Slope Weekday Event Spotlight: May 23-26

Welcome to the week, which features super-interesting events: Southern Culture on the Skids, Satanism, Detroit jazz, and more!

JSTOR presents: Satanism and Magic in the Age of the Moulin Rouge: An Illustrated Lecture by Tara Isabella Burton
When:  Monday, May 23, 7pm-9pm
Where: Morbid Anatomy Museum, 424 3rd Avenue at 7th Street
What: From mysterious Black Masses held in underground crypts to occult bookstores frequented by the literary élite to mad monks and their possibly-insane lovers dominating literary salons, the time of the Moulin Rouge was also a time of magical exploration: where the possibility of new industrial technology gave rise to a firmly “anti-modern” obsession with the macabre. A story about the early days of sex, drugs, duels to the death, and early celebrity journalism —  op-eds alleging sorcery in political and literary opponents — this lecture explores the seedy world of black magic among Paris’s fin de siècle literati — blending scandalous historical anecdote with more general reflections on what made occultism so attractive to 19th century Parisians, and the way in which a burgeoning celebrity culture intensified these magical rivalries.
How much: $8, tickets available online.

TinyRhino: California Dreamin’
When: Tuesday, May 24, Doors at 7:30pm, Show at 8pm
Where: Littlefield, 622 Degraw Street (between 3rd and 4th Avenues)
What: TinyRhino is The Theatrical Drinking Game. It is also UglyRhino’s take on the ten-minute play festival. Every month we commission six playwrights to write new plays, each including the same five dramatic elements. If you join us for TinyRhino, you’ll be given a list of these elements. They might show up at any time, in any order, and with any frequency. When they do show up, do you know what that means?! DRINK!! Every TinyRhino also features music, drink specials, and a cocktail hour following the performance.
How much: $10, tickets available online.

Benjamin Hale in conversation with Alexandre Singh
When: Tuesday, May 24, 7:00pm
Where: Community Bookstore, 143 7th Avenue (between Garfield Place and Carroll Street)
What: The whip-smart new collection from Benjamin Hale, The Fat Artist and Other Stories, features a menagerie of voices overcome by love, jealousy, mania, and despair. A dominatrix whose longtime client, a US congressman, drops dead during a tryst in a hotel room; an addict in precarious recovery who lands a job driving a truck full of live squid; a heartbroken performance-artist who attempts to eat himself to death as a work of art –these and more roam Hale’s portraits of modern America.
How much: Free

How I Learned It’s A Living: Stories of the Unemployed, the Underemployed, and the Working Stiffs
When: Wednesday, May 25, Doors at 7:30pm, Show at 8pm
Where: Union Hall, 702 Union Street (near 5th Avenue)
What: With Bob Powers, Nat Towsen, Ada Calhoun, Sharron Paul, Robin Gelfenbien, Host Blaise Allysen Kearsley, Guest co-host Cammi Climaco.
How much: $6, tickets available online. $10, day of show.

Polyfold Presents: Alex Levine Quartet and Maria Grand Quartet
When: Thursday, May 26, 7:30pm
Where: ShapeShifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Place (between 1st and Carroll Streets)
What: POLYFOLD is a collective of composer/improvisers based in Detroit, formed to support the creation, presentation, and ongoing development of creative music, and to foster artistic expression through education and outreach. This concert presents two groups, one led by Polyfold member, guitarist Alex Levine, and the other led by saxophonist Maria Grand, who is preparing to release her debut album.
How much: $10, at the door.

Southern Culture on the Skids
When: Thursday, May 26. Doors: 8:00pm, Show: 9pm
Where: The Bell House, 149 7th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)
What: The Chapel Hill, NC trio Southern Culture On The Skids has been spreading the rock and roll gospel since 1983. Rick Miller – guitar/vox, Mary Huff – bass/vox and Dave Hartman – drums, play a greasy mix of surf, rockabilly, R&B and country fried garage with a side of psych. It’s a musical gumbo Miller calls, “Americana from the wrong side of the tracks.” For over 30 years, the band have toured everywhere from the NC Prison System to Mt. Fuji, Japan, delivering what Rolling Stone calls “a hell raising rock and roll party.” With Daddy Long Legs.
How much: $17. Purchase tickets online.

Fear Not To Appear — Paintings, Drawings, and Books, 1980-1997 by Dale Williams
When: Through Saturday, May 28. By appointment only.
Where: Gowanus Loft, 61 9th Street #C8 (between 2nd Avenue and the Gowanus Canal.)
How much: Free — contact colby@vanderbiltrepublic.com for an appointment.

Rawiya: In Her Absence I Created Her Image
When: Exhibit through May 28. Regular hours: Thursdays-Saturdays, 2pm-6pm.
Where: Open Source Gallery, (306 17th Street at 6th Avenue)
What: Rawiya presents In Her Absence I Created Her Image, an exhibit of documentary photography. The exhibit will explore the lives of communities and individuals in the Middle East through documentary photography, focusing on social, political, and human rights issues across Arab countries. At a time when Islamophobia in the U.S. runs rampant and many view the Middle East with suspicion, efforts to create understanding are of the utmost importance. This exhibit, the title of which is inspired by a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, includes work by photographers Laura Boushnak, Tanya Habjouqa, Myriam Abdelaziz, and Tamara Abdul Hadi, members of the Rawiya photography collective. Rawiya aims to dispel stereotypes about this often misunderstood and underrepresented region by shining a light on the everyday hardships and shared experiences of its inhabitants, thereby encouraging a more compassionate and empathetic worldview. Within In Her Absence I Created Her Image, individual projects and varied themes contribute to an overarching theme of humanity, dignity, and empowerment.
How Much: Free

Karen Gibbons: Pachamama
When: Through May 29. Thursdays and Fridays, 4:00-7:00pm; Saturdays and Sundays, 11:00am-7:00pm.
Where: 440 Gallery, 440 6th Avenue, between 9th and 10th Streets
What: 440 Gallery is pleased to present new sculptures, drawings and collage by Karen Gibbons. This exhibit is a continuation of Gibbons’s idiosyncratic sensibility, where collaged elements create a dream-like near-narrative. Her new work introduces the use of plaster substrates, a material that gives each piece a substantial, weighty dimension. Gibbons’s work entwines feminine imagery and references to the earth.  In the large scale piece, “Pachamama”, Gibbons creates a mountainous structure out of plaster, painting the form in earthy greens and yellows.  Through collage elements, the face of the Virgin Mary peers from the top of the mountain; her hands surround her mountain/body in a comforting embrace.
How much: Free.