If you want the advance scoop on everything Greenlight has coming up in April, take a look at our recently updated Facebook events page. We've got so much great stuff happening this month!
Kara Walker talks with David Rakoff and Matt Weiland about coming to New York...
locals George Prochnik and Nelson George share their expertise and impressions...
Steamboat brings it with another outstanding comedy lineup...
Brooklyn's poet laureate hosts some of our young local poets...
Brooklyn's immigrants share their voices and stories...
Greenlight hosts our first French language event, our first YA event, AND our first open mic night...
and so much more! Check it out and RSVP so you don't miss any of the action!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
TONIGHT: Rick Moody & John Wesley Harding!
Tonight is a really special event -- a mini-concert and reading with two hugely talented Brooklyn author/musicians! We're so glad we got to reschedule from the original blizzardy day in February -- come out and enjoy the benefits of being in Brooklyn on this sunny day!
Wednesday, March 24, 7:30 PM (RESCHEDULED FROM FEBRUARY 25)
Reading with Rick Moody and Wesley Stace
With special musical performance by Authros
Brooklyn artists Rick Moody and Wesley Stace (aka John Wesley Harding) both have the rare distinction of being recognized for their talents as writers and as musicians. Moody is the author of The Ice Storm, The Diviners, Demonology, The Black Veil, and other novels and nonfiction works, and has performed with the Wingdale Community Singers and One Ring Zero. Wesley Stace is the author of the novels Misfortune and By George, and as John Wesley Harding has released 15 albums and performed with Iggy Pop and Bruce Springsteen. For this special evening at Greenlight, Rick and John plan to read from new unpublished work. They’ll also play together as the band Authros, described by Rick as “really just the two of us and an acoustic guitar.”
RSVP on Facebook (optional)
Wednesday, March 24, 7:30 PM (RESCHEDULED FROM FEBRUARY 25)
Reading with Rick Moody and Wesley Stace
With special musical performance by Authros
Brooklyn artists Rick Moody and Wesley Stace (aka John Wesley Harding) both have the rare distinction of being recognized for their talents as writers and as musicians. Moody is the author of The Ice Storm, The Diviners, Demonology, The Black Veil, and other novels and nonfiction works, and has performed with the Wingdale Community Singers and One Ring Zero. Wesley Stace is the author of the novels Misfortune and By George, and as John Wesley Harding has released 15 albums and performed with Iggy Pop and Bruce Springsteen. For this special evening at Greenlight, Rick and John plan to read from new unpublished work. They’ll also play together as the band Authros, described by Rick as “really just the two of us and an acoustic guitar.”
RSVP on Facebook (optional)
Monday, March 22, 2010
Tonight: Victor LaValle talks with Maud Newton!
Monday, March 22, 7:30 PM
Blogger/Author Pairings:
Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine, talks with blogger Maud Newton
Introduction by Ron Hogan of Beatrice.com
Our monthly Blogger/Author Pairings series features a noted literary blogger hosting a book or author that they are passionate about. Victor LaValle’s award-winning novel Big Machine, newly released in paperback, is the story of a middle-aged hustler inducted into a band of paranormal investigators. His other books include the short-story collection Slapboxing with Jesus, and the novel The Ecstatic, which inspired Mos Def’s album of the same name. Brooklyn blogger Maud Newton’s literary website, MaudNewton.com, has been extensively praised, criticized, and cited in newspapers and magazines, and her fiction, essays, and criticism have also also appeared in Granta, Bookforum, The New York Times Book Review, and many other publications. Newton, a fan and advocate of LaValle’s work, talks with him this evening about belief, race, genre, pop culture, and the other big themes that define and complicate his writing.
