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, 3.21: Because sometimes, when choosing events, I have to ask myself, “What Would Henry Miller Do?” SMUT, the weekly series at Galapagos that pairs “sex talk with substance”, lays out another edition of “explicit art side by side with intellectual discourse. Featuring performances, readings, and discussions about sex, sexuality, and gender, SMUT is playful and enlightening entertainment that turns on your mind.” I like it; I’m all about enlightenment. Followed by a classic burlesque show at 10:00pm, so you can go for the reading and stay after for a tassel-twirling good time. (Also, writers: heed the call for submissions) 8:00pm, FREE.
TUESDAY, 3.22: “The annual art journal, LTTR, presents performances and presentations by queer and feminist artists, writers, and cultural producers curated by editors Ginger Takahashi, K8 Hardy, and Emily Roysdon. The evening includes the Chicago performance duo Marriage, Nao Bustamante and Megan Palaima among others.” At The Kitchen. 8:00pm, $8.
WEDNESDAY, 3.23: Do you ever, like, get a crush on a bookstore? I imagine you do. I’m currently digging McNally Robinson NYC. It’s newish (c. December 2004), and on the eastern end of Prince Street, which makes me think it probably has huge dewdrops on everything, ’cause it’s so fresh! Maybe giant Takashi Murakami-esque flowers out front? Doubtful, but there is a tea house on the premises, so you know where I’ll be when Abha Dawesar – named by Time Out New York as one of 25 to Watch in 2005 – reads from her new novel, Babyji, Wednesday evening. 7:00pm, FREE.
THURSDAY, 3.24: “The Neighborhood of Solitude: Prostitutes of Mexico City”, an exhibition of work by Magnum-rep’ed photographer Maya Goded, is on display at NYU through April 23 (when Goded will be present for a closing event at 6:00pm). Goded says: “I wanted to engage in a work that would allow me to go deep into the roots of inequality, transgression, our body, sex, virginity, maternity, childhood and old age, desire and those things we lack. I wanted to talk about love and the lack of love. I wanted to know about women. I photographed prostitutes.” Through April 23 in the lobby of New York University’s King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, located at 53 Washington Square South. Gallery hours are 9 a.m – 10 p.m., Monday through Friday. FREE.
FRIDAY, 3.25: “By combining several different media, such as modeling clay, three dimensional figures, photographs and drawings, Koji Yamamura creates hand-crafted analog visuals that are pleasing and playful, but somewhat surreal. This selection of 10 short animations includes Aquatic (1987), Japanese-English Pictionary (1988), Perspektivenbox–Researcher’s Search (1990), Karo & Piyobupt (1993), Kids Castle (1995), Your Choice! (1999), Mt. Head (2002), which was nominated for the 75th Academy Awards Short Films’ Animation Category, and Yamamura’s latest work, The Old Crocodile (2005, world premiere).” At Japan Society. 6:30pm, $10.
SATURDAY, 3.26: “During an influential career that spanned thirty years, Lucile was a groundbreaking entrepreneur and an arbiter of style. Near her professional peak in 1912, when she made headlines with a controversial escape from the sinking Titanic, Lucile’s clientele represented the Who’s Who of fashionable society. By 1915 she had couture houses in London, New York, Paris and Chicago and her clients included such diverse personalities as Isadora Duncan, Elsie de Wolfe and Lucile’s own sister, the novelist Elinor Glyn, author of ‘It.'” Hemingway may have worn khakis, but Daisy Buchanan almost certainly would have donned Lucile. Check out the rather Gatsby-esque creations on display as part of “Designing the It Girl: Lucile and Her Style“, at the Museum at FIT through April 16.
SUNDAY, 3.27: “Virtuosic technique! Wild improvisation! Daring key changes! Dizzying tempos! That’s the contemporary Balkan folk music of legendary Bulgarian accordionist Ivan Milev. Drawing inspiration from multiple styles and sources, including classical, jazz and Eastern Orthodox church music, Milev brings his uniquely inventive style to the rural and urban folk music of the Balkans….Entcho Todorov is a classically trained virtuoso violinist, playing everything from Brahms to Broadway who trained with Milev for years.” They’ll be joined by Maria Koleva (vocals), Vasko Angelov (guitar & keyboard), and Take Toriyama (drums, percussion). Honestly now, here else would you like to be on Sunday evening but Bulgarian Music Night at the Half King? Exactly. 7:30pm, FREE.