Café Stories
August 28th at 7:00pm
Description:
ROBIN HIRSCH reads from his award-winning collection,
THE WHOLE WORLD PASSES THROUGH: Stories from The Cornelia Street Café
“The bohemian café of your dreams” Roald Hoffmnn, Nobel Laureate
“The best goddam Village hotspot ever” Daniel Levy, songwriter/composer
“A culinary as well as a cultural landmark”, Proclamation, City of New York
ROBIN HIRSCH is a former Oxford, Fulbright, and English-Speaking Union Scholar, who has acted, directed, taught, published, and produced on both sides of the Atlantic. But the titles of which he is proudest were self-bestowed: Minister of Culture, Wine Czar, and Dean of Faculty at the Cornelia Street Café in Greenwich Village, which he opened with two other artists in 1977.
It started out as one tiny room with a toaster-oven, but grew over its 41 and a half years to include two bars, two kitchens, three rooms upstairs, a performance space downstairs, and more refrigerators than anyone could keep track of. There, in addition to award-winning food and drink, Cornelia presented work by thousands of artists in every conceivable genre (and quite a few inconceivable ones), or, as Bob Harrington put it in Nightlife Magazine, "a range of activities so varied, unusual and enthralling that the sheer scope of what goes on within those walls could unsettle a sound mind”.
Tonight is the last of three programs of CAFÉ STORIES, which derive from Robin's award-winning book-in-progress, The Whole World Passes Through. Each program has a special Cornelia Street alum. This month we have two!
LOWELL HANDLER is a prolific photographer, filmmaker, author, and educator. With specific reference to tonight’s show, he served as associate producer, narrator, presenter, co-writer, and photographer for the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary Twitch and Shout, which won the San Francisco International Film Festival. He also wrote a memoir of the same name, about his life with Tourette syndrome, (Penguin, 1998). And he is the subject of one of tonight’s stories
JAY RODRIGUEZ, a three-time Grammy-nominated veteran reed player, has been a vital part of NYC’s sonic and creative tapestry as a composer, arranger, and soloist for decades. He is a co-founder of NYC’s Groove Collective. He has worked with everyone from Miles Davis to Miley Cyrus, and played every known venue from Lincoln Center to, yes, the Cornelia Street Café. As Giovanni Russonello put it in The New York Times, “Mr. Rodriguez plays with an unreserved flexibility on the tenor, alto and soprano saxophones; flute; and bass clarinet. He moves between idioms and energies as easily as he switches instruments . . . " Let’s see how many of these he plays tonight . . .
*Please note that this performance will be presented at the Tank's in-person performance space at 312 W 36th St. All attendees and artists will be required to have a covid vaccination before being admitted to the space. Patrons will also be required to wear masks, when not eating or drinking.