RSVP for this event on Facebook (optional)
Blogger/Author Pairings:
Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine, talks with blogger Maud Newton
Introduction by Ron Hogan of Beatrice.com
Our monthly Blogger/Author Pairings series features a noted literary blogger hosting a book or author that they are passionate about. Victor LaValle’s award-winning novel Big Machine, newly released in paperback, is the story of a middle-aged hustler inducted into a band of paranormal investigators. His other books include the short-story collection Slapboxing with Jesus, and the novel The Ecstatic, which inspired Mos Def’s album of the same name. Brooklyn blogger Maud Newton’s literary website, MaudNewton.com, has been extensively praised, criticized, and cited in newspapers and magazines, and her fiction, essays, and criticism have also also appeared in Granta, Bookforum, The New York Times Book Review, and many other publications. Newton, a fan and advocate of LaValle’s work, talks with him this evening about belief, race, genre, pop culture, and the other big themes that define and complicate his writing.RSVP for this event on Facebook (optional)
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Tonight: Steamboat, Volume 3
Thursday, March 19, 7:30 PM
Steamboat: A Literary Humor Series
Hosted by Bob Powers and Jason Reich
Featuring Julie Klausner, Mike Albo, Greg Walloch, and Max Silvestri.
On the third Thursday of every month, join Bob Powers (author of Happy Cruelty Day) and Jason Reich (former writer for "The Daily Show"), as they welcome the city's best humor writers for a night of wine-addled text-based hilarity.
Julie Klausner’s memoir of her horrific dating life, I Don't Care About Your Band: What I Learned From Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters, Felons and Other Guys I've Dated, sheds light on the humiliations we endure to find love — and the lessons that can be culled from the wreckage.
Mike Albo is the author of The Underminer: Or, the Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life, and contributor to numerous anthologies that showcase his self-deprecating wit.
Greg Walloch co-produced and stars in the concert/documentary film F**k The Disabled, starring Stephen Baldwin and others, and has appeared on The Moth and in his acclaimed one man show White Disabled Talent.
Max Silvestri co-runs the show Big Terrific in Williamsburg; he wrote a weekly column for AVClub New York and he's one-half of the 100 Seconds videos on the Details website.
Steamboat: A Literary Humor Series
Hosted by Bob Powers and Jason Reich
Featuring Julie Klausner, Mike Albo, Greg Walloch, and Max Silvestri.
On the third Thursday of every month, join Bob Powers (author of Happy Cruelty Day) and Jason Reich (former writer for "The Daily Show"), as they welcome the city's best humor writers for a night of wine-addled text-based hilarity.
Julie Klausner’s memoir of her horrific dating life, I Don't Care About Your Band: What I Learned From Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters, Felons and Other Guys I've Dated, sheds light on the humiliations we endure to find love — and the lessons that can be culled from the wreckage.
Mike Albo is the author of The Underminer: Or, the Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life, and contributor to numerous anthologies that showcase his self-deprecating wit.
Greg Walloch co-produced and stars in the concert/documentary film F**k The Disabled, starring Stephen Baldwin and others, and has appeared on The Moth and in his acclaimed one man show White Disabled Talent.
Max Silvestri co-runs the show Big Terrific in Williamsburg; he wrote a weekly column for AVClub New York and he's one-half of the 100 Seconds videos on the Details website.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Tonight: Pratt Area Community Council presents Gabriel Thompson
We're excited to host a neighborhood institution this evening, and an author writing on a very important topic, and some complimentary food and wine -- join us!
Tuesday, March 16, 7:30 PM
Greenlight Bookstore and Pratt Area Community Council present Gabriel Thompson, author of Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won't Do Reading and reception
What is it like doing the back-breaking work of low -wage immigrants? To find out, Brooklyn author Gabriel Thompson spent the year working alongside Latino immigrants. He stooped over lettuce fields in Arizona and worked the graveyard shift at a chicken slaughterhouse in rural Alabama. He dodged taxis as a bicycle delivery “boy” for an upscale Manhattan restaurant and was fired from a flower shop in Chelsea. Combining personal narrative with investigative reporting, Working in the Shadows shines a bright light on the underside of the American economy, exposing harsh working conditions, union busting, and lax government enforcement—while telling the stories of workers, undocumented immigrants and desperate US citizens alike, forced to live with chronic pain in the pursuit of $8 an hour.
Not so long before he went undercover as part of the low-wage immigrant workforce, Brooklyn-based author Gabriel Thompson was the director of community organizing at Pratt Area Community Council (PACC) in Fort Greene. The Young Friends group of PACC is thrilled to co-host this book reading. Refreshments will be served.
Tuesday, March 16, 7:30 PM
Greenlight Bookstore and Pratt Area Community Council present Gabriel Thompson, author of Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won't Do Reading and reception
What is it like doing the back-breaking work of low -wage immigrants? To find out, Brooklyn author Gabriel Thompson spent the year working alongside Latino immigrants. He stooped over lettuce fields in Arizona and worked the graveyard shift at a chicken slaughterhouse in rural Alabama. He dodged taxis as a bicycle delivery “boy” for an upscale Manhattan restaurant and was fired from a flower shop in Chelsea. Combining personal narrative with investigative reporting, Working in the Shadows shines a bright light on the underside of the American economy, exposing harsh working conditions, union busting, and lax government enforcement—while telling the stories of workers, undocumented immigrants and desperate US citizens alike, forced to live with chronic pain in the pursuit of $8 an hour.Not so long before he went undercover as part of the low-wage immigrant workforce, Brooklyn-based author Gabriel Thompson was the director of community organizing at Pratt Area Community Council (PACC) in Fort Greene. The Young Friends group of PACC is thrilled to co-host this book reading. Refreshments will be served.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Tonight: Tiphanie Yanique and Tayari Jones!
Two super-awesome, super-local authors discuss fiction tonight. RSVP on Facebook and join us at the bookstore for a great conversation!
Monday, March 8, 7:30 PM
Tiphanie Yanique reads and dicusses How to Escape from a Leper Colony with Tayari Jones
Brooklynite Tiphanie Yanique was born in the Hospital Ground neighborhood of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and now teaches at Drew University. Her debut work How To Escape from a Leper Colony, published as a paperback original, is a collection of stories and a short novel set in her native Virgin Islands. It's part oral history, part postcolonial narrative, and tells odd and magical stories that are both epic and intimate. Tiphanie discusses her work this evening with fellow Brooklyn author Tayari Jones, author of Leaving Atlanta and The Untelling. Jones has called Yanique “a writer to watch” and writes “Each of the stories contained in this gorgeous collection is clear-eyed, honest while still zinging with emotion. Tiphanie Yanique is blessed with an electric imagination, an expansive heart, and an unflinching gaze.”
Monday, March 8, 7:30 PM
Tiphanie Yanique reads and dicusses How to Escape from a Leper Colony with Tayari Jones
Brooklynite Tiphanie Yanique was born in the Hospital Ground neighborhood of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and now teaches at Drew University. Her debut work How To Escape from a Leper Colony, published as a paperback original, is a collection of stories and a short novel set in her native Virgin Islands. It's part oral history, part postcolonial narrative, and tells odd and magical stories that are both epic and intimate. Tiphanie discusses her work this evening with fellow Brooklyn author Tayari Jones, author of Leaving Atlanta and The Untelling. Jones has called Yanique “a writer to watch” and writes “Each of the stories contained in this gorgeous collection is clear-eyed, honest while still zinging with emotion. Tiphanie Yanique is blessed with an electric imagination, an expansive heart, and an unflinching gaze.”Friday, March 5, 2010
Reminder: Brooklyn authors at Story Time tomorrow morning!
Story Time at Greenlight Saturday, March 6, 10:30 AM Selina Alko and Aileen Leijten
Greenlight Bookstore is proud to participate in a borough-wide celebration of Women's History Month through local artists and literature. Six Brooklyn author-illustrators will be participating in events at various bookstores, galleries, and restaurants - including Story Time at Greenlight!
Join us each Saturday morning in March when one or two authors read from their own work, often featuring New York themes and locales. Details about authors appearing this week at Greenlight are below. For more information about the authors and the series, visit the blog of organizer Melanie Hope Greenberg. See you at Story Time!
Selina Alko is the author and illustrator of I'm Your Peanut Butter Big Brother, and illustrator of My Taxi Ride and Greetings From the 50 States. She was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada, and now lives in Brooklyn with her husband Sean Qualls and their children Isaiah and Ginger. Selina's optimism permeates her work, and she hopes that her books will help children to be more open-minded; for example, I'm Your Peanut Butter Big Brother is about a child in a biracial family who wonders what his sibling-on-the-way will look like.
