Tuesday, January 21, 2014

The Burroughs Century


We’re writing to encourage you to join us next month for our centennial birthday celebration of William S. Burroughs.

“The Burroughs Century” is a 5-day festival running February 5-9 that features events both on campus and in the greater Bloomington area. A key feature of this festival is that it unites local academic, artistic, and cultural communities in honor of an artist who transcended boundaries between literature, painting, music, film and experimental art.

As part of this event, we will be hosting a three-day symposium, February 6-8, featuring presentations that point to Burroughs’ continuing legacy across a range of disciplines (art, literature, music, film, politics, religious studies, gender studies, queer studies, and many more). We have put together a stellar international roster, with scholars coming from America, Canada, South America, Europe, and the United Arab Emirates. Our key-note speaker is Professor Oliver Harris, a renowned Burroughs scholar, and our guest talks feature Jorge Garcia-Robles, Jack Sargeant, and Davis Schneiderman. You can see our complete symposium schedule here: http://burroughscentury.org/?page_id=186.

If you are interested in attending the symposium, you can register through our website. We are offering a number of registration packages, including a “sessions-only” registration for $35. For complete information, as well as listings of free and discrete ticketed-events, please visit burroughscentury.org.

In addition to our symposium, we are hosting a number of performances and mixed media events in town, including:

• Archival exhibits across campus at the Lilly, Fine Arts Library, Wells Library, and the Kinsey Institute

• Burroughs’ shotgun painting exhibit at the Grunwald Gallery of Art

• Holographic Ensemble opera performance of The Ticket That Exploded, Feb. 6 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater

• "The Burroughs Century Film Series," Feb. 6 to 9, IU Cinema

• Lydia Lunch performance in honor of Burroughs, Feb. 7 at the Buskirk-Chumley

• "The Burroughs Century After-Party and Costume Ball," Feb. 8, The Back Door

The first event will take place this Friday, Jan 24, with a formal opening of "William S. Burroughs: Paintings" at the Grunwald Gallery. The opening is scheduled for 6-8 p.m., and will 

feature a cash bar and noshes donated by Farm Bloomington; the opening is free.  http://www.indiana.edu/~grunwald/exhibitions.php?pid=william-s-burroughspaintings

 

 Please feel free to join us for any of these events--we’d love to see you.

For more information, contact Ed Comentale (ecomenta@indiana.edu); or Joan Hawkins (jchawkin@indiana.edu)

Thanks so much - Ed and Joan

Joan Hawkins
Associate Professor
Indiana University
Dept of Communication and Culture
800 E Third St.
Bloomington, IN 47405

812-855-1548
jchawkin@indiana.edu
Member Editorial board of Culture, Theory, 

            Critique