“Monkey Business” launch reading for Brooklyn Lit Crawl at Dassara Brooklyn Ramen, 5/18. Thanks to David Boyd, Yoko Sawai, Eric Ozawa, Daniel Krieger, Brigid Hughes & the Lit Crawlers for a great evening!
Monkey Business @ The Asia Society
Missed our sold-out event? Watch it on video here.
Hitomi Yoshio, Mina Ishikawa, Charles Simic, Ted Goossen.
Hitomi Yoshio, Genichiro Takahashi, Paul Auster, Motoyuki Shibata.
Sold-out!
Monkey 1, 2 & 3 sell out, too.
THANK YOU! & GRAND FINALE
Thank you for the tremendous support we’ve received this week in NYC. Arigato, ne.
Our final launch event is tomorrow, May 4, 2 p.m. at The Asia Society of New York w/Paul Auster, Charles Simic, Genichiro Takahashi, Mina Ishikawa, Motoyuki Shibata & Ted Goossen. Tix & info here.
(Check out this preview interview with Moto and Ted.)
Hosted once again by the fine folks of The PEN World Voices Festival.
JOE’s PUB, May 1.
BOOKCOURT, May 2.
Monkeying around in NYC…
…with Yoko Sawai of The Hard Nips, of course! Join her at Joe’s Pub tonight!
Check out the bands for MONKEY’s launch tomorrow night
We’re thrilled to have two brilliant Japanese bands performing at tomorrow night’s opening party for Monkey Business, Issue 3. It will be an evening not to be missed.
*Check out NEO BLUES MAKI here.
*And then hang with Japanese female indie rockers THE SUZAN here.
**Catch them both live tomorrow night, May 1st … right here!
MONKEY launch sched in NYC, next week!
Here’s the initial rundown, as of right now.
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Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, New York
Monkey Business: A Cabaret with A Public Space
East meets West Meets Uptown meets Downtown
Readings by Gen’ichiro Takahashi, Mina Ishikawa, Kevin Brockmeier, Ted Goossen and Motoyuki Shibata
Music by Neo Blues Maki and The Suzan
Hosted by Roland Kelts
[PEN info]
PEN World Voices joins with Asia Society, A Public Space,
and Monkey Business International—the acclaimed
English-language anthology of newly translated Japanese
writing—for a cabaret-style night of readings, conversation,
and music. Hosted by Japanamerica author Roland Kelts.
Tickets: $15/$12 PEN Members and students with valid ID
$12 food minimum or two drink minimum per person
212-967-7555 or www.publictheater.org, or visit The Public
Theater Box Office at 425 Lafayette Street. Box Office Hours:
Sun-Mon 1-6 p.m., Tue-Sat 1-7:30 p.m.
EVERYONE WITH A TICKET GETS A FREE COPY OF ISSUE 3 OF MONKEY BUSINESS
Presented in association with The Public Theater, a center
for culture, arts, and ideas, and co-sponsored by Asia Society,
Monkey Business, and A Public Space.
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[EVENT 2] Thursday, May 2nd 2013, 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m Baruch College, 55 Lexington Ave. at 24th St., New York
Resonances: Contemporary Writers on the Classics
Participants: Nadeem Aslam, Eduardo Halfon, James Kelman, and Gen’ichiro Takahasi
Moderated by: Eva S. Chou
[PEN Info]
Before the flame, a spark.
Each year, a group of Festival authors are invited by Baruch
College’s Great Works program to comment on a classic
work of literature or author that influenced their own work.
Panelists speak about the great works that affected them,
read from their own work or their chosen classic text to
illustrate the impact, then engage in discussion with the
audience.
Free and open to the public.
Co-sponsored by The Great Works Program, Weissman
School of Arts and Sciences—Baruch College, Asia Society,
Monkey Business, and A Public Space.
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Thursday, May 2, 7pm
BookCourt, 163 Court Street, Brooklyn
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Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street, New York
Monkey Business—Japan/America: Writers’ Dialogue
Dialogues between Paul Auster and Gen’ichiro Takahashi, and between Charles Simic and Mina Ishikawa
[PEN info]
Paul Auster and Charles Simic join Gen’ichiro Takahashi,
one of Japan’s leading novelists and critics, and Mina Ishikawa,
a fresh new voice in tanka poetry, for an intriguing cross-cultural
encounter. The conversation will be facilitated by eminent translators
Motoyuki Shibata and Ted Goossen, the editors of the acclaimed
English-language anthology of newly translated Japanese writing,
Monkey Business International.
Tickets: $15/$10 Asia Society and PEN Members; $12
students and seniors
Co-sponsored by Asia Society, A Public Space, and Monkey
Business.
**Motoyuki Shibata is also giving a keynote speech for a symposium “The Politics of Polyglossia,” at Baruch College, 1:30pm, May 6:
Monkey Business on Recommended Reading
Shortly after J. D. Salinger died, we thought it would be wonderful to feature a poem or story about him or his work by Mieko Kawakami—who had once told us of her fondness for Salinger’s Nine Stories—in the Japanese version of Monkey Business. We expected it would turn out to be a nice homage to the beloved writer. (Some time before, Mieko had contributed a beautiful essay in memory of Kurt Vonnegut to Hayakawa’s SF Magazine.) Yet when she submitted this terrific prose poem, “A Once-Perfect Day for Bananafish,” based on what is arguably Salinger’s very best short story—we were blown away. We love the idea of the three-year-old Sybil Carpenter in “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” as an old woman at the end of her life, with the memory of that strange young man, Seymour Glass, flickering in and out of her consciousness. —Editors Ted Goossen and Motoyuki Shibata introduce Mieko Kawakami’s story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” from Issue 2 of Monkey Business at Recommending Reading. Read more here.
Motoyuki Shibata channels Chuck Berry. Around the 12:01 mark, from last year’s Monkey Business celebration at Joe’s Pub, NYC.
“Our inspiration for the name Monkey Business is that immortal Chuck Berry tune… No other work of art that I know of deals with the aggravations we face every day so straightforwardly and with such liberating humor. That is the guiding star we follow on this journey.” —Motoyuki Shibata, founding editor
REVENGE: The new story collection from MBI 1 contributor Yoko Ogawa.