Aileen Leijten is the author and illustrator of Hugging Hour, and the illustrator of Bella and Bean and other books. She was born in in Belgium and now lives in Brooklyn with her husband, daughter and dog. She is an avid reader and crafter, and worked in Los Angeles for Walt Disney and Steven Spielberg before moving to Brooklyn. Hugging Hour is about an overnight stay at Grandma's house.
Greenlight Bookstore is proud to participate in a borough-wide celebration of Women's History Month through local artists and literature. Six Brooklyn author-illustrators will be participating in events at various bookstores, galleries, and restaurants - including Story Time at Greenlight!
Join us each Saturday morning in March when one or two authors read from their own work, often featuring New York themes and locales. Details about authors appearing this week at Greenlight are below. For more information about the authors and the series, visit the blog of organizer Melanie Hope Greenberg. See you at Story Time!
Selina Alko is the author and illustrator of I'm Your Peanut Butter Big Brother, and illustrator of My Taxi Ride and Greetings From the 50 States. She was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada, and now lives in Brooklyn with her husband Sean Qualls and their children Isaiah and Ginger. Selina's optimism permeates her work, and she hopes that her books will help children to be more open-minded; for example, I'm Your Peanut Butter Big Brother is about a child in a biracial family who wonders what his sibling-on-the-way will look like.
Aileen Leijten is the author and illustrator of Hugging Hour, and the illustrator of Bella and Bean and other books. She was born in in Belgium and now lives in Brooklyn with her husband, daughter and dog. She is an avid reader and crafter, and worked in Los Angeles for Walt Disney and Steven Spielberg before moving to Brooklyn. Hugging Hour is about an overnight stay at Grandma's house.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Reminder: Mentoring Mixer & Panel Discussion tonight!
If you're an entertainment industry hopeful, an entrepreneur, or you just enjoy listening to smart, creative women talk about how they do what they do (especially over a glass of wine), you won't want to miss tonight's awesome event! Details are below -- we appreciate it when you RSVP on Facebook to let us know you're coming, but seating is first come, first serve. See you in the bookstore!
Thursday, March 4, 7:30 PM Mentoring Event & Panel Discussion: New Year, New Career!
Featuring Thembisa Mshaka, author of Put Your Dreams First!: Handle Your [Entertainment] Business
With entertainment business entrepreneurs Abby Dobson, Celia Faussart (pka Blue Nefertiti), Jackie Rhinehart, Danrella Dunham, DJ Reborn, Nefertiti Strong, and Raqiyah Mays
Moderated by Fiona Bloom of The Bloom Effect
Author and industry veteran Thembisa S. Mshaka interviewed stars and the people who make them for her new book Put Your Dreams First, described as "mentorship in a bottle" for those hoping to break in to the business. This evening, a panel of those featured in the book, moderated by publicity maven Fiona Bloom, will talk about their experiences and answer your career questions in an unmatched intimate setting.
Panelists include:
Independent recording artist Abby Dobson
Celia Faussart, co-founder of Les Nubians
Darnella Dunham, Radio Trade writer and producer
DJ Reborn, DJ instructor and Music Director of Def Poets on Broadway World Tour
Jackie Rhinehart, marketing veteran and author, My Organic Soul
Voice and stage actor Raqiyah Mays ("Platanos & Collard Greens")
The pre-event mixer will also include Rhonda Cowan, Vice President of BET.com, filmmaker/producer Nefertiti Strong of Catch-A-Dream Entertainment, and other music and media movers and shakers, and will offer attendees the chance to gain the benefit of the experience of women in the business.
Thursday, March 4, 7:30 PM Mentoring Event & Panel Discussion: New Year, New Career!
