Tickets
About this NS+ Performance
Noted author and documentarian Sam Stephenson (The Jazz Loft Project) and the indispensable literary journal The Paris Review host a National Sawdust+ evening inspired by the beguiling life and legacy of pioneering American photographer W. Eugene Smith. Regarded as the father of the photo-essay genre, Smith captured iconic and gritty images of the basements and alleyways of New York’s jazz scene; and his poignant documentation of the disease-stricken residents of post-war Japan continues to haunt our collective consciousness.
Linked to Stephenson’s new book, Gene Smith’s Sink, the expansive evening will feature readings by Stephenson, the premiere of Chuck-will’s-widow, a short film by Jem Cohen inspired by the book, and music by composers such as Thelonious Monk, Hall Overton, and Sonny Clark. Musicians including percussionist/composer Victor Pablo, pianist Angelica Sanchez, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, and a string quartet from Wordless Music Orchestra (Pauline Kim Harris, Ravenna Lipchik, Isabel Hagen, and Clarice Jensen) will join the captivating lineup.
Photo of New York loft (top) and photographer Gene Smith (above) by W. Eugene Smith
Photo by Kate Joyce
Sam Stephenson is a writer and documentarian whose book, Gene Smith’s Sink: A Wide-Angle View (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) will be published in August. He is the author of Dream Street: W. Eugene Smith’s Pittsburgh Project and The Jazz Loft Project: Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue, 1957–1965. His writing has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Paris Review, Tin House, and the Oxford American. A lifelong resident of North Carolina, he now lives in Bloomington, Indiana.
About the Artists
Victor Pablo, percussion
Photo by Martin Cohen
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Angelica Sanchez, piano
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Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet
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Wordless Music String Quartet
Pauline Kim Harris, violin
Photo by Eli Akerstein
National Sawdust+ Curated by:
