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The Arts in Houston October & November 2009


I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots.
Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows,
with a harp and a sword in my hands.

Zora Neale Hurston, author & anthropologist (1891 - 1960)


Books on the Bayou 2009

Houston Public Library invites all Houstonians to join together to read Zora Neale Hurston for the annual Books on the Bayou Program. Books on the Bayou brings together Houstonians to read the same book at the same time, provoking discussion among co-workers, friends, families and classrooms. The program cultivates a culture of reading in Houston by encouraging people to visit libraries, bookstores, community centers, homes, churches, and schools to discuss the featured book. This year's title is Their Eyes Were Watching God.  See the Books on the Bayou web page for more information about events, download the resource guide, and check the special NextReads newsletter for more books by and about Zora Neale Hurston.
 
October 3 | 11 AM – 5 PM | Central Library
Join us for a day of speakers, music, book talks, and a film screening of  “Their Eyes Were Watching God” as we celebrate the 8th Annual Books on the Bayou.

Saturday, October 31 | 2-4 PM | Central Library
Zora Neale Hurston scholar Valerie Boyd will discuss and sign copies of her book Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston.


Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 1991
 ISBN-13: 9780252017780
 ISBN-10: 0252017781
Initially published in 1937, this novel about a proud, independent black woman has, since its reissue in trade paper in 1978, been the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature. When Janie Starks returns to her rural Florida home, her small black community is overwhelmed with curiosity about her relationship with a younger man.
First Chapter  CD Audiobook  DVD Adaptation  About the Novel  About the Author  

Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston - Valerie Boyd
Publisher: Scribner
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2002
 ISBN-13: 9780684842301
 ISBN-10: 0684842300
Valerie Boyd, the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of Georgia, traces previously unexplored aspects of the career of the influential African-American writer, citing the historical backdrop of her life and work while considering her relationships with and influences on top literary, intellectual, and artistic figures.
First Chapter  
Art in the Twenty-First Century

The fifth season of the PBS series Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century airs on KUHT Channel 8 on four consecutive Wednesdays at 9 PM, beginning October 7.  See Douglas Britt's review in th Houston Chronicle.


MFAH Films, HoustonPBS and the arts blog Glasstire host two free preview screenings and panel discussions on Saturday, October 3 & 10:

Saturday, October 3 | 1PM | Brown Auditorium Theater, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Episode 1: Compassion inlcudes Carrie Mae Weems, whose work is in the MFAH collection, followed by a panel discussion moderated byMFAH curator Alison de Lima Greene.

Saturday, October 10 | 1 PM | Brown Auditorium Theater, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Episode 4: Systems features Julie Mehretu, a former CORE fellow at the Glassell School of Art, and Kimsooja, an artist in the upcoming MFAH exhibition Your Bright Future), followed by a panel discussion moderated by MFAH curaor Christine Starkman.


Art 21: Art in the 21st Century - Thelma Golden
Publisher: H.N. Abrams
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2001
 ISBN-13: 9780810913974
 ISBN-10: 0810913976
The companion volume to season 1 of the PBS television explores the work of some of the leading artists working in America today and examines such issues as how artists address sexual or racial identity in their work and the impact of transnationalism and cyberspace on creativity. The companion volume to season 2 in 2003 by executive producer and curator Susan Sollins features 16 artists, grouped under four general themes--Stories, Loss and Desire, Humor, and Time--who work in a dizzying array of mediums and techniques. The DVD of season 4 features featuring 16 artists whose work is divided into four general themes of Romance, Protest, Ecology and Paradox.
Table of Contents  
Free Night of Theater



Houston Arts Alliance and Theatre Communications Group present the first Houston "Free Night of Theater" October 8-18, with 20 organizations offering more than 2,000 free seats. Dates and performances are listed on the Houston Arts Alliance website. Make ticket resevations at www.freenightoftheater.net beginning October 5 (performances and availability are subject to change).

Tuesday, October 6 | 6-8 PM | Bronze Peacock Room, House of Blues
Kickoff reception for Free Night of Theater with participating organizations. RSVP (required) to Janel@haatx.com.