Featuring Thembisa Mshaka, author of Put Your Dreams First!: Handle Your [Entertainment] Business
With entertainment business entrepreneurs Abby Dobson, Celia Faussart (pka Blue Nefertiti), Jackie Rhinehart, Danrella Dunham, DJ Reborn, Nefertiti Strong, and Raqiyah Mays
Moderated by Fiona Bloom of The Bloom Effect
Author and industry veteran Thembisa S. Mshaka interviewed stars and the people who make them for her new book Put Your Dreams First, described as "mentorship in a bottle" for those hoping to break in to the business. This evening, a panel of those featured in the book, moderated by publicity maven Fiona Bloom, will talk about their experiences and answer your career questions in an unmatched intimate setting.Panelists include:
Independent recording artist Abby Dobson
Celia Faussart, co-founder of Les Nubians
Darnella Dunham, Radio Trade writer and producer
DJ Reborn, DJ instructor and Music Director of Def Poets on Broadway World Tour
Jackie Rhinehart, marketing veteran and author, My Organic Soul
Voice and stage actor Raqiyah Mays ("Platanos & Collard Greens")
The pre-event mixer will also include Rhonda Cowan, Vice President of BET.com, filmmaker/producer Nefertiti Strong of Catch-A-Dream Entertainment, and other music and media movers and shakers, and will offer attendees the chance to gain the benefit of the experience of women in the business.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
March events at Greenlight!
March is Women's History Month, and it's looking like another great month for events! We've got a mentoring event for music industry hopefuls, a PACC-hosted reading about immigrant labor, discussions between writers, critics, and bloggers, a conversation between two taxidermists named Melissa, humor from Steamboat, and the newly rescheduled Rick Moody / John Wesley Harding mini-concert. And for kids, we're hosting a special month-long series featuring Brooklyn women children's authors and illustrators. In fact, there's a high percentage local authors in the event mix this month, which makes us proud of our neighborhood and our borough. Details are below -- you can RSVP for any of these events on our Facebook page to help us get a sense of attendance, but seating is first come, first served. We'll see you at the bookstore!
Thursday, March 4, 7:30 PM Mentoring Event & Panel Discussion: New Year, New Career!
Featuring Thembisa Mshaka, author of Put Your Dreams First!: Handle Your [Entertainment] Business
With entertainment business entrepreneurs Abby Dobson, Celia Faussart (pka Blue Nefertiti), Jackie Rhinehart, Danrella Dunham, DJ Reborn, Nefertiti Strong, and Raqiyah Mays
Moderated by Fiona Bloom of The Bloom Effect
Author and industry veteran Thembisa S. Mshaka interviewed stars and the people who make them for her new book Put Your Dreams First, described as "mentorship in a bottle" for those hoping to break in to the business. This evening, a panel of those featured in the book, moderated by publicity maven Fiona Bloom, will talk about their experiences and answer your career questions in an unmatched intimate setting.
Panelists include:
Independent recording artist Abby Dobson
Celia Faussart, co-founder of Les Nubians
Darnella Dunham, Radio Trade writer and producer
DJ Reborn, DJ instructor and Music Director of Def Poets on Broadway World Tour
Jackie Rhinehart, marketing veteran and author, My Organic Soul
Voice and stage actor Raqiyah Mays ("Platanos & Collard Greens")
The pre-event mixer will also include Rhonda Cowan, Vice President of BET.com, filmmaker/producer Nefertiti Strong of Catch-A-Dream Entertainment, and other music and media movers and shakers, and will offer attendees the chance to gain the benefit of the experience of women in the business.
Monday, March 8, 7:30 PM Tiphanie Yanique reads and discusses How to Escape from a Leper Colony with Tayari Jones
Brooklynite Tiphanie Yanique was born in the Hospital Ground neighborhood of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and now teaches at Drew University. Her debut work of fiction, How to Escape from a Leper Colony, is a collection of stories and a short novel set in her native Virgin Islands. Part oral history, part postcolonial narrative, the book tells odd and magical stories that are both epic and intimate. Tiphanie discusses her work this evening with fellow Brooklyn author Tayari Jones, author of Leaving Atlanta and The Untelling. Jones has called Yanique "a writer to watch" and writes "Each of the stories contained in this gorgeous collection is clear-eyed, honest while still zinging with emotion. Tiphanie Yanique is blessed with an electric imagination, an expansive heart, and an unflinching gaze."
