Related programs include a reading with Irish author Jamie O’Neill, the exhibition Exile Among Expats: James Joyce in Paris, Bloomsday 101 at Fergie’s Pub and more
PHILADELPHIA ― James Joyce (1882-1941), author of the prolific landmark novel Ulysses, has been called the greatest 20th-century novelist writing in English. On Thursday, June 16th from Noon – 7pm, the Rosenbach Museum & Library will celebrate the Irish author and Joycean tradition with its 19th annual Bloomsday, an open-air festival featuring dramatic readings from Ulysses by some of Philadelphia’s most interesting business, creative, and media personalities from the steps of the museum. This Bloomsday, the Rosenbach welcomes H.E. Michael Collins, a native of Dublin and Ambassador of Ireland to the United States, who will kick-off the Bloomsday festivities as the first reader.
The Rosenbach, home of James Joyce’s original handwritten manuscript for Ulysses, holds this Philadelphia tradition every year on June 16th, drawing hundreds of friends, neighbors, Joyce enthusiasts, book-lovers, and curious passersby to Delancey Place to celebrate Bloomsday, the day on which Ulysses protagonist Leopold Bloom made his fictional “odyssey” through Dublin.
Throughout June, the Rosenbach will also offer an array of related Ulysses-themed events including the special exhibition of Joyce materials, Exile Among Expats: James Joyce in Paris, an evening with acclaimed Irish author Jamie O’Neill, the Ulysses crash-course Bloomsday 101, Hands-On Tours exploring the work of Irish authors and more. The 23rd annual Rosenbacchanal will benefit Bloomsday programming and the museum’s connection to Ireland with a dinner the night before Bloomsday, Wednesday, June 15 at the Trinity Center for Urban Life. [An overview of scheduled events follows below. For complete event descriptions, download the 2011 Bloomsday Schedule at a Glance and press release as a PDF document.]
This year’s readers include Philadelphians from around the city, representing nearly twenty area zip codes, in addition to special guests. Many readers have a longstanding connection to Bloomsday and the Rosenbach. Michael Toner, a Philadelphia theater artist who has participated in the museum’s Bloomsday festivities since the beginning will mark his 19th year as a reader. Graduates of the Rosenbach’s Ulysses reading group, including Bill George, a Joyce lover whose children bought him the course as a birthday gift,will also read passages of the novel alongside Mayor of Philadelphia Michael A. Nutter, Marty Moss-Coane, host of WHYY’s Radio Times, and Siobhan Reardon, President of The Free Library of Philadelphia.
The June 16th Bloomsday celebration is free and open to the public and is held in front of the museum at 2008-2010 Delancey Place in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. Admission to the museum is free on Bloomsday. In the event of inclement weather, Bloomsday will move indoors to the Trinity Center for Urban Life, 22nd and Spruce Streets. For more information, call (215) 732-1600 or visit www.rosenbach.org.
A selection of 2011 Bloomsday readers include:
H.E. Michael Collins, Ambassador of Ireland to the United States
Jim Cotter, WRTI 90.1 FM
David Dye, World Café, WXPN, 88.5 FM
Derek Gillman, The Barnes Foundation
Karen Heller, Philadelphia Inquirer
Ed Hermance, Owner, Giovanni’s Room bookstore
Ken Kalfus, Author, The Commissariat of Enlightenment and A Disorder Peculiar to the Country
Donald Kimelman, Pew Charitable Trusts
William McLaughlin, Irish-American Business Chamber and Network
Marty Moss-Coane, Radio Times, WHYY 90.9 FM
The Honorable Michael A. Nutter, Mayor, City of Philadelphia
Jamie O’Neill, Author, At Swim, Two Boys
Sharon Pinkenson, Greater Philadelphia Film Office
Michael E. Scullin, Esq., Honorary Counsel of France in Philadelphia
Susan E. Sherman, Independence Foundation
Siobhan Reardon, The Free Library of Philadelphia
Dito van Reigersberg, Pig Iron Theatre Company
The full list of 2011 Bloomsday readers will be available at www.rosenbach.org soon.
