TWENTY SUMMERS PODCAST
Listen and subscribe to Twenty Summers’ Podcast to hear the full audio of the events that take place in the Hawthorne Barn as part of Twenty Summers’ annual arts festival in Provincetown. These events include concerts, conversations, theatrical performances, and more.
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Season Ten
season NINE
season Eight
Twenty Summers Presents Fran Lebowitz in Conversation with Brian Vines at the historic Hawthorne Barn in Provincetown, Massachusetts, June 12, 2021.
Luna was a New York band formed in 1991 by singer/guitarist Dean Wareham after the breakup of Galaxie 500. The band made seven studio albums before disbanding in 2005. After a ten-year break, they reunited and toured in 2015, and in 2017 released a new LP — A Sentimental Education and an EP of instrumentals — A Place of Greater Safety.
Other recent reissues include a deluxe 2xLP version of their classic Penthouse album (on Rhino) and another 2xLP set Lunafied that collects all the covers the band recorded in the 1990s.
Now scattered around the country (Los Angeles, New York and Austin) the band retains the same lineup that operated from 1999 to 2005: Dean Wareham on vocals/guitar, his wife Britta Phillips on bass, Sean Eden on guitar, and Lee Wall on drums.
Bosq, Producer, DJ & Multi-instrumentalist, has been exploring the intersections of Afro-Latin music with Disco, Funk, Reggae, House and Hip Hop for years. Since 2013 and the release of his first album, his musicianship and craft have matured without losing any of the passion or imagination with which he approaches every project. His pursuit for collaborating authentically rather than simply appropriating musical styles from afar brought him first to Puerto Rico, where over a two week stay he recorded the entire Bosq y La Candela All-Stars - San Jose 51 in Old San Juan with legendary musicians like Tempo Alomar and Roberto Roena. Now, with 5 full original albums and countless remixes and singles under his belt (for labels as diverse and legendary as Ubiquity, Fania, Defected, Soul Clap and more), he creates and resides full time in Medellín, Colombia, one of the worlds most legendary musical melting pots.
Bosq’s music has seen consistent play from the likes of Gilles Peterson & Craig Charles on the BBC, KCRW, RinseFM & other legendary radio stations, while Dj’s like Kerri Chandler, Poolside, Yuksek, Palms Trax, Soul Clap, & GUTS give his tunes constant rotation in clubs and at festivals. Tours have taken Bosq across North & South America, Europe, and Asia, to clubs and festivals like Rakastella (Miami), OYA (Oslo), Boomtown Fair (UK) and many more. He has shared stages with the likes of Joe Claussel, Bobbito, J Rocc & Tony Touch to name a few. His music has been featured in films and television such as The Catch, You’re The Worst, Broad City, and more.
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Mal Blum, once dubbed “punk’s greatest hidden treasure” by Stereogum, cleverly crafted songs that are are as self-effacing as they are viscerally relatable. In 2019 they released their latest full length, Pity Boy (Don Giovanni), an album that explores boundary setting and self-sabotage, and an exemplification of Mal's ability to interrogate the human condition with lyrical ingenuity. Following that, they released a 7", Nobody Waits b/w San Cristóbal, with Saddle Creek Records' Document Series in 2020.
Mozelle Andrulot grew up in Eastham and attended Lesley University where she studied Liberal Arts. Her career has taken her to New York City and London where she performed at the SoHo House in both cities.
Here on the Cape, she’s performed at Mahony’s, Tin Pan Alley, The Muse and regularly with Zoë Lewis’s Bootleggers show in Provincetown. She has graced the stage with local notable jazz artists Bruce Abbot, Fred Fried, Fred Boyle and John Thomas. This local jazz jewel, along with Doug Ricardi’s Jazz till Dawn, entertains audiences from Wellfleet’s Preservation Hall to the Yarmouth Cultural Center. This summer she will be singing outdoors regularly at the Fox and Crow.
