POSTPONED
Saturday, May 2, 5:00pm
Part 1: n+1 Magazine
6–7:00pm
Drinks and light food in the apple orchards of PS21
7:00pm
Part 2: The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1975)
Frederic Rzewski
Conrad Tao, piano
For more than 130 years, May Day has celebrated workers and their struggle for fair labor practices. This May Day Weekend join PS21 for our “Power to the People” program, which features a maverick American composer’s remarkable, monumental set of solo piano variations as its centerpiece. Celebrated pianist Conrad Tao will perform the tour-de-force “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!,” an epic piano composition by composer Frederick Rzewski based on a popular Chilean protest song.
Cable Griffith, I never was skeptical and always had an open mind, believe in the impossible, so to speak – Algiers, Algeria, 2015, acrylic and oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Linda Hodges Gallery, Seattle, WA.
The evening begins with readings and a short discussion by the editors and contributors of n+1 Magazine, the New York-based literary journal known for its insightful and unexpected mix of social criticism, political commentary, poetry, and short fiction. Stick around afterward for community drinks, light food, and informal conversation among the apple blossoms of PS21’s orchards.
At 4 pm the event kicks off with a penetrating and lively discussion about the role a magazine can play in shaping and fomenting literary and political consciousness in a fragmented age. There will also be short readings from the magazine’s newest issue. For nearly 20 years, n+1 Magazine has created radical and unexpected juxtapositions, mingling political poetry with personal memoir, sensitive literary criticism with left-wing policymaking, and fiction that confronts the full scope of environmental collapse with activist writing that leaves space for the human and the humane.
At 7 pm pianist and composer Conrad Tao takes the stage to perform “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!,” which encompasses 36 variations on the song, “¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!” The original song was written as a worker’s anthem in the era of Chile’s socialist president Salvador Allende, but would become a protest song following Allende’s overthrow by the right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1973. Frederick Rzewski’s piano piece, written in 1975, requires staggering virtuosity, extended techniques, and unflagging concentration. The piece has been described by AllMusic.com as a work “of bewildering and amazing variety, ranging from serialism to jazz to romanticism to the further reaches of the avant-garde and back” and culminating in “a superbly emotional climax.”
Photo: Brantley Gutierrez