Guggenheim Series: It Came From Brooklyn (The Walkmen, Colson Whitehead Reads Whitman)

Frank Lloyd Wright meet Brooklyn. Or: how interesting that the Guggenheim Museum is doing a monthly series called It Came From Brooklyn starting with a performance by The Walkman, a band I discovered on walking into Virgin Records, where I was was stopped short by the rampage of sound that is the song, The Rat. I Inquired and purchased their first CD on the spot. Awesome music.

Tickets for these Guggenheim events go on sale July 14th.  This series is "conceived as a tribute to the recent Brooklyn renaissance and to serve the visual art scene’s appetite for interdisciplinary creative exchanges." Interesting.

Upper East Side: prepare to meet Brooklyn.

On August 14, the Guggenheim Museum launches It Came from Brooklyn, a new monthly concert series that will showcase Brooklyn’s emerging and established talents in the fields of music and literature as part of the museum’s 50th Anniversary celebrations. Conceived as a tribute to the recent Brooklyn renaissance and to serve the visual art scene’s appetite for interdisciplinary creative exchanges, each program will feature two live bands and readings by Brooklyn-based writers from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m.

With comedian Leo Allen serving as MC, the August 14 program kicks off with a special performance by the Brooklyn Steppers Marching Band, followed by opening band High Places and headlining band the Walkmen, while novelist Colson Whitehead reads selections from Walt Whitman between performances.

The second It Came from Brooklyn is scheduled for September 25.

Coproduced by author Sam Brumbaugh, the series will take place in the Guggenheim’s famed Frank Lloyd Wright–designed rotunda, continuing the recent tradition of acclaimed performances that have symbiotically activated the space: Marina Abramovic´'s Seven Easy Pieces (2005), Cai Guo–Qiang’s collaboration with the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (2008), and Meredith Monk’s Ascension Variations (2009).

With comedian Leo Allen serving as MC, the August 14 program kicks off with a special performance by the Brooklyn Steppers Marching Band, followed by opening band High Places and headlining band the Walkmen, while novelist Colson Whitehead reads selections from Walt Whitman between performances.

Tickets go on sale July 14 at guggenheim.org/brooklyn: $45 for non–members, $40 for members.