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Posts Tagged ‘Woolf’s birthday’

In celebration of Virginia Woolf’s birthday, Sarah Blake will perform A Room of One’sWaterstone's Own at Waterstone’s Piccadilly in London on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, at 7 p.m. Sadly, though, the event is sold out. But you can place your name on a waiting list by emailing cabinetsofcuriosity@talktalk.net.

The free performance will take the audience back to the 1928 lecture that forms the basis of the argument that “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write.”

Read an interview with Blake about adapting Woolf’s polemic for performance and an article in The New Statesmen about women’s ongoing fight for a place of their own.

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A birthday horoscope for Virginia

It’s Virginia Woolf’s birthday, and here is her horoscope for the day, along with a musical tribute to Aquarians, of which she was one.

The predictions for her day make me think she would have spent it with some of her Bloomsbury friends after calculating her likely income from her book sales and other ventures before deciding on a new improvement to Monk’s House.

Rekindle happy memories by touching base with old friends. Scrutinize financial investments before taking action.

Read more about past birthday celebrations for Virginia:

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room marathonFive and a half hours. That’s how long it will take 20 actors to complete a marathon reading of the 114 pages of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own this Saturday, Jan. 26, just one day after Woolf’s official birthday.

The event will take place at the Wilton Library’s Brubeck Room, 137 Old Ridgefield Rd. in Wilton, Conn.

Admission is free. Audience members can arrive and depart at any time during the performance. Notable among the actors scheduled to read, according to The Hours Online, are Mia Dillon, Joanna Keylock, Kate Katcher, Sharon Ullrick, Megan Harris-Smith, Candace Clinger, Eileen Winnick.

Read more about past birthday celebrations for Virginia:

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Virginia Woolf was born 129 years ago today, so I decided to search through a volume or two of her diaries to see whether she made an effort to document the doings of the day.

I started with her last, Vol. V, the diaries that cover the last years of her life, 1936 to 1941. There were entries before and after Jan. 25, but none that mentioned her birthday itself. Instead, her entry for the day following her birthday in 1940 speaks of “moments of despair” (260), and her 1941 entry of depression and rejection (354).

In both cases, though, Woolf shakes off the gloom. In 1940, she writes that her despair is really “glacial suspense” that has “given way . . . to ecstasy” (260). In 1941, she bravely says “[t]his trough of despair shall not, I swear, engulf me” (354).

In Volume III, which includes entries from 1925 to 1930, I found one entry that mentions her birthday and notes an unusual occurence in the natural world. On Jan. 26, 1930, Woolf wrote:

I am 48: we have been at Rodmell–a wet, windy day again; but on my birthday we walked among the downs, like the folded wings of grey birds; & saw first one fox, very long with his brush stretched; then a second, which had been barking, for the sun was hot over us; it leapt lightly over a fence & entered the furze — a very rare sight (285).

Sighting two foxes and feeling the heat of the sun. Not bad for a 48th birthday in England in January.

Past posts about Woolf’s birthday include:

You can also go here for past birthday remiscences of Woolf from Nonsuch Blog readers. And read more about the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain’s Twelfth Annual Birthday Lecture on Woolf, Eliot and Mansfield. It was held Jan. 22.

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In celebration of Virginia Woolf’s Un-Birthday and International Women’s Day, the Shakespeare’s Sister Company is hosting a Tea Party and Book Swap in proper British Style, and you are cordially invited.

The event will be held at Lady Mendle’s, 56 Irving Place, between 17th and 18th streets in New York City.

 

Save the Date:  Saturday, March 6

Patrons will enjoy the following:

7 – 7:30 p.m.:  Tea and Mingling
Enjoy an assortment of teas, a buffet of tea sandwiches and scones with clotted cream and jam!

7:30 – 8:10 p.m.:  Literary Book Discussions
Each guest will introduce the title/author of the book, one sentence describing what the book is about, an interesting fact about their favorite part of the book and what kind of book they are looking to swap for.

For those who prefer not to speak, we will provide ink and paper for you to write down your details and an SSC member would be happy to read it aloud on your behalf. We’re all friends here.

8:10 – 8:30 p.m.:  Literary Book Swap
Guests will have the opportunity to trade their book as many times as they’d like. Additionally, the SSC will provide a program listing all of the books being traded for patrons to reference.

8:30 – 9 p.m.:  Tea and Mingling
Enjoy an assortment of teas, a buffet of tea sandwiches and scones with clotted cream and jam!

Our event concludes at 9 p.m. However, patrons are welcome to migrate downstairs to the martini bar and heated outdoor garden for cocktails.

Regarding attire, please come dressed in your British best.  Dresses and suits are encouraged. Hats and gloves are not required, but are encouraged.

All-inclusive admission runs $35 per person.

RSVP by Feb. 26.

Payments shall only be accepted in advance either via PayPal to info@shakespearessister.org or by check to: Shakespeare’s Sister Company, 455 Ocean Parkway, ste 3D, Brooklyn NY 11218.

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