Fall 2008
Archives Film Series: The Name of the Rose FILM SERIES MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 7 P.M.
Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose (1986), starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater. Adapted from Umberto Eco's novel of the same name.
"A Child's Christmas in Wales" PERFORMANCE WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 7 P.M.
Alex Coke, Rich Harney, Suzi Stern, and friends perform their original jazz adaptation of Dylan Thomas's "A Child's Christmas in Wales."
Poetry on the Plaza: Winter Landscapes READING WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, NOON
Archives Film Series: The Lost Moment FILM SERIES MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 7 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center continues the Archives Film Series with Martin Gabel's The Lost Moment (1947) on Monday, November 24, at 7 p.m.
Adapted from Henry James's novel The Aspern Papers, the film stars Robert Cummings and Susan Hayward. The film follows a New York publisher who travels to Venice to track down lost love letters of an early nineteenth-century poet from the poet's former lover.
The film series is held in conjunction with the exhibition The Mystique of the Archive. Drawing from the Harry Ransom Center's extensive modern literature collections—Julian Barnes, Don DeLillo, Anne Sexton, and many others—the exhibition describes what constitutes an archive, documents the evolution of creative works, and maps an archive's journey from the writer's home to the scholar's desk.
Seating is free, but limited.
Mark your calendar for the final screening in the series, The Name of the Rose on December 15.
Signatures Series: Jay Neugeboren DISCUSSION WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 7 P.M.
In this Signatures Series event, author Jay Neugeboren, whose archive is housed at the Harry Ransom Center, talks about his latest book, 1940, on Wednesday, November 19, at 7 p.m. at the Ransom Center.
1940, which is Neugeboren's first novel in more than 20 years, tells the story of Dr. Eduard Bloch, a Jewish Austrian doctor who was Adolf Hitler's childhood physician and who Hitler later helped evacuate to New York before World War II. After Bloch settles in the Bronx, he begins to write his memoirs, which tell the story of his past with Hitler, his current romance with a medical illustrator, and his complicated relationship with her mentally ill son
.Negueboren is the author of 14 books, including The Stolen Jew and Before My Life Began, and three collections of short stories. He was a professor and writer-in-residence for many years at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and he now lives and writes in New York City.
Seating is free, but limited. A book signing follows.
Signatures Series events highlight writers whose archives are at the Ransom Center.
Music from the Collections: Maurice Ravel's Trio PERFORMANCE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 7 P.M.
In the second Music From the Collections event, pianist Richard Dowling discusses and performs French composer Maurice Ravel's Trio for piano, violin, and cello on Tuesday, November 18 at 7 p.m. in Jessen Auditorium in Homer Rainey Hall.
Ravel's Piano Trio was the subject of Dowling's doctoral dissertation at The University of Texas at Austin 18 years ago. Ravel's original 1914 manuscript of the Trio is part of the Carlton Lake French collection at the Harry Ransom Center. Dowling recently published a new critical performing edition of the work, correcting printing errors in the original 1915 French edition and restoring Ravel's original compositional intentions based on the manuscript at the Ransom Center.
Dowling's lecture explores the history of Ravel's Trio and demonstrates some surprising differences he discovered between the original 1915 French edition and Ravel's 1914 manuscript. After the lecture, Dowling will perform the complete, newly-restored version of the Trio with Miró String Quartet first violinist Daniel Ching and cellist Amy Levine of the Laurel Piano Trio. This is the first time this version of Trio has been performed.
Seating is free, but limited.
This event is co-sponsored by the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin.
JESSEN AUDITORIUM
2008 Flair Symposium SYMPOSIUM THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13-SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15
The 2008 Flair Symposium, Creating a Usable Past: Writers, Archives, and Institutions, brings together leading writers, archivists, agents, publishers, library directors, and scholars to examine the ways in which they are engaged in creating a literary and personal past for future generations to study. Pre-registration required.
LEARN MORE about the 2008 Flair Symposium.
"Writers on the Future of Reading" PANEL THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 7 P.M.
To open the 2008 Flair Symposium, writers Lee Blessing, Denis Johnson, Tim O'Brien, and Amy Tan discuss their work and the future of reading with James Magnuson, Director of the Michener Center for Writers. The panel will take place Thursday, November 13, at 7 p.m. at the AT&T Conference Center Ballroom, located at 1900 University Avenue.
Likely topics include the writers' early encounters with reading, the transformation of reading in the internet age, and the rapidly-changing publishing industry.
Seating is free, but limited. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.
The 2008 Flair Symposium, Creating a Usable Past: Writers, Archives, and Institutions, takes place Thursday, November 13, through Saturday, November 15. During the three-day event, writers, archivists, dealers, agents, and scholars will seek to understand the forces that create, protect, provide access to, and interpret literary archives.
The Flair Symposium, held biennially at the Ransom Center, honors the ideals set forth by Fleur Cowles and her landmark Flair magazine.
LEARN MORE about Fleur Cowles and Flair magazine.
AT&T CONFERENCE CENTER BALLROOM, 1900 University Avenue
Beckett's Doodles LECTURE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 7 P.M.
