I'll be teaching a series of workshops on Difficulty and Attention and their role in writing @kaatsbaan Cultural Park in transcendent Tivoli, NY, inspired by Simone Weil and sponsored by @apublicspace. Saturdays, April 4 -25. Register apublicspace.org/academy. Ice will have melted by then.
14m
The therapeutic narrative is that the traumatized patient has to remember in order to heal, but that may not be true of a traumatized nation, which at any rate will go to fanatical lengths to remain in a state of forgetfulness.
petertrachtenberg.substack.com/p/the-unmaki...
Tues, Nov 4, 6:30p - catch the discussion “Downtown and the Twilight of Bohemia” with Peter Trachtenberg, Francine Prose, Howard Michels & Sur Rodney (Sur), exploring the evolution of downtown culture. Reserve: www.eventbrite.com/e/downtown-a... @humanitiescuny.bsky.social @cunyenglish.bsky.social
Elebash Recital Hall, 365 Fifth Ave, NYC 10016. Presented by The American Studies Certificate Program and the Leon Levy Center for Biography.
RSVP at tinyurl.com/3nas3dr4
Come for the talk. But first vote.
Artists' housing, the historic artists community of Westbeth, and the beautiful mirage of Downtown will be the subjects of that evening's panel at the CUNY Graduate Center, featuring Francine Prose, Howard Michels, Sur Rodney (Sur) and me, with Ava Chin moderating.
On November 4, NYC may elect a mayor who finally brings housing back within the reach of most of its residents, maybe especially its artists.
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n November 4 New York City may elect a mayor who brings housing back within the reach of most of its residents, maybe especially its artists.
SIGN NOW: We are people of faith against illegal use of military force! act.fcnl.org/sign/venezeu...
For someone who wrote about bohemia (see Twilight Of), few things are better than getting to talk with people who embody it: @MaggieDubris, @WillHermes, and @luxxante . With thanks to @RicoFrederick and @notprofessorcolarusso. And, above all, to @urbane_brooklyn, who hosted us in style.
Weird how MAGA tried to hang Mike Pence in a public assassination in front of the world, including his family, on January 6th but are upset Charlie Kirk was publicly assassinated.
I think both are horrifying. MAGA still thinks Pence & Pelosi should've been assassinated. Publicly.
Great plug for my upcoming panel with @WillHermes, @MaggieDubris, and @WillHermes. And, for God’s sake, read Will’s epic bio of the original. open.substack.com/pub/newmusic...
Slayer.
Every once in a while, even when your country is breaking, you get to write about something you love. #JayneAnnePhillips, #PattiSmith, #VelvetUnderground, #Ai
open.substack.com/pub/petertra...
An investigation will reveal that the alcohol the FBI agent reported smelling on REID's breath was actually emanating from the U. S. Attorney in the District of Columbia.
A nice plug from the NY Review of Architecture: "Trachtenberg approaches Westbeth like a Balzacian boardinghouse, organizing much of the book around profiles of individual artists. . . he treats the AIDS crisis with special empathy.”
Come see Maggie Dubris, Will Hermes, Lucy Sante, and me trade notes on memoirs and biographies of Downtown. Thursday, 9/18, 7 PM at the Urbane Arts Club, 1016 Beverly Rd, Brooklyn NY 11218. Free w. RSVP at UrbaneBrooklyn.com. An official 2025 Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend Event.
I'm attending MoveOn's event, “MoveOn Monthly Phone Bank: Unmask ICE!” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/moveon/event...
This cause is close to my heart - please sign: sign.moveon.org/petitions/st...
An afterthought. Charisma: great in pop stars, iffy in presidents. petertrachtenberg.substack.com/p/watch-the-...
On the one and the many: a story in a parade and demonstrations. petertrachtenberg.substack.com/p/from-the-m...
"Yet in his darkness he is now aware of a radiance that streams inextinguishably from the gateway of the Law.”
--Kafka
#Nokings. Catskill, NY. On the steps of the town court.
He also gave us a model of ecstatic multiracial music-making, not the first, but surely the funkiest before Prince. And he gave me the epigraph for a book: "I am everyday people."
God speed, Sly Stone, who took us higher. When he sang "I am no better and neither are you/We are the same whatever we do," how was that different from Whitman's “every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you"? You could just dance to it. You had to.
This cause is close to my heart - please sign: sign.moveon.org/petitions/ke...
Here's an annotated transcript of my conversation with Peter Spears on his podcast #ThatBusinessofMeaning. It's about Westbeth Artists Housing and the increasingly precarious living conditions of art-makers in New York.
petertrachtenberg.substack.com/p/hacking-th...
And remember, ice always melts.
Simone Weil in New York, where she lived for a while. Almost every word I write is an answer to her words. An attempt at one.
Peter Trachtenberg on Art & New York City A nice conversation with @Peter Spears on his Substack #TheBusinessofMeaning. He asks great questions and gets guests to speak in complete sentences. Still marveling at that. open.substack.com/pub/thatbusi...
This sets an incredible precedent that will allow the state to regulate books and deny you the right to read freely in public libraries.
action.everylibrary.org/governmentdi... via @everylibrary.bsky.social
