Schedule for this month

Spanish philosopher Fernando Savater will chat with the audience about one of his greatest passions: adventure novels and movies. From the 19^th century tales of Edgar Allan Poe to the claustrophobic horror of Alien, through the humour of the Marx Brothers, the Middle-Earth of Tolkien and the shapeless monsters of Lovecraft, Savater will comment on stories that have made us dream in our childhood and keep thrilling us as adults.

Fernando Savater has produced over 50 works, including the essay La tarea del héroe (The Task of the Hero), which won the National Book Award. Recently he has published the essay La vida eterna (The Eternal Life) and the book La Hermandad de la Buena Suerte (The Good Luck Fraternity). Savater is a regular contributor to the daily newspaper El País.

Simultaneous interpretation.

Hugo Hamilton, Glucksman Irish House’s writer-in-residence, grew up with three languages—English, Irish, and German—and a sense of never really belonging to any one language or ethnic group. This journalist and fiction writer will discuss place, craft, and language.

Free and open to the public.

In spite of the fact that Miranda was a precursor of the American Independence and a key player in the history of Europe and the New World, his life is often forgotten and eclipsed by Bolivar, the liberator who was his pupil and surrended him to Monteverde's realists in Venezuela on the night of July 30th in 1812. This is the starting point of the novel written by Juan José Armas Marcelo, La noche que Bolívar traicionó a Miranda (The Night Bolivar Betrayed Miranda). This portrait of Miranda is relevant to understand America and its independence, and his life is a parable of freedom against power.

Simultaneous interpretation.

Take an expedition to observe artists in their natural habitat as we take a rare peek inside Westbeth Center for the Arts Housing, the city’s oldest and largest artist community. Wander the hallways of this converted industrial space, map in hand, to find an entire evening’s worth of literary events. Enjoy intimate readings by Festival participants inside the homes of famous Westbeth residents and end the night hobnobbing over cocktails with your favorite authors at the event’s closing party inside Westbeth’s legendary gallery.

Tickets:  $15/$10 PEN Members and students with valid ID; Westbeth residents admitted by donation. Call (866) 811-4111 or visit ovationtix.com

 

Fifty-five years have gone by since Sara Montiel sang with her deep voice the famous Fumando espero (Smoking I Wait) in the film El Último Cuplé (The Last Torch Song). From that moment on, the Spanish actress became a diva of Mexican cinema, and later of Hollywood, starring with actors like Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster and Charles Bronson, among others. ICNY pays tribute to this cult figure who will share with the audience some of her life and work experiences, as well as sing some of her famous torch songs and boleros.

Reception to follow.

Tickets: $30 / $20 ICNY and CCCNY (Cuban Cultural Center) Members

SOLD OUT.

María Luján, a cuplé singer in decline, reminisces about her intense life while she talks to Juan Contreras, an old admirer and the first entrepreneur that believed in her. The singer goes back to her beginning as a chorus girl, her success in Spain, Paris and Latin America in the 20s, the different men that were part of her life, her fling with French gambling houses, and finally her return to Spain after World War II, now in an ill condition, to work in El Molino, a cabaret in Barcelona.

Rafael Rojas is one of Cuba's most distinguished Caribbean historians and cultural critics, and a renown scholar and writer of Latin America history. Rojas has won numerous international awards, including Premio Matías Romero and Anagrama Essay Award. He currently teaches at Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Económica in Mexico City. Rojas has also been a visiting professor at Princeton and Columbia universities, where he has taught undergraduate students about Cuba's modern intellectual and political history, as well as offering guidance and support on senior thesis.

Simulteneous interpretation.

A panel discussion and a Q&A with Dore Ashton, Eusebio Lázaro, Robin Cembalest (Artnews), and artists Santi Moix, Amadeo Peñalver and Karim Márquez will follow after the screening. They will examine the influence that Tàpies has had in contemporary art. This roundtable will be also the presentation of the first session of Hispa-York, a series of talks that will take place once a month with the objective of highlighting the new visions of Latin American artists based in New York. The next date of Hispa-York will be on June 21^st and will be about digital art.

Before the panel there will be a screening of the documentary TÀPIES, by filmmaker Eusebio Lázaro, that shows us the studio where the late Catalan sculptor and painter created his world-renown pieces.

Simultaneous interpretation.

Amadeo Peñalver (Spain) and Karim Márquez (Venezuela) are two artists based in New York. Both will pay tribute with their paintings to Tápies, the Spanish master of artistic informalism, within the program Hispa-York, a series of conversations with Latinamerican creators. 

Amadeo's latest paintings have been created through performance, capturing the energy of the here and now. Márquez's paintings are based on the concept of chaos as a balance for material transformation. The evolution of his work is related to abstract expressionism.

