October 23 and 24: NYC and Brooklyn with Hip Hop Apsara

[anne!]

Folks,

After readings in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and San Francisco—and interviews broadcast in Boston, Missoula, and I don't know where-all else—I'm heading to New York for a few events below. Hope to see you out at one of them—or at Chicago's own Book Cellar, November 2, when I return.

7 p, 23 October 2012
Hip Hop Apsara slide presentation and storytelling event
Elizabeth White will open the evening with a collection of found images that tell their own story. Mike Taylor will read a chapter from a longer work that explores the artistic and legal ramifications of a performance artists' entanglement with De La Soul, Steely Dan, and his own "post-studio" practice. Elizabeth Crane will read, and if you have never heard her deeply engaged and hilarious prose from her very own vocal cords, you are in for a biiiig surprise of laughing. Joe Garden will probably tell some kind of story involving rock music, or bands, or cats, or perhaps he will just drop his pants. That's not so unusual, for Joe Garden. And Anne Elizabeth Moore will tell a story from this one time she went on tour with the Messenger Band, Cambodia's only all-girl political rock band, in a southern province of Cambodia. Through a trans women's fashion show, song-and-dance numbers, and quizzes in a carnival atmosphere—all documented in images from Moore's new book, Hip Hop Apsara—the group is convincing policemen, government officials, and rural poverty-stricken farmers of the need for social justice as the country develops.
powerHouse Arena, Brooklyn, NY USA

7 p, 24 October 2012
Hip Hop Apsara event and interview with Jennifer Pozner
Media critic and women's rights advocate Jenn Pozner will host a live (and likely hilarious) conversation with Anne Elizabeth Moore on international women's rights, media justice, and what the White Savior Industrial Complex looks like on the ground.
Bluestockings, New York City, NY USA

Hip Hop Apsara is a meditation in text and image of a city moving from poverty to economic development. Phnom Penh offers public dance lessons on a newly revitalized riverfront directly in front of prime minister Hun Sen’s urban home. Every night before dusk, much of the city gathers to bust a few Apsara moves and rehearse a few choreographed hip hop dances learned from a slew of attractive young men at the head of each group. Following on the heels of the Lowell Thomas Journalism Award-winning Cambodian Grrrl: Self- Publishing in Phnom Penh, Anne Elizabeth Moore compiled photographs that document Cambodia's bustling nightlife and thus form a portrait of a nation’s emerging middle class. A series of essays complement the imagery, investigating the relationship between public and private space, mourning and memory, tradition and economic development. First edition is published in a limited series of 500 with two-process, hand-printed covers by Angee Lennard. From Green Lantern Press.

"Challenging and intelligent, inspiring and creative; it takes a country with such a densely documented, troubled past and presents something fresh and vital."—For Book's Sake

"A crisp and often surprising portrait of modern Cambodia through photographs and prose ... breathtakingly original and effective."—Largehearted Boy

aem

p.s. If your horror film viewing schedule isn't already booked up, feel free to check THE BLOG IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE for recommendations! and Happy Halloween!