Among the participating theaters:

Through October 10 | Main Street Theater
Main Street Theater's Theater for Youth presents Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type, a musical based on the popular book by Doreen Cronin, adapted for the stage by James E. Grote, with music by George Howe and lyrics by George Howe and James E. Grote.

October 2-17 | Encore Players
Encore Players, Katy’s only adult community theater group, proudly presents this year’s fall musical, Into the Woods, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine; Into the Woods (original London cast recording, 1991). 

October 8-18 | Classical Theatre Company
One-Man Hamlet, adapted by and starring  Guy Roberts, presents Shakespeare's play through Hamlet's eyes, seeing and hearing only the scenes he experiences.

Through October 18 | The Ensemble Theatre
The Ensemble Theatre opens its 2009-2010 season with August Wilson's Seven Guitars, the fifth play of his renowned Century Cycle.

Through October 31| Texas Repertory Theater Co.
Northwest Houston's critically aclaimed professional theatre company opens its season with an affectionate spoof of 1950s sci-fi movies, Little Shop of Horrors by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.


Seven Guitars - August Wilson
Publisher: Plume
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 1997
 ISBN-13: 9780452276925
 ISBN-10: 0452276926
The seventh play written by Wilson for his Century Cycle, a decade-by-decade anthology of the African American experience in the 20th century, Seven Guitars dramatizes the hopes and struggles of African Americans in 1940s Pittsburgh, as a group of neighbors gathers to talk, play cards, and listen to the blues. The play opened on Broadway in 1996, where it received a Tony Award nomination for best play and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.
About the Author  
Pages & Stages

Alley Theatre is partnering with the Houston Public Library and Brazos Bookstore for this new pre-curtain event, combining the imagination of the written word with the excitement of live theatre. Participants will enjoy refreshements and a pre-curtain discussion group led by special guests from the Houston area, then attend the performance. After the performance, readers can stay for an additional Talk Back led by Alley cast members and artistic staff.

Tuesday, October 13 | 6:15-7:15 PM | Alley Theatre
To accompany Our Town by Thornton Wilder, we’ll discuss Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury’s version of small-town life brings a supernatural twist to Wilder’s renowned (and nostalgic) vision.

Pages & Stages is free with a ticket to the Tuesday, October 13, 7:30 p.m. performance of Our Town. To participate in the pre- and post-show discussions, a ticket must be purchased for the performance using the promo code: PagesAndStages. Purchase online or call the box office at 713-220-5700, then enter 1.


Our Town - Thornton Wilder; foreword by Donald Margulies
Publisher: Perennial
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2003
 ISBN-13: 9780060512637
 ISBN-10: 0060512636
October 7-November 1 | Hubbard Stage, Alley Theatre
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1938, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town follows the courtship and marriage of George and Emily and, in doing so, reveals the hidden mystery behind the everyday. Wilder’s portrait of life, love and death is set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, a fictional New England town at the start of the 20th century. With a penetrating wisdom about living in community, this play is an enduring American treasure and one of the great plays of world theatre. 
First Chapter  Cast & Creative Team  About the Play  About the Author  

Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury
Publisher: Avon Books
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 1999
 ISBN-13: 9780380977260
 ISBN-10: 0380977265
Ray Bradbury used his childhood in Waukegan, Illinois, as the inspiration for his third novel, Dandelion Wine.  Knowing his mystical home town of Green River to be as rich and varied as the entire outside world, Douglas Spaulding learns during his twelfth summer that the time-defeating rituals he has always participated in have more poignant consequences.
About the Novel  About the Author  

Hamlet  - William Shakespeare
Publisher: Norton
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 1991
 ISBN-13: 9780393956634
 ISBN-10: 0393956636
The second edition of this Norton Critical Edition includes an authoritative text, historical backgrounds and sources, and several current critical essays. 

