$30
The Fourth Annual PEN Cabaret- SOLD OUT
Sat., May 01, 2010 / 7:00 PM
Audio / Video
Gallery
About This Event
Minimum Age:
18+Doors Open:
7:00 PMShow Time:
8:00 PMDescription:
A perennial highlight of the Festival, the PEN Cabaret returns this year to the heart
of the West Village. Come hear Natalie Merchant perform songs from her new
album, Leave Your Sleep (Nonesuch), featuring musical interpretations of classic
poetry from Ogden Nash, Christina Rossetti, Robert Louis Stevenson, and others.
Also joining us direct from London is Booker Prize–winning novelist Ben Okri, and
Georgian novelist, poet, and performance artist Irakli Kakabadze. Prepare to be
white-knuckled as Ariel Dorfman reads from his very spooky cyber ghost story. Stay
tuned for special-guest announcements — the global stars are aligning now. Emceed
by Rakesh Satyal, editor, author, and jazz singer extraordinaire.
PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature: A week-long celebration of books and writing from around the globe, featuring 130 writers from 40 different countries. Don't miss this exciting cross-cultural literary exchange including conversations, panel discussions, readings, a translation slam, and an all-star Cabaret! New York City, April 26-May 2, 2010. <www.pen.org/festival>
This is a first come seated event. Seating is limited and not guaranteed; please arrive early.
Tickets are $30, or $25 for PEN members.
PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature: A week-long celebration of books and writing from around the globe, featuring 130 writers from 40 different countries. Don't miss this exciting cross-cultural literary exchange including conversations, panel discussions, readings, a translation slam, and an all-star Cabaret! New York City, April 26-May 2, 2010. <www.pen.org/festival>
This is a first come seated event. Seating is limited and not guaranteed; please arrive early.
Tickets are $30, or $25 for PEN members.
Artists
Natalie Merchant
Natalie Merchant was born on October 26, 1963 in Jamestown, New York, USA. The third of four children, Natalie displayed a love for music at an early age, though she never thought of it as a career choice. Natalie originally wanted to become a teacher, but that changed when she met Robert Buck in 1981 and became the lead singer for 10,000 Maniacs. The band release eight albums together: Human Conflict Number Five (1982), The Secrets of the I Ching (1983), The Wishing Chair (1985), In My Tribe (1987), Blind Man's Zoo (1989), Hope Chest (1990), Our Time in Eden (1992) and MTV Unplugged (1993). Despite their commercial success, Natalie grew apart from the band and announced her departure in 1991, though she stayed until 1993 and was replaced by Mary Ramsey. Determined to do things her way, Natalie wrote and produced the album "Tigerlily" (1995). The album, highlighted by Natalie's beautiful vocals and piano playing, sold over 5 million copies worldwide. Even though Natalie was tearing up the charts, she released "Ophelia" in 1998 and proved that musical integrity is more important than record sales. The album sold well, thanks to the hit "Kind and Generous". Natalie released "Live in Concert" in 1999 and embarked on a folk tour in 2000 to adoring audiences. In November of 2001, Natalie released "Motherland" and has just wrapped up an almost year long tour. Though best known for her music, Natalie has volunteered as a children's arts and crafts teacher at numerous homeless shelters in Harlem, and has donated money for various women's and children's causes.
The year 2003 proved to be a great milestone for Natalie -- she turned forty, got married for the first time, and gave birth to her first child all in the same year. In the summer, she and her personal photographer-husband Daniel de la Calle and their daughter Lucia live in a small mountainside village outside Malaga in Southern Spain where her husband is from, winter is spent in Hawaii, and springtime is spent in Japan appreciating the blossoms in Kyoto - Merchant's "favorite city in the world". They spend the rest of the year in Upstate New York where Merchant grew up.
The year 2003 proved to be a great milestone for Natalie -- she turned forty, got married for the first time, and gave birth to her first child all in the same year. In the summer, she and her personal photographer-husband Daniel de la Calle and their daughter Lucia live in a small mountainside village outside Malaga in Southern Spain where her husband is from, winter is spent in Hawaii, and springtime is spent in Japan appreciating the blossoms in Kyoto - Merchant's "favorite city in the world". They spend the rest of the year in Upstate New York where Merchant grew up.
Irakli Kakabadzeis
Irakli Kakabadzeis a well-known writer, performance artist, peace and human rights activist from Georgia. Kakabadze was recently awarded Oxfam/Novib Pen Freedom of Expression Prize Irakli Kakabadze's articles and stories have been published in Georgian, Russian and English newspapers and magazines. In 2007 Kakabadze received Lilian Hellman/Hammet grant from Human Rights Watch which aim to help writers confront and survive persecution. From 2008, Kakabadze is hosted as a Writer-in-Residence in the city of Ithaca, NY, US and teaches at Cornell University.
Ben Okri
Poet and novelist Ben Okri was born in 1959 in Minna, northern Nigeria, to an Igbo mother and Urhobo father. He grew up in London before returning to Nigeria with his family in 1968. Much of his early fiction explores the political violence that he witnessed at first hand during the civil war in Nigeria. He left the country when a grant from the Nigerian government enabled him to read Comparative Literature at Essex University in England.
