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Four Readings: Margo Jefferson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Americans in Revolt

TUESDAY

Photo © Michael Lionstar

Photo © Michael Lionstar

Margo Jefferson and Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah
August 23, 7pm at Strand Bookstore, 828 Broadway at 12th Street.
Margo Jefferson’s acclaimed memoir Negroland, which The New York Times called “powerful and complicated,” explores her upper middle class childhood growing up in the 1940s, 50s, and early 60s while deftly avoiding racial and socioeconomic landmines. She deftly describes the racial identity politics inherent in her community’s attempt to be considered the exception to how other blacks were viewed by the white elite of her Chicago milieu. In order to celebrate the release of the memoir’s paperback edition, Jefferson will be joined by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, a New York Times Magazine contributor and essayist whose writing has appeared in The Paris Review, The Believer, Bookforum, and more.

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A Big Egg, Big Bees, and Even Bigger Data

All subjects you can contemplate at this week’s thrilling selection of readings and talks. 

Friday, September 5

We, The Outsiders Opening Reception
We, The Outsiders is an art exhibition that explores several perplexing questions: “Can it be said that art has a consciousness of its own? And if such a consciousness were independent of us, where would it place us in relation to itself?” I have no idea what that means, but I do know that the exhibition revolves around a gigantic egg—which probes, like the classic chicken-and-the-egg conundrum (I prosaically assume), where consciousness begins and ends when it comes to art. More →

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Readings and Talks: Psilocybin, Pitchfork, and Nightmare Landlords

Learn about the rise and fall and rise of hallucinogenic mushrooms, the fight for tenant rights in Poland, and re-appreciate the street art you no longer notice, with this week’s worthy readings and talks. 

Thursday, August 14

Mmmmmmmushrooms (Photo courtesy of Flickr)

Mmmmmmmushrooms (Photo courtesy of Flickr)


Psychedelic drugs reaching a hallucination-drenched, kaleidoscopically patterned saturation point in the 1960s and 70s, during the zenith of American and European counterculture movements. Sadly, peak-mushroom was unsustainable. More →

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Readings and Talks: Sex, Celebs, Centimeters, and the Southside

Things are getting hot and heavy at this week’s upcoming readings and talks, with historical badass battles, fictional prostitutes, sexy sex-ed films, and a look at why America insists on measuring stuff the way it does. Gallons of fun, ahoy.

Saturday, August 9

ladies copyLadies of the Night reading with Maggie McNeill
Maggie McNeill’s biography reads like the worst nightmare of every English major’s mother and/or the wet dream of every horny undergraduate male: a BA in literature, then a Masters of Library and Information Science and a brief stint as a suburban librarian, before economic imperatives compelled her to find work as a stripper, then a call girl, then a madam. This decade-long sex work stint ends happily (mothers, cue a sigh of relief) in the fairy-tale manner. Madam marries favorite client, moves to ranch, and is able at long last to combine both of her interests: writing and prostitution.
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Celebrate Bloomsday and Friday the 13th With These Talks and Readings

friday
Who ever said that writing, at its best, is a lonely life? We’ve got your weekly round-up of bibliovents that prove once in a while writers do actually jerk themselves away from their laptops to good effect. On the books this week are a wide variety of events, from a reading where you can get tattooed while soaking up some Alt-Lit vibes, to a panel discussion of the King of Pop led by his brave biographer.
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