MikeMRF is a performing artist, recording artist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. His latest album Mob Music 2 hit #39 on the iTunes R&B Albums Chart and was featured on Apple Music. Album opener, "Tip Jar" landed in the Semi-Finals of the 2020 International Songwriting Competition and was featured in the Amazon Prime Show "30 The Series" along with two other songs. Mike is also a Lennon Award winner in the 2017 John Lennon Songwriting Contest for his original song "Mob Music", the title-track off of his iTunes Chart-Topping sophomore album. In 2014, Mike won 2 OUTmusic Awards (with 5 nominations, the most that year) including the highly coveted Humanitarian Songwriter of the Year for his song "Be Strong (LGBT Youth)". "Be Strong" was selected as Boston Pride's Flag-Raising Anthem.
Mike holds a Bachelor's of Music in Jazz Saxophone & Music Education from Berklee College of Music, as well as a Master's of Music in Music Theory & Composition from New York University where he currently teaches Songwriting and Composition as an Adjunct Professor. Mike has performed with Ada Vox, Matt Alber, Esera Tuaolo, Ruth Pointer (Pointer Sisters), Cassandra Wilson, Esperanza Spaulding, Varla Jean Merman and many more. He performs and music-directs various shows in Provincetown, MA.
Brian Vines is a Chicagoan by birth and a New Yorker by choice. After completing the Masters Program in Broadcast Journalism at Boston University’s College of Communication he fetched coffee for some of the most respected journalists and news figures in the world during his tenure at CNN. After a stint in political communications Brian fell in love with his own reflection and reported for here! networks, NYC-TV, Brooklyn Independent Media, the internationally syndicated VJIAM show, and Broad Band Network3 among others. In addition to reporting, show running and producing Brian is also a skilled host and moderator of live events on topics ranging from contemporary memoir to police brutality. A dedicated cyclist, NPR subscriber, and podcast enthusiast, Brian can be spotted balling-on-a-budget, fighting the urge to binge watch and answering questions about his hair.
Interviewer: Brian Vines
Maynard Monrow was born in Hollywood, California and currently lives in New York City. Monrow received his BFA and MFA from California Institute of the Arts. His work has been exhibited at numerous institutions and galleries including: The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY; Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL; Gavlak Gallery LA and Palm Beach; Booth Gallery, New York, NY; Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, NY and ACME Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2005). He has staged international performances in Rome, Italy, and participated in numerous projects including Ruffian’s Spring 2016 Ready-to-Wear Collection and LAX Art’s L.A.P.D. Billboard Project.
Shaina Feinberg is a writer/director from New York City. Her book Every Body – a candid look at sex from every angle – came out in January 2021 from Little, Brown. Her bi-weekly column in The New York Times, "Scratch" is an illustrated look at the world of business. Shaina is also a filmmaker who specializes in micro-budget filmmaking. In 2019, she was named by Indiewire as 1 of 25 queer filmmakers to watch. She has directed two original series for Audible: Aliens of Extraordinary Ability, starring Maeve Higgins and Cristela Alonzo, and Phreaks, starring Christian Slater, Carrie Coon and Justice Smith. She is a visiting professor at the Vermont College of Fine Art in the MFA program for film. She lives in Brooklyn.
Chanel Thervil is a Haitian American artist and educator that uses varying combinations of abstraction and portraiture to convene communal dialogue around culture, social issues, and existential questions. At the core of her practice lies a desire to empower and inspire tenderness and healing among communities of color through the arts. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Pace University and a Master’s Degree in Art Education from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She's been making a splash in Boston via her educational collaborations, public art, and residencies with institutions like The Museum of Fine Arts, The Boston Children's Museum, The DeCordova Museum, The Harvard Ed Portal, and The Cambridge Public Library. Her work has been featured by PBS Kids, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Bay State Banner, WBUR's ARTery, WGBH, and Hyperallergic.
