SELECTED ESOPUS EVENTS

6/22/11: ESOPUS IN SAN FRANCISCO
Thanks to Bay Area readers who made it to our San Francisco event at Press: Works on Paper on June 22. The evening kicked off with a contribution from author Katherine J. Lee, who read her remarkable short-story debut, “Reading,” from Esopus 16. Afterwards, Esopus contributors, readers, and supporters had the chance to peruse copies of the entire run of Esopus while getting to know each other a bit better. VIEW PHOTOS

2/23/11: LISA KUDROW ON THE COMEBACK
Esopus inaugurated a collaborative series with the newly renovated Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, with a screening and in-person appearance by actress Lisa Kudrow and her producing partner Dan Bucatinsky. In 2005, Kudrow and Michael Patrick King co-created The Comeback, a penetrating and often brutal satire of reality TV, sitcoms, and show business in general, which aired on HBO for only one season (and which was featured, along with an interview with Kudrow and King, in Esopus 15: Television). The program opened with a screening of the series’ first episode, after which Kudrow, who was nominated for an Emmy for her brilliant portrayal of the show’s protagonist, Valerie Cherish, discussed the conception, execution, and untimely demise of the critically lauded series. VIEW PHOTOS

2/1/11: “AN EVENING WITH ESOPUS” AT THE KITCHEN
Audience members at New York City’s legendary performance and exhibition space The Kitchen joined Esopus for a night of programming related to Esopus 15: Television. The evening will begin with a performance piece by Emmy Award–winning soap-opera writers Jean Passanante (One Life to Live) and Addie Walsh (All My Children), who called upon audience members to assist them in creating a soap-opera scene from scratch. A short program of television-related video work curated and introduced by acclaimed video artist Dara Birnbaum followed, and the evening concluded with a concert by the Brooklyn-based group One Ring Zero, whose “Busted, Plausible, or Confirmed (The MythBusters Song)” was one of the standout tracks on the issue’s CD. VIEW PHOTOS

2/02/10: “AN EVENING WITH ESOPUS" AT THE KITCHEN
For our third event at New York City's legendary performance space The Kitchen, award-winning actress Lili Taylor performed a dramatic reading of “How to Win in Reno” (the short story by Kelly Sandoval that appeared in Esopus 13); multimedia artist Neil Goldberg, who contributed a project to Esopus 8, screened three of his short videos, and singer-songwriter El May closed out the evening with a set of music, including her superb track “Order in the Nothingness,” written for the Esopus 3 CD.

5/13/09: ESOPUS 12 LAUNCH PARTY
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe hosted the launch for our special “Black and White” issue on Wednesday, May 13th. Contributors, readers, and friends were joined by guest deejay Britta Phillips.

11/6/08: TOD LIPPY LECTURES AT SVA
NYC’s School of Visual Arts invited editor Tod Lippy to give a lecture to the MFA Design program's students.

11/2/08: ESOPUS AT E/AB FAIR
Esopus participated in the 11th annual Editions/Artists’ Book Fair (Oct 31-Nov 2) at the Tunnel in NYC. During the event, we sponsored a site-specific project by Esopus 11 contributor Jason Polan: “100 PEOPLE I SAW AT THE E/AB FAIR.” 

5/15/08: ESOPUS 10 LAUNCH PARTY
Contributors, readers, and friends of Esopus gathered at White Columns in Manhattan’s West Village on May 15, 2008 to celebrate the release of our tenth issue.

11/14/07: “AN EVENING WITH ESOPUS” AT THE KITCHEN
This event at NYC arts institution The Kitchen featured an eclectic mix of participants, including actor/director Tom Gilroy (Spring Forward) reading “A Short Film about Andy Warhol,” a screenplay by the late filmmaker and editor (Far from Heaven) Jim Lyons published in Esopus 9 and Brooklyn musical duo High Places, whose track for the Esopus 9 CD was a part of their set of music that closed the evening. The evening also included rare screenings of a short film by Taiwan-based filmmaker Tsai Ming-Liang and a 1991 video by conceptual artist Kay Rosen.

11/7/08: TOD LIPPY LECTURES AT USC
Esopus editor Tod Lippy traveled to Los Angeles to speak at USC’s Roski School of Fine Arts as part of its Visiting Artist lecture series.

10/30/07: MOMA RECEPTION FOR ESOPUS FOUNDATION DONORS
The Esopus Foundation hosted a private viewing of the exhibition “James Lee Byars: The Art of Writing” for Foundation donors on October 30, 2007 at the Museum of Modern Art. The evening included a lecture by MoMA archivist (and Esopus contributor) Michelle Elligott.

10/13/07: NEIL GREENBERG AT STOREFRONT FOR ART AND ARCHITECTURE
Neil Greenberg, whose hand-drawn maps were published for the first time in Esopus 8, was invited to speak about his work at the “Performance Z-A” series at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City on October 13, 2007.

5/14/07: ESOPUS 8 LAUNCH PARTY
The Esopus 8 launch party was held at New York City’s Center for Architecture. The evening included a special performance of Headlong Dance Theater’s Cell piece (featured in Esopus 8) by founding members of the Philadelphia-based troupe.

10/24/06: “AN EVENING WITH ESOPUS” AT THE KITCHEN
Esopus hosted a packed event at legendary NYC arts space The Kitchen in late October 2006. The program featured a panel discussion with cinematographer Ellen Kuras, production designer Thérèse DePrez, and critic Amy Taubin; a reading by playwright Christopher Durang and actress Alma Cuervo of “Medea: A Parody” (written by Durang and the late playwright Wendy Wasserstein); and an audio-visual collaboration between actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, poet Vincent Katz, and artist Alex Katz. The evening ended with a set of music by Wrens Charles Bissell and Kevin Whelan (and, for one song, 3 audience members). 

6/7/06: AIGA “FRESH DIALOGUE” PANEL
Esopus editor Tod Lippy participated in a panel discussion about magazine publishing with editors Lisa Farjam (Bidoun) and David Haskell (Topic). James Truman moderated the event, which was sponsored by the NY AIGA chapter. Princeton Architectural Press published a book with a transcript and images from the event in 2007. 

5/5–6/10/06: MARK HOGANCAMP AT WHITE COLUMNS
Esopus 5 contributor Mark Hogancamp’s one-person show at NYC’s White Columns ran from May 5 – June 10, 2006 as part of White Columns’s Other People’s Projects. The exhibition was curated by Esopus, and featured 45 recent photographs by Mark as well as a sculptural installation. Read critic Jerry Saltz’s Village Voice review HERE.

5/17/06: ESOPUS 6 LAUNCH PARTY
We launched Esopus 6: Process, our first themed issue, at White Columns on May 17, 2006. The evening also included an exhibition of Colter Jacobsen’s “Memory Drawings” project for the issue. 

5/11/06: “AN EVENING WITH ESOPUS” AT P.S.1
Esopus magazine presented an evening of readings and performances at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Space as part of the MoMA affiliate’s “Fine Print” series. Playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis read “Dear Sissy (#3),” one of the series of letter-monologues he has written for Esopus over the past three years. Poet Suji Kwock Kim read “Generation,” her 2002 poem which is featured (along with 21 of its earlier drafts printed in facsimile) in Esopus 6. Finally, folk singer Ruth Gerson performed a set of music, including the public premiere of “Kibby, Zocky Merino, and the Man with the Moustache,” a song Gerson wrote for Esopus 4’s “Imaginary Friends” CD.