Bloomsday Programs and Events
As part of the Bloomsday festivities, the Rosenbach will present An Evening with Jamie O’Neill, author of the critically-acclaimed novel, At Swim, Two Boys – a story of the revolutionary desires of two sixteen year old boys caught up in the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. O’Neill will join the museum to read from and discuss his works (Monday, June 13, 6pm). In The Birth of Bloomsday, a special Conversation with the Curator event (Thursday, June 23, 6pm), Melanie Micir, curator of the Rosenbach’s current exhibition Exile Among Expats: James Joyce in Paris, will trace the evolution of Bloomsday from intimate lunches among friends in Paris, to the barhopping antics of Dublin literati, to the global productions of today’s so-called “Joyce industry.”
The Ulysses crash-course Bloomsday 101 (Tuesday, June 14, 6-8pm) will once again be held at Fergie’s Pub (1214 Sansom Street). The Hands-On Tour James Joyce and Irish Authors (Sunday, June 19 and Wednesday, June 22, 3-4pm) will explore the work of Joyce, Bram Stoker and many other notable Irish authors in the museum’s English Literature collections. The Rosenbach offers themed Hands-On Tours each week, providing visitors with a unique way to experience the museum’s collection as guests are invited to handle and touch historic objects.
The multimedia exhibition Exile Among Expats: James Joyce in Paris (on display through August 28) illustrates two entwined stories: James Joyce during his Paris years and Paris during its Joyce years. How did Joyce – an Irish exile, a devoted family man, a sequestered literary genius – influence the cosmopolitan avant-garde of the Left Bank? How did the tastes and trends of interwar Paris surface in the labyrinthine worlds of Joyce’s late work? Why did Joyce come to Paris for a weeklong visit and wind up staying for twenty years? Exile Among Expats addresses these questions and more to demonstrate the debt Joyce owed to Paris and the bounty Paris received in return.
Exhibition highlights include:
- Pages from the manuscript to Ulysses, Joyce’s masterpiece
- Man Ray’s iconic photographic portrait of James Joyce
- A special edition of Ulysses with illustrations by Henri Matisse
- A false dust jacket in which a banned copy of Ulysses was smuggled into the United States
In addition to the manuscript of Ulysses, the Rosenbach’s Joyce holdings include several pages of proofs, first and early editions of nearly all his published works, portraits of Joyce by artists including Man Ray, and almost 150 photos of locations mentioned in Ulysses. Avid Joyce fans will recall the Rosenbach’s 2001 exhibition, Ulysses in Hand, which traced the origins and publication history of the Ulysses manuscript. The exhibition addresses early critical, literary, and personal responses to Joyce’s masterpiece, as well as looking at the origins of the celebration of the unique literary holiday, Bloomsday.
On June 16th, the museum will live-tweet Bloomsday via Twitter. Rosenbach fans are invited to read about the museum and its collections, and on Bloomsday, experience Ulysses in 140 characters at www.twitter.com/rosenbachmuseum. The museum’s Twitter feed will provide bite-sized observations about the event and readers and will correspond with select Ulysses passages.
Rosenbacchanal, a dinner to benefit Bloomsday
The 23rd annual Rosenbacchanal, a dinner to benefit Bloomsday, will be held on Wednesday, June 15 at the Trinity Center for Urban Life (22nd and Spruce Streets). The evening will celebrate the Rosenbach’s deep and abiding connection to Ireland and the museum’s many programs and exhibitions that share the contributions of Irish culture with the public. Guests of honor include H.E. Michael Collins, Ambassador of Ireland to the United States, who will join Lenore H. Steiner, Rosenbacchanal and Bloomsday Chair, members of the Board of Trustees, and museum devotees in support of the museum. Monica Malpass, of 6-ABC WPVI Action News, will host the evening. The Rosenbacchanal will feature entertainment by the The Connemara Codfish Company featuring Drucie McDaniel, a cocktail hour and wine tasting, and an elegant dinner. Proceeds from the benefit will help Bloomsday, the Rosenbach’s largest program of the year, remain a free event in years to come.
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