Raymond Antrobus was born in London to an English mother and Jamaican father. He is a Cave Canem Fellow and author of ‘The Perseverance’ and 'All The Names Given' both being published in the US this year by Tin House. His first children's picturebook 'Can Bears Ski?' illustrated by Polly Dunbar is published by Candlewick Press. His work has been featured on NPR, BBC, The Guardian, Lit Hub, POETRY Magazine among others. His accolades include a Ted Hughes Award, Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award, the Rathbone Folio Prize and he was awarded an MBE for his contribution to English language literature. He is currently based in Oklahoma City.
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Jeffrey Yasuo Mansfield is a design director at MASS Design Group and a Ford-Mellon Disability Futures fellow, whose work explores the relationships between architecture, landscape, and power. Jeffrey is a recipient of a Graham Foundation grant and a John W. Kluge Fellowship at the Library of Congress for his work on Architecture of Deafness, which explores how Deaf schools and other Deaf Spaces emerged as sites of cultural resistance. Jeffrey holds a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and an AB in Architecture from Princeton University. Deaf since birth, Jeffrey is a Yonsei, or fourth-generation, Japanese American, and attended a deaf school in Massachusetts, where his earliest intuitions about the relationship between aesthetics, geography, and power emerged.
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SEASON SEVEN
Join author Claudia Rankine and filmmaker John Lucas for a screening of and Q&A about the latest in their Situations series.
Poets Jaswinder Bolina and Victoria Chang virtually gathered to discuss their latest books — Jaswinder’s first essay collection Of Color (McSweeney’s, 2020) and Victoria’s 2020 National Book Award longlisted Obit (Copper Canyon Press, 2020) — as well as artistic influences and a new generation of poetry.
Twenty Summers was thrilled to host our first joint-residency with director and photographer Dawit N.M. & writer and photographer Gioncarlo Valentine earlier this October, and to hear them talk about the residency experience, projects they have (and have attempted) to collaborate on, and other projects they have worked on during COVID-19.
Authors Diane Cook and Lydia Kiesling join the first-ever Twenty Summers virtual festival to talk about their recent novels, The New Wilderness (Harper, 2020) and The Golden State (Picador, 2019), respectively, both of which examine motherhood, the state of the world, and glimpses at even darker futures in unique, funny, and sometimes devastating ways.
Visual artist and podcaster Elise Peterson talks with author Shayla Lawson about her recent book, This is Major: Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls & Being Dope, as well as their first Prince concerts, Mariah Carey, Frank Ocean, American Dolls, toxic masculinity, cancel culture, Black girl magic, and so much more.
Twenty Summers was thrilled to welcome author & journalist Jenna Wortham in residence at the Hawthorne Barn this past September, and to host a virtual conversation with photographer Naima Green.
Alaya Dawn Johnson joins Twenty Summers’ first virtual arts festival from Mexico, where she’ll take us on a walk up a path from the village she now calls home, as well as answer questions about her latest novel, Trouble the Saints (Macmillan, 2020).
Francesca Ekwuyasi joins Twenty Summers for our first virtual arts programming to read from her recently released novel Butter Honey Pig Bread (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020), an intergenerational saga about three Nigerian women: a novel about food, family, and forgiveness.
Immunologist Dr. Carl June, medical oncologist Dr. David Porter, and Loxo Oncology at Lilly CEO Dr. Josh Bilenker gathered virtually early in September to discuss Dr. Porter’s and Dr. June’s groundbreaking immunotherapy work, how work follows them home, and the course of their careers in this lively, moving discussion on what it means to care for those who are running out of hope.
Esteemed poets Heid E. Erdrich and Eric Gansworth join visual artist Andrea Carlson in conversation to celebrate the release of Heid E. Erdrich’s latest, Little Big Bully (Penguin Group, 2020), and Eric Gansworth’s Apple: (skin to the Core) (Levine Querido, 2020), both out on October 6th, 2020. The longtime friends talk procrastination, expectations to act as cultural informants, and much more.
