The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled by Lauren Cerand, that appears Mondays and highlights the best of the week to come. Special favor is given to New York’s independent booksellers and venues, and low-cost and free events. Please submit details to lauren@maudnewton.com.
MONDAY, 2.28: I’m a sucker for a good cultural study: The Half King hosts a reading by Mediated author (and Harper’s contributing editor) Thomas de Zengotita. 7:00pm, FREE. Elsewhere Monday evening, Kundiman, “a not-for-profit organization committed to the discovery and cultivation of emerging Asian-American poets,” presents readings by Ishle Yi Park, Patrick Rosal, Bushra Rehman, Purvi Shah, R.A. Villanueva and Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai at the ecstatically chill bar Verlaine. Open bar from 6-7pm, the reading starts at 7:00pm. $5 [via poetz.com].
TUESDAY, 3.1: If Andy Warhol were organizing a panel today, a few deeply superficial people would get together for oh, 15 minutes or so, to talk shop — and the latest issue of Star or New Beauty magazine , no doubt — and then the party would start. Instead, The Kitchen “brings together scholars, biographers, and distinguished Factory alumni to discuss how Warhol’s conversations and physical presence reflected and influenced his art, thinking, and public image.” Yawn; see you in the bathroom. 7:00pm, $8.
WEDNESDAY, 3.2: Symphony Space’s Selected Shorts program presents an evening dedicated to ”Women With Plans.” “How to Become a Writer” by Lorrie Moore read by an actor TBA, “1919” by Julie Otsuka read by Dawn Akemi Saito and “My Father Addresses Me on the Facts of Old Age” by Grace Paley read by Rochelle Oliver. 6:30pm, $25. Note: $10 Rush Tickets at the door at 6pm, subject to availability. 2 per person, cash only. Also — because irony ain’t free, babe — indulge yourself in a ticket to “McSweeney’s vs. They Might Be Giants,” part of the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center. 8:30pm; $30, 40 or $50, with proceeds to benefit 826NYC.
THURSDAY, 3.3: Abha Dawesar gives a reading from Babyji, her rather intriguing-sounding new novel. 7:00pm, FREE.
FRIDAY, 3.4: “Is there such a thing as selling out? This is the central question in this adaptation of Jonathan Dee’s provocative novel Palladio. Headstrong artists, ambitious advertising executives and irrational lovers clash in this premiere live video/music performance.” Check out Palladio at Symphony Space, on Friday and Saturday. 8:30pm, $21 [via NEWSgrist]. And, the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at New York University hosts a bilingual poetry reading by Puerto Rican poet Carmen Valle, author of Esta casa flotante y abierta (Puerto Rico: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, 2004), translated by Chris Brandt. 6:15pm, FREE.
SATURDAY, 3.5: Because irony is free, if you’re a subscriber: n + 1 hosts a hipster prom party just for you, and everyone else pays three bucks. n+1’s issue #2 launch party takes place “on the top floor of the University Settlement building, on the corner of Eldridge and Rivington Streets (184 Eldridge) on the Lower East Side at 9 pm,” featuring appealing music (“DJ Kid Millions of the Brooklyn rock outfit Oneida”) and attractively-priced booze (“drinks so cheap it’s utopian”). 9:00pm-1:00am, up to $3.
SUNDAY, 3.6: Novelists Samantha Hunt (The Seas) and David Israel (Behind Everyman) read from their work with poet Brenda Coultas (A Handmade Museum and The Bowery Project) at the exceedingly enticing Sundays at Sunny’s (“…a legendary old bar on the Brooklyn waterfront in Red Hook…) reading series, co-sponsored by BookCourt bookstore. “You can buy books and get them signed by the authors…The bar (cash) will be open. Free coffee and Italian pastries and cookies will be provided.” In fact, reading the description, I can’t help but wonder, why haven’t I been to this one yet? 3:00pm, $3 suggested.