Curators: Antonio Ortuño & Amadeo Peñalver

From the beginning, Miquel Barcelo's work has revealed a notable interest in natural imagery from the land as well as from the sea, rendered in a dark and often heavy palette.

His monumental sculpture Gran Elefandret has been one of the most acclaimed public art installations to grace New York´s Union Square. Barceló has also attracted the attention of the press this year by featuring in two films by Catalan director Isaki Lacuesta: El cuaderno de barro (The Clay Diaries) and Los Pasos Dobles (The Double Steps), winner of the Golden Shell, the top award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Set in the barren African landscape,  both movies were inspired by Mr. Barceló’s fascination for the people, artistic traditions and natural beauty of the Dogon country in Mali.

ICNY welcomes art historian and critic Dore Ashton, who will chat with Miquel Barceló, the renown painter and sculptor from Mallorca. There will be also a Q&A with the audience, as well as a documentary screening about Barceló by Spanish filmmaker Eusebio Lázaro. Simultaneous interpretation.

Ariadna Castellanos, pianist and composer, is the first Spanish musician to achieve the prestigious Presidential Scholarship at Berklee College of Music in Boston. She has performed all over the world and has brought flamenco to new venues in the US: Monterrey Festival, Kennedy Center. Born in Madrid, she begins playing the piano at six years and at seventeen wins a full scholarship to Guildhall School of Music where she studies classical piano. But she has been always close to flamenco music and has worked with numerous flamenco artists such as Niño Josele, Jorge Pardo and Agustín Carbonell 'El Bola' .

In 2010 she leads the Honorary Tribute to Paco de Lucía. Besides, Ariadna has recorded for Alejandro Sanz, Sandra Carrasco and José Mercé, among others, and has just recorded her first album with acclaimed producer Javier Limón (Paco de Lucía, Lágrimas Negras).

Tickets: $15 / Instituto Cervantes' members: $10

Form of payment: To purchase tickets, click on the “Register Online” red banner in the home website. Once you are on the ICNY Online Activities website click on “Courses” and choose the category “Cultural Events” on the upper left hand side. Among the events listed, you will find 'Piano Flamenco with Ariadna Castellanos'. To process the payment you must create an account online if you have not done so previously. You may also purchase your ticket in person at ICNY. If you have further questions, please contact the Cultural Department: 212 308 7720 ext.119.

 

Two voices, two books and two views about science. From New York City to Madrid, Anglo-Saxons and Hispanics hold different views on science. At the Science and Culture series at ICNY we don't want to miss out on their sensibilities: American or Hispanic, science or humanities, past or present, cynical or naive.

Two heavyweights of science and culture will share their stories and books with us: Carl Zimmer, New York Times journalist and renown author, and José Manuel Sánchez-Ron, historian and academic. Their latest books will add to the conversation, talking about the differences between science and humanities, according to Sánchez-Ron, and a passion for science so huge that ends up being tattooed on a body, by Zimmer.

Simultaneous interpretation.

Books studying the presence of Spain in American literature, and the possible influence of Spain and its literature on American authors, are still rare. The Last Good Land covers most of the twentieth century, including such groups as the Lost Generation and African American writers and exiles. The variety of authors treated, both in respect to ethnicity and gender, guarantees a varied and global view of Spanish culture by American writers.  

Writer, Eugenio Suárez Galbán, will talk about his latest work with William Scherzer, Barbara Probst Solomon and Antonio Muñoz Molina.

Simultaneous interpretation.

Oblivion is a heartbreaking, exquisitely written memorial to the author's father, Héctor Abad Gómez, whose criticism of the Colombian regime led to his murder by paramilitaries in 1987. Twenty years in the writing, it paints an unforgettable picture of a man who followed his conscience and paid for it with his life during one of the darkest periods in Latin America's recent history.

On New Year's Eve 1899, Soledad is peddling violets in a Madrid busy street when she meets aristocrat Fernando. The couple falls in love but their different social backgrounds threatens the relationship.

Conversation with playwright Jaime Salom and director Ángel Gil Orrios, moderated by translator G.J. Racz, on the occasion of the Bilingual World Premiere of Salom´s new play LA CALLAS & MEDEA, performed at the Thalia Spanish Theatre of New York from May 18 to June 24. JAIME SALOM [at his 86 years of age] is considered by critics and scholars one of the most important contemporary playwrights of the Spanish Theatre, and has received for his works Spain's National Prize for Literature and the National Theatre Award, among many others.   -ANGEL GIL ORRIOS is the Artistic/Executive Director of Thalia Spanish Theatre and has been honored with the New York 2009 MAYOR'S AWARD FOR ARTS & CULTURE.  In 34 years he has produced, designed and directed around 120 productions in Spain, the U.S., and France, which have met with international acclaim and have won him numerous awards, among them: the Silver Medal of the French Academie des Arts-Sciences-Lettres in Paris in 1987; the ACE (Association of Critics of Entertainment) Award for Best Director in 1989, 2000, 2002, 2007, 2008 and 2011 in New York; the HOLA (Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors) Award for Best Director & Producer in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 in New York;  and the Prince Ferdinand Award in Zaragoza in 1975.   -G.J. RACZ is a Professor at Long Island University and one of today's most prestigious american translators of Spanish and latin american literature, having published among others, "Life Is a Dream" by Calderon de la Barca (Penguin Books), "Fuenteovejuna" by Lope de Vega (Yale University Press), and "Three Comedies" by Jaime Salom (University Press of Colorado).  