Interspersed throughout the discussion are readings from Little Big Bully and Apple: (skin to the Core).
Episode 48: Authors Damon Young and Rion Amilcar Scott kick off the first-ever virtual Twenty Summers festival with an epic, sprawling conversation about barbershops, Covid’s impact on their work, Lovecraft Country, humor in writing, I May Destroy You, Kanye West, Black success, and the perils of white validation.
highlights from season six
Episode 46: Best known as the frontman of the influential indie rock trio Dinosaur Jr., J Mascis has also been a solo artist, producer, and film composer. Dinosaur Jr. was founded in 1984 and became one of the most highly regarded groups in alternative rock. By reintroducing volume and attack in his songs, Mascis shed the strict limitations of early 1980s hardcore, becoming an influence on the burgeoning grunge movement. He continues to inspire a generation of guitar players and songwriters today. He treated us to an intimate solo acoustic performance, sharing tunes from his widely acclaimed 2018 solo album Elastic Days.
Episode 44: Luluc comprises multi-instrumentalist, singer, and producer Steve Hassett and songwriter and vocalist Zoe Randall. The New York–based Australian duo recently released their third album, Sculptor. While masterful in its minimalism, the album is anything but quiet in impact. Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney says, “It's music that once you hear it, you can't live without it." In naming their 2014 album, Passerby, his album of the year, NPR's Bob Boilen wrote, "I've listened to this record... more than any other this year. These songs feel like they've always been."
Episode 43: Taylor Ashton grew up surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the old-growth rainforests of Canada's west coast. His songs are inspired by the crooked primeval funk of traditional old-time music, the humor and heartbreak of Randy Newman, the cosmic emotionality of mid-career Joni Mitchell, and the sage vulnerability of Bill Withers.
Episode 42: William Tyler has been hailed as one of Nashville’s greatest electric guitarists, but on his brand-new album, Goes West, he returns to the purity of acoustic guitar, backed by a band that includes guitarists Meg Duffy and Bill Frisell, bassist and producer Brad Cook, keyboardist James Wallace, drummer Griffin Goldsmith, and engineer Tucker Martine.
Episode 41: We were delighted to present the intimate harmonies of Mountain Man, which comprises three devoted friends—Amelia Meath, Molly Erin Sarlé and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig—who in 2018 released their highly anticipated second album, Magic Ship, a magnetic fourteen-song reflection on the joys, follies, and oddities of existence. In the eight years since Mountain Man’s debut Made the Harbor, the trio took an unintentional hiatus. Amelia Meath created the electro-pop band Sylvan Esso with Nick Sanborn. Molly Sarlé headed for a Zen center along the California coast. And Sauser-Monnig returned to Minnesota, then decamped to a farm in the North Carolina mountains.
Episode 39: Authors Rebecca Makkai and Christopher Castellani discussed their latest novels, both capturing pivotal historical moments in gay history. Makkai’s The Great Believers, listed by the New York Times as one of the Best 10 Books of 2018, is about friendship and redemption in 1980s Chicago, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, and in contemporary Paris. Castellani’s Leading Men, a historical novel inspired by the romance between Tennessee Williams and Frank Merlo, is set in 1950s Italy and modern-day New York and Provincetown. Dwight Garner of the New York Times declared it a “blazing” success, “an alert, serious, sweeping novel. To hold it in your hands is like holding... a front-row opera ticket.”
Episode 38: Blues singer-songwriter and performer Adia Victoria dropped into Provincetown for a stripped-down performance as she toured the world to promote her new, critically acclaimed album, Silences, which she recorded with Aaron Dessner of The National. Throughout the album's twelve tracks, which are making “the blues dangerous again” (New York Times), Victoria addresses the topics of mental illness, drug addiction, sexism, and other challenges that consume the day-to-day lives of women attempting to make a world of their own.
