(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University has several events scheduled for the first half of October including Tularosa: An American Dreamtime; a reading by Ling Ma & Sandra Cisneros; Not Your Buddy by Chloe Satenberg '24; Atelier@Large: Conversations on Art-making in a Vexed Era – Kyle Marshall and Lorrie Moore; and When Pages Breathe: Bringing Good Books to Life.
Tularosa: An American Dreamtime: Residency with Kamara Thomas & Band of Toughs, presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts. October 2-9. gallery installation open October 5-9 from 10:00am-8:00pm; evening performance activities 7:30pm; Hurley Gallery and CoLab at Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton University campus. Much has been made lately about Oppenheimer as “father of the atomic bomb,” while the stories of the people of New Mexico who continue to be affected by the Trinity explosions remain largely out of the public eye.
Multiple generations of New Mexican families who call themselves “Downwinders” bear, in their bodies, the consequences of Tularosa Basin nuclear activity. They have had to deal with genetic mutations, various cancers, and other physical, emotional, and mental wounding as a result of the nuclear testing near their homes, while tirelessly petitioning the government for compensation and care. Yet our culture and our mainstream storytelling still seeks to deify and mythologize those who, in the name of progress and “keeping America safe,” have deeply harmed our planet, and in fact, risk the survival of humanity itself.
In this Princeton iteration of Tularosa: An American Dreamtime, 2022-24 Princeton Arts Fellow Kamara Thomas and her collaborators attempt to weave these underlooked Downwinders’ stories into an ongoing excavation and exploration into the threads of the American Story that congregate in the Tularosa region of New Mexico—many of them hidden, suppressed and underrepresented.
Admission: Free with most activities open to the public; October 4-5 open rehearsals open to University community. Accessibility: The Gallery and CoLab are accessible venues. Guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at least one week in advance at lewiscenter@princeton.edu
Reading by Ling Ma & Sandra Cisneros, presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Creative Writing - October 3 at 7:30pm; Drapkin Studio at Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton University campus. Fiction writer Ling Ma, author of the novel Severance and the story collection Bliss Montage, and MacArthur Foundation Fellow and National Medal of Arts-winning writer Sandra Cisneros read from their work to kick off the 2023-24 Althea Ward Clark W’21 Reading Series.
Admission: Free and open to the public; no tickets are required. Accessibility: Drapkin Studio is an accessible venue. Guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at least 2 weeks in advance at LewisCenter@princeton.edu
Not Your Buddy by Chloe Satenberg ’24, presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater & Music Theater. October 6 & 7 at 8:00pm and October 8 at 2:00pm; Wallace Theater at Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton University campus. Not Your Buddy, conceived and written by Princeton senior Chloe Satenberg, follows four female counselors at a Jewish summer camp as they navigate their friendships and encounter their true selves during the interstitial time between high school and college. Via monologues and dreamscapes, the play immerses audiences in the tormented mental state of protagonist Buddy—a 17-year-old counselor undergoing a crisis of selfhood. Co-directed by Princeton graduate student Daniel Landez and Satenberg.
Admission: Free and open to the public; advance tickets encouraged. Accessibility: The Wallace Theater is an accessible venue with an assistive listening system. The October 8 performance will be live captioned. Guests in need of other access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at least one week in advance at lewiscenter@princeton.edu
Atelier@Large: Conversations on Art-making in a Vexed Era –Kyle Marshall and Lorrie Moore, presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Princeton Atelier - October 10 at 7:30pm; Richardson Auditorium on the Princeton University campus. In a series of conversations that bring guest artists to campus to discuss what they face in making art in the modern world, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, director of the Princeton Atelier, moderates a discussion with Kyle Marshall, artistic director of Kyle Marshall Choreography and a 2018 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award winner, and fiction writer Lorrie Moore, recipient of the Rome Prize and the Berlin Prize.
Admission: Free and open to the public, however tickets are required through University Ticketing at tickets.princeton.edu. Accessibility: Guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at least one week in advance at LewisCenter@princeton.edu
When Pages Breathe: Bringing Good Books to Life - An evening of reader’s theater, presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater & Music Theater in collaboration with Princeton University Library. October 10; Exhibition tours at 5:30pm at Firestone Library Milberg Library, reception at 6:30 p.m. in Chancellor Green Hyphen, and Reader’s Theater performance at 7:00pm at Chancellor Green Rotunda on the Princeton University campus. In conjunction with the Princeton University Library’s exhibition “In the Company of Good Books: From Shakespeare to Morrison,” in the Firestone Library’s Milberg Gallery the Lewis Center for the Arts’ presents When Pages Breathe: Bringing Good Books to Life. Four actors —Tony and Obie Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Tony-nominated writer and performer Sharon Washington, veteran Shakespearean actor Maren Maclean, and award-winning film, television and stage actor Antoinette LaVecchia—will read selected works from the exhibition.
The exhibition, which honors the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s First Folio of 1623, draws from the Library’s diverse collection of English language literature and many of the writers and readers who brought life to English literature around the world, such as a 1598 first edition of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost and Toni Morrison’s handwritten manuscript drafts of Desdemona. Selections to be read by the actors include Toni Morrison’s Beloved, John Milton, Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, Phyllis Wheatley, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou, and Walt Whitman. Curated and hosted by faculty member Chesney Snow.
Admission: Free and open to the public; registration required. Accessibility: Firestone Library and Chancellor Green are accessible venues. Guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at least one week in advance at LewisCenter@princeton.edu
Visit the Lewis Center website for more information on these events, the Program in Theater & Music Theater, or any of the more than 100 performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, concerts, and lectures presented each year by the Lewis Center for the Arts, most of them free.
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