Bill Prosser of the University of Reading explores Samuel Beckett's doodles and discusses doodling as an under-appreciated art form on Tuesday, November 11, at 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center.
Although doodling is everywhere, it is generally ignored in thoughts and writings about art, receiving less critical attention than its more public relative, graffiti. Prosser works to rectify this imbalance with his talk, which gives a history of spontaneous drawings, using the doodles of Samuel Beckett as an example. Beckett's images demonstrate how doodling acts as a mirror reflecting the complicated visual soup in which we all swim.
The talk includes background on the history of doodles and then covers politicians' doodles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; drawings by writers; the doodle craze of the 1930s; the difficulties of psychological interpretation; Japanese Haboku drawings; drawings by children and the insane; links with medieval plea rolls, graffiti, and illumination; Surrealist automatism; twentieth-century Modernism; and popular culture.
Seating is free, but limited.
Some of Prosser's work is featured in the Ransom Center's current exhibition The Mystique of the Archive.
PREVIEW some of Beckett's doodles in the Ransom Center's online exhibition Fathoms from Anywhere: A Samuel Beckett Centenary Exhibition.
"Artists' Drawing as a Special Case: Picasso, Braque" LECTURE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 7 P.M.
For the 2008 Amon G. Carter Lecture, Bernice Rose, Chief Curator of the Menil Drawing Institute and Study Center in Houston, presents "Artists' Drawing as a Special Case: Picasso, Braque" on Thursday, November 6, at 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center.
Drawing has been fundamental to Western innovation, as it serves us from the realization of the most random thought to visualization of the most rigorous structures. Artists use it to affirm the sense of human possibility, constantly constructing new visual models of reality.
In the early 20th century, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque re-ordered academic drawing, aligning it with Impressionist innovations to use it as a tool for articulating a new aspect of visual reality: mechanical movement. Their project was the relocation of a traditional visual art form—painting—with reference to another: the radical new art form of moving images, the cinema, in order to experience one through the other.
Rose's lecture explores the role that drawing played in structuring this new alignment of visual experience as it emerged to become Cubism, the movement that became fundamental to the art of the 20th century. The lecture also discusses the invention of a new kind of narrative as part of the project of Cubism.
This lecture is presented in conjunction with the Ransom Center's exhibition A Cabinet of Drawings, on display through January 4. Seating is free, but limited.
Poetry on the Plaza: Winners and Losers READING WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, NOON
Texas Book Festival: Andre Dubus III DISCUSSION THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 7 P.M.
To kick off the Texas Book Festival, Andre Dubus III talks about his latest novel, The Garden of Last Days, on Thursday, October 30, at 7 p.m.
The Garden of Last Days is inspired by the rumored visit of 9/11 hijackers to a strip club shortly before their attacks and follows the story of a stripper present in the fictional night club. Dubus is also the author of the bestseller The House of Sand and Fog.
Seating is free, but limited. A book signing follows.
Diaspora: Homelands in Exile LECTURE WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 7 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center presents French photographer Frédéric Brenner in a Focus on Photography event on Wednesday, October 29, at 7 p.m.
Since the late 1970s, Brenner has travelled the world photographing Jewish families. His book, Diaspora: Homelands in Exile, was published in 2003. Brenner will discuss his work, a visual anthology of the Jewish Diaspora that spans 25 years and more than 40 countries.
Seating is free, but limited.
This program is co-sponsored by the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at The University of Texas at Austin and the Jewish Community Association of Austin.
Music from the Collections: Medieval Manuscripts PERFORMANCE MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 7 P.M.
As part of the Music from the Collections series, Italy's Ensemble Micrologus performs music from the Ransom Center's medieval manuscripts collection on Monday, October 20, at 7 p.m. in Jessen Auditorium.
Ensemble Micrologus is an Italian group of musicians who perform religious and secular medieval music, vocal and instrumental, including both religious and secular pieces from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries. The group includes Patricia Bovi on vocals and harp; Adolfo Broegg on lute, psaltery, and citola; Goffredo Degli Esposti on flute, bombarde, and bagpipes; Ulrich Pfeifer on vocals and hurdy gurdy; and Gabriele Russo on viela, rebec, and lyre.
Seating is free, but limited.
The series, which is co-sponsored by the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin.
LEARN MORE about the Ransom Center's music collections. Also mark your calendar for the second program in the series on Tuesday, November 18, when pianist Richard Dowling performs music by Maurice Ravel.
JESSEN AUDITORIUM
Archives Film Series: Possession FILM SERIES MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 7 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center continues the Archives Film Series with Neil LaBute's Possession (2002) on Monday, October 13, at 7 p.m.
Adapted from the A. S. Byatt novel of the same name, the film stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart, who play a pair of literary researchers working to unearth the secret of two Victorian poets.
The film series is held in conjunction with the exhibition The Mystique of the Archive. Drawing from the Harry Ransom Center's extensive modern literature collections—Julian Barnes, Don DeLillo, Anne Sexton, and many others—the exhibition describes what constitutes an archive, documents the evolution of creative works, and maps an archive's journey from the writer's home to the scholar's desk.
