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.
MON SEP 29: At Rocky Sullivan’s, Alan Black reads from Kick the Balls: “Fever Pitch meets Trainspotting in this laugh-out-loud, caustic account of one man’s attempt to coach a peewee soccer team in California… And on top of the bad players, Black’s coaching methods are constantly questioned by the overprotective, pampering parents who maintain that ‘winning isn’t everything’ the polar opposite of Black’s philosophy… Alan Black is a bartender by trade. He co-founded the Scottish Cultural and Arts Foundation in 1995. In 1996, he produced the American premiere of the hit stage play version of Trainspotting. His involvement with the Scottish literary renaissance in the nineties allowed him to introduce to an American audience many of the new writers emerging as part of that influential wave.” Highly recommended. 8PM, FREE.
TUE SEP 30: At Idlewild Books, Stephanie Elizondo Griest reads from Mexican Enough: “Growing up in a half-white, half-Latino town and family in South Texas, Stephanie Elizondo Griest struggled with her cultural identity. Upon turning thirty, she ventured to her mother’s native Mexico to do a little root-searching and stumbled upon a burgeoning social movement that shook the nation to its core.” Highly recommended. 7PM, FREE.
WED OCT 1: The Beatrice series (I would propose, as Lord Byron suggested, “The reader is requested to adopt the Italian pronunciation of Beatrice, sounding all the syllables.â€) presents novelists Daphne Beal and Matthew Quick at the Mercantile Library. 7PM, FREE. Plus, last chance to catch the revival of The Godfather & The Godfather, Part II at Film Forum.
THU OCT 2: KIOSK, the hyper-quirky showcase for “interesting things from interesting countries,” debuts “The KIOSK American Installment #1, an exploration of sorts into our past, present and the future… Opening Party October 2nd, the night of the Vice-Presidential debates, from 6 – 9 pm. Obama fundraiser comb and hopefully a poster (we are taking sides: OBAMA YES!). Economics and coin rolls, politics and surprise balls, things to fish with and stuff for babies to chew on, it’s America after all.” Or, since you’re thinking about moving there, might as well check out the scene… Agora Gallery hosts an opening for “Beyond Borders: An Exhibition of Fine Art From Canada.” 6-8PM, FREE.
FRI OCT 3: At the Met, Yale University’s Tim Barringer discusses “A Glittering Façade: Art, Music, and Poetry in London’s Jazz Age,” centering on the “brilliant artistic circle assembled around Dame Edith Sitwell and her two younger brothers, Sir Osbert and Sir Sacheverell Sitwell.” 6PM, $23. In Brooklyn, Freebird Books hosts a “reading and book release party for Mike Heppner’s novella, Talking Man [from] Small Anchor Press, a Brooklyn based independent press… He is the author of two novels, The Egg Code and Pike’s Folly, published by Knopf. His work has appeared in Nerve and Esquire. Entertainment Weekly calls Heppner, ‘A fearsome cultural critic,’ and Publishers Weekly remarks, ‘Heppner’s prose is ax sharp.'” 7:30PM, FREE.
WEEKEND: This weekend is a nice time to think about all those projects that you would do if you had more time or lived somewhere cheaper like Montreal where people make “Hot Sex” mixtapes and sell them out of vending machines.