“Downtown and The Twilight of Bohemia” panel

Welcome to the “Downtown and The Twilight of Bohemia” panel with Peter Trachtenberg, Francine Prose, Howard Michels and Sur Rodney (Sur)who will explore the evolution of downtown culture.

What is “Downtown”? Is it the Abstract Expressionists’ West 9th Street, or the Soho and Tribeca of succeeding generations of artists? Is it the East Village of the St. Mark’s Poetry Project, the Nuyorican Poets’ Café or the Bowery of CBGB? Is it Williamsburg, Bushwick, or Ridgewood? Is Downtown synonymous with the avant-garde or any art movement in its nascency? Is it the interval between the time an art movement becomes a scene and the time it becomes a commodity?Come celebrate Peter Trachtenberg’s The Twilight of Bohemia: Westbeth and the Last Artists in New York as Trachtenberg appears in conversation with writer Francine Prose, artist Howard Michels and writer/curator Sur Rodney (Sur) to tackle the larger question of what “Downtown” means at this precarious cultural moment.

Peter Trachtenberg is the author of The Twilight of Bohemia, a history of Westbeth, the first government-subsidized housing community for artists. His other books include 7 Tattoos, The Book of Calamities, and Another Insane Devotion. He’s a recipient of Guggenheim, Whiting, and NYFA fellowships, and the Nelson Algren Award for Short Fiction.

Francine Prose is the author of numerous books, including 1974: A Personal History, Anne Frank, Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 and Blue Angel. A Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College, she lives in New York.

Howard Michels is a painter, illustrator, engraver, and sculptor living in New York. He shows at A Hug From the Art World in Manhattan.

Sur Rodney (Sur) is a writer, curator, and archivist who works collaboratively, drawing on performance, writing, and community archives. He has served on the board of Visual AIDS and helped establish the Visual AIDS Archive Project, a web-based resource for educators and researchers.

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Host or Publisher The Leon Levy Center for Biography