Salman Rushdie, Adam Gopnik, Tony Kushner And Olympia Dukakis To Portray Radicals And Reformers In Great Evenings In The Great Hall At The Cooper Union

Great Evenings in the Great Hall, The Cooper Union’s dynamic performance series celebrating the college’s 150th anniversary, continues this fall with appearances by Salman Rushdie, Tony Kushner, Adam Gopnik, Olympia Dukakis, Amy Goodman, Siri Hustvedt, Isaiah Sheffer, Maria Tucci, and Karen Finley.  From September through January 2010, in six provocative and entertaining presentations, The Cooper Union will showcase the stirring words of the radicals and reformers who spurred change and propelled advancements in civil rights, the labor movement, education and the arts for the past century-and-a-half.  Period music and historic artifacts will complement the fiery oratory and inspiring dialogue that have filled The Great Hall since 1859.

All performances are free and open to the public.  Schedule follows.

Workers' Rights

Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Cooper Union, Great Hall, 7 East 7th St., NYC 10003 (b/w 3rd and 4th Aves)

Info: 212.353.4195, www.cooper.edu.

Tony nominee Maria Tucci leads a cast of notables including The Triangle Fire Remembrance Coalition in celebrating America’s labor movement as seen through the eyes of its most ardent advocates and opponents: Clara Lemlich, Samuel Gompers, Mother Jones, Walter Reuther, and Andrew Carnegie in Workers’ Rights, a Great Evenings in The Great Hall presentation at The Cooper Union.  Historic photographs and documents complement the powerful words that advanced a movement and the stirring voices of the New York City Labor Chorus will recreate the songs that signaled the changing times.

Science and Technology

Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Cooper Union, Great Hall, 7 East 7th St., NYC 10003 (b/w 3rd and 4th Aves)

Info: 212.353.4195, www.cooper.edu.

In Science and Technology, a Great Evenings in The Great Hall performance at The Cooper Union,   New Yorker writer and social commentator Adam Gopnik and others explore the impact of these disciplines on society through the words of some of their greatest innovators: “Darwin’s bulldog” Thomas Henry Huxley, Robert J. Oppenheimer, Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, and John Stewart Mill.  Period music helps set the mood, along with historic photographs and documents.

Women's Suffrage and Women's Rights

Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Cooper Union, Great Hall, 7 East 7th St., NYC 10003 (b/w 3rd and 4th Aves)

Info: 212.353.4195, www.cooper.edu.

 

Performance artist Karen Finley, Karen DeCrow (former president of NOW who sued McSorley’s Old Ale House in 1969 over the bar’s “No Ladies” admissions policy) and others personify the feminist spirit as they recreate the discourse, defiance and dramatics of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Victoria Woodhull, and Anna Dickinson, in Women’s Suffrage and Women’s Rights, a Great Evenings in The Great Hall performance at The Cooper Union.  Music celebrating women’s liberation will enliven the proceedings, with historic photographs and documents to help tell the tales.

Art and Literature

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Cooper Union, Great Hall, 7 East 7th St., NYC 10003 (b/w 3rd and 4th Aves)

Info: 212.353.4195, www.cooper.edu.

Salman Rushdie, Olympia Dukakis, Siri Hustvedt, Isaiah Sheffer and Tony Kushner pay homage to the luminaries who’ve tread the boards of this historic stage in Art and Literature, a Great Evenings in The Great Hall performance at The Cooper Union. Expect to hear excerpts of works by Salman Rushdie, Paul Auster, Anna Leonowens, Pearl S. Buck, and W.H. Auden.  Music, as well as historic photographs and documents, complete the performance.

Radical Politics

Thursday, January 21, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Cooper Union, Great Hall, 7 East 7th St., NYC 10003 (b/w 3rd and 4th Aves)

Info: 212.353.4195, www.cooper.edu.

For 150 years, Cooper Union has provided a platform for idealists as well as idealogues.  Hear about the Karl Marx memorial service and excerpts from the speeches of Eugene V. Debs, Daniel DeLeon, Max Eastman, Emma Goldman and Norman Thomas as “Democracy Now!” radio host Amy Goodman enlivens Radical Politics, a Great Evenings in The Great Hall event at The Cooper Union.  Protest songs and historic documents and images will punctuate the rhetoric.

Abraham Lincoln: Right Makes Right

Thursday, February 25, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Cooper Union, Great Hall, 7 East 7th St., NYC 10003 (b/w 3rd and 4th Aves)

Info: 212.353.4195, www.cooper.edu.

The Cooper Union celebrates the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s pivotal Right Makes Might speech in this final performance of Great Evenings in The Great Hall.   Widely considered the turning point for the still-obscure Illinois senator, Lincoln’s forceful appearance is credited with helping him secure the nomination for president.  Lincoln scholar and co-chairman of the United States Lincoln Bicentennial Commission Harold Holzer will introduce the evening, which will also feature a display of historic artifacts and period music.

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is a distinguished private college of art, architecture and engineering founded in 1859 by Peter Cooper, an inventor, industrialist and philanthropist.  Since its establishment, all students have received full-tuition scholarships.  To mark its 150th anniversary, between April 2009 and February 2010, the college  is presenting a series of eight events celebrating the historic role Cooper Union’s Great Hall played in movements that have furthered the rights of all Americans and contributed to the advancement of science and art.

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