Episode 37: In his most recent book, An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago, acclaimed journalist Alex Kotlowitz once again takes up the subject of youth, poverty, and gun violence in urban America that he explored so powerfully in There Are No Children Here. Joining him at the Hawthorne barn discuss his work and the issues it tackles was Adam Moss, whose fifteen years of innovative work as editor-in-chief of New York Magazine made it the must-read that it is today.
Episode 36: To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, we hosted a conversation featuring Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown, creators of Instagram’s @lgbt_history, and acclaimed author Garrard Conley (Boy Erased). The three authors and activists discussed Riemer and Brown’s wildly popular @lgbt_history page and their debut book, We Are Everywhere, a rich and sweeping photographic history of the Queer Liberation Movement, along with Garrard Conley’s best-selling memoir. Boy Erased was adapted for the 2018 film of the same name, as well as the podcast UnErased: The History of Conversion Therapy in America. Their shared experience casts a powerful light on the LGBTQ+ community’s hardships in the past, its challenges for the future, and what Stonewall means to us today.
Episode 35: Sidney Gish is a singer-songwriter and full-time student with a wry sense of humor in Boston, where she's been recording and releasing her own work since 2015. She dropped her first album, Ed Buys Houses, in 2016 and No Dogs Allowed this year.
Episode 34: Americana singer-songwriters Jeffrey Foucault and Kris Delmhorst may be husband and wife, but each has a distinctive sound and an extensive arsenal of songs to share. They shared the Twenty Summers stage at this historic Hawthorne barn for this podcast, performing songs from each of their collections of music.
Episode 33: Veteran independent singer-songwriter Mirah joins us for a duo set in which she and a fellow musician share work from her vast collection of songs. Her 2018 album Understanding, her sixth full-length solo record and third release through her Absolute Magnitude Recordings, marks a return to her early, unconventional recording process, celebrating a spirited imperfection that embraces rough first takes, natural room sounds, and a fair amount of broken equipment.
Episode 32: Boston-based indie folk quartet Darlingside brought their signature superpower harmonies to Provincetown. Darlingside draws frequent comparisons to late-sixties groups like Crosby, Stills & Nash, Simon & Garfunkel, and The Byrds, yet their penchant for science fiction and speculative futurism shows their aesthetic to be anything but "retro." NPR Music describes the four friends’ collaborative work as "exquisitely arranged, literary-minded baroque folk-pop" and pronounces their album Extralife "perfectly crafted."
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Episode 29: Seasoned singer-songwriter, performing artist, and author, Dar Williams, joined us for a solo concert in the Hawthorne Barn on May 26, 2018, where she shared her music from her extensive collection of folk tunes, along with stories from her many journeys and experiences.
Episode 28: Tony Award–winning playwright J.T. Rogers (Oslo) and seasoned foreign correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran (National Book Award finalist for Imperial Life in the Emerald City) sat together on June 9, 2018 in the Hawthorne Barn to discuss the intersection of politics, war, journalism, and art.
Episode 27: Syrian-born, Los Angeles-based songstress Azniv Korkejian, known onstage as Bedouine, performed in the Hawthorne Barn on June 15, 2018, sharing her modernized take on sixties folk and an arsenal of beautiful songs from her debut album.
Episode 26: Former U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky joined poet Monica Youn to share recent work and exchange ideas, along with moderator Elizabeth Bradfield, local poet and naturalist on June 9, 2018 in the Hawthorne Barn. During their conversation they discuss the poets' use of etymology, myths and retelling stories in their own works.
Episode 25: Iconic singer-songwriter John Gorka raised the rafters on May 18, 2018 in the Hawthorne Barn with his spirited acoustic guitar playing, insightful lyrics, and wry, witty storytelling. Veteran of countless world tours and collaborations with the likes of Nanci Griffith, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Ani DiFranco, Gorka released his fifteenth album, True in Time, in January 2018. We were proud to be a stop on his album release tour, where he performed a solo set of songs.