Classical Theatre Company also presents a staged reading of Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus on Thursday, November 12.  Call 713-963-9665 for location and time. 
Authors in Architecture

Authors in Architecture is a collaboration between HPL's Central Library and ArchiTypes, the membership group of ArCH to present authors and books about art and design.  Following the reading at Houston Public Library, Architecture Center Houston hosts a book signing and reception at 7 PM at its office and gallery, 315 Capitol (at Bagby).  This monthly series is generously supported by the Architecture Center Houston Foundation.

Thursday, October 15 | 6-7 PM | Central Library
Michael Andrews discusses Historic Texas Courthouses, his study of one hundred landmark courthouses in Texas.

Thursday, November 8 | 6-7 PM |  Central Library
Michelangelo Sabatino, associate professor of architecture, Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, University of Houston, discusses his new book, Modern Architecture and the Mediterranean Vernacular Dialogues and Contested Identities, co-edited with Jean-Francois Lejeune, which considers the influence of the forms and tectonics of the Mediterranean vernacular on modern architectural practice and discourse from the 1920s to the 1960s.
 

Historic Texas Courthouses - Michael A. Andrews
Publisher: Bright Sky Press
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2006
 ISBN-13: 9781931721745
 ISBN-10: 1931721742
During the late nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth—termed by author Michael Andrews "the Great Age of Texas Courthouses"—county courthouses rose as the predominant symbols of progress and stability, optimism and robust community pride.  Richly illustrated with photographs by Paul Hester and Lisa Hardaway, Andrews's book details the materials and methods used to construct the courthouses and the spirited competition by towns for the trophy of being designated "county seat."

Washington attorney Michael A. Andrews has long been a friend of historic preservation, both during his time as a U. S. Congressman from Texas and later as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series

Inprint's 2009-2010 reading series will feature twelve nationally-known authors (and a few hometown favorites).  Readings are on Mondays evenings at the Alley Theatre or the Hobby Center and include an on-stage interview followed by a book sale and signing.  Reserved-seat season tickets may be ordered online. General admission tickets are $5 and will be sold online at www.inprinthouston.org three to four weeks before each reading.  Unsold general admission tickets and free rush tickets for students and senior citizens 65+ will be available only at the door starting at 6:45 PM.

Inprint's entire 2009-2010 season is previewed in a special issue of The Arts in Houston.

Monday, October 19 | 7:30 PM | Hubbard Stage, Alley Theatre
E.L. Doctorow will read from his new novel, Homer and Langley, which was published September 1.


SPECIAL EVENT:
Monday, November 16 | 7 PM | Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts
Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk reads from his new book, The Museum of Innocence, which will be published October 20.  General admission for this special event presented by Inprint and Brazos Bookstore is $30 and includes a pre-signed first edition copy of The Museum of  Innocence, presented to attendees at the door on the evening of the reading (reserve tickets online).


Homer & Langley - E. L. Doctorow
Publisher: Random House
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: September 2009
 ISBN-13: 9781400064946
 ISBN-10: 1400064945
E. L. Doctorow reinvents the story of the famous Collyer brothers. Homer Collyer, blind since childhood, describes his increasingly reclusive life with his older brother, Langley, in his parent's once-grand Fifth Avenue mansion and recalls the colorful characters, political events, and technological achievements that passed through their household over the decades.

E. L. Doctorow's novels include The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, The Waterworks, and City of God.  The recipient of numerous awards, including the National Book Award, three National Book Critics Circle Awards, two PEN/Faulkner Awards, and the President’s National Humanities Medal, Doctorow teaches at New York University, where he holds the Lewis and Loretta Glucksman Chair of English and American Letters.
First Chapter  CD Audiobook  Books by & about the Author  About the Author  Author's Website  

My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2001
 ISBN-13: 9780375406959
 ISBN-10: 0375406956
A furor erupts when the Sultan hires a group of artists, under the direction of Master Uncle, to illuminate a great book in the European style to celebrate his reign at a time in which all figurative art is considered Islamic heresy, but the situation becomes worse when one of the miniaturists vanishes, in a mystery set against the backdrop of religious repression in sixteenth-century Istanbul.

