The Smart Set: Lauren Cerand’s weekly events

February 5, 2007

The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled by Lauren Cerand, that usually appears Mondays at 12:30pm 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 lauren [at] maudnewton.com by the Thursday prior to publication, with the event’s date in the subject line.

MONDAY, 2.5: “Reading Between A and B brings together established and emerging poets Kimiko Hahn, Rigoberto González and Brian Teare,” at the 11th Street Bar. 7:30pm, FREE.

TUESDAY, 2.6: Barnes & Noble presents “Upstairs at the Square,” at the Union Square B&N. The series features host Katherine Lanpher in conversation with established and emerging authors and musicians, who read and perform their work. Tuesday’s guests are Paul Auster, who discusses his new novel, Travels in the Scriptorium, and chanteuse Sophie Auster (with One Ring Zero) [full disclosure, as always: I am the PR consultant for this project].

WEDNESDAY, 2.7: “Underground …Shrouded in mist and mystery … And teeming with cocktails previously unknown to science …Union Hall’s “Secret Science Club” is back with more mind-bending lectures, chemical libations, and star-gazing sounds!!” With “Physicist and Author Janna Levin on Cosmology and Unsolvable Mysteries” and “TRANSMITTING: The Words and Beat of the Universe,” “recently the band in residence at the Liberty Science Center.” 7:30pm, FREE.

THURSDAY, 2.8: “The Crier’s first two issues were full of bold, creative journalism, from an in-depth look at two towns on the U.S.-Mexico border to a critical essay on wonderfully weird artist Walton Ford. In advance of the publication of its third issue—featuring pieces on female wrestlers in Bolivia, iconoclastic New York rock promoter Todd P, and several short articles on the theme of surveillance, among others—The Crier will hold a fundraising party featuring a reading by humorist Mike Albo, author of The Underminer…The party will be held at Club Midway, 25 Ave. B, between 2nd and 3rd sts, on Thursday, February 8, from 7-10pm. Admission is free for subscribers to The Crier, $10 for non-subscribers; the admission fee for non-subscribers includes a copy of Issue 2 of The Crier.” Also, at KGB, Behind the Book presents “an evening of exceptional fiction by Martha Southgate, Eisa Nefertari Ulen, and Colson Whitehead.” 7:00pm, FREE.

FRIDAY, 2.9: “John Neumeier, Hamburg Ballet’s longtime artistic director, crafts roles that distill a character’s essence—be it a swan, prince, or sleeping beauty—while simultaneously capturing the individual qualities of the performer… Neumeier returns to BAM for the first time in more than 20 years with an inventive take on Thomas Mann’s classic novella, Death in Venice. While Mann conceived his protagonist as a poet, Neumeier re-imagines the aging Gustav von Aschenbach as a successful and honored choreographer totally immersed in his work. Experiencing a professional crisis, he visits Venice, where he is stunned by the beauty and innocence of an adolescent boy. Fascination turns to obsession as Aschenbach turns from art to life—and death in Venice. The large-scale, coolly minimalist sets emphasize his anguish as does the heartrending score featuring Bach and Wagner.” 7:30pm, tickets $20 – 70 (through Feb 10).

SATURDAY, 2.10: Please join us for a launch party at Bluestockings in celebration of Gayle Brandeis’ Self Storage, the politically resonant story of a woman whose habit of buying and reselling storage unit contents sets her on a path of self-discovery inspired by Whitman’s Song of Myself. Also featuring a very special performance by acclaimed singer-songwriter Kelley McRae, whose latest album is Never Be. Presented by CODEPINK. 7:00pm, FREE. [full disclosure as always: Gayle is one of my PR clients, and I put this event together].

SUNDAY, 2.11: “Reading #2 in the good words @ Good World reading series is coming up…This time, the focus is on FAITH, with: Poetry by SHARON DOLIN, whose most recent books are Realm Of The Possible and Serious Pink… She will read from a new sequence of poems based on paintings that are a book of hours….Nonfiction by SCOTT KORB, co-author, with Peter Bebergal, of The Faith Between Us, forthcoming from Bloomsbury this November… He’ll read an essay about “Un-holy Veganism,” taken from The Faith Between Us, and appearing in the May issue of Gastronomica.” 5:00pm, FREE.