Author reads at Russell House

Author Daniyal Mueenuddin

The 2012 Jacob Julien Visiting Writers

Wednesday, February 15^th, 2012

Russell House, 350 High Street, Middletown, CT

8 P.M.

Celebrated author Daniyal Mueenuddin will read from his recent work on Wednesday, February 15^th, 2012 at 8:00 P.M.in Wesleyan University’s Russell House, 350 High Street, Middletown, CT.

Daniyal Mueenuddin’s first story collection, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, was the 2010 winner of The Story Prize and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, and other periodicals and in The Best American Short Stories 2008 (selected by Salman Rushdie) and PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2010. A graduate of Yale Law School, he practiced law in New York for a number of years. He now lives on a farm in Pakistan’s southern Punjab.

Of Mueenuddin’s recent work, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (W.W. Norton & Company), Robert Braile of The Boston Globe has said, “The eight short stories of Daniyal Mueenuddin’s enchanting debut are dreamlike, illuminating contemporary Pakistan’s societal contradictions in prose as clear and serene as the contradictions themselves are subtle and tumultuous.”

Mueenuddin’s collection was praised by Publishers Weekly: “An elegant stylist with a light touch, Mueenuddin invites the reader to a richly human, wondrous experience.”

Free and open to the public.

Reception and book signing to follow the reading.

For more information, please call 860.685.3448 or visit http://www.wesleyan.edu/writing/community/writing-events.html.

Arts This Week: Films, Puppets, Guitars, & Broadway (Part 1)

Much to see and hear this week and one can not be in 2 places at once, so here's a heads-up.

Wednesday October 14:
The Buttonwood Tree presents "Evening Oasis: A Night of Belly Dance" featuring Desideria, Aziz Al-Tawil and Rasa Vitalia at 7:30 p.m. Hosted by Laura Lawton and Kitti Field, the evening is entertaining and educational with performers from throughout the Northeast. For more information, call 347-4957.

The Distinguished Writers Program at Wesleyan presents poet and teacher Bernadette Mayer at 8 p.m. in The Russell House, 350 High Street. The author of over 20 books of poetry, Mayer has been an active poet and editor for 3 decades and writes pieces that have been described as "witty", "untidy" and "highly involving." The event is free and open to the public. A reception follows the reading and gives one the opportunity to meet and chat with the poet.

Here's a short work by Ms. Mayer:

"I was one of the skunks"

i was one of the skunks

that lived in your bungalow

i was beautiful to behold but

you took me to the schodack cemetery

well, it was the nassau animal guy who did

& he was nowhere near as good looking as I

Thursday October 15:
The Russell Library's Film Series, " Gutter to Penthouse", presents "I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang", the 1932 Mervyn LeRoy directed movie starring Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell and Helen Vinson.
The story revolves around a soldier who, upon returning from World War I, can't find steady work and accidentally becomes involved in a robbery and is sentenced to 10 years hard labor. He escapes to Chicago and becomes a successful businessman. His girlfriend finds out his secret and blackmails him into marrying her. He does so but falls in love with another woman and, when he asks his wife for a divorce, she turns him into the authorities. The movie has been deemed a classic and is quite an artistic success.
The screening takes place at 12noon in the Hubbard Room and is free and open to the public. For more information, call 347-2528, extension 135.

"Common Ground: The Middletown International Film Festival" continues at 7 p.m. in the Hubbard Room of the Russell Library with "Chungking Express", the 1994 Chinese film directed and written by Wang Kar-wei. The movie tells 2 unconnected stories one right after the other and each revolving around a Hong Kong policeman. The cast includes Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Valerie Chow. The screening is free and open to the public. Call the number in the paragraph above for more information.


The Elia Kazan Centennial Celebration continues at the Wesleyan Center for Film Studies with an 8 p.m. screening of one of the director's most celebrated films, "On The Waterfront." Starring Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, and Eva Marie Saint, the 1954 classic was filmed on location in Hoboken, New Jersey, and blends social commentary with a "gangster story" plot line. Brando, in one of his most famous roles, plays an ex-boxer ("I coulda been a contender") who takes a "dive" in the ring and ends up working for a union boss. With the help of a priest (Malden) and his girlfriend (Saint), the boxer decides to take on the union.
The screening takes place in the Goldsmith Family Cinema, Washington Terrace, and is free & open to the public. For more information, call 685-2220.

Yet one more film on this crowded day of cinema events is the 2009 documentary "Disfarmer: A Portrait of America" to be shown at 8 p.m. in the CFA Hall, formerly the CFA Cinema. Released earlier this year, the film, written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Martin Lavut, features people from Heber Springs, Arkansas, (where portrait photographer Mike Disfarmer settled and worked) and the gallery owners and photography experts who brought Disfarmer's work to the rest of the world. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, go to www.wesleyan.edu/cfa.

Later this week, we'll look at "Disfarmer", the puppet theater play that can be seen this Friday and Saturday in the CFA Theater as well as the first show in the Greater Middletown Concert Association's 2009-10 series ("Broadway Live!" on Saturday, 7:30 p.m. at Middletown High School), live music at The Buttonwood (Katie Pearlman/Rupert Wates on Friday, guitarist Sinan Bakir on Saturday) and the Crowell Concert Series presentation of Cuban pianist Omar Sosa & his Afreecanos Quartet (Saturday.) And more - stay tuned!

