Thursday, November 29: Dennis Cooper

Dennis Cooper, acclaimed writer most recently of God Jr., will read from his novella, The Ash Gray Proclamation, to celebrate the publication of The Apocalypse Anthology, edited by Justin Taylor (Thunder’s Mouth Press), at New York University’s Fales Library. The event, which is free and open to the public, takes place on Thursday, November 29, at 6:30 p.m. For further information and to make a reservation, call 212.992.9018 or email rsvp.bobst@nyu.edu.

Monday, December 10: Downtown Music and the Question of Genre: A Panel Discussion

When examining the various musical movements and scenes downtown during the 'seventies and 'eighties it becomes apparent that any categorization of the music and musicians is fraught with complications, at least after 1977. Up until that year it's much easier to tie the music into neat little packages along the lines of rock, jazz and contemporary classical (or "new music"). Through the mid-seventies artists downtown were generally working within established and generally segregated genres, each with their own set of performance venues. New music composers performed their work at spaces like The Kitchen and The Experimental Intermedia Foundation. Jazz musicians performed their music in a handful of artist-run downtown lofts. Rock bands played at CBGB and a few other clubs that catered solely to rock audiences. With a few notable exceptions there was little overlap among these genres, outside of their sharing the bohemian space of downtown New York. The music in any of these genres could be situated within a particular historical tradition. Jazz in the lofts was a direct outgrowth of 'sixties free jazz. Punk rock retained the instrumentation and foundations of classic rock and roll while foregrounding a grittiness inspired by the protopunk garage bands of the 'sixties. Downtown new music composers, while reacting to the uptown establishment and the academic dominance of twelve-tone composition, still defined themselves as composers within a "high art" tradition, taking their cues from Cage and other enigmatic or maverick composers. A case can be made for these three strains representing the culmination of modernist impulses before the onset of a postmodern period in downtown music, one in which genre crossing and fuzziness becomes the norm.

Please join us for a panel discussion on Downtown Music and the Question of Genre in the Fales Library. The event, which is free and open to the public, takes place on Monday, December 10, at 6:30 p.m. For further information and to make a reservation, call 212.992.9018 or email rsvp.bobst@nyu.edu.

Panelists include:
Don Christensen
Jon Gibson
Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris
Elliot Sharp
Moderated by:
Peter Cherches

Downtown Music, 1971-1987: An Overview and Resource Guide