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Archive for the ‘Virginia Woolf’ Category

Frome Station

Frome Station in southern England.

According to the Frome Standard, money is being raised to establish one of England’s famous blue plaques at the Frome Railway Station in southern England to commemorate “the journey Leonard Woolf made traveling from Frome to London on Thursday, Jan. 11, 1912, to propose marriage to Virginia Stephen.” Blue plaques are permanent signs that appear throughout the United Kingdom and serve as markers of historical interest to indicate the homes and workplaces of famous people.

Leonard and Virginia on their wedding day, August 10, 1912.

From the Frome Standard:

“The outcome of this journey was so significant, not just to the two people involved, but to the worlds of publishing, 20th century literature and international politics that a group of people calling themselves the Woolf Plaque Supporters feel it deserves commemorating.”

Supporters of the plaque are asking for 100 people to donate £5 to ensure the establishment of this homage to Leonard’s proposal.

Hogarth House plaque

29 Fitzroy Square plaque

Other blue plaques that remember the Woolfs include one at Hogarth House and one at 29 Fitzroy Square.

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Woolfians who attended the 2009 conference in New York, Woolf in the City, were treated to a keynote address by Rebecca Solnit. In person as in her prose, Rebecca paints beautiful word pictures and reflect thoughtfully on their significance.

Her talk wasn’t included in the selected papers from that conference, but now she has published it as “Woolf’s Darkness: Embracing the Inexplicable” in her newest book, Men Explain Things to Me. The essay’s title in this volume is taken from Woolf’s 1915 diary entry: “The future is dark, which is the best thing the future can be, I think.” In noting the relevance of Woolf’s work today, Solnit says: “Here we are, after all, revisiting the words of a woman who died three quarters of a century ago and yet is still alive in some sense in so many imaginations, part of the conversation, an influence with agency.”

The title essay, “Men Explain Things to Me,” may go down in history as a feminist classic along with Judy Brady’s “I Want a Wife” in the 1972 inaugural issue of Ms. Magazine. And, no surprise, Solnit evokes Woolf in her jibe at male (some, not all, she allows) know-it-allness: “A Freudian would claim to know what they have and I lack, but intelligence is not situated in the crotch—even if you can write one of Virginia Woolf’s long mellifluous musical sentences about the subtle subjugation of women in the snow with your willie.”

Virginia Woolf is clearly a strong influence and appears in almost all of Solnit’s work. In her last book of personal essays, The Faraway Nearby, she is motivated to dig deeper into reflections about her mother by Woolf’s example and words in Moments of Being: “It is only by putting it into words that I make it whole.” Rebecca Solnit puts her stories and arguments into words in a way that does credit to Woolf.

 

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Alice Lowe “observes perpetually,” and she does it in loving memory of Virginia Woolf. Truly. See Pg. 26.

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A post on Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury — in Italian.

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Sarah Ruhl’s stage version of Virginia Woolf’s gender-bending novel Orlando (1928) is coming to Akron, Ohio, in conjunction with the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland.

New World Performance Laboratory’s production will be on stage Aug. 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, and 16 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 10 at 2 p.m., at the Balch Street Theatre, 220 South Balch St.

Staging yesterday and today

The play, which I saw in New York in 2010 and at this year’s Woolf conference in Chicago, is playful, inventive and full of energy. The staging of each production I saw were quite different, so I am curious to see what this version will be like. It is directed by NWPL co-artistic director James Slowiak and featuring company members Jairo Cuesta and Debora Totti along with local actors Rosilyn Jentner and India Burton as Orlando. Ticket prices range from $7.50 to $15. Get tickets here.

Come to a garden party

Virginia Woolf Lawn Party Fundraiser will take place Sunday, Aug. 17, from 4-8 p.m. The $25 cost includes wine, buffet, entertainment and a silent auction. Guests are invited to wear their Bloomsbury best to the event, which will be held at 111 Overwood Rd., Akron. Call 330-867-3299 for reservations.

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