Come All Ye Literary
Each day, thousands flock to Chelsea’s Holy Apostles Church for a hot meal. This Wednesday evening, Manhattan’s largest soup kitchen also serves tantalizing prose from three hot books. Ian Frazier, New Yorker contributor, bestselling author and founder of the Soup Kitchen’s Writers Workshop, offers up selections from his new essay collection, “Gone to New York.” Non-fiction guru Susan Shapiro reads from “Lighting Up: How I Stopped Drinking, Smoking and Everything Else I Loved in Life Except Sex,” just out in paperback. And authors from “Food for the Soul: Selections from the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen Writers Workshop,” co-edited by Shapiro and Rev. Elizabeth G. Maxwell, share tales of sustenance and survival. The $5 suggested donation goes to the soup kitchen, as do proceeds of the evening’s book sales. Jan. 11 at 7:00 pm, Holy Apostles Church, 296 Ninth Avenue at 28th Street (212-807-6799; holyapostlesnyc.org). —Laura Silver
The Big Boss
The sixth annual New York Guitar Festival kicks off this year with a fantastic lineup of musicians who pay homage to one of rock’s best, and most under-produced albums: Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska.” Made on a four-track recorder in Springsteen’s living room, these stripped down songs about drifters, deadbeats, and dreamers are ripe for embellishment, and the festival’s organizer, David Spelman, tapped folk, country, rock, avant garde and R & B greats to put their own unique spin on the songs. The free show at the Winter Garden features Vernon Reid, Laura Cantrell, Lenny Kaye, Michelle Shocked, Meshell Ndegeocello, Martha Wainwright and Marc Ribot, among others, but you’ll have to get there well before 7:30 if you want a seat. Saturday, January 14 at 8 PM, World Financial Center, 220 Vesey Street (212-954-2600; newyorkguitarfestival.org).
Video Art Veteran
While NYU’s Grey Art Gallery celebrates the mid ’70s to ’80s Downtown art scene, Zone: Chelsea Center for the Arts presents a retrospective of an experimental filmmaker who helped pave the way for the collaborative works in the “Downtown Show.” Veteran film and video artist Molly Davies’s installations span her late ’70s films to 21st century video installations featuring dancers, artists, and avant garde musicians like David Tudor. Using a number of screens and projection surfaces, she turns oftentimes quotidian subjects — a woman dressing, a couple playing on a summer’s day — into moving explorations of desire, memory, and power. Through Feb. 18. Zone, 601 West 26th Street at 11th Ave. (212-255-2177; zonechelsea.org).
X Marks the Spot
Exene Cervenka, front woman of legendary Los Angeles punk rock band X, opened her first New York exhibition at the DCKT Contemporary in Chelsea last Saturday evening. Originally organized by the Santa Monica Museum of Art, the show is a mix of collages and journals that combine song lyrics with mementoes and interesting artifacts from her 30-plus years of touring. From baseball cards to Barbie pictures to raffle tickets, the ephemera presents a unique view of Americana from the perspective of one of Punk’s pioneers. Her collages reinforce both the chaos and beauty she sees around her, from hometown L.A. to all the stops in her travels, and the opportunity to witness her distinctly West Coast aesthetic is not to be missed. Through Feb. 11. DCKT, 552 W. 24th Street between 10th and 11th Aves. (212-741-9955; dcktcontemporary.com). —Michael Didovic
Shakespearean Circus
“Midsummer Night’s Dream,” one of Shakespeare’s most performed comedies, is popular for its whimsical forest setting, its concentric romances, and the overflowing cast of humans and fairies whose love affairs are rented and then easily mended, as they prove that “lovers and madmen have such seething brains/Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend/More than cool reason ever comprehend.” In this circus-like take on the cream puff comedy, director John Ficarra heads a cast of 23, including an onstage fairy band and Emmy award-winning Laura Lebleu as the fairy goddess Titania. Ficarra added additional stage combat scenes, a couple of trampolines, a crash mat, and a curmudgeonly take on Puck, the impish fairy who enjoys making mayhem and creating love triangles. Tickets $15. January 9th – 28th at The McGinn/Cazale Theater, 2162 Broadway at 76th Street (212- 352-3101; theatermania.com). —Rachel Breitman