Tuesday, March 16, 7:30 PM Pratt Area Community Council presents Gabriel Thompson, author of Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won't Do
Reading and Reception
What is it like doing the back-breaking work of low-wage immigrants? To find out, Brooklyn author Gabriel Thompson spent the year working alongside Latino immigrants. He stooped over lettuce fields in Arizona and worked the graveyard shift at a chicken slaughterhouse in rural Alabama. He dodged taxis as a bicycle delivery "boy" for an upscale Manhattan restaurant and was fired from a flower shop in Chelsea. Combining personal narrative with investigative reporting, Working in the Shadows shines a bright light on the underside of the American economy, exposing harsh working conditions, union busting, and lax government enforcement-while telling the stories of workers, undocumented immigrants and desperate US citizens alike, forced to live with chronic pain in the pursuit of $8 an hour.
Not so long before he went undercover as part of the low-wage immigrant workforce, Gabriel Thompson was the director of community organizing at Pratt Area Community Council (PACC) in Fort Greene. The Young Friends group of PACC is thrilled to co-host this book reading. Refreshments will be served.
Thursday, March 11, 7:30 PM Melissa Milgrom, author of Still Life, talks taxidermy with Melissa Dixson
Journalist Melissa Milgrom spent five years investigating the world of taxidermy and came away with a profound respect for this controversial occupation. She met taxidermists from around the world, attended the world championships in NJ, and even took a try at stuffing her very own squirrel, and she chronicles the results in Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy. Tonight at Greenlight, Melissa Milgrom talks with another Brooklyn taxidermist, Melissa Dixson, about the book and their shared obsession - they may even compare squirrels.
Thursday, March 18, 7:30 PM Steamboat: A Literary Humor Series Hosted by Bob Powers and Jason Reich
Featuring Julie Klausner, author of I Don't Care About Your Band: What I Learned From Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters, Felons and Other Guys I've Dated
Mike Albo, author of The Underminder: Or, The Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life
And other funny people TBA
On the third Thursday of every month, join Bob Powers (author of Happy Cruelty Day) and Jason Reich (former writer for "The Daily Show"), as they welcome the city's best humor writers for a night of wine-addled text-based hilarity. Julie Klausner's memoir of her horrific dating life, I Don't Care About Your Band, sheds light on the humiliations we endure to find love - and the lessons that can be culled from the wreckage. Mike Albo's The Underminder channels the hilarious and mysterious evil everyone has encountered--the toxic best friend who slowly and relentlessly dismantles the life of a nameless victim. Klausner and Albo join Powers, Reich, and other funny people culled from New York's best (or most available) talent for March's edition of Steamboat - stay tuned for additions to the lineup.
Monday, March 22, 7:30 PM
Blogger/Author Pairings:
Victor Lavalle reads and discusses Big Machine with Maud Newton
Our monthly Blogger/Author Pairings series features a noted literary blogger hosting a book or author that they are passionate about. Victor LaValle's award-winning novel Big Machine, newly released in paperback, is the story of a middle-aged hustler inducted into a band of paranormal investigators. His other books include the short-story collection Slapboxing with Jesus, and the novel The Ecstatic, which inspired Mos Def's album of the same name. Brooklyn blogger Maud Newton's literary website, MaudNewton.com, has been extensively praised, criticized, and cited in newspapers and magazines, and her fiction, essays, and criticism have also also appeared in Granta, Bookforum, The New York Times Book Review, and many other publications. Newton, a fan and advocate of LaValle's work, talks with him this evening about belief, race, genre, pop culture, and the other big themes that define and complicate his writing.
