Pencil This In
BENEFIT: Come join in on a benefit concert for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn tonight, with a handful of Brooklyn-based singer/songwriters (including Clare & The Reasons, John Wesley Harding, Richard Julian, and Jolie Holland) taking the stage. The show will be "raising funds and awareness for DDDB in its legal battles against eminent domain abuse in the proposed Atlantic Yards development, the concert series will also highlight how such irresponsible development could threaten the artistic community that has flourished in Brooklyn over the last several years." There will also be a screening of Brooklyn Matters a documentary on the Atlantic Yards development.
6:30 p.m. // Southpaw [125 5th Ave, Park Slope] // $15
EVENTS: The Kitchen has curated a 3-day music and film tribute to the late Arthur Russell (he was the Music Director there in 1974) -- it's called Let's Go Swimming, and it begins tonight. Russell was noted for being "a maverick figure in the downtown New York music scene;" exploring all sounds, from disco to pop to electro-acoustic, and working with the likes of David Byrne, Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg. Tonight you'll be able to catch the debut of Wild Combination, a portrait of Russell's life directed by Matt Wolf. This weekend musicians will gather to perform Russell's songs, Nat Baldwin amongst them (tickets).
7 and 9 p.m. // The Kitchen [512 W 19th St] // $10
READINGS: Edgy Moms Unite! Tonight the Second Annual Edgy Moms Reading, Tales of Motherhood without Sanctimony, will take place in Park Slope (of course). Join eight writer-moms "for a fun reading over a much-needed cocktail" -- the following ladies will be on hand: Amy Benfer (essayist and Salon writer), Louise Crawford (Brooklyn Paper’s Smartmom and editor of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn), Christen Clifford (writer/star of Off-Broadway's hit show Babylove), Michele Madigan Somerville (poet and blogger, Fresh Poetry Daily), Sophia Romero (blogger, The Shiksa from Manila), Lenore Skenazy, (controversial New York Sun writer), Louise Sloan (author of Knock Yourself Up: A Tell-All Guide to Becoming a Single Mom), and Amy Sohn (novelist, Run Catch Kiss and My Old Man).
7 p.m. // The Montauk Club [25 8th Ave, Park Slope] // Free
Contributors to Brooklyn Was Mine (including Philip Dray, Rachel Cline and Joanna Hershon) will be at WORD tonight reading and signing their book. "Brooklyn Was Mine gives some of today's best writers an opportunity to pay tribute to the borough they love in 20 original essays that draw on past and present to create a mosaic that brilliantly captures the quality and diversity of a unique, literary landscape."
7:30 p.m. // WORD [126 Franklin St, Greenpoint] // Free
THEATER: Hast seen the white whale? Maybe, but you almost certainly haven’t seen the lost film version of Orson Welles’s 1955 play Moby Dick Rehearsed. Originally staged in London (with Christopher Lee!), it concerns a troupe of actors who, at the insistence of their grandiose director, take a break from rehearsing King Lear to play around with Melville’s Moby Dick. As the initially begrudging cast gets drawn into their roles, connections between the two works are subtly elucidated. A rare production of the ingenious play, presented by The Acting Company, continues through Saturday; the Times’s Neil Genzlinger calls the show “terrific” and “honed to perfection.” – John Del Signore
8 p.m. // Baruch Performing Arts Center [55 Lexington Avenue] // $45
MUSIC: Tonight Snowden, Colour Revolt, The Epochs and Bell take the stage at Mercury Lounge. Bell is the latest Belle of the Blogs and will be kicking the show off, and headliners Snowden haven't played in town since last summer; they're at the start of a nationwide tour -- so catch them, and the whole lineup, while you can.
8 p.m. // Mercury Lounge [217 E Houston St] // $12
