In case you haven’t heard, there is a huge Federico García Lorca festival afoot in NYC all this month (and continuing on into July), including several exhibitions of his manuscripts and work and a number of exceptionally interesting panels discussing his legacy. Of course I’m most excited about the panel that will be devoted to translations of Lorca’s work, featuring Caridad Svich (the eminent playwright who’s also translated a number of Lorca plays), Christopher Maurer (editor/co-translator of the big collection of Lorca’s poetry published by FSG), the brilliant essayist and translator Eliot Weinberger, and moderated by translator/poet Mónica de la Torre. The lineup couldn’t be sweeter. And the program is integrated into an evening entitled “Interpreting Lorca” that will also feature a piece by video and performance art pioneer Joan Jonas interpreting different translations of a Lorca poem, and Ben Sidran, presenting a jazz trio playing music he performed on Lorca’s own piano in celebration of the poet’s 100th birthday in Grenada, Spain.
The event will be introduced by Maurer and by Patricia Billingsly, author of the forthcoming biography of Lorca’s first translator (and friend) Philip H. Cummings – the evening doubles as the opening of an exhibition the two co-curated at the CUNY Graduate Center about Lorca’s time in Vermont and collaboration with Cummings.
This is only one event of a whole impressive lineup of lectures and exhibits. See the entire program on the Lorca Festival website. All events are free and open to the public.
“Interpreting Lorca” is a co-production of the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center, the Translation Committee of the PEN American Center, and the Fundación Federico García Lorca, with the support of AC/E and the “La Caixa” Foundation. The event will he held on Tuesday, April 16 at the Martin E. Segal Theater at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave. (at 34th St.), 6:00 p.m.