La Maison Française will feature a Francophone literary festival, the Festival des Cinq Continents (April 6-7); a live taping of the Person Place Thing podcast with host Randy Cohen and guest Edmund White (April 9); the PEN World Voices Festival (April 20); and writer, director, and actor Christophe Barbier as part of the French Literature in the Making series (April 23). La Maison Française will feature a Francophone literary festival, the Festival des Cinq Continents (April 6-7); a live taping of the Person Place Thing podcast with host Randy Cohen and guest Edmund White (April 9); the PEN World Voices Festival (April 20); and writer, director, and actor Christophe Barbier as part of the French Literature in the Makingseries (April 23).
All events are held at La Maison Française, 16 Washington Mews (between University Place and Fifth Avenue), and are free and open to the public and in English, unless otherwise noted. Seating for free events is on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, call 212.998.8750 or visit nyu.edu/maisonfrancaise. Subways: R, W (8th Street); 6 (Astor Place); A, B, C, D, E, F, M (West 4th Street). Wednesday, April 4, 6:30 p.m. Gender and Capitalism in Twentieth-Century France and the United States Institute of French Studies panel event exploring gender relations and the workings of the capitalist economy. Sabine Effosse, historian, Université Paris Nanterre; author of Le crédit à la consommation en France, 1947-1965 - De la stigmatisation à la réglementation Julia Ott, Associate Professor, The New School; author of When Wall Street Met Main Street: The Quest for an Investors’ Democracy Herrick Chapman (moderator), Institute of French Studies, NYU Thursday, April 5, 6:00 p.m. Music and Dance at the Court of Versailles Lecture/Performance Catherine Turocy, Director, choreographer and the New York Baroque Dance Company (nybaroquedance.org) Seating is limited. Reservations required: 212-998-8750 or [email protected] Thursday to Saturday, April 5 to 7 Festival Des Cinq Continents: Littérature, Francophonie, Diversité A Francophone literary festival, co-sponsored by the Permanent Mission of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie to the United Nations and by the NYU Center for French Civilization and Culture, takes place at various NYC locations. Visiting authors include Yamen Manai, the 2017 recipient of the Prix des 5 continents. For festival details: nyu.is/5continents Festival des cinq continents events hosted at La Maison Française of NYU are listed below: Friday, April 6, 5:00 p.m. La littérature francophone dans le champ éditorial: Comment construire (et déconstruire) un genre littéraire? La littérature francophone et le champ éditorial contemporain Table ronde Kathryn Kleppinger, Kaoutar Harchi, Kim Thúy; Modérateur: Stéphane Gerson, NYU In French Friday, April 6, 6:30 p.m. Les conditions de la création littéraire francophone: évolution et défis actuels L'écrivain francophone - solitaire ou solidaire? Table ronde Yamen Manai, Lise Gauvin, Rodney Saint-Éloi, Évelyne Trouillot; Modérateur : Michael Dash, NYU In French Saturday, April 7, 11:00 a.m. Readings Lise Gauvin, Kaoutar Harchi, Eugène Nicole; Modérateur: Gabriella Lindsay, NYU In English Monday, April 9, 7:00 p.m. Person Place Thing Taping with Guest Edmund White Join host Randy Cohen – author and broadcaster – for a special live taping of his podcast Person Place Thing. Guests talk about one person, one place, and one thing important to them. The result? Surprising stories from great talkers. American novelist, memoirist, and essayist Edmund White is the author of over 25 books, including a trilogy of autobiographical novels ─ A Boy’s Own Story, The Beautiful Room is Empty, and The Farewell Symphony. He has written biographies of Jean Genet (National Book Critics Circle Award), Marcel Proust, and Arthur Rimbaud. His most recent works of fiction are Hotel de Dream, Jack Holmes and His Friend, and Our Young Man. A new memoir, The Unpunished Vice: A Life of Reading, will be published in June. He received the 2018 PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Career Achievement in American Fiction. The live event includes music by Rich Jenkins. The program will be recorded for later broadcast on public radio throughout the Northeast (WNYE, 91.5 FM in NYC). Tickets: General Admission $10 (Cash payment at the door); Students with ID admitted free Seating is limited. Reservations required: bit.ly/2FgIFQU Thursday & Friday, April 12 & 13 Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) – Cultural, Religious, Ethical Values and Norms from a Comparative Perspective, France/United States This two-day Franco-American workshop seeks to compare the cultural, ethical, religious, historical and policy implications of how reproductive technologies have developed and