Wednesday, March 24, 7:30 PM
Words and Music with Rick Moody and Wesley Stace (John Wesley Harding)
* * * RESCHEDULED FROM FEBRUARY 25 * * *
Brooklyn artists Rick Moody and Wesley Stace (aka John Wesley Harding) both have the rare distinction of being recognized for their talents as writers and as musicians. Rick Moody is the author of The Ice Storm, The Diviners, Demonology, The Black Veil, and other novels and nonfiction works, and has performed with the Wingdale Community Singers and One Ring Zero. Wesley Stace is the author of the novels Misfortune and By George, and as John Wesley Harding has released 15 albums and performed with Iggy Pop and Bruce Springsteen. For this special evening at Greenlight, Rick and John plan to read from new unpublished work. They'll also play together as the band Authros, described by Rick as "really just the two of us and an acoustic guitar."
Friday, March 26, 7:30 PM
Shannan Rouss reads from Easy For You
Fort Greene resident Shannan Rouss is a former Los Angeleno; her debut story collection Easy For You provides a momentary glimpse into the characters who inhabit the sprawling space of metro Los Angeles, where lines and lives are constantly intersecting. Set within this city of actors and moviemakers, glamour and glitz, these stories depicts the universal desire to find something true. Join us for a hometown celebration of Rouss's exploration of West Coast lives.
Thursday, March 4, 7:30 PM Mentoring Event & Panel Discussion: New Year, New Career!
Featuring Thembisa Mshaka, author of Put Your Dreams First!: Handle Your [Entertainment] Business
With entertainment business entrepreneurs Abby Dobson, Celia Faussart (pka Blue Nefertiti), Jackie Rhinehart, Danrella Dunham, DJ Reborn, Nefertiti Strong, and Raqiyah Mays
Moderated by Fiona Bloom of The Bloom Effect
Author and industry veteran Thembisa S. Mshaka interviewed stars and the people who make them for her new book Put Your Dreams First, described as "mentorship in a bottle" for those hoping to break in to the business. This evening, a panel of those featured in the book, moderated by publicity maven Fiona Bloom, will talk about their experiences and answer your career questions in an unmatched intimate setting.Panelists include:
Independent recording artist Abby Dobson
Celia Faussart, co-founder of Les Nubians
Darnella Dunham, Radio Trade writer and producer
DJ Reborn, DJ instructor and Music Director of Def Poets on Broadway World Tour
Jackie Rhinehart, marketing veteran and author, My Organic Soul
Voice and stage actor Raqiyah Mays ("Platanos & Collard Greens")
The pre-event mixer will also include Rhonda Cowan, Vice President of BET.com, filmmaker/producer Nefertiti Strong of Catch-A-Dream Entertainment, and other music and media movers and shakers, and will offer attendees the chance to gain the benefit of the experience of women in the business.
Monday, March 8, 7:30 PM Tiphanie Yanique reads and discusses How to Escape from a Leper Colony with Tayari Jones
Brooklynite Tiphanie Yanique was born in the Hospital Ground neighborhood of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and now teaches at Drew University. Her debut work of fiction, How to Escape from a Leper Colony, is a collection of stories and a short novel set in her native Virgin Islands. Part oral history, part postcolonial narrative, the book tells odd and magical stories that are both epic and intimate. Tiphanie discusses her work this evening with fellow Brooklyn author Tayari Jones, author of Leaving Atlanta and The Untelling. Jones has called Yanique "a writer to watch" and writes "Each of the stories contained in this gorgeous collection is clear-eyed, honest while still zinging with emotion. Tiphanie Yanique is blessed with an electric imagination, an expansive heart, and an unflinching gaze."Tuesday, March 16, 7:30 PM Pratt Area Community Council presents Gabriel Thompson, author of Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won't Do
Reading and Reception
What is it like doing the back-breaking work of low-wage immigrants? To find out, Brooklyn author Gabriel Thompson spent the year working alongside Latino immigrants. He stooped over lettuce fields in Arizona and worked the graveyard shift at a chicken slaughterhouse in rural Alabama. He dodged taxis as a bicycle delivery "boy" for an upscale Manhattan restaurant and was fired from a flower shop in Chelsea. Combining personal narrative with investigative reporting, Working in the Shadows shines a bright light on the underside of the American economy, exposing harsh working conditions, union busting, and lax government enforcement-while telling the stories of workers, undocumented immigrants and desperate US citizens alike, forced to live with chronic pain in the pursuit of $8 an hour.Not so long before he went undercover as part of the low-wage immigrant workforce, Gabriel Thompson was the director of community organizing at Pratt Area Community Council (PACC) in Fort Greene. The Young Friends group of PACC is thrilled to co-host this book reading. Refreshments will be served.
