FEATURED: March 2023
We're pleased to pass along these upcoming uptown Manhattan events. Oddly enough, all three feature artists and artworks that are 60 years old — or older! — those being: Film Noir, Orquesta Broadway, and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man.
BEYOND THE FEMME FATALE: The Women Who Made Noir
Lenfest Center for the Arts
Columbia University
615 W 129th Street @ Broadway
February 25–26 and March 1–5
TICKETS $70 full pass / $40 four films / $12 single film / $10 seniors
The fourth edition of the Kit Noir Film Festival will pay tribute to female producers, screenwriters, novelists, and one director who made contributions to film noir. The festival presents ten films released between 1946 and 1964, including adaptations of the work of Patricia Highsmith and Dorothy Hughes, the director Ida Lupino, and certified classics like Gilda and Strangers on a Train alongside rarer titles like Sudden Fear and Ride the Pink Horse.
Some films will be screened in 35mm, others will be accompanied by discussions featuring film scholars Julie Grossman, Dana Polan, and Shelley Stamp as well as crime writers Sarah Weinman and Megan Abbott. The series also includes a free, pre-festival streaming of The Deep End on February 25th and 26th. Check out this link for TICKETS and complete festival details. The Kit Noir Film Festival is funded by a generous gift from Columbia alumnus Gordon Kit in honor of his parents.
TICKETS
INVISIBLE TO WHOM? A Dialogue in Verse
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard @ 135th Street
Wednesday March 1, 6:30–9:00pm
FREE
In celebration of the seventieth anniversary of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, a consortium of Harlem cultural institutions and Cave Canem commissioned poets Cameron Awkward-Rich, Kadeem Gayle, and Lorelei Williams to create ekphrastic poems inspired by Ralph Ellison's landmark novel and Elizabeth Catlett’s public sculpture, Invisible Man: A Memorial to Ralph Ellison (2003), which is permanently installed on West 150th Street at Riverside Drive.
The reading will delve into and expand upon Ellison's concept of invisibility by reframing the narrative around houselessness, incarceration, and femme, trans, and LGBTQ identies. The reading and discussion is part of Invisible Man at 70: A Harlem Celebration, organized by Harlem Stage and Maysles Documentary Center in collaboration with the National Jazz Museum of Harlem, the Schomburg Center, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Ralph Ellison Memorial Committee.
Cameron Awkward-Rich is the author of two collections of poetry—Sympathetic Little Monster (Ricochet Editions, 2016) and Dispatch (Persea Books, 2019)—as well as The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment (Duke University Press, 2022). His writing has appeared, in various forms, in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Transgender Studies Quarterly, and Signs. He is an assistant professor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Kadeem Gayle is a patient advocate, poet, and medical humanist of Jamaican descent born in Boston, Massachusetts. At three years old, Gayle was diagnosed with sickle cell disease (SCD), a rare genetic blood disorder that causes a serious range of health issues. Gayle finds writing to be a positive outlet that promotes healing and humanizes the SCD experience. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Adelphi University and is a third-year Cave Canem Fellow. He is currently a doctoral candidate at Drew University studying medical and health humanities.
Lorelei Williams is a poet, philanthropic strategist, and proud mama. Williams’s writings have appeared in Essence and Meridians, and in the anthologies Be the Dream (Algonquin Books, 2003) and Guerreras y Cimmaronas (University of Houston Arte Publico Press, 2012). She is a graduate of Yale and Harvard universities and a member of the inaugural class of Cave Canem poets. She currently serves as Executive Director of the Warner Music Group/Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund.
LINK
ORQUESTA BROADWAY: 60 Years of Charanga
City College Center for the Arts
Aaron Davis Hall
129 Convent Avenue @ 135th Street
Friday March 24, 7:00pm
TICKETS $50 / $35 for seniors
City College and the Upper Manhattan Cuban and Caribbean communities invite you to immerse yourself in the infectious grooves of Orquesta Broadway, the internationally acclaimed ensemble that is still going strong after sixty years. Founded by flautist Eddy Zervigón and his brothers, Kelvin and Rudy, Orquesta Broadway first debuted at the Palladium in 1962, during the Golden Age of salsa music in New York City. Orquesta Broadway remains one of the few bands playing authentic Cuban charanga—which features flute, strings, and an extensive conga-driven rhythm section—and are the longest running charanga band outside of Cuba. This iteration of Orquesta Broadway will be joined by virtuoso flutists Connie Grossman and Karen Joseph.
Eddy Zervigón is the musical director, leader, and founder of Orquesta Broadway. He plays a five-key wooden flute, usually referred to as a French flute, instead of the more modern and frequently used Boehm flute. Zervigón was born in Güines, a small town thirty miles southeast of Havana. He and his brothers emigrated to New York City in the early 1960s, where Zervigón first worked with bands directed by Lou Pérez, Johnny Pacheco, and Alfredo Valdés Sr.
