Here is the schedule of upcoming appearances of a remarkable man who has written the book Tango, the Art history of Love, Robert Farris Thompson. I have heard him --sometime ago--he is a wonderful experience! I have included the promotional quotes and comments below sent me through the publishers office. (I have not as yet read the book.) Lucille
Thursday, October 13th-- 7:00 pm event at 192 Books (192 10th Avenue). Please RSVP to 212-255-4022 Wednesday, October 19th-- 7:30 or 8:00 pm event for the Little Grey Book series at Galapagos Art Space (70 North Six Street), Brooklyn, NY Friday, October 28th-- 12:00 noon Makor Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y, 35 West 67th Street. Friday, November 4th-- 4:00 pm Frick Museum talk and booksigning. "Thompson performs a fascinating dissection of tango, picking apart its history with an enthusiast's passion and a scholar's authority. Pulling references from poetry, painting, and most potently from African dance, he shows us tango as an ecstatic manifestation of life's emotional dynamics and inflames us with his reverence for the form." Mikhail Baryshnikov "I was startled to find how interesting this subject can be. What a fine book." Norman Mailer ³In language no doubt inspired by the lyrics of its subject, this serious volume examines and celebrates the cultural history of the famed Argentine dance, conveying its real passion and the author¹s passion for it. Thompson, the renowned Yale Africanist and art historian, convincingly evokes the often-obscured African roots of the dance, whose name comes from the Ki-Kongo word for moving in time to a beat¹. Holloywood versions of the dance pale once Thompson beings to mine the riches of tango¹s rhythms, lyrics, philosophy and stepsfor fans of dance, music and cultural history, this is the real deal.² CPublishers Weekly (starred review) TANGO is the definitive history and exploration of that dance. In Thompson¹s hands, the complicated depths of tango come alive, exposing the emotions of love, loss, anger, valor and humor that define the dance. He deftly explores the dancersAfrican and Afro-Argentines, Spanish and Italian migrants, Euro-Argentines, and Argentines from every classwho gave birth to the steps, the lyricists who gave words to the motions, and the singers who gave voice to the music. In doing so, he reveals the ways in which tango is a culture and a philosophy, an art and a text, as well as a dance. About the Author Robert Farris Thompson is a world-renowned Yale art historian and author of the now-classic Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy. He is also the author of, among other works, Black Gods and Kings and African Art in Motion. He has been a Ford Foundation Fellow and has mounted major exhibitions of African art at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. He is Col. John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art at Yale University, where he is also Master of Timothy Dwight College. He lives in New Haven.