Thursday, March 11, 7:30 PM Melissa Milgrom, author of Still Life, talks taxidermy with Melissa Dixson
Journalist Melissa Milgrom spent five years investigating the world of taxidermy and came away with a profound respect for this controversial occupation. She met taxidermists from around the world, attended the world championships in NJ, and even took a try at stuffing her very own squirrel, and she chronicles the results in Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy. Tonight at Greenlight, Melissa Milgrom talks with another Brooklyn taxidermist, Melissa Dixson, about the book and their shared obsession - they may even compare squirrels.Thursday, March 18, 7:30 PM Steamboat: A Literary Humor Series Hosted by Bob Powers and Jason Reich
Featuring Julie Klausner, author of I Don't Care About Your Band: What I Learned From Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters, Felons and Other Guys I've Dated
Mike Albo, author of The Underminder: Or, The Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life
And other funny people TBA
On the third Thursday of every month, join Bob Powers (author of Happy Cruelty Day) and Jason Reich (former writer for "The Daily Show"), as they welcome the city's best humor writers for a night of wine-addled text-based hilarity. Julie Klausner's memoir of her horrific dating life, I Don't Care About Your Band, sheds light on the humiliations we endure to find love - and the lessons that can be culled from the wreckage. Mike Albo's The Underminder channels the hilarious and mysterious evil everyone has encountered--the toxic best friend who slowly and relentlessly dismantles the life of a nameless victim. Klausner and Albo join Powers, Reich, and other funny people culled from New York's best (or most available) talent for March's edition of Steamboat - stay tuned for additions to the lineup.Monday, March 22, 7:30 PM
Blogger/Author Pairings:
Victor Lavalle reads and discusses Big Machine with Maud Newton
Our monthly Blogger/Author Pairings series features a noted literary blogger hosting a book or author that they are passionate about. Victor LaValle's award-winning novel Big Machine, newly released in paperback, is the story of a middle-aged hustler inducted into a band of paranormal investigators. His other books include the short-story collection Slapboxing with Jesus, and the novel The Ecstatic, which inspired Mos Def's album of the same name. Brooklyn blogger Maud Newton's literary website, MaudNewton.com, has been extensively praised, criticized, and cited in newspapers and magazines, and her fiction, essays, and criticism have also also appeared in Granta, Bookforum, The New York Times Book Review, and many other publications. Newton, a fan and advocate of LaValle's work, talks with him this evening about belief, race, genre, pop culture, and the other big themes that define and complicate his writing.Wednesday, March 24, 7:30 PM
Words and Music with Rick Moody and Wesley Stace (John Wesley Harding)
* * * RESCHEDULED FROM FEBRUARY 25 * * *
Brooklyn artists Rick Moody and Wesley Stace (aka John Wesley Harding) both have the rare distinction of being recognized for their talents as writers and as musicians. Rick Moody is the author of The Ice Storm, The Diviners, Demonology, The Black Veil, and other novels and nonfiction works, and has performed with the Wingdale Community Singers and One Ring Zero. Wesley Stace is the author of the novels Misfortune and By George, and as John Wesley Harding has released 15 albums and performed with Iggy Pop and Bruce Springsteen. For this special evening at Greenlight, Rick and John plan to read from new unpublished work. They'll also play together as the band Authros, described by Rick as "really just the two of us and an acoustic guitar."
Friday, March 26, 7:30 PM
Shannan Rouss reads from Easy For You
Fort Greene resident Shannan Rouss is a former Los Angeleno; her debut story collection Easy For You provides a momentary glimpse into the characters who inhabit the sprawling space of metro Los Angeles, where lines and lives are constantly intersecting. Set within this city of actors and moviemakers, glamour and glitz, these stories depicts the universal desire to find something true. Join us for a hometown celebration of Rouss's exploration of West Coast lives.
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