The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled and posted by Lauren Cerand, that usually appears Mondays at 12:30 pm, 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 send details to Ms. Cerand at lauren [at] maudnewton.com by the Thursday prior to publication. Due to the volume of submissions, events cannot be considered unless the date appears in the subject line of your message.
At the time of this writing, I am in living in snow exile in Maryland. I came down for the weekend to speak to a class at a school and everything was cancelled this morning, although I haven’t decided if it was to my chagrin or not. In the meantime, I want to go back home but perhaps not just yet. I may change my mind, of course, and charge up there within the hour. Or I might stay on in DC to see Robert Frank’s The Americans, the Louise Bourgeois I regretted missing in New York, and check in on whatever is recommended at Grammar Police– I see the editor DESPERATELY NEEDS OUR HELP. In a roundabout way, I am saying “the city” is not on my mind at the moment because I am in a different one.
I’ll certainly be back well before the weekend though, when I hope you’ll join us at the New School for Girls Write Now Day on Sunday, with headliners Annette Gordon-Reed and Marlon James! [Full disclosure, as always: both Maud and I are on the board of directors].