Seating is free, but limited.
Mark your calendar for other screenings in the series: The Lost Moment on November 24 and The Name of the Rose on December 15.
"Drawing as Looking, Thinking, Touching" LECTURE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 7 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center presents Michael Charlesworth, Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Texas at Austin, as he discusses "Drawing as Looking, Thinking, Touching" on Thursday, October 9 at 7 p.m.
Line connotes the intelligible, but drawing is not devoid of feeling. Charlesworth uses eighteenth- and nineteenth-century examples to show that a good drawing is not a hard, cruel, despotic, and rigid line, imprisoning a form like a strait-jacket, but that drawing can be like nature, alive and in motion.
Seating is free, but limited.
This lecture is presented in conjunction with the exhibition A Cabinet of Drawings, on display through January 4. This survey or "cabinet" of more than 100 drawings from the Ransom Center's diverse collections features book illustrations, designs, illustrated letters, landscapes, and portraiture by such internationally recognized figures as William Blake, Jean Cocteau, Miguel Covarrubias, E. E. Cummings, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Miller, Pablo Picasso, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Poetry on the Plaza: Ballads and Balladeers READING WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, NOON
The Harry Ransom Center presents the free Poetry on the Plaza event Ballads and Balladeers on Wednesday, October 1, at noon.
Popularized by the Romantics, the ballad is a unique narrative form of poetry that conveys stories of love, heroes, and tragedies. Students from University of Texas at Austin professor Andrew Cooper's "Romantic Authorship" course read ballads by traditional English poets John Keats, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, as well as modern and folk interpretations of the ballad form.
Pick up a free Poetry on the Plaza poster and bookmark with the 2008-09 schedule at the visitors' desk in the Ransom Center lobby.
EVENT CANCELED
Signatures Series: Julian Barnes DISCUSSION THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 7 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center invites you to a discussion with writer Julian Barnes, whose archive is housed at the Ransom Center. The event occurs Thursday, September 25, at 7 p.m. in Jessen Auditorium.
In this Signatures Series event, Barnes talks about his new memoir Nothing To Be Frightened Of. The book is a family memoir, an exchange with his brother (a philosopher), a meditation on mortality and the fear of death, a celebration of art, an argument with and about God, and a homage to the French writer Jules Renard. A book signing follows.
Seating is free, but limited.
Items from Julian Barnes's archive are on display in the current exhibition The Mystique of the Archive, which runs through January 4.
Signatures Series events highlight archival acquisitions of the Ransom Center.
LEARN MORE about the Julian Barnes papers, which were acquired in 2002 and supplemented in 2006 with additional materials.
JESSEN AUDITORIUM
Curator's Tour of A Cabinet of Drawings TOUR WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 7 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center Associate Curator of Art Peter Mears leads a free curator's tour of A Cabinet of Drawings on Wednesday, September 24, at 7 p.m.
Using almost any medium that will leave a mark—crayon, pencil, charcoal, chalk, pastel, pen and ink, gouache, and watercolor—visual thinkers have produced a wide range of images, from intimate expressions of the individual's innermost thoughts to highly refined master works. This survey or "cabinet" of more than 100 drawings from the Ransom Center's diverse collections features book illustrations, designs, illustrated letters, landscapes, and portraiture by such internationally recognized figures as William Blake, Jean Cocteau, Miguel Covarrubias, E. E. Cummings, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Miller, Pablo Picasso, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
VIDEO PREVIEW of the exhibition
If you can't attend the curator's tour, free docent-led tours of the exhibitions are offered Tuesdays at noon and Saturdays at 2 p.m.
The exhibition is on display through January 4.
Archives Film Series: Fahrenheit 451 FILM SERIES MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 7 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center kicks off the Archives Film Series with François Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1966) on Monday, September 22, at 7 p.m.
Starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie, the film is adapted from Ray Bradbury's novel of the same name. The story chronicles the life of firefighter Guy Montag, who has been tasked with burning books to protect society from their contents.
The film series is held in conjunction with the exhibition The Mystique of the Archive. Drawing from the Harry Ransom Center's extensive modern literature collections— Julian Barnes, Don DeLillo, Anne Sexton, and many others—the exhibition describes what constitutes an archive, documents the evolution of creative works, and maps an archive's journey from the writer's home to the scholar's desk.
Seating is free, but limited.
Mark your calendar for other screenings in the series: Possession on October 13, The Lost Moment on November 24, and The Name of the Rose on December 15.
Curator's Tour of The Mystique of the Archive TOUR THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 7 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center Associate Director of Exhibition and Education Cathy Henderson leads a free curator's tour of The Mystique of the Archive on Thursday, September 11, at 7 p.m.
This exhibition explores the promise of mystery, adventure, and discovery embodied in the aura of archives. Drawing from the Harry Ransom Center's extensive modern literature collections—Julian Barnes, Don DeLillo, Anne Sexton, and many others—the exhibition describes what constitutes an archive, documents the evolution of creative works from first draft to first edition, and maps an archive's journey from the writer's home to the scholar's desk, revealing acquisition intrigues, preservation challenges, and cataloging puzzles along the way.