"Leave Your Troubles On the Doorstep"

This is part 2 of my look at this very busy first week of December (part 1 is here.) Before we dive into Thursday, there's one change and one addition. This Tuesday's "Jazz at the Public" has been postponed and will return next Tuesday (12/09) from 5 - 9 p.m. On Wednesday, The Russell Library presents the CT Concert Ballet in "A Nutcracker Sweet Evening" at 6:30 p.m. in the Hubbard Room. Children ages 4 and older will hear the story of "The Nutcracker" and see excerpts from "The Nutcracker's Land of Sweets." Doors open 30 minutes before the performance and seating is limited. Call 347-2528, ext. 135, for more information.

On to Thursday.

The Friends of the Davison Art Center at Wesleyan presents its Annual Holiday Print Sale from 12noon - 7 p.m. Curated by fine print dealer Charles M. Young, the sale has an impressive selection of prints in all price ranges (including the lovely Keiji Shinohara color woodcut at the top of the posting.) It's open to the public and a portion proceeds from each sale goes to fund acquisitions for the DAC's collection. The DAC is located at 301 High Street and there's no admission charge. For more information, call 685-2500.

The Russell Library continues its "Dangerous Dreams and Wet Pavement" free film series at 12noon with the 1958 classic "Touch of Evil." Directed by Orson Welles, the "film noir" thriller stars Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh and features a number of cameo appearances by Welles' friends, including Joseph Cotten, Marlene Deitrich and Zsa Zsa Gabor. It's considered the ultimate "B-movie." Bring your lunch to the Hubbard Room and the staff will supply the drinks.

At 4:30 p.m., the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies at Wesleyan, 301 Washington Terrace, welcomes Linda Rosenfeld Pomper who will deliver a talk titled "Chinese Porcelain: The Ubiquitous Artifact." The talk is free and open to the public. Call 685-2330 for more information.

There are 3 separate "Open Mics" taking place on Thursday. At 6 p.m., Javapalooza, 330 Main Street hosts one for singers and musicians. At 7 p.m., Bob Gotta hosts the monthly "Acoustic Open Mic" at The Buttonwood Tree, 605 Main Street. At the same time, the Green Street Arts Center of Middletown hosts "Writers Out Loud: A Literary Open Mic."

There will be a concert of Javanese Gamelan Music & Dance at 7 p.m. in the World Music Hall at Wesleyan, Wyllys Avenue. Performing will be beginning students in gamelan, the Wesleyan Youth Gamelan and students of Javanese Dance.The program is free and open to the public.

Michael Ondaatje at Wesleyan, Wednesday November 5

You may not recognize the author's name (but if you do, you're likely excited about his lecture and reading at Memorial Chapel on Wesleyan's campus), but you surely know Michael Ondaatje's, The English Patient, his Booker Prize winning novel that was turned into a popular and award-winning film. And while the English Patient might be his best-known novel, it's Anil's Ghost, which won worldwide recognition as a masterpiece. Ondaatje's most recent novel is Divisidero.




Michael Ondaatje
Wednesday November 5
8 pm
Memorial Chapel, Wesleyan University

For more information, contact:

Lucia Pier, Russell House Arts Fellow, 860-685-3448 or at russellhouse@wesleyan.edu.

Alastair Reid at Russell House Saturday

Noted poet, essayist and regular contributor to the New Yorker Alastair Reid will give a reading and a talk at Wesleyan University's Russell House on Washington Street.

According to the Wesleyan calendar:

Alastair Reid is a distinguished poet, translator, essayist, and traveler. Born in Scotland in 1926, he graduated from St. Andrews University and has since lived in countries across Europe, in Morocco, in the United States, and in Central and South America. Since 1959, Reid has written for The New Yorker, playing a major role as staff writer, South American editor, traveling correspondent, and noted champion of Latin American literature. He is the author of over twenty books - poems, essays, prose chronicles, and translations - and his writings have been widely translated. Reid's collections include Oases (1997), Whereabouts (1987), Weathering (1978) and To Lighten My House (1953). On the Blue Shore of Silence (2004) is a new selection of his translations of Neruda's poems of the sea. Reid has taught Latin American studies and literature as a visiting professor at schools across the United States and in England. In 2001, he received the PEN Kolovakos Award for Translation.

PLACE: Russell House
TIME: 3:00 pm
ADMISSION: Free

Sue Burkhart and Ed Vadas at the Russell House

Guitarists and singers, Sue Burkhart and Ed Vadas perform an arresting blend of jazz, country, folk, old timey, blues and purely original material in an eclectic, humorous and sophisticated manner. They call it Ameri-MF-cana music.

Location: Russell House - Russell House Parlors
Admission: Free Admission
Sponsor: Center for the Arts

Contact: 860-685-3355; boxoffice@wesleyan.edu

All around the mulberry stump

I feel as if I've cursed certain wild fruit trees in Middletown.

Shortly after I bragged about making pies and applesauce with some old variety apples, from trees on Wesleyan's Russell House property, the grounds department cut down the trees because they were "diseased" (in fact they were pushing out bushels of tasty, though not perfect, apples and I suspect they were cut down because the messy fruit drew squirrels and yellow jackets, and made walking through the yard a gooey challenge, and the trees were yet another obstacle for fast-moving lawn mowers).

Now, after blogging about making a mulberry cobbler with fruit from a tree in the rear of the St. John churchyard, I walked by the other morning to discover that the tree, and a neighboring maple, had been felled.

The good news is that after writing the last mulberry blog, more than one person told me about other trees in Middletown (I ain't breathing a word).

And I vow, that the fruit is now going to be a secret that only I and the tree will share.