Episode 24: We were pleased to present a theatrical reading of Pollock on June 16, 2018, featuring the original actors, Jim Fletcher and Birgit Huppuch. French playwright Fabrice Melquiot's drama, translated into English by Kenneth Casler and Miriam Heard, and directed by Paul Desvaux, illuminates the profound connection between the brilliant madness of Jackson Pollock and his marriage to artist Lee Krasner, exploring the charged space between his genius and her spirit, his inhibitions and her frustrations. It was our honor to shine a spotlight on these two important artists, both of whom spent time in the Hawthorne Barn. This performance was made possible through the support of The Cultural Services of the French Embassy, which promotes the best of French arts, literature, cinema, digital innovation, language, and higher education across the U.S.
Episode 23: On Sunday, June 10, 2018 Overcoats joined us for an intimate concert. The New York-based female electronic-pop duo of Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell, performed in the historic Hofmann Studio in Provincetown, the former West End home and studio of artist Hans Hofmann, as part of Twenty Summers' annual month-long arts festival.
Episode 22: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham and the internationally best-selling essayist, critic, and translator Daniel Mendelsohn discussed how writers turn consciously to literature itself as a way of broadening their own horizons on Sunday, May 27, 2018 in Provincetown’s Hawthorne Barn as part of Twenty Summers' annual month-long arts festival.
Episode 21: Singer-songwriter Kevin Morby performed solo in the Hawthorne Barn in Provincetown, Mass. as part of Twenty Summers' annual month-long arts festival.
Episode 20: We were delighted to host award-winning performer and author Alan Cumming interviewing the outrageously versatile Isaac Mizrahi, fashion legend turned actor–director–TV host on Saturday, May 19, 2018 in Provincetown’s Hawthorne Barn.
Episode 19: On Saturday, May 19, 2018, performer and songwriter Martha Wainwright shared her distinctive voice and arsenal of powerful songs in the Hawthorne Barn in Provincetown, Mass.
Episode 18: Duncan Sheik in Concert Grammy and Tony award –winning singer-songwriter and Broadway composer Duncan Sheik joined us in the Hawthorne Barn as a resident artist during the week leading up to his performance. On the final night of his stay, he shared music from his compositions for Spring Awakening, American Psycho, and off his many albums (including his hit “Barely Breathing”). Sheik shared the stage with special guest Micky Blue, who collaborated with him during his week-long residency in the Barn. This event took place on June 10, 2017.
Episode 17: Sharon Olds and Mark Doty in Conversation Iconic poets Sharon Olds and Mark Doty read from their influential collections, and discuss the secrets behind their fearless craft. This event took place on June 10, 2017, and was moderated by Provincetown poet Kelle Groom.
Episode 16: How Drawing Provincetown Shaped Hans Hofmann: Marcelle Polednik and Karen Wilkin in Conversation As the latest installment of our ongoing tribute to the painters who worked and taught in the Hawthorne Barn when it was an art school, Polednik, a museum director and curator, and Wilkin, experienced art critic and curator, discussed and presented images from Hans Hofmann: Works on Paper, an exhibit they curated for MOCA Jacksonville in Florida, demonstrating the ever-evolving work of Hofmann and the inspiration he drew from Provincetown itself. This event and video were made possible by generous support from the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust. This event took place on May 12, 2017.
Episode 17: Lucy Kaplansky in Concert Blending country, folk, and rock styles, vocalist Lucy Kaplansky performed in the Hawthorne Barn, sharing original songs as well as covers of June Carter Cash, Gram Parsons, Lennon-McCartney, and Nick Lowe. This event took place on June 3, 2017.
Episode 14: Peter Bohlin and William Rawn in Conversation World-renowned architects Peter Bohlin and William Rawn discussed the current and future role of architecture and their experiences designing buildings private and public, including a look into Bohlin’s incredible collaboration with Steve Jobs to design the infamous Apple Stores around the world. This event took place on June 10, 2017.