Mark your calendar for a curator's tour of the other current exhibition, A Cabinet of Drawings, on Wednesday, September 24, at 7 p.m.
VIDEO PREVIEW of the exhibition
If you can't attend the curator's tour, free docent-led tours of the exhibitions are offered Tuesdays at noon and Saturdays at 2 p.m.
The exhibitions are on display through January 4.
Poetry on the Plaza: The Mystique of the Draft READING WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, NOON
The Harry Ransom Center kicks off the 2008-09 Poetry on the Plaza season with The Mystique of the Draft on Wednesday, September 3, at noon.
Archives lift the veil on the creative process by providing scholars with access to drafts of a poet’s work. This event features works by poets whose drafts can be found in the Ransom Center’s collections. Readers include Professors Jerome Bump and Coleman Hutchison from the English department.
This program is in conjunction with the current exhibition The Mystique of the Archive, which opens September 2. Drawing from the Ransom Center’s extensive modern literature collections—including the archives of Julian Barnes, Don DeLillo, Anne Sexton, and many others—the exhibition describes what constitutes an archive, documents the evolution of creative works, and maps an archive’s journey from the writer’s home to the scholar’s desk.
Also, pick up a free poster and bookmark with the 2008-09 Poetry on the Plaza schedule at the visitors desk in the Ransom Center lobby.
Image: (Detail) Walt Whitman’s "Poem of Triumph," draft, from the Walt Whitman collection, Harry Ransom Center.
Spring 2008
Rebel Classics Film Series: Look Back in Anger FILM SERIES THURSDAY, JULY 24, 7 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center presents the final film in the Rebel Classics Film Series, Tony Richardson's Look Back in Anger (1958), on Thursday, July 24, at 7 p.m.
Richard Burton stars as Jimmy Porter, an angry, unsatisfied man whose wife is pregnant but afraid to tell him as he deals with personal, emotional, and business issues.
The film is based on John Osborne's renowned play. Osbourne's archive is housed at the Ransom Center.
Seating is free, but limited.
Austin Chamber Music Center performs tribute to Beats PERFORMANCE THURSDAY, JULY 17, 7:30 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center and the Austin Chamber Music Center present the Tosca String Quartet in a tribute to the Beats, featuring Boston composer Lee Hyla's arrangement of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" and other musical and vocal performances. The free event takes place Thursday, July 17, at 7:30 p.m. in Jessen Auditorium at The University of Texas at Austin.
Please note that the start time is now 30 minutes later than originally scheduled.
The evening will include the performance of "Howl," a musical and vocal performance of Jack Kerouac's American Haiku by John Mills on saxophone and Robert Kraft on vocals, a performance of On the Road with Graham Reynolds on keyboard and Kraft on vocals, and a screening of two different versions of Shirley Clarke's film Bridges-Go-Round (1959).
This event is held in conjunction with the Ransom Center's exhibition On the Road with the Beats, which traces the travels of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and their friends across America and the globe. Come early and view the exhibition; the galleries stay open until 7 p.m. every Thursday evening.
The exhibition runs through August 3.
JESSEN AUDITORIUM
Violet Crown Radio Players perform episode of Dangerous Assignment PERFORMANCE THURSDAY, JULY 10, 7 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center presents the Violet Crown Radio Players in a performance of Dangerous Assignment on Thursday, July 10, at 7 p.m. in Jessen Auditorium.
This live recreation of a 1950s radio broadcast is presented in conjunction with the exhibition On the Road with the Beats.
The Violet Crown Radio Players are an Austin-based performance troupe of actors who recreate the once-common experience of live radio production and make their audience part of the act. With vintage advertising and news broadcasts, the radio production evokes in a time and place contemporary with the piece produced.
This event is free and open to the public.
JESSEN AUDITORIUM
Rebel Classics Film Series: Rebel Without a Cause FILM SERIES THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 7 P.M.
Nicolas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955), starring James Dean.
Luke Savisky and Graham Reynolds in Film Action 7 performance art MULTIMEDIA FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 9 P.M.
Luke Savisky and Graham Reynolds present Film Action 7, an outdoor projection, dance, and music performance in the plaza, using the Ransom Center's building as the canvas.
"Memory and Reconciliation: Civil War and Trauma in El Salvador" LECTURE THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 7 P.M.
Ricardo Ainslie, Professor of Educational Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin, presents "Memory and Reconciliation: Civil War and Trauma in El Salvador."
Violet Crown Radio Players perform episode of Perry Mason PERFORMANCE THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 7 P.M.
The Violet Crown Radio Players produce an episode of Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason in a live recreation of a 1950s radio broadcast.
JESSEN AUDITORIUM
Rebel Classics Film Series: The Wild One FILM SERIES THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 7 P.M.
László Benedek's The Wild One (1953), starring Marlon Brando.
