The Tokyo String Quartet has finished their last concert at 92Y tonight, to an appreciative full house. In July, they will retire an extraordinary 44-year career.

The Tokyo String Quartet first performed at 92Y in 1977. It became the 92Y quartet-in-residence in 2003. In those years, they played 31 concerts and 101 works by 20 composers to thousands of fans. Tonight we bid farewell to this remarkable ensemble. Together, we thank the Tokyo for the enlightenment, insight and sheer pleasure they have brought into our lives. We look forward to welcoming them back to 92Y as individuals and friends in the years to come.

(Photo of the Tokyo String Quarter rehearsing at 92Y for the last time. May 11, 2013.)

“I had hardly begun to read
I asked how can you ever be sure
that what you write is really
any good at all and he said you can’t
you can’t you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don’t write”

—W. S. Merwin from “Berryman”

Upon the publication of his Collected Poems by the Library of America, Merwin is making a rare New York appearance and will be coming out on stage at the 92Y Poetry Center any minute. (8 pm!)  We’ll be live tweeting. Merwin will be interviewed by J. D. McClatchy and also read from his work.

NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel used a world map to take an audience at 92Y through all the global hot spots Americans should care about. Watch the video on 92Y’s American Conversation. Engel was here on April 25 with Allen Grubman, senior partner of Grubman, Indursky, Shire & Meiselas P.C.

harmoniamundiusa:

Tokyo String Quartet plays 92nd Street Y in NYC this Saturday with cellist Lynn Harrell.

Don’t miss one of the last remaining US dates by the retiring quartet! Pre-order DVORAK. SMETANA. Quartets.

Tomorrow is their FINAL NY Concert. Get tickets here, listen to audio clips, and read a letter from 92Y to the Tokyo String Quartet.

Fashion Icon Suzy Menkes offers her opinion about the MET’s Punk exhibit, the Bangladeshi building collapse at Rana Plaza, and the kerfuffle created by her article, The Circus of Fashion. She was at 92Y on May 7 with Fern Mallis, for the Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis series. 

Read more about the evening on WWD, The Daily Beast, Style and Fashionista. Watch more Fashion Icons videos on our YouTube. 

Julia Guez, Eileen Myles, Raena Shirali, Timothy Donnelly, Erika L Sanchez and Catherine Blauvelt, at the 2013 “Discovery” / Boston Review Poetry Contest Reading at 92Y on Mon, May 6.

Congratulations to winners Julia Guez, Raena Shirali, Erika L Sanchez and Catherine Blauvelt. Beer for the evening lovingly provided by The Brooklyn Brewery. 

(Photos by Nancy Crampton) 

guernicamag:

Q: What’s better than seeing Lynn Nottage at the 92Y?

A: Nothing.

Q: What’s the second-best thing you’ve heard all day?

A: You can see her for cheaps with the discount code: GUERNICA

Lynn Nottage, renowned playwright and recent Guernica interviewee is going to be at the 92nd St Y TONIGHT. So go! Enjoy! Clap until your hands sting.

This is tonight and we hope to see you there. So does Lynn.

From the 92Y Poetry Center Archive: W. S. Merwin and John Ashbery

“The two most distinctive and influential voices by which American poetry has spoken in the last twenty years.” That is how J. D. McClatchy introduced an evening of readings by W. S. Merwin and John Ashbery here at 92Y on November 21, 1983—the first such occasion on which the two poets shared a stage. “Each has his own special slant of vision, his own richness of language,” McClatchy went on to say.

Merwin opens with “After a Storm”—a poem that deals both with the evening’s ostensible theme (autobiographical poetry) and McClatchy’s earlier reference “to the program which some of us saw last night and that was an understatement of what we all expect.” He was referring to “The Day After”—an ABC-television film about the consequences of nuclear war—that aired on Sunday, November 20, and was viewed by more than 100 million Americans.

Read More

— Jennifer Lopez at 92YTribeca today for #momplussocial. We’re livcasting.

The stage is set for today’s #momplusocial event at 92YTribeca. We’ll be livecasting. First panel starts at 10 am.