Episode 13: Alysia Abbott and Joan Wickersham in Conversation Twenty Summers welcomed authors Alysia Abbott (Fairyland) and Joan Wickersham (The Suicide Index) to the Barn, who have both written critically acclaimed memoirs about the fathers they loved and lost too soon. The two authors discussed their memoirs, their writing lives, and their other work in this deeply personal and fascinating conversation. WCAI was a media sponsor for this event. This event took place on May 13, 2017.
Episode 12: David France and Andrew Sullivan in Conversation In 2012, author and journalist David France released the documentary How to Survive a Plague, the culmination of his decades-long coverage of the U.S. AIDS crisis. It won a New York Film Critics Circle Award and was an Oscar nominee. Last fall he published his book of the same title. In reviewing it for the New York Times, provocative political commentator Andrew Sullivan called it “the first and best history” of the courage behind the fight to end AIDS “and a reminder that if gay life and culture flourish for a thousand years, people will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’ ” In bringing them together, we experienced a bracing discourse on politics, culture, history, and more. Boston Pride co-presented this event. This event took place on June 2, 2017.
Episode 11: Emily Wells in Concert Performer, producer, singer, composer, and classically trained violinist, Emily Wells joins us in the Barn with her varied use of classical and modern instrumentation as well as her deft approach to live sampling. She has evolved into a uniquely modern singer and composer who uses a variety of instruments, from strings and drums to synths and beat machines, to create what NPR has praised as “gospel-folk music that’s immersed in secular desires and experiences” and the New York Times as “quietly transfixing.” This event took place on May 28, 2017.
Episode 10: Junot Díaz & Jacqueline Woodson in Conversation Authors Junot Díaz and Jacqueline Woodson join us for a conversation in the Barn that delves into the divisive politics of our age and what it means to be an American fiction writer of color today. Junot Díaz, whose work has been honored with a Pulitzer and a MacArthur, joins Jacqueline Woodson, whose books for readers of all ages have won prizes including a National Book Award and a Coretta Scott King Award. From his Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao to her Brown Girl Dreaming, from his activist work in the Dominican-American community to her stories for teenage readers about what it means to grow up black and gay, Diaz and Woodson are writers who know how to raise their voices when it counts. WCAI was a media sponsor for this event. This event took place on May 27, 2017.
Episode 9: Richard Russo and Hannah Tinti in Conversation Twenty Summers was proud to bring together the accomplished and widely admired Richard Russo and Hannah Tinti, each on tour for a new book: Russo for Trajectory, a quartet of novellas; Tinti for her second novel, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, praised in the Washington Post as “a master class in literary suspense.” In addition to writing ten other books, including the Pulitzer prize–winning novel Empire Falls and the best-selling memoir Elsewhere, Russo is a veteran screenwriter. His novel Nobody’s Fool was made into a movie starring Paul Newman and Jessica Tandy. Tinti is also the author of an internationally acclaimed story collection, Animal Crackers, and The Good Thief, winner of the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. She is a cofounder and executive editor of the journal One Story and of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Italy. She was recently named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture. Russo and Tinti, friends as well as kindred authors, discuss life, literature, and anything else they please. Twenty Summers cofounder Julia Glass moderated. Media sponsorship by WCAI. This event took place on May 20, 2017.
Episode 8: David Wax Museum (Duo) in Concert Husband-and-wife duo David Wax and Suz Slezak, known as David Wax Museum, returned to the Barn for the second time to share their rousing Latin-folk-inspired indie rock. They performed a stripped down set of songs from their latest EP A La Rumba Rumba, a celebration of the Latin folk music that inspires them most, as well as tunes from their fourth full length album, Guesthouse. This event took place on May 19, 2017.
Episode 7: Melville and the Great White Whale: Aurea Ensemble in Concert Classical string quartet Aurea Ensemble play their own tribute to Moby-Dick, “Melville and the Great White Whale,” which features Beethoven, Webern, sea shanties, and other nautically evocative music along with readings from the novel and from Melville’s correspondence with Nathaniel Hawthorne, to whom he dedicated his masterpiece. This event took place on May 26, 2017.
