CAMBRIA/DOUGLASS

IAW&A is pleased to offer discount tickets to see a performance of Donal O’Kelly’s “The Cambria,” on Oct. 8, 2009, at the Irish Arts Center in NYC. The performance will be followed by a special post-show panel discussion featuring IAW&A co-founder T.J. ENGLISH, as well as actors DONAL O’KELLY and ROGER GUENVEUR SMITH, known for his work in numerous Spike Lee movies, including “Do the Right Thing” and “Get on the Bus,” as well as his acclaimed one-man show “A Huey P. Newton Story” (also made into a movie by Spike Lee).

“The Cambria” is being staged in conjunction with Smith’s acclaimed one-man show, “Frederick Douglass Now.” Both plays deal with the legacy of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and, in the case of “The Cambria,” Douglass’s journey to Ireland to meet with “The Great Emancipator,” Daniel O’Connell, and to live in exile for a time in Ireland.

The post-show “talk back” involving English, Smith and O’Kelly on Oct. 8 following the 8 pm performance will focus on issues of race and, in particular, relations between African Americans and Irish Americans in the century since Douglass made his historic trip to Ireland.

CAMBRIA/DOUGLASS is being present by the Irish Arts Center in Manhattan. Perfrormance and panel discussion take place at the Daughy Theatre at the Arts Center, located at 553 W. 51st St, btwn 10 and 11 avenues.

To be a part of this special event, use code IAWA30 at http://www.smarttix.com or call 212-868-4444 and pay only $30 (regular $50).

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Few artists of the 20th Century were more distinctive and original than Georgia O’Keefe. Her genius is currently on display at the Whitney Museum in NYC, in an exhibit entitled “Georgia O’Keefe: Abstraction,” which runs through Jan. 17, 2010. The exhibition continues on to Washington D.C., at the Phillips Collection, from Feb. 6-May 9, and then Santa Fe, at the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, from May 28 through September 2010.

JIM CARROLL (R.I.P.)

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A masterpiece is a work of art that is just as powerful and surprising years after it was created as the day it was first released to the public. A masterpiece even grows in stature over the years, takes on new meaning, is enhanced by a timeless beauty and ages like a fine wine. Author William Kennedy has written many great works (“Legs,” “Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game,” “Roscoe,” etc), but “Ironweed” is his masterpiece. If you haven’t read it, you should. If you already have read it, then read it again. “Ironweed” is simple, yet profound. It is a transcendent work of art.