Last day to see Kerouac scroll EXHIBITION SUNDAY, JUNE 1, NOON-5 P.M.
Last day to see the scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road in the exhibition On the Road with the Beats.
"Ominous Parallels: El Salvador as Foreshadowing" LECTURE THURSDAY, MAY 22, 7 P.M.
Associate Professor of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin Mercedes Lynn de Uriarte presents "Ominous Parallels: El Salvador as Foreshadowing."
"Destiny's Children: L.A. Gangs in Post-war El Salvador" LECTURE THURSDAY, MAY 8, 7 P.M.
Photojournalist Donna De Cesare, Associate Professor of Photojournalism at The University of Texas at Austin, presents "Destiny's Children: L.A. Gangs in Post-war El Salvador."
Poetry on the Plaza: Lost and Found READING WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, NOON
The Harry Ransom Center presents the Poetry on the Plaza event Lost and Found on Wednesday, May 7, at noon.
Graduate students from Coleman Hutchison's "Nineteenth-Century American Poetry and the Poetics of the Page" class present a selection of American poems that they have rediscovered during their coursework with the Ransom Center's collections. Their selections will include works by poets who have been consistently excluded from the canon and those who have fallen out of favor over time.
Refreshments will be served at this free event.
Image: Letter from Frederick W. Beecher to Sarah Hale Goodwin Beecher, dated November 22 [no year].
Curator's tour of Inside El Salvador TOUR WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 7 P.M.
David Coleman, the Ransom Center's Curator of Photography, leads a gallery tour of the new exhibition Inside El Salvador on Wednesday, April 30, at 7 p.m.
Inside El Salvador chronicles the height of the civil war in El Salvador in the early 1980s and depicts those directly involved with the conflict, including the guerilla forces and the army, and the war's effects on the civilian population.
The 1979 coup d'état in El Salvador sparked a brutal 12-year civil war. Events such as the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the murder of four U.S. churchwomen drew worldwide attention to the violence that rocked this tiny country.
In 1983, 30 renowned international photojournalists on assignment for Time, Newsweek, LIFE, The New York Times, Paris-Match, and Stern contributed to a book and exhibition that chronicled the daily life of the people during the civil war.
The exhibition features 67 black and white photographs of the conflict, including the guerillas and the U.S.-aided army, as well as the impact upon the civilian population. The images are accompanied by texts written by poet Carolyn Forché. Generous donations of the prints by the photographers and by the Marlene Nathan Meyerson Family Foundation to the Ransom Center benefited the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen (Museum of the Word and Image) in San Salvador, a museum and archive dedicated to investigating, rescuing, preserving, and presenting elements of the culture and history of El Salvador.
The exhibition continues with a selection of over 30 images by award-winning documentary photographer Donna DeCesare, currently an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin. This selection, called El Salvador Inside Out, starts by covering the end of the civil war, notably the murder of six Jesuit priests and the guerilla offensive in San Salvador in 1989—events that increased international pressure for the peace accords.
The exhibition opens April 17 and runs through August 3.
"Jack Kerouac's America" LECTURE THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 7 P.M.
In conjunction with the exhibition On the Road with the Beats, Douglas Brinkley presents "Jack Kerouac's America" on Thursday, April 24, at 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center.
Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University and editor of Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954 and Library of America's Jack Kerouac: Road Novels 1957-1960.
On the Road with the Beats, which runs through August 3, traces the travels of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and their friends across America and the globe. Manuscripts, books, photographs, and visual art from the Ransom Center's collections tell the story of the Beat Generation and the literary and social revolution they inspired. The scroll manuscript of Kerouac's novel On the Road is on display through June 1.
Beat Film Series with Scorpio Rising, Kustom Kar Kommandos, and A Bucket of Blood FILM SERIES WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 7 P.M.
Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising (1964) and Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965), and Roger Corman's A Bucket of Blood (1959). Co-sponsored by the Austin Film Society. Tickets Required.
Promotional media sponsors: Austinist and The Austin Chronicle
ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE AT THE RITZ, 320 E. 6th Street
Beat Poet Anne Waldman READING FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 7 P.M.
Ann Waldman discusses her life as a Beat poet with Harry Ransom Center Curator of British and American Literature Molly Schwartzburg on Friday, April 18, at 7 p.m.
Waldman co-founded with Allen Ginsberg the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, where she is the Artistic Director of the Summer Writing Program. She has published dozens of books of poetry, and her work has been translated into several languages.
This program is presented in conjunction with the Ransom Center's current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, curated by Schwartzburg. The exhibition, which traces the travels of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and their friends across America and the globe, runs through August 3.
Beat Film Series with The Last Clean Shirt, Wholly Communion, Towers Open Fire, The End, and Beat FILM SERIES WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 7 P.M.
Alfred Leslie's The Last Clean Shirt (1964), Peter Whitehead's Wholly Communion (1965), Anthony Balch and William S. Burroughs's Towers Open Fire (1962), and Christopher MacLaine's The End (1953) and Beat (1958). Co-sponsored by the Austin Film Society. Tickets Required.
