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Indie Woolf song debuts

Wednesday 9 March 2011 by Paula Maggio

Here is another song inspired by Virginia Woolf that debuted Sunday. You can listen to it here.

The song is appropriately titled “Virginia Woolf,” is performed by Freedom Or Death and appears on their album Ego.

It features bits of dialogue from the 1966 film “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?”  Give it a listen and post your comments below.

Posted in 21st century Woolf, music | Tagged , | 1 Comment »

Woolf’s Room on stage in NY March 12-27

Wednesday 9 March 2011 by Paula Maggio

Based on Virginia Woolf’s writing, Room, will return to the New York stage for 16 performances 11 years after its world premiere. Performances begin March 12 and running through March 27.

It is directed by Anne Bogart, adapted by Jocelyn Clarke and presented by the Women’s Project and Siti Company at the Julia Miles Theater, 424 W. 55th St.

Performances are Tuesday & Wednesday, 7 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 3 p.m.  and 7:30 p.m.

For more information, call 212-239-6200 or visit womensproject.org.

March 11 update: BW readers can save on tickets to Room

Posted in play | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

Where will you put your literary tattoo?

Tuesday 8 March 2011 by Paula Maggio

This Bloomsbury 2010 tattoo is temporary.

Earlier this year, U.S. publisher Black Ocean said it would give a lifetime subscription – one copy of every book it produces – as a thank you to anyone who gets a tattoo inspired by a Black Ocean title.

“Just send us a picture of you getting your tattoo (so we know it’s not simply a magic marker), or find one of us in person and expose yourself to us (with fair warning),” the publisher’s blog cheerily offers.

Several readers obliged, sending photos of their tattoos inspired by The Man Suit, a book of poetry by Zachary Schomburg.

When it comes to tattoos, Woolf is no slacker.

According to Inside Higher Ed’s article “Unafraid of Virginia Woolf,” three young women recently acquired tattoos in honor of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. All three featured the words “Fear no more,” famous words quoted from Shakespeare in Mrs. D.

While literary tattoos aren’t strictly an American phenomenon, The Guardian reported that in Clerkenwell London, the request for a literary tattoo is more likely to be for a quote from T.S. Eliot.

Editor’s Note: Read the comment below to learn about Amy Whipple’s Woolf tattoos. She blogs at http://www.amywhipple.com/.

Posted in 21st century Woolf, Virginia Woolf | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments »

Woolf sightings: Lady Gaga, genius, and graphic novels

Thursday 3 March 2011 by Paula Maggio

Here are about 10 days worth of Woolf sightings from around the Web:

  1. The Jezabels: Feminine Mystique, Blast
    Over the better part of an hour, the singer eloquently dishes on feminine icons from Virginia Woolf to Lady Gaga, the thematic concepts of each of the band’s releases, and how the band members manage to merge their diverse musical tastes. 
    2. Paper Arts is a new literary arts magazine that quotes Woolf on its “About” page.
  2. Trio brings lit to life, Minneapolis Star Tribune
    Named in part after a collection of Virginia Woolf’s letters, Paper Darts also aims a tiny metaphorical missile at tradition. “We’re trying to take the stick out of the butt of the literary world,” said Regan Smith, one of the young women behind the . . .
  3. Beautiful Imagination… About – News & Issues
    Or Virginia Woolf, who eloquently described the plight of Shakespeare’s fictional sister (but also encouraged us to re-imagine/re-think the history of women writers)? These women (and more) have gone before–it’s upon their graves (and the body of . . .
  4. Women Write the Berkshires and the World, iBerkshires.com
    English modernist writer Virginia Woolf once said, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” For centuries, women across cultures were silenced publicly. Their place in traditionally masculine spheres was at first prohibited and almost always . . .
  5. Greenwich House Music School Presents Joan La Barbara Concert 3/17, Broadway World
    For several years, La Barbara has developed an opera on Virginia Woolf’s verbal constructs and the demons that plagued her. More recently, she has explored the fragments of dreams in Joseph Cornell’s journals and some of the dark recesses of Edgar . . .
  6. The Instant Expert: ‘Desperate Housewives’ and The Feminine Mystique, The National
    And if they now have time for bigger battles, they have her to thank. A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN Based on a lecture she presented in 1928, Virginia Woolf argued that women need money – and a room of their own – to thrive creatively and intellectually. . . .
  7. What makes a genius? Eureka, not a moment’s glory, Organiser
    The personalities he has chosen are: Leonardo da Vinci, Christopher Wren, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jean-Francois Champollion, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Virginia Woolf, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Satyajit Ray. . .
  8. 17th-Century Comedy Is Movable Feast at World Financial Center, Tribeca Trib
    “All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn,” Virginia Woolf wrote in “A Room of One’s Own.” “For it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.” New York Classical Theatre has brought 23 plays to more than  . . . Continue Reading »

Posted in Woolf online, Woolf sightings | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

Online Woolf project mixes laughter, tears

Monday 28 February 2011 by Paula Maggio

The beauty of the world, which is soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. – Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

A new collaborative online writing project called Hearts Asunder launches tomorrow.

It will use 400-word blog posts to illustrate the Woolf quote above by “smashing ideas from her writing against items from today’s pop culture to help yank her charm and relevance into the 21st Century,” according to creator Brianna Goldberg.

The self-described “lit-loving Canadian writer and radio producer” will curate the project, which will run from March 1-28, the 70th anniversary of Woolf’s death. It is conceived of as a commemoration of her death as well as a celebration of her unique way of seeing the world as a double-edged sword that can incite both pain and laughter.

Goldberg’s aim is to overcome a tendency many Woolf scholars deplore. That is the public’s proclivity to focus on Woolf’s sad, serious side — including her final walk to the River Ouse — to the exclusion of her witty, humorous side, including her incredibly productive life.

Steven Daldry’s popular 2002 film The Hours‘ helped reinvigorate interest in Woolf and her writing. But it also reinforced the view of Woolf as a tragic figure, one reason why some Woolf fans and scholars panned the film. However, the film won a multitude of awards, including Nicole Kidman’s Oscar for best actress, the Golden Globes award for best drama and the best adapted screenplay honor from the Writers Guild of America.

Since then, online interest in Woolf has grown. And while I have my doubts that Woolf’s charm and relevance need to be “yanked” into the 21st century, no one has launched a project that inserts Woolf into mainstream media and pop culture the way that The Hours did. As a result, the public impression of Woolf remains a serious one.

Goldberg agrees, and she hopes her project will change that.

“I believe Woolf has been absorbed into our culture as an overly dour, overly serious character. By pairing her work with items of today’s pop culture in this blog project, I hope we can help show the author and her work in a new light—one that celebrates her sense of humour AND her gravitas. And her relevance to the 21st Century,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Goldberg says Hearts Asunder will feature a series of blog posts that take ideas, characters, and/or themes from Woolf’s work and “smash them against items of contemporary pop culture, resulting in brief and unique bits of creative writing in a variety of styles. In short, it’s a VW culture-jam.”

Blog contributors include a Canadian Stratford Festival actor, a baseball historian, a music critic, the star of a viral video comedy team, a mommy blogger and others. Goldberg says the writers have an interesting mix of perspectives and various levels of familiarity with Woolf’s work.

“But they’re all excited and eager to learn more about VW’s work through this project—and really, that’s a main goal of the concept for me, too,” she wrote.

Hearts Asunder is live now, and the full version of the Tumblr blog will launch tomorrow. See the RSS feed at the top of the right sidebar for links to the site’s most recent posts.

Posted in 21st century Woolf, A Room of One's Own, Woolf blog | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

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