now impact our two national contexts. In both countries, advanced reproductive technologies have long been in development and are now in widespread use. France and the United States share a certain number of similar conceptions relative to kinship and gender, and are both undergoing comparable evolutions in the creation of new family configurations. Yet in France, public discourse calling for “social solidarity” with people experiencing infertility is widespread and public payment and access is designed and tightly controlled through biomedical regulation. In the US, by contrast, “privacy” of family life and “consumer choice” dominate the public discussion, while few insurance schemes actually cover reproductive technology expenses and market access shapes both popular imaginaries and practical use. Organized by Rayna Rapp (NYU), Linda Gordon (NYU), Séverine Mathieu (EPHE-PSL, Paris), and Jennifer Merchant (Université Paris 2, Paris). Organized with the generous support of the Institute of French Studies (NYU); Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE-PSL); the CNRS (GSRL); and the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF). Tuesday, April 17, 7:00 p.m. La Rhétorique des Dieux Echoes of Antiquity in the Lute Music of Versailles Salon/Sanctuary Concert Catherine Lidell, Baroque lute Tickets and details: showclix.com/event/la-rhetorique-des-dieux Co-sponsored by Salon/Sanctuary Concerts and La Maison Française of NYU and generously supported by the Florence Gould Foundation Wednesday, April 18, 6:30 p.m. Performing Archaeology: The 1906-07 Fêtes de Carthage and a Vision of Empire Institute of French Studies lecture Daniel J. Sherman, Professor of Art History and History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; author of French Primitivism and the Ends of Empire, 1945-1975 Friday, April 20 PEN World Voices Festival La Maison Française of NYU will again participate in the Pen World Voices Festival. The theme this year is Resist and Reimagine. The complete festival schedule (April 16 – 22) is available at penworldvoices.org. Meditations on Exile 6:00 p.m. Being forced to leave one’s country involves profound physical dislocation as well as the emotional upheaval of being separated from family, friends, and the very roots of our existence. Often accompanying this change is the need to adjust to a new place, the strangeness and the stresses of crossing into a different world. Each panelist has experienced this. They talk about why they needed to upend their former lives and how they have adapted to their new ones. With Xiaolu Guo, Dunya Mikhail, and Hossein M Abkenar. Blurring Borders: Reimagining Strangers 7:30 p.m. With Raquel Abend, Négar Djevadi, Ibi Zoboi, Rebecca Falkoff (moderator) Through the lens of their literary work and personal perspectives, international authors consider society reimagined in the context of global immigration, migratory movements, political exiles, and the challenges of assimilation and integration. Monday, April 23, 7:00 p.m. French Literature in the Making Christophe Barbier, editorialist, journalist, author, theater director, and actor; editorial director L’Express (2006-2016); political commentator, BFM-TV; author of Les Derniers Jours de François Mitterrand, La Comédie des Orphelins, La Guerre de l’Elysée n’aura pas lieu, Dictionnaire amoureux du Théâtre in conversation with Olivier Barrot, writer, journalist, television producer and host, Un Livre un jour (France 3 and TV5); author of L’Ami posthume; Le Fils perdu; La Revue Blanche; Un Livre un jour, un livre toujours; Mitteleuropa; United States In French Thursday, April 26, 7:00 p.m. La Guitare Napoléonienne French Music for Early Romantic Guitar Salon/Sanctuary Concert Pascal Valois, guitar Tickets and details: showclix.com/event/la-guitare-napoleonienne Co-sponsored by Salon/Sanctuary Concerts and La Maison Française of NYU and generously supported by the Florence Gould Foundation Monday, April 30, 7:00 p.m. Le Nouveau Roman: une aventure épistolaire Carrie Landfried, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Franklin & Marshall College Olivier Wagner, Archivist and curator of contemporary collections, Département des Manuscrits, Bibliothèque Nationale de France Co-editors of the annotated volume of correspondence Lettres d'Amérique de Nathalie Sarraute (Gallimard, 2017) In French Editor’s Note For over six decades, La Maison Française of New York University has served as a major forum for French-American cultural and intellectual exchange, offering contemporary perspectives on myriad French and Francophone issues. Its rich program of lectures, symposia, concerts, screenings, exhibitions, and special events provides an invaluable resource to the university community, as well as the general public. For more, please visit nyu.edu/maisonfrancaise.