This concert is made possible with funding from The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Council member Carmen De La Rosa, The City University of New York, and City College.
TICKETS
BEYOND THE FEMME FATALE: The Women Who Made Noir
Lenfest Center for the Arts
Columbia University
615 W 129th Street @ Broadway
February 25–26 and March 1–5
TICKETS $70 full pass / $40 four films / $12 single film / $10 seniors
The fourth edition of the Kit Noir Film Festival will pay tribute to female producers, screenwriters, novelists, and one director who made contributions to film noir. The festival presents ten films released between 1946 and 1964, including adaptations of the work of Patricia Highsmith and Dorothy Hughes, the director Ida Lupino, and certified classics like Gilda and Strangers on a Train alongside rarer titles like Sudden Fear and Ride the Pink Horse.
Some films will be screened in 35mm, others will be accompanied by discussions featuring film scholars Julie Grossman, Dana Polan, and Shelley Stamp as well as crime writers Sarah Weinman and Megan Abbott. The series also includes a free, pre-festival streaming of The Deep End on February 25th and 26th. Check out this link for TICKETS and complete festival details. The Kit Noir Film Festival is funded by a generous gift from Columbia alumnus Gordon Kit in honor of his parents.
TICKETS
INVISIBLE TO WHOM? A Dialogue in Verse
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard @ 135th Street
Wednesday March 1, 6:30–9:00pm
FREE
In celebration of the seventieth anniversary of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, a consortium of Harlem cultural institutions and Cave Canem commissioned poets Cameron Awkward-Rich, Kadeem Gayle, and Lorelei Williams to create ekphrastic poems inspired by Ralph Ellison's landmark novel and Elizabeth Catlett’s public sculpture, Invisible Man: A Memorial to Ralph Ellison (2003), which is permanently installed on West 150th Street at Riverside Drive.
The reading will delve into and expand upon Ellison's concept of invisibility by reframing the narrative around houselessness, incarceration, and femme, trans, and LGBTQ identies. The reading and discussion is part of Invisible Man at 70: A Harlem Celebration, organized by Harlem Stage and Maysles Documentary Center in collaboration with the National Jazz Museum of Harlem, the Schomburg Center, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Ralph Ellison Memorial Committee.
Cameron Awkward-Rich is the author of two collections of poetry—Sympathetic Little Monster (Ricochet Editions, 2016) and Dispatch (Persea Books, 2019)—as well as The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment (Duke University Press, 2022). His writing has appeared, in various forms, in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Transgender Studies Quarterly, and Signs. He is an assistant professor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Kadeem Gayle is a patient advocate, poet, and medical humanist of Jamaican descent born in Boston, Massachusetts. At three years old, Gayle was diagnosed with sickle cell disease (SCD), a rare genetic blood disorder that causes a serious range of health issues. Gayle finds writing to be a positive outlet that promotes healing and humanizes the SCD experience. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Adelphi University and is a third-year Cave Canem Fellow. He is currently a doctoral candidate at Drew University studying medical and health humanities.
Lorelei Williams is a poet, philanthropic strategist, and proud mama. Williams’s writings have appeared in Essence and Meridians, and in the anthologies Be the Dream (Algonquin Books, 2003) and Guerreras y Cimmaronas (University of Houston Arte Publico Press, 2012). She is a graduate of Yale and Harvard universities and a member of the inaugural class of Cave Canem poets. She currently serves as Executive Director of the Warner Music Group/Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund.
LINK
ORQUESTA BROADWAY: 60 Years of Charanga
City College Center for the Arts
Aaron Davis Hall
129 Convent Avenue @ 135th Street
Friday March 24, 7:00pm
TICKETS $50 / $35 for seniors
City College and the Upper Manhattan Cuban and Caribbean communities invite you to immerse yourself in the infectious grooves of Orquesta Broadway, the internationally acclaimed ensemble that is still going strong after sixty years. Founded by flautist Eddy Zervigón and his brothers, Kelvin and Rudy, Orquesta Broadway first debuted at the Palladium in 1962, during the Golden Age of salsa music in New York City. Orquesta Broadway remains one of the few bands playing authentic Cuban charanga—which features flute, strings, and an extensive conga-driven rhythm section—and are the longest running charanga band outside of Cuba. This iteration of Orquesta Broadway will be joined by virtuoso flutists Connie Grossman and Karen Joseph.
Eddy Zervigón is the musical director, leader, and founder of Orquesta Broadway. He plays a five-key wooden flute, usually referred to as a French flute, instead of the more modern and frequently used Boehm flute. Zervigón was born in Güines, a small town thirty miles southeast of Havana. He and his brothers emigrated to New York City in the early 1960s, where Zervigón first worked with bands directed by Lou Pérez, Johnny Pacheco, and Alfredo Valdés Sr.
This concert is made possible with funding from The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Council member Carmen De La Rosa, The City University of New York, and City College.
TICKETS