Poets of Patchin Place: Musical Settings of Village Poets

Djuna Barnes, artist, illustrator, journalist, and author, best known for Nightwood (1936), a classic of lesbian fiction, lived for 40 years on Patchin Place where her neighbors included ee cummings. The story goes that the poet would poke his head into the stairwell of the reclusive Djuna’s building and shout: “Are you alive, Djuna?” Barnes knew James Joyce when she was in Paris between the wars and he gifted her an annotated manuscript of Ulysses.

Poets of Patchin Place features the première of settings of Barnes’ poetry by William Kentner Anderson, sung by soprano Sharon Harms. Also on the program: Victoria Bond: “Leopold Bloom’s Homecoming” from Ulysses by James Joyce, featuring baritone Michael Kelly and pianist John Arida; Nehemiah Luckett: “Oceans Always Lead to Some Great Good Place,” inspired by James Baldwin’s Another Country and commissioned by The Village Trip for Baldwin’s centennial, featuring Nehemiah Luckett, baritone, William Anderson, guitar, and Joan Forsyth, piano; and settings of ee cummings by Laura Schwendinger, featuring soprano Zoe Allen, and pianist Christopher Allen.

Presented by The Village Trip and Cutting Edge Concerts in cooperation and The Coffee House Club at the Salmagundi Club

• Poets: Djuna Barnes, ee cummings, James Baldwin, James Joyce

• Composers: Laura Schwendinger, Nehemiah Luckett, Victoria Bond, William Kentner Anderson

• Baritones: Michael Kelly, Nehemiah Luckett

• Sopranos: Zoe Allen, Sharon Harms

• Pianists: Christopher Allen, John Arida, Joan Forsyth

• Harp: June Han

[image: James Joyce, Djuna Barnes and ee cummings]