In announcing his Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, the Swedish Academy celebrated Pamuk’s “quest for the melancholic soul of his native city.”  In epic novels such as My Name is Red, Pamuk “has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures.” A native of Istanbuhl, Orham Pamuk currently is the Robert Yik-Fong Professor in the Humanities at Columbia Universtiy.
First Chapter  Table of Contents  CD Audiobook  Books by the Author  About the Author  Author's Website  
Afghanistan--Journeys Beyond the Horizon

Through October 16 | Central Library
Houston Public Library and the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany present an exhibition of photography by renowned German photojournalist Helmut R. Schulze.  Afghanistan–Journeys Beyond the Horizon contains more  than 150 images  that capture a largely unknown side of a country. While not sparing the viewer the destruction and human suffering caused by decades of conflict, Schulze's photographs capture spectacular landscapes and remarkable cultural sites and provide insight into the daily life of the men, women and children of Afghanistan, showing that their will to live remains unbroken even under the most adverse circumstances.
 
Also of interest:
NextReads Special Issue: Afghanistan's Hidden Treasures

Texas Artist of the Year

Through October 30 | Art League Houston
Beaumont photographer Keith Carter is Art League Houston's 2009 Texas Artist of the Year. Unseen and Rediscovered: Keith Carter, on view at the Art League through October 30, includes rarely shown early photographs, commercial portraiture, and new work.  Carter's newest book, Fireflies: Photographs of Children, will be published by the University of Texas Press October 15.



Keith Carter: Photographs, Twenty-Five Years - Bill Witliff, editor, with an introduction by A.D. Coleman
Publisher: University of Texas Press
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 1997
 ISBN-13: 9780292711952
 ISBN-10: 0292711956

This book brings together seventy-five photographs chosen by Carter to represent the range of his work since the 1970s. Many of the images in this book have never been published before, while others come from Carter's previous books. A. D. Coleman's introduction traces the development of Carter's work and maps his affinities with other artists and writers who are strongly influenced by the sense of place.

Table of Contents  Artist's Website  
Houston Chronicle Book & Author Dinner

Sunday, November 1 | 5-10 PM | Hilton Americas-Houston, 1600 Lamar 
The Chronicle's annual event, which benefits literacy programs of the Houston Public Library and the Houston Chronicle, will feature Texas authors, nationally-known authors, and first-time authors reading from their new books. The autographing reception and book sales begin at 5 PM, dinner follows at 7 PM, and the program begins at 8 PM. Tickets begin at $250 (reserve tickets online). 

• Oscar Casares, Amigoland (see below)
• Lee Child, Gone Tomorrow, the 13th Jack Reacher mystery
• Lee Cross, I Drink for a Reason, a collection of very funny essays
• Charlaine Harris, A Touch of Dead, the 10th Sookie Stackhouse novel, coming out October 6.
• Julie Powell, Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, the inspiration for the movie Julie & Julia


Amigoland - Oscar Casares
Publisher: Little, Brown
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: August 2009
 ISBN-13: 9780316159692
 ISBN-10: 0316159697
Encouraged in his senior years by a good-natured housekeeper to make amends with the brother with whom he has shared a long estrangement, Don Celestino secretly liberates Don Fidencio from a nursing home and embarks on a journey to Mexico to investigate a family legend at the heart of their dispute.  "Casares expands the clean, tender prose of his debut collection, Brownsville, into a winning novel" (Publishers Weekly). 

Brownsville, his debut anthology of short stories, captured the colorful lives of the residents of Casares's hometown. The recipient of a 2006 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, Oscar Casares teaches creative writing at the University of Texas in Austin.
About the Author  Author's Website  
An Evening With . . .

Wednesday, November 4 | 7-9 PM | Central Library
Arte Público Authors of the Month Sarah Cortez (May) and Lucha Corpi (August) read their short stories included in the anthology Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery.

Sarah Cortez also will give a reading, "Law, Order, and Literature," on Wednesday, November 18, 7 PM, at the University of Houston-Downtown, sponsored by the Cultural Enrichment Center.


Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery - Sarah Cortez and Liz Martinez, editors
Publisher: Arte Público Press
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: March 2009
 ISBN-13: 9781558855434
 ISBN-10: 1558855432
Jane Cortez, author of the poetry collection How to Undress a Cop, and co-editor Liz  Martínez have assembled a groundbreaking anthology of short fiction by Latino writers.  Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery features an intriguing and unpredictable cast of sleuths, murderers and crime victims by authors Lucha Corpi, Carolina García-Aguilera, Rolando Hinojosa, John Lantigua, Manuel Ramos, and Sergio Troncoso, and a foreword by Ralph E. Rodriguez, author of Brown Gumshoes: Detective Fiction and the Search for Chicana/o Identity (University of Texas Press, 2005).
Table of Contents  

Crimson Moon - Lucha Corpi
Publisher: Arte Público Press
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2004
 ISBN-13: 9781558854215
 ISBN-10: 1558854215
A woman’s harrowing fall down the side of a weedy cliff, a discarded manuscript buried in a garbage dump, and falsified identities are among the web of clues that lead Justin Escobar and Dora Saldaña of Brown Angel Investigations to a violent showdown involving FBI misdeeds thirty years in the past.  Previous books featuring Brown Angel Investigations and Gloria Damasco, the first Chicana detective in American literature, are Eulogy for a Brown Angel, Cactus Blood and Black Widow's Wardrobe.
Cars & Design

Through November 21 | Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, University of Houston
Designing an Icon: Creativity and the American Automobile, an exhibition of automobile designs from the 1960s and 70s, highlights the style used in concept renderings of cars in the design phase to communicate their intangible qualities—speed, power, and desirability.


Art of the American Automobile: The Greatest Stylists and Their Work - G. N. Georgano
Publisher: Smithmark
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 1995
 ISBN-13: 9780831706777
 ISBN-10: 0831706775
Eminent British automotive writer Nick Georgano partners with an outstanding car photographer from his own country, Nicky Wright, to produce a testament to the dictum "the automobile is art." Their focus is on individual car stylists who adhered to the philosophy that the automobile "has to sell on its appearance as much as on its mechanical qualities."  He chronicles the history of automobiles while presenting the stories behind such manufacturers as Hudson, Packard, Duesenberg, Pontiac, Lincoln, Ford, and Chrysler, and includes design sketches for models that were never produced.  Also by the author: The American Automobile: A Centenary, 1893-1993.
Fall Exhibitions at the MFAH
On view in the Audrey Jones Beck Building:

Through November 29 | Joaquin Torres-Garcia: Paintings in Houston Collections (about the artist).

Through January 3, 2010 | Arts of Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea and Chaotic Harmony: Contemporary Korean Photography
Related event (free with museum admission):
• Saturday, October 17 | 2:30 PM
Gallery Conversations: Food and the Arts of Ancient Viet Nam, with Tam Lee, owner of Le Viet Restaurant.

Through January 10, 2010 | The Moon: "Houston, Tranquility Base Here, The Eagle Has Landed".  
Related events (free with museum admission):
• Saturday, October 3 | 4 PM
Saturday Afternoon Lecture: The Road to Mars.
• Sunday, October 4 | 1-5 PM
Target Free First Sunday: To the Moon and Beyond!
• Saturday, October 17 | 4 PM
Saturday Afternoon Lecture: Images from Space. 

Opening November 22
Your Bright Future: 12 Contemporary Artists from Korea.
 
Images: left: Joaquín Torres-García, Composición simétrica en rojo y blanco (Symmetrical Composition in Red and White), 1932, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Meredith J. Long © 2009 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VEGAP, Madrid; right: Neil A. Armstrong´s photograph of Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr., on the Moon, 1969, The MFAH, the Target Collection of American Photography, gift of Target Stores.