Promotional media sponsors: Austinist and The Austin Chronicle
ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE AT THE RITZ, 320 E. 6th Street
Poetry on the Plaza: Nobel PoetsREADING WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, NOON
The Harry Ransom Center presents the Poetry on the Plaza event Nobel Poets on Wednesday, April 16, at noon.
Naminata Diabate, Molly Hardy, Olga Herrera, and Crystal Kurzen, who are members of the English Department's Ethnic and Third World Literature concentration, read poems by Nobel-prize winning writers Wole Soyinka, Seamus Heaney, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz. This event continues the Ransom Center's celebration of National Poetry Month.
Refreshments will be served at this free event.
"Some Things We Can Learn from Images of War" LECTURE TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 6:30 P.M.
In conjunction with the exhibition Inside El Salvador, the Harry Ransom Center presents photographer Harry Mattison for "Some Things We Can Learn from Images of War" on Tuesday, April 15, at 6:30 p.m. in the CMA Auditorium at The University of Texas at Austin.
Mattison will address some of the fundamental questions regarding the relationship between photography and the suffering of violence and armed conflict: What purposes do the images of violence serve, and what roles can the photographer, the subjects, and the viewer be assigned in the interpretation of such documents? What does it mean to be an "eye-witness"? If a photograph conveys meaning, whom does it address and why?
This free lecture takes place in CMA A2.320, located in the Jesse H. Jones Communication Center-A on the corner of 23rd and Whitis streets.
Inside El Salvador, opening April 17, chronicles the height of the civil war in El Salvador in the early 1980s and depicts those directly involved with the conflict and the war's effects on the civilian population.
CMA AUDITORIUM (CMA A2.320)
Beat Film Series with Desistfilm, Skyscraper FILM SERIES WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 7 P.M.
John Cassavetes's Shadows (1959), Stan Brakhage's Desistfilm (1954), and Shirley Clarke's Skyscraper (1959). Co-sponsored by the Austin Film Society. Tickets Required.
Promotional media sponsors: Austinist and The Austin Chronicle
ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE AT THE RITZ, 320 E. 6th Street
"California Beat: West Coast Art from the Beat Era" LECTURE THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 7 P.M.
David S. Rubin, the Brown Foundation Curator of Contemporary Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art, presents "California Beat: West Coast Art from the Beat Era," on Thursday, April 3, at 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center.
Rubin discusses the work of eight artists who shaped the California Beat Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Together, these artists transformed everyday objects and common imagery into visual art marked by a profound sense of spirituality. The artists under consideration are Wallace Berman, George Herms, Edward Kienholz, Wally Hedrick, Jay DeFeo, Bruce Conner, Jess, and Joan Brown.
This event is in conjunction with the Ransom Center's current exhibitions, On the Road with the Beats, on display through August 3, and Jess: To and From the Printed Page, on display through April 6.
Beat Film Series with Motion Picture, Pull My Daisy, City of Jazz, Bridges-Go-Round, Anticipation of NightFILM SERIES WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 7 P.M.
This series features selected works from filmmakers involved in the Beat movement, including: Frank Paine's Motion Picture (1956), Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie's Pull My Daisy (1959), Ed Bland's Cry of Jazz (1958), Shirley Clarke's Bridges-Go-Round (1958), and Stan Brakhage's Anticipation of the Night (1958). Co-sponsored by the Austin Film Society. Tickets Required.
Promotional media sponsors: Austinist and The Austin Chronicle
ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE AT THE RITZ, 320 E. 6th Street
Poetry on the Plaza: Deans' Choice READING WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, NOON
The Harry Ransom Center presents Poetry on the Plaza event Deans' Choice on Wednesday, April 2, at noon.
In celebration of National Poetry Month, University deans bring their favorite poetry to life in this event. College of Fine Arts Dean Doug Dempster, College of Liberal Arts Dean Randy Diehl, College of Communication Dean Roderick P. Hart, and Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Victoria Rodriguez are the featured readers.
Refreshments will be served at this free event.
Marathon Reading of On the Road READING SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 10 A.M.-10 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center presents a marathon reading of Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road, on Saturday, March 29, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Spider House Café.
This event is presented in conjunction with the Ransom Center's current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, on display through August 3. The exhibition traces the travels of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and their friends across America and the globe. Manuscripts, books, photographs, and visual art from the Ransom Center's collections tell the story of the Beat Generation and the literary and social revolution they inspired. The scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's On the Road will be on display March 7 through June 1.
Spider House is located at 2908 Fruth Street.
Promotional media sponsors: Austinist and The Austin Chronicle
SPIDER HOUSE, 2908 Fruth Street
"Celebrating On the Road" LECTURE THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 7 P.M.
Ann Charters, biographer and bibliographer of Jack Kerouac, talks about her association with the novelist in "Celebrating On The Road" on Thursday, March 20, at 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center.
Charters, a professor of English at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, discusses the changing reputation of Kerouac's On the Road since its publication in 1957—from its beginning as a best-selling novel that aroused controversy coast-to-coast in the United States to its present status honored as an American classic throughout the world.
