Feeds:
Posts
Comments

New York media gave Woolf and the City some coverage, particularly online. To read it, click on the links below.

Fordham University Hosts Scholars for Weekend of Woolf” by Janet Sassi – Fordham University Top Stories – June 9, 2009

NY Event: Princeton at the Virginia Woolf Conference” – The Elegant Variation – June 4, 2009

Woolf and the City” – Lux Lotus blog – June 3, 2009

Waves of Woolf: 19th Annual Virginia Woolf Conference” by Megan Branch – Oxford University Press Blog – June 3, 2009

2009 Woolf and the City Preview” by Rosalia Jovanovic – The Rumpus – June 3, 2009

Woolf and the City”  by Jason Diamond – These American Roads” – June 1, 2009

Woolf Scholar Brings Virginia to New York” by Janet Sassi, Fordham University In Focus, April 27, 2009

Patti Smith

Patti Smith, American musician, poet and artist, will open an exhibit of her Bloomsbury-inspired photographs with a solo show of poetry and music at the Farringford Hotel on the Isle of Wight today.

The exhibit itself is at Dimbola Galleries and Photographic Museum, Freshwater Bay. It features 20 prints  Smith personally selected for the show.

Dimbola is the former home of the pioneering Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. Its library houses rare and donated books about her and her work. Smith chose Thursday’s date for the opening because it was Julia Margaret Cameron’s birthday.

Smith recently completed a residency at Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex, which belonged to Bloomsbury painter Vanessa Bell, an experience that inspired many of the photographs in the show, according to the Isle of Wight’s County Press Online. The show will be held in the Old Library Gallery for six weeks.

The  photographs include objects associated with Bell, her sister and author, Virginia Woolf, and their mother, Julia Jackson — a favorite model of Julia Margaret Cameron, pioneering Victorian photographer, the County Press Online reports.

Wear Woolf in Raybans

One of the big hits at Woolf and the City was the performance by the West Coast band Princeton, who rocked out on stage Friday evening with all four tunes from their “Bloomsbury” album.

Another big hit was the Virginia Woolf t-shirt the band sold. It featured Virginia looking trés cool behind a pair of metallic-gold-trimmed Ray-Bans.

You, too, can be trés cool. Order a shirt from the band’s MySpace page. Scroll way down. Choose your size — men’s or women’s from small to large — and click on the “Pay Now” link to pay through PayPal.

Tip: The shirts are 100 percent cotton, and the women’s sizes run small. Bump your order up a size.

While you are on their site, you can check out their music.

Emma Watson with Burberry's Woolf bag

Emma Watson, star of the Harry Potter films, is the new “face” of Burberry, and Burberry’s new fall/winter collection is said to be inspired by Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury set.

But I don’t think Woolf would have opted to spend £1,095 on the roomy suede tote with embroidered overlay that Burberry has dubbed its “Woolf bag.” 

Nor can I imagine Woolf, who wandered so many miles around London, schlepping along carrying such a huge bag. I picture her using roomy pockets, not a handbag, to carry what she needed. Cast your vote on the issue by taking the poll below.

However, I do wish I had managed to attend the fashion panel, “Bloomsbury and Fashion,” at Woolf and the City.

Here are the intriguing presentations it included:

  • “Clothes Make the Flaneuse” – Catherine Mintler, University of Oklahoma
  • “The Language of Shop Windows in Virginia Woolf’s Novels” – Katarzyna Rybinska, Wroclaw University
  • “Cities of Fashion: Sartorial Topographies in ‘Street Haunting,’ Mrs. Dalloway and The Waves” – Randi Koppen, University of Bergen
  • “Self-Fashioning Identity: Clothing and Subjectivity in Orlando: A Biography” – Ula Lukszo, Stony Brook University. 

Read more about Woolf and fashion.

Take Our Poll

IVWS Logo

I told you that people who attended Woolf and the City were buzzed.

Madelyn Detloff, vice president of the International Virginia Woolf Society, barely stepped off the Fordham University campus after the conference before creating a Facebook page for the society. And one day after her announcement of the IVWS page, it already had 60 fans. Talk about high-flying energy!

If you already have a Facebook account, you can become a fan of the IVWS on Facebook. If not, create an account now.

If you are concerned about privacy, don’t worry. You can control the people who see your own Facebook page, and you can determine exactly what they see as well.

As a member of the IVWS group, you can be part of the society’s ongoing conversation about Woolf, view and post photos, share links and news and hook up with other Woolfians around the world.

Remember that you can be part of the conversation here on Blogging Woolf as well. Please feel free to post your thoughts. Just scroll down to the comments link below each post and go at it.