If the fun and frippery of summer are wearing you out already, explore a darker side of life at these readings, talks, and historical walks.
Tuesday, June 17
The Syrian Refugee Crisis with Diego Cupolo and Rahawa Haile
Photojournalist Diego Cupolo has documented sinister environments and the tough lives lived in them from Bushwick to Montevideo. Tonight at WORD, he discusses his recently released book, Seven Syrians: War Accounts From Syrian Refugees. Cupolo painstakingly records the lives of survivors of the current conflict, combining text and photos into a series of compelling portraits. He’ll be in discussion with Brooklyn-based writer/essayist Rahawa Haile.
WORD Bookstore (126 Franklin St), Greenpoint. 7pm. Free. Facebook RSVP encouraged.
War Correspondents at the Brooklyn Brewery
Brewery co-founder Steve Hindy also happens to be an ex-foreign correspondent, and this series sees him in conversation with war reporters and photojournalists who have covered conflict across the globe. Tonight, he’ll be talking to Scott Anderson, author of Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East and witness to crises that have taken place from the Middle East to Northern Ireland to El Salvador. Proceeds from the series go towards the non-profit RISC (Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues), which provides free first aid training to freelance conflict journalists. Brooklyn Brewery (79 North 11th St), Williamsburg. 7:30pm. Tickets are $25 and include one beer.
Wednesday, June 18
Part of the Family? Nannies, Housekeepers, Caregivers and the Battle for Domestic Workers’ Rights
Sheila Bapat is an attorney and writer, whose work focuses on issues of economic and gender (in)justice. In her latest book, she turns her attention to the labor struggles within the domestic worker realm—historically a black hole for unionizing efforts and labor rights. Bapat’s work shows that this trend is slowly shifting, and through interviews with community leaders and activists, chronicles the escalating movement to secure labor protections for the invisible people who work in the “private” domestic realm.
Bluestockings (172 Allen St), Lower East Side. 7pm. Fre.
Friday, June 20
Storytelling and the Line Between Fact and Fiction with R. Clifton Spargo and Anne Ream
Both R. Clifton Spargo and Anne Ream are Chicago-based writers with recently published non-fiction books; Beautiful Fools: The Last Affair of Zelda and Scott Fitgerald and Lived Through This: Listening to the Stories of Sexual Violence Survivors respectively. Join the writers in a discussion about these books, and the fraught connection between fact and fiction. KGB Bar (85 East 4th St), East Village. 7-9pm. Free.
Saturday, June 21
Marxism and Film: A Conversation with Jean-Pierre Godin
French writer, academic and filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin famously collaborated with Jean-Luc Godard during the latter’s “radical” period. A Leftist influenced by Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan, Gorin’s political leanings consistently influenced his film work. He went on to teach as a university professor in California, and continued to make movies. Of one, Poto and Cabengo (1978), he explained: “The singsong of the twins reveals the shaky grounds of institutional power. It relativizes discursive authority from the family to the scientific community in their competitive and ineffectual attempts to ‘define’ the twins who spontaneously flit about the screen exceeding any definition.” If that makes any sense to you, join Gorin for a chat about Marxism and the movies. What better way to spend a Saturday night?
Light Industry (155 Freeman St), Greenpoint. 7pm. $7.
Sunday, June 22
Bushwick History Photo Walk with Meryl Meisler
We all know Bushwick has changed, but none of us more so than Meryl Meisler. The photographer, who worked as an art teacher in Bushwick from the early ’80s, recalls that at the time the neighborhood “looked like the photographs that I had seen of Beirut.” She set about capturing the life among the ruins. Now, perfectly safely, you can join the photographer for a tour of her current exhibition of “Disco Era Bushwick” photographs, and a walking tour of the neighborhood. Bring a camera.
Bizarre Black Box Gallery (12 Jefferson St). 11am-1pm. Free. For queries and RSVP, email Meryl Meisler (meryl.meisler@gmail.com).
Monday, June 23
International Crime Month at Strand
Apparently it’s International Crime Month. That sounds like a recipe for global anarchy and intrigue, but is instead an opportunity for various publishing houses to introduce the (under-read?) genre of international crime writing to a broader audience. Marc Pastor is a Catalan master of the form, and his gothic book Barcelona Shadows has been recently translated into English to critical acclaim. Join the author for a discussion of “a book that makes the reader doubt the sanity of life itself,” and see whether crime fiction could be your new go-to.
Strand Bookstore (828 Broadway). 7-8pm. Buy a copy of Barcelona Shadows or a $15 Strand gift card in order to attend this event.