This event is presented in conjunction with the Ransom Center's current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, on display through August 3. The scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's On the Road will be on display March 7-June 1.
Charters began collecting books by Beat writers in the early 1960s, and she worked with Jack Kerouac in the compilation of his bibliography in 1966. She published Kerouac: A Biography in 1973, and she's edited The Beat Reader, The Sixties Reader, two volumes of Selected Letters of Jack Kerouac, and the textbook The Story and Its Writer.
"Shakespeare in Our Time" LECTURE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 7 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center presents British scholar and director John Russell Brown, whose archive is at the Ransom Center, in the program "Shakespeare in Our Time" on Wednesday, March 19, at 7 p.m.
The discussion examines contemporary staging and performance of Shakespeare. James Loehlin, professor in the Department of English at The University of Texas at Austin and director of the Shakespeare at Winedale program, will moderate the event.
Performance of Shakespeare worldwide has increased greatly over the past 50 years and has helped transform the academic study of his plays. Brown has played a critical role in creating this new discipline of Shakespeare performance studies. As Associate Director of Britain's National Theatre, he has also directly participated in many important developments in theatrical production. Brown and Loehlin will discuss the differences between academic and theatrical approaches to Shakespeare, the challenges of bridging the gap between them, and the mutual benefits such interdisciplinary work can generate.
Co-sponsored by the Department of English and Shakespeare at Winedale.
Kerouac scroll available for viewing EXHIBITION FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 10 A.M.-5 P.M.
First day to see the scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road in the exhibition On the Road with the Beats.
Gallery Tour of Jess: To and From the Printed Page TOUR FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 7 P.M.
Michael Auping, Chief Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, leads a gallery tour of Jess: To and From the Printed Page and discusses the relationship between Jess and the Beats on Friday, March 7, at 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center.
Jess is an exhibition focusing on the influential San Francisco artist known as "Jess" (Burgess Collins) that explores his ongoing dialog between visual images and printed text. Imaginative collage works and paintings derived from poetry, literary classics, and even the Sunday comics are featured.
As chief curator of the the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y. (1993) Michael Auping organized a major retrospective exhibition on Jess and authored a 245-page catalog that includes an artist interview and multiple scholarly essays documenting Jess's career from 1951-1993.
Jess complements the Ransom Center's other current exhibition, On the Road with the Beats, which traces the travels of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and their friends across America and the globe.
Manuscripts, books, photographs, and visual art from the Ransom Center's collections tell the story of the Beat Generation and the literary and social revolution they inspired.
Media sponsor: Art Lies Magazine
"Hearing Private History: The Home Recordings of John Clellon Holmes, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg, 1949-1951" LECTURE THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 7 P.M.
Phil Ford, Assistant Professor of Musicology at Indiana University, presents "Hearing Private History: The Home Recordings of John Clellon Holmes, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg, 1949-1951," on Thursday, March 6, at 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center.
The talk focuses on an unpublished cache of home recordings that capture Clellon Holmes, Kerouac, and Ginsberg reciting poetry, listening to jazz, and trying their hand at vocal jazz improvisation. Ford will discuss how these recordings help us think about the unstable relationship between recorded sound and its decay, and the place of nostalgia in our reconstruction of the past through such ephemeral archival materials.
This event is held in conjunction with the Ransom Center's exhibition On the Road with the Beats, on display through August 3.
Poetry on the Plaza: On the Road READING WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, NOON
The Harry Ransom Center hosts Poetry on the Plaza: On the Road on Wednesday, March 5, at noon.
Professor Jeffrey Meikle and two students from his class "The Beats and American Culture," Meg Halpin and Tom Bevilacqua, read poetry from the Beat Generation. They will be joined by Dr. Molly Schwartzburg, Curator of British and American Literature, who will read selections featured in the Ransom Center's current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, which runs through August 3.
The exhibition traces the travels of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and their friends across America and the globe. Manuscripts, books, photographs, and visual art from the Ransom Center's collections tell the story of the Beat Generation and the literary and social revolution they inspired. The scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's On the Road will be on display March 7-June 1, 2008.
Refreshments will be served at this free event.
Explore UT Family SATURDAY, MARCH 1, NOON-5 P.M.
Family fun inspired by the current exhibitions.
"Considering Jess Today" PANEL THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 7 P.M.
In conjunction with the current exhibition Jess: To and From the Printed Page, the Harry Ransom Center presents the panel discussion "Considering Jess Today" on Thursday, February 28, at 7 p.m.
Exhibition curator Ingrid Schaffner, writer and independent curator Michael Duncan, and Austin artist Lance Letscher discuss Jess's literary collaborations and his mastery of the collage medium.
Schaffner, senior curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, argues that visitors can come to understand Jess's art better "by focusing on its bookish aspects." Duncan discusses Jess and his circle of writers and poets. Letscher, an Austin artist who works primarily in collage, discusses Jess's work in this medium.