Episode 6: Barney Frank and Joanna Weiss in Conversation How did a disheveled, intellectually combative gay Jew with a thick accent become one of the most effective (and funniest) politicians of our time? Barney Frank grew up in Bayonne, New Jersey, where, at age fourteen, he made two vital discoveries about himself: he was attracted to government…and to men. He resolved to make a career out of the first attraction and to keep the second a secret. Now, fifty years later, his sexual orientation is widely accepted, while his belief in government is embattled. Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage is one man’s account of the country’s transformation—and the tale of a truly momentous career. This event took place on June 7, 2015.
Episode 5: Edith Windsor and James Lecesne in Conversation Edith Windsor is one of the two plaintiffs whose joint victory before the Supreme Court led to last year’s landmark decision in favor of marriage equality. In 2009, after the death of her spouse and longtime partner, Thea Speyer, Windsor learned that because her marriage was not recognized by the federal government, she was required to pay more than $300,000 in estate taxes. Windsor fought back, in United States v. Windsor, all the way to the Supreme Court, striking down the Defense of Marriage Act and winning a national following as a beloved and charismatic leader for human rights. Together with Speyer, Windsor is the focus of the documentary film Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement. Her many honors and awards include the Women’s Rights Award from the American Federation of Teachers and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Out magazine. Onstage with Windsor, we welcome back actor, writer, and activist James Lecesne, whose hit Off Broadway one-man show The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey we are proud to have premiered in the Barn during Twenty Summers’ inaugural season. Lecesne is a cofounder of the Trevor Project, which was inspired by the Oscar-winning film for which he wrote the screenplay. He has appeared on Broadway, published YA novels, and is a frequent speaker at events focused on issues facing LGBT youth. This event took place on May 14, 2016.
Episode 4: Adam Gopnik and Michael Cunningham in Conversation Pulitzer prize–winning novelist Michael Cunningham (a Ptown regular) and the Canadian-American New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik (who’s partial to Wellfleet) united onstage for the first time ever, to talk of matters newsworthy and intimate, factual and imaginary, lofty and lowbrow. Learning to drive, channeling Virginia Woolf, parenting in a foreign country, trespassing in the forbidden forest of the fairy tale. This event took place on May 24, 2015.
Episode 3: Marshall Crenshaw in Concert Musician, actor, author, publisher, and jack-of-all-trades Marshall Crenshaw launches Twenty Summers’ third season with an intimate acoustic solo performance. In a career now spanning four decades, Crenshaw has reached the Billboard Top 40 and been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. As a stage and film actor, he has portrayed other musicians, ranging from Buddy Holly to John Lennon. Since 2011, Crenshaw has served as the host of WFUV's radio show "Bottomless Pit," and he is a contributor to Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger’s HBO series "Vinyl."
Episode 2: Nicole Atkins in Concert On May 21, 2016, we welcomed Nicole Atkins to the Barn. Her debut album, Neptune City, paid homage to her New Jersey hometown and won her a place on Rolling Stone’s list of “Top 10 Artists to Watch.” Since then, she has produced two more (Mondo Amore and Slow Phaser) and toured widely through the U.S. and Europe, both as a headliner and alongside bands such as Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Primal Scream, and the Avett Brothers. She has also performed on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “Conan,” and “Later . . . with Jools Holland” and is a host on Sirius XM’s Spectrum channel.
Episode 1: Garance Doré Writer, illustrator, and photographer Garance Doré visited the Hawthorne Barn on June 11, 2016, for an interview on the current state of fashion, style, and her career with Twenty Summers co-founder Ricky Opaterny. Doré's eponymous blog reaches millions of readers, and the New York Times Magazine has called her the "guardian of all style." She has won the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Eugenia Sheppard Media Award and is the author of the 2015 bestseller Love Style Life.
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