Arts of Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea - Nancy Tingley
Publisher: Asia Society and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: June 2009
 ISBN-13: 9780300146967
 ISBN-10: 0300146965
 Arts of Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea introduces new scholarship on the history of Vietnamese art, ranging from the first millennium BC to the 18th century: elegant burial jars, iron axes, bronze artefacts, and jewellery of the early Sa Huynh culture, the bronze ritual drums of the Dong Son, and jewelled gold pieces.  Complied by independent scholar Nancy Tingley with Christine Starkman, MFAH Curator of Asian Art, and Adriana Proser, the Asia Society´s John H. Foster Curator for Traditional Asian Art, the catalog accompanies the exhibition currently on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
About the Arts & Culture of Vietnam  

Your Bright Future: 12 Contemporary Artists from Korea - Christine Starkman
Publisher: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: June 2009
 ISBN-13: 9780300146899
 ISBN-10: 0300146892
Christine Starkman, the curator of Asian Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, offers an unprecedented look at the work of twelve of Korea's most significant contemporary artists, with three essays, artists' biographies and interviews, and a chronology, in the catalog for the exbibition opening at the MFAH on November 22.
Table of Contents  About the Arts & Culture of Korea  
Reading (about) Art

The MFAH Education Department is offering adults—specifically book club members—a new way to engage with art.  The MFAH Online Book Club, designed for existing book clubs, links works of literature to art in the museum’s collections. After reading one of the seasonal selections (see below), groups are invited to schedule a guided MFAH Book Club Visit to look at works of art in the museum’s collection in connection with the book.

Discussion guides and an e-newsletter are available on the museum website. Individuals are welcome too—just read the books, use the guides, and sign up for the newsletter to participate in the MFAH Online Book Club community.  For more information, call 713-639-7300.

The featured books for October 2009-January 2010 are:
• The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe (2006).
• Lydia Caswsatt reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman (2001).

Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, A Girl Reading, c. 1890, oil on canvas, 13 1/4 x 16 1/4 inches, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

The Private Lives of the Impressionists - Sue Roe
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2006
 ISBN-13: 9780060545581
 ISBN-10: 0060545585
Sue Roe describes the private lives of the nine Impressionist painters—Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Cezane, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Berthe Morisot, and Mary Cassatt—and illuminates the intersections between their personal experiences and the development of their art, covering the years between their first meeting in 1860 and the introduction of their work in New York in 1886.

• MFAH Discussion Guide
First Chapter  Table of Contents  About Impressionism  

Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper - Harriet Scott Chessman
Publisher: Permanent Press and Seven Stories Press
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2001
 ISBN-13: 9781583222720
 ISBN-10: 1583222723
Set in Paris in 1880, Harriet Scott Chessman's novel in the form of a memoir entices the reader into the world of Mary Cassatt's early impressionist paintings through her sister Lydia's recollections.  "Elegantly conceived and tenderly written, this cameo of a novel ushers readers into a small, warmly lit corner of art history" (Publisher's Weekly).

• MFAH Discussion Guide
First Chapter  About Mary Cassatt  
At the Holocaust Museum Houston

Through February 7, 2010 | Holocaust Museum Houston
Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust portrays the heroic stories of Albanian Muslims who deterimined to save Jews, both of Albanian origina and refugees.


Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II - Norman H. Gershman
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: November 2008
 ISBN-13: 9780815609346
 ISBN-10: 0815609345
Norman H. Gershman, an internationally recognized fine arts photographer, spent five years collecting the stories of Albanian Muslims who harbored Jewish refugees during WWII as part of the Islamic tradition of Besa. The exhibition based on Gershman's photographs, currently on view at the Holocaust Museum Houston, began a worldwide tour in 2008 after premiering at the United Nations under the auspices of Yad Vashem. "A haunting look at the power of love, compassion and generosity to unite faiths and deliver genuine salvation, this illustrated oral history will fascinate" (Publisher's Weekly).
Table of Contents  
New & Noteworthy


Marvelous Melba: The Extraordinary Life of a Great Diva - Ann Blainey
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: March 2009
 ISBN-13: 9781566638098
 ISBN-10: 1566638097
Ann Blainey, the author of Fanny and Adelaide: The Lives of the Remarkable Kemble Sisters, chronicles the life and career of Australian opera singer Nellie Melba (1861-1931). Drawing from research from newly discovered letters, Melba's collection of news clippings, diaries, legal documents, and a recent family memoir, Blainey recounts the diva's family history and early education and how she left Australia for training in Europe, becoming an internationally known prima donna and one of the most famous women during her time. "Blainey offers a balanced view of both the triumphs and the tragedies associated with a career spanning ages six to 65. Recommended. . . as the latest word on this intriguing subject" (Library Journal).
Table of Contents  About Nellie Melba  