He was poetry editor for West Africa magazine between 1983 and 1986 and broadcast regularly for the BBC World Service between 1983 and 1985. He was appointed Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College Cambridge in 1991, a post he held until 1993. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1987, and was awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Westminster (1997) and Essex (2002).
His first two novels, Flowers and Shadows (1980) and The Landscapes Within (1981), are both set in Nigeria and feature as central characters two young men struggling to make sense of the disintegration and chaos happening in both their family and country. The two collections of stories that followed, Incidents at the Shrine (1986) and Stars of the New Curfew (1988), are set in Lagos and London.
In 1991 Okri was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel The Famished Road (1991). Set in a Nigerian village, this is the first in a trilogy of novels which tell the story of Azaro, a spirit child. Azaro's narrative is continued in Songs of Enchantment (1993) and Infinite Riches (1998). Other recent fiction includes Astonishing the Gods (1995) and Dangerous Love (1996), which was awarded the Premio Palmi (Italy) in 2000. His latest novels are In Arcadia (2002) and Starbook (2007).
A collection of poems, An African Elegy, was published in 1992, and an epic poem, Mental Flight, in 1999. A collection of essays, A Way of Being Free, was published in 1997. Ben Okri is also the author of a play, In Exilus.
In his latest book, Tales of Freedom (2009), Okri brings together poetry and story.
Ben Okri is a Vice-President of the English Centre of International PEN, a member of the board of the Royal National Theatre, and was awarded an OBE in 2001. He lives in London.
He was poetry editor for West Africa magazine between 1983 and 1986 and broadcast regularly for the BBC World Service between 1983 and 1985. He was appointed Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College Cambridge in 1991, a post he held until 1993. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1987, and was awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Westminster (1997) and Essex (2002).
His first two novels, Flowers and Shadows (1980) and The Landscapes Within (1981), are both set in Nigeria and feature as central characters two young men struggling to make sense of the disintegration and chaos happening in both their family and country. The two collections of stories that followed, Incidents at the Shrine (1986) and Stars of the New Curfew (1988), are set in Lagos and London.
In 1991 Okri was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel The Famished Road (1991). Set in a Nigerian village, this is the first in a trilogy of novels which tell the story of Azaro, a spirit child. Azaro's narrative is continued in Songs of Enchantment (1993) and Infinite Riches (1998). Other recent fiction includes Astonishing the Gods (1995) and Dangerous Love (1996), which was awarded the Premio Palmi (Italy) in 2000. His latest novels are In Arcadia (2002) and Starbook (2007).
A collection of poems, An African Elegy, was published in 1992, and an epic poem, Mental Flight, in 1999. A collection of essays, A Way of Being Free, was published in 1997. Ben Okri is also the author of a play, In Exilus.
In his latest book, Tales of Freedom (2009), Okri brings together poetry and story.
Ben Okri is a Vice-President of the English Centre of International PEN, a member of the board of the Royal National Theatre, and was awarded an OBE in 2001. He lives in London.
special guests
Emceed by Rakesh Satyal
Rakesh Satyal graduated in 2002 with a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Creative Writing from Princeton University, where he won the 2002 Ward Mathis Prize for best short story written by an undergraduate. He has been published in a variety of anthologies, including the Lambda Award-winning The Man I Might Become: Gay Men Write About Their Fathers and the second volume of the Fresh Men series, which featured an introduction by Andrew Holleran.
Rakesh is currently an editor at HarperCollins, where he edits such authors as international superstar Paulo Coelho, horror maestro Clive Barker, beloved novelist Armistead Maupin, and humorist Paul Rudnick. He is also on the planning committee of the PEN World Voices Festival and speaks frequently at writers' conferences.
In his spare time, Rakesh sings jazz music. His act with noted publishing figure Jonathan Burnham, "Rocky and Johnny," was featured on Page Six and the New York Observer and mentioned in The New Yorker, New York, the New York Times, and Time Out. Due to his trifecta of editing-writing-singing, Rakesh was featured in the 2005 book The Renaissance Soul by Margaret Lobenstine, a guide to balancing one's various interests and hobbies. Rakesh is also a bona fide foreign language nerd and budding chef.
Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Rakesh now lives in Brooklyn, New York
Rakesh is currently an editor at HarperCollins, where he edits such authors as international superstar Paulo Coelho, horror maestro Clive Barker, beloved novelist Armistead Maupin, and humorist Paul Rudnick. He is also on the planning committee of the PEN World Voices Festival and speaks frequently at writers' conferences.
In his spare time, Rakesh sings jazz music. His act with noted publishing figure Jonathan Burnham, "Rocky and Johnny," was featured on Page Six and the New York Observer and mentioned in The New Yorker, New York, the New York Times, and Time Out. Due to his trifecta of editing-writing-singing, Rakesh was featured in the 2005 book The Renaissance Soul by Margaret Lobenstine, a guide to balancing one's various interests and hobbies. Rakesh is also a bona fide foreign language nerd and budding chef.
Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Rakesh now lives in Brooklyn, New York