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By Ephrat Livni Even with the right skills, few artists can make a career from a dream. Getting recognition for abilities is an uphill battle, and the luckiest—those who gain a lifetime of international success—tend to only be remembered for a single thing after death. This will likely be the bittersweet fate of the very lucky Hubert de Givenchy, a fashion designer and French aristocrat whose ideas may have influenced your outfit today. The iconic designer died on March 10 at age 91, after rising to worldwide fame in the 1950s and 1960s and contributing to his still-thriving house until 2014. Givenchy’s early and later work remains contemporary. In fact, we have him to thank for fashion separates—that is, the now very common idea that a woman’s wardrobe can be modular, comprised of complementary parts that all fit together into different looks instead of complete outfits. But we’ll remember him for one dress worn by a single unforgettable actress that’s actually a nod to another designer, Coco Chanel, creator of the Little Black Dress—or LBD. Audrey Hepburn wore a long, simple black sheath dress with a slit up one side, and long black gloves, in the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Givenchy designed the dress, and many of Hepburn’s subsequent looks on film and in life—as well as pieces for Jackie Kennedy and Grace Kelly. Coco Chanel may have originated the Little Black Dress, but it was Givenchy, thanks to Hepburn’s both louche and devastatingly sharp inhabitation of an albeit-elongated version of the garment in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, that made it iconic,” writes Tim Teeman in a Variety piece titled “Givenchy’s Brilliance was More than just Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” The writer’s concern is that Givenchy’s many other sartorial contributions will be forgotten because of one woman in a single cinema sensation—which would still put Givenchy’s reputation in an enviable state. This designer’s fate is no different than that of other artistic greats who innovate for decades but are mostly known for only one work. Take Andy Warhol’s classic Campbell Soup can paintings, for example. Warhol didn’t just do screen prints of items that could be found in a supermarket, although those are the paintings we best recall. He also transformed the art world with the concept of superficial works that were sneakily substantive for their comment on the culture. Equally key, he also spawned a generation of artists in many genres by creating The Factory for artistic experimentation and production. And because of him, we people of the future, all expect at least 15 minutes of fame--although some now dispute the claim Warhol famously said, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” (a challenge that itself proves the point little endures). Similarly, literary history is riddled with major contributors who left behind many great works but are barely recalled for one. The French writer Marguerite Duras made avant-garde films, wrote plays and books, fiction and non-fiction, and was widely admired throughout the 20th century. But only one work, a novel called The Lover, which she wrote at age 70 in 1984 and became a major movie production, made it big. Now, Duras is still a small part of our barely enduring cultural memory. Those are the lucky ones. As the band Wilco sings in the heartbreaking Late Greats, the best works of all never reach us, let alone are remembered. “The best band will never get signed. The Kay-Settes starring Butchers Blind,” croons Wilco’s singer Jeff Tweedy. “So good you won’t ever know. They never even played a show. Can’t hear them on the radio.”
Reprinted from Quartzy |
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