Q&A with Miriam Gómez, widow of Guillermo Cabrera Infante, and writers Vicente Molina Foix and Antonio Munné after the screening of the film Vanishing Point. Simultaneous interpretation.

Synopsis of the film: Working for a car delivery service, Kowalski is assigned to take a 1970 Dodge Challenger from Colorado to San Francisco. Shortly after the pickup, he bets that he will get the car to its destination in less than 15 hours. After a few run-ins with motorcycle cops and highway patrols he is brought into custody. Along the way, Kowalski is guided by Supersoul - a blind DJ with a police radio scanner. Throw in lots of car chases, gay hitchhikers, a naked woman riding a motorbike, lots of Mopar and you've got a great cult hit from the early 70's. 

Roundtable with Miriam Gómez, widow of Guillermo Cabrera Infante, and writers Vicente Molina Foix and Antonio Munné, who will chat about the famous Cuban writer.

Guillermo Cabrera Infante (Cervantes Award 1997), writer and screenwriter, was a key intellectual figure who represented the Cuban literary style like no one did. His work renders a collage of La Habana prior to the revolution. His attraction towards cinema drew him to experience Hollywood, where he became the first Latin American screenwriter with movies such as Vanishing Point and Wonderwall. Highlighting his cinematographic contributions, ICNY pays homage to Cabrera Infante, screening some of the films that were most significant to him.

Simultaneous interpretation.

Original pieces for viola in the beginning of the XIX century are a rarity. In Spain, within the context of the Royal Chapel, we find some unique examples. In the Archive of the Royal Palace there are eleven Sonatas for viola and bajo composed for examination purposes for the King´s Orchestra between 1778 and 1810. Intended to be played for audition purposes, those were sight reading pieces. The development of the bass line could be made with any polyphonic instrument. The Classical-romantic guitar fits perfectly in that sense thanks to its sweet sonority. It also gives the music the Spanish flavor needed for this Palatine Music, a truly reflection of the “Spanish Chamber Music Golden Period”. The aim of this lecture is show the importance of the viola in Spain during the XVIII and XIX centuries, which is an exceptional case in Europe. The Sonatas by Felipe de los Rios, Juan Oliver y Astorga, Jose Lidón, Gaetano Brunetti and Juan Balado; constitute a Corpus of rare music of significant importance. Those are the first documents of the Spanish viola literature known. After the lecture, a concert by the Trio Lidón will follow to demonstrate some of the music examples explained.

Amaya Arberas (soprano) completed her studies at Conservatorio Superior de Música and received voice classes from José Ramón Arteta. She studied voice with Diana Soviero and Beth Roberts in New York. Her repertoire includes opera, zarzuela, oratorio and concert arias (Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Requiem, Rossini´s Petite Messe Solennelle). Arberas has also performed the roles of Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart), Adina in Elisir d'amore (Donizetti) and Norina in Don Pasquale (Donizetti), as well as Ana Mari in the zarzuela El Caserío, by Guridi. In 2010 she gave various recitals in Spain, France and the United States. These included her debut at Carnegie Hall and at the Ellis Island Museum in New York, and a recital of zarzuelas at Lincoln Center, conducted by Pablo Zinger.

Tickets: $15 / ICNY members: $10       

Form of payment: To purchase tickets, click on the “Register Online” red banner in the home website. Once you are on the ICNY Online Activities website click on “Courses” and choose the category “Cultural Events” on the upper left hand side. Among the events listed, you will find 'Voice & Strings'. To process the payment you must create an account online if you have not done so previously. You may also purchase your ticket in person at ICNY. If you have further questions, please contact the Cultural Department: 212 308 7720 ext.119.  

During the last decades, historiography of the Atlantic World has been characterized by the recovery of a political culture that is common to both Europe and the Americas. Thanks to this, the bicentenary of the independence of the United States or that of the French Revolution have brought attention to the existence of mutual languages and ideas. In the past years evocation of Latin-American emancipations have started to show interesting and hopeful signs of renovation. This panel discussion will highlight various observations that summarize historical advances that cannot be ignored.  

Simultaneous interpretation.