging cultural, educational and community center serving people of all ages, races, faiths and backgrounds. The 92nd
Street Y's mission is to enrich the lives of the over 300,000 people who visit each year — both in person and through
the Y's satellite, television, radio and Internet broadcasts. The organization offers comprehensive performing arts, film
and spoken word events; courses in the humanities, the arts, personal development and Jewish culture; activities and workshops
for children, teenagers and parents; and health and fitness programs for people of every age. Committed to making its programs
available to everyone, the 92nd Street Y awards nearly $1 million in scholarships annually and reaches out to 7,000 public
school children through fully-subsidized arts education programs. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org. |
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