We are thrilled to welcome vocalist and acclaimed multidisciplinary artist Helga Davis as a special guest to talk with poet Claudia Rankine and California Book Club host John Freeman about Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric, the April CBC selection.
Davis is a creative powerhouse. She has performed on prestigious stages around the world in cutting-edge theater productions. She was a principal actor in the 25th-anniversary international revival of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass’s mesmerizing and minimalist four-act Einstein on the Beach. It is a performance that dares you not to have your perceptions altered.
Davis starred, too, in Wilson’s visionary opera inspired by Gustave Flaubert’s The Temptation of St. Anthony, rooted in the gospel tradition, with a libretto and score by singer Bernice Johnson Reagon. She also starred in The Blue Planet, by Saskia Boddeke, with Peter Greenaway writing the libretto. Davis directed the play Sweet Tea at the Oscar G. Brockett Theater at the University of Texas at Austin. Davis performed in the interactive show Jomama Jones: Radiate, which appeared on New Yorker theater critic Hilton Als’s list of top cultural moments in 2011.
Numerous collaborations and works have been written for Davis as well. These include the multimedia opera Oceanic Verses, by Paola Prestini; You Us We All, by Shara Nova and Andrew Ondrejcak; and Yet Unheard, a tribute to Sandra Bland composed by Courtney Bryan in collaboration with Sharan Strange, on whose poem the performance is based.
Davis hosts the podcast Helga on WNYC, for which she has interviewed numerous luminaries, including Rankine, Als, Kara Walker, Kevin Young, Carrie Mae Weems, and Glenn Ligon, the artist behind Untitled (1992), selections of which are featured in Citizen. She has also been an artist in residence at National Sawdust and Joe’s Pub and a visiting curator for the performing arts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Davis has won a BRIC Arts Media Fireworks residency and an ASCAP Deems Taylor Multimedia Award and received the 2019 Greenfield Prize in composition. She was also named a 2019 Alpert Award finalist, among other honors.
Davis and Rankine are both stars glimmering at the leading edge of contemporary art and social commentary. Their fluent, emotionally forceful, and yet roving and curious works, often concerning Blackness and existence, transcend the distinct disciplines of art, performance, poetry, and criticism. Don’t miss this chance to see them talk live about Rankine’s landmark book Citizen.•
Join us on April 20 at 5 p.m., when Rankine will appear in conversation with Freeman and Davis to discuss her landmark book Citizen: An American Lyric. Please visit the Alta Clubhouse to discuss the book with your fellow California Book Club members. Register for the Zoom conversation here.
LONG RALLY
Critic Steffan Triplett writes about race, time, and Serena Williams in Citizen. —Alta
REIMAGINING FORM AND GENRE
Alta Journal books editor David L. Ulin interviews poet Matthew Zapruder about Story of a Poem. Zapruder explains, “I believe our minds and bodies know things that manifest as melodies, as language, depending on our proclivities.” —Alta
ATTEMPTED MURDER
Novelist and Alta contributor Joy Lanzendorfer (Right Back Where We Started From) writes about an unsolved mystery involving tainted marshmallows at an artist colony in Carmel. —Alta
INDIE BESTSELLERS
Here are the books that were the top sellers at independent bookstores across California as of April 9. —Alta
BAY AREA LITERARY MAGAZINE
Managing editor Oscar Villalon, who is on the selection panel for the California Book Club, has been named the new editor in chief of Zyzzyva. Former editor in chief Laura Cogan will continue at Zyzzyva as an editor at large. —Literary Hub
GEOGRAPHICALLY LINKED STORIES
Author Andrew Porter, who sets the narratives in his short story collection The Disappeared in San Antonio and Austin, recommends other collections centered around American cities. —Electric Literature
BEST L.A. BOOKS
Several acclaimed writers and journalists share the 26 best books of all time that star Los Angeles. —Los Angeles Times
FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTIONS
Rural Llano County in Texas considered—but ultimately decided against—closing its public libraries after a judge required that 17 banned books be returned to their shelves. —New York Times
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