The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert that Awakened America - Raymond Arsenault
Publisher: Bloomsbury Press
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: March 2009
 ISBN-13: 9781596915787
 ISBN-10: 1596915781
This year marks the 70th anniversary of Marian Anderson's landmark concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  On Easter Sunday the brilliant African American contralto performed outdoors before a crowd of 75,000 after being barred by the Daughters of the American Revolution from singing in Constitution Hall because of her race.  Raymond Arsenault, the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History at the University of South Florida, offers insight into the period's racial climate, describes Eleanor Roosevelt's dramatic resignation from the DAR for barring Anderson's performances, and pays tribute to the singer's significant contributions to raising public awareness.

Also of interest:
• My Lord, What a Morning: An Autobiography by Marian Anderson (1956, reissued 2002).
• Marian Anderson: A Singer's Journey by Allen Keiler (2000). 
First Chapter  Table of Contents  About Marian Anderson  

The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World - Paul Collins
Publisher: Bloomsbury
 Check Library Catalog Pub Date: July 2009
 ISBN-13: 9781596911956
 ISBN-10: 1596911956
Paul Collins's popular narrative history of Shakeapeare's much-sought-after First Folio of 1623 traces his travels from the site of a Sotheby auction to regions in Asia.  That a book which sold for shillings on the streets of London now sells in Manhattan for millions is at the heart of the author's investigation into the roles played by twentieth century oilmen and the electronic age. Collins, assistant professor of English at Portland State University and the resident literary detective for NPR's Weekend Edition, "is passionate, knowledgeable and sassy in bringing this story to glorious life" (Publisher's Weekly).
First Chapter  Table of Contents  Books by the Author  
About This Newsletter

The Arts in Houston, a bimonthly newsletter linking the Houston Public Library's resources with cultural events in the community, is edited by Karen Luik, Collection Development Specialist, Central Library.  Questions or comments?  Please feel free to email us at nextreads@cityofhouston.net.

The Greenberg Endowment supports the collection of nonfiction books on music, art, antiques, architecture, cooking, and travel including the history of any of these subjects and biographies of persons connected with any of these subjects for the Lurine Karon Greenberg Fine Arts Collection, as well as free access for all Houston Public Library cardholders to the Grove Dictionary of Art Online and Grove Dictionary of Music Online.

Programs at the Houston Public Library are funded in whole or in part by a Loan Star Libraries Grant authorized by the Texas Legislature and awarded to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission to the Houston Public Library.

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Houston Museum District
Houston Theater District
KUHF Arts Calendar
Spacetaker.org
 

HPL Events  

An Evening With . . .
Authors in Architecture
Book Clubs
Books on the Bayou
Café Reads!
Language Workshops
Starting a Business




Mayor Bill White and the Houston Public Library invite you to join in celebrating the launch of the Houston Oral History Project, an effort to record and preserve the dynamic history of Houston through the stories and experiences of its residents. The project is a collaboration between the Mayor’s Office, the Houston Public Library, and the University of Houston. On the web site you will find videos of Houston’s movers and shakers talking about their lives and their contributions to the city.  
 

For More Information

Enter your last name and HPL card number to access these online resources:

African American Music Reference
Classical Music Library
Literature Resource Center
Novelist Plus
Opera in Video
Oxford Art Online
Oxford Music Online
Smithsonian Global Music
Theatre in Video


NextReads Special Issues

Inprint 2009-2010
Afghanistan's Hidden Treasures
Celebrating ART/LIFE

The Arts in Houston

August & September 2009
June & July 2009
April & May 2009
February & March 2009
December 2008 & January 2009
October & November 2008
August & September 2008
June & July 2008

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