The exhibition Jess: To and From the Printed Page explores the ongoing dialog between visual images and printed text in the work of this influential San Francisco artist. The exhibition runs through April 6. Imaginative collage works and paintings derived from poetry, literary classics, and even the Sunday comics are featured.
Beat Voices PERFORMANCE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 7 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center presents the premiere performance of Beat Voices on Thursday, February 21, at 7 p.m.
The series of brief plays, produced in conjunction with the current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, are written, directed, and performed by students in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin. The pieces illuminate objects and people featured in the exhibition, including Beat figures Peter Orlovsky and Diane DiPrima, specific letters exchanged by Beat authors, and a painting by artist Alfred Leslie.
The performances allow audience members to engage with artifacts and historical figures in the exhibition through live performance.
After the premiere, the plays will be performed every Saturday and Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m. until the exhibition closes.
This program is presented with support from the Harry W. Bass Jr. Foundation of Dallas and the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin.
"Beat Love Poems" PERFORMANCE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 7 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center hosts the program "Beat Love Poems" at Austin's Scoot Inn on Friday, February 15, at 7 p.m.
Local authors and musicians Spike Gillespie and Jesse Sublett perform poems about love and other subjects by poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and others, while DJ BeBop Kid spins jazz in this tribute to the Beats.
Scoot Inn is located at 1308 E. 4th Street.
This free event is held in conjunction with the Ransom Center's exhibition On the Road with the Beats, which traces the travels of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and their friends across America and the globe. The exhibition runs through August 3.
Promotional media sponsors: Austinist and The Austin Chronicle
SCOOT INN, 1308 E. 4th Street
"Slander: The Art and Politics of Libel in Eighteenth-Century France" LECTURE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 7 P.M.
For the 2008 Carl H. and Lily Pforzheimer Lecture, Robert W. Darnton, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the Harvard University Libraries, presents "Slander: The Art and Politics of Libel in Eighteenth-Century France" on Thursday, February 7, at 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center.
Darnton's lecture investigates the vast but largely unstudied literature of libel that flooded the French book market in the eighteenth century. By concentrating on four interconnected libelles from 1771 to 1793, his talk combines an analysis of the genre and an account of a colony of French refugees in London who churned out slanderous attacks on public figures in Versailles and grafted a blackmail operation onto their literary speculations. Their adventures and misadventures, along with attempts of secret agents from the Paris police to eliminate them, provide a lively tale that leads directly into the French Revolution.
Seating is free, but limited. A reception immediately follows the talk.
If you can't make it to this program, you can view a live webcast of the lecture. Please note the lecture will start streaming at this link beginning at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
The Carl H. and Lily Pforzheimer Lecture at the Ransom Center is an annual lecture series featuring a prominent authority on bibliography, book arts, libraries, and related topics. It is presented this year in honor of the late Professor Robert L. Dawson of The University of Texas at Austin Department of French and Italian.
One of the world's foremost historians of the book, Robert Darnton is the author of The Great Cat Massacre, George Washington's False Teeth, and numerous other studies of eighteenth-century culture. In 2007, he assumed the directorship of the Harvard University Libraries.
Poetry on the Plaza: Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath READING WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, NOON
The Harry Ransom Center presents the first Poetry on the Plaza of the spring semester, Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath, on Wednesday, February 6 at noon.
Readers share poems from Plath and Sexton and poets who inspired and were inspired by them, including John Berryman, Robert Lowell, and Elizabeth Bishop.
The archives of Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell reside at the Harry Ransom Center.
Refreshments will be served at this free event.
Curator's Tour: On the Road with the Beats TOUR TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 7 P.M.
Molly Schwartzburg, the Harry Ransom Center's Curator of British and American Literature, leads a free gallery tour of the exhibition On the Road with the Beats on Tuesday, February 5, at 7 p.m.
On the Road with the Beats traces the travels of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and their friends across America and the globe. Manuscripts, books, photographs, and visual art from the Ransom Center's collections tell the story of the Beat Generation and the literary and social revolution they inspired.
The exhibition will be on display through August 3. The scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's On the Road will be on display March 7-June 1.
David Mamet to Speak on Campus LECTURE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 6:30 P.M.
The Harry Ransom Center, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, and the LBJ Library and Museum present playwright, writer, and film director David Mamet for the 2008 Harry Middleton Lecture on Monday, February 4, at 6:30 p.m. at Hogg Auditorium.
Mamet, whose papers reside at the Ransom Center, discusses his career and work with Austin Chronicle Arts Editor Robert Faires.
Seating at the lecture is limited, and tickets are required for entry. All tickets have been distributed for this event. However, there will be a stand-by line starting at 5:30 p.m. at Hogg Auditorium the day of the event to fill unclaimed seats. Guests in the stand-by line aren't guaranteed seating.
For more information, visit www.lbjfoundation.org/middleton.
View Gallery of Mamet's Papers
HOGG AUDITORIUM
Program Season
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Watch broadcast journalist Mike Wallace's interviews from the television program The Mike Wallace Interview. Wallace donated the show's footage on 16mm kinescope to the Ransom Center in the early 1960s. Most episodes have not been seen since they aired.
