Another Tuesday Night, Another Reading at the MoMA in Tribute to a Russian Futurist Romantic Poet
Filed Under: Talks and Readings
 Says L Mag contributor David Varno in his review of the new anthology Night Wraps the Sky: Writings By and About Mayakovsky:
In a decade when few prominent artists or writers are truly engaged in politics, particularly in this country, it is difficult to imagine a poet so much at the center of things as Vladimir Mayakovsky was during the Russian Revolution. It was a time of intense literary and artistic production, and as leader of the second wave of Futurism, Mayakovsky worked to change the way people created, understood and participated in art. But he was an ever-contradictory figure, one who would embrace Pushkin while also calling to destroy the static art of the past, and his poems’ lyricism and unapologetic internationalism — with nods to Whitman and Rimbaud — set him well beyond the polemical.
And tonight, MoMA is hosting a reading dedicated to the Russian poet, hosted by the filmmaker Michael Almereyda — who edited Night Wraps the Sky — and featuring, well, readings by and about Mayakovsky, read by Ethan Hawke and others, as well as a screening of a short silent film directed by the poet. This is the kind of thing I always consider going to so that next time I'm at home for a family get-together I can talk about the cool cultural events I get to go to because I live in New York and everybody knows I really am the smartest and coolest person in the family and I don't just stay at home every night watching Netflix and eating Girl Scout cookies.
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