On February 4th at 7pm Glucksman Ireland House, the Center for Irish and Irish-American Studies at New York University, presents an all-star collection of writers reading Irish and Irish-American poems of the 1916 Easter Rising.
“‘Her Exiled Children’: Poetry in America and the 1916 Easter Rising” will be hosted by National Book Award-winner Colum McCann and feature readings by Ireland’s inaugural Fiction Laureate and NYU's Distinguished Writer-in-Residence Anne Enright, National Book Award-winner Alice McDermott, and New York Times-bestselling novelist Matthew Thomas. Pulitzer Prize-winner and Poetry Editor for The New Yorker Paul Muldoon will debut a new poem commissioned for the occasion.
Belfast-born film, television and stage actress Geraldine Hughes will also read at the event, taking place at the Sheen Center for Culture and Thought. Singers Mary Deady and Cathy Maguire will perform songs contemporary to the Rising.
The evening is one in a series of events by Glucksman Ireland House NYU exploring the role of America in the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. NYU’s programs shed new light on the trans-Atlantic context of the Rising, examining the actions and motives of Irish cultural and political nationalists who came to the United States before 1916 and of the Americans who served as their support network.
The event is co-sponsored by NYU’s Creative Writing Program, a top center for poetry, nationally.
The one-time event will be directed by George C. Heslin, founder and artistic director of Origin Theatre Company, which presents the annual, month-long 1st Irish theater festival. Heslin said, “What’s beautiful about this event is that many say the Rising was one made by poets. On February 4th, we are presenting a poetry event in the words of those involved in a momentous occasion that changed the path of history.”
Find out more on the Glucksman Ireland House website
About the readers
Anne Enright was born in Dublin, where she lives and works. She has published three volumes of stories, one book of nonfiction, and six novels. Her book The Gathering won the Man-Booker prize in 2007, and in 2015, she became Ireland's first laureate for fiction. She is Visiting Professor at NYU for Spring 2016.
Geraldine Hughes was born in West Belfast. She received great acclaim for her solo play Belfast Blues. Her stage highlights include the West End and the Broadway production of Jerusalem opposite Mark Rylance, Particle Of Dread opposite Stephen Rea, Translations (Broadway), and Molly Sweeney (Irish Repertory Theatre). Films include Gran Torino, Rocky Balboa, Killing Lincoln, Time Out of Mind and soon to be released The Book Of Henry.
Colum McCann is the author of six novels and three collections of stories, most recently Thirteen Ways of Looking. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, he has been the recipient of many international honors, including the National Book Award, the International Dublin Impac Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, and election to the Irish arts academy. He is the co-founder of the non-profit story exchange organization Narrative 4. He lives in New York with his wife, Allison, and their three children.
Alice McDermott is the author of seven novels, including Someone; After This; Child of My Heart; Charming Billy, winner of the 1998 National Book Award; and At Weddings and Wakes. Someone was a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and After This were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She is the Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University..
Paul Muldoon has published twelve full collections of poetry, for which he has won several awards, including the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Pulitzer Prize. He is Howard G. B. Clark '21 Professor at Princeton University and Poetry Editor ofThe New Yorker. Between 1999 and 2004 he was Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford. Writing recently in the New York Times Book Review, Roger Rosenblatt described him as "one of the great poets of the past hundred years, who can be everything in his poems — word-playful, lyrical, hilarious, melancholy. And angry. Only Yeats before him could write with such measured fury."
Matthew Thomas' New York Times-bestselling novel We Are Not Ourselves was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Price, and the John Gardner First Book Award; named a Notable Book of the year by the New York Times; named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Apple, and others.
Additional Glucksman Ireland House and NYU Easter Rising Events
Saturday, March 5, 2016: Casadh an tSúgáin - America, Irish-Ireland, Education and Politics
Language rights involve agitation, agitation implies politics. The ideals and aspirations of late-nineteenth century Irish language activists moved from education to politics in Ireland and from Ireland to Irish-America. Join us as we investigate relationships between Ireland and Irish-America through the lens of the Irish language movement.
April 20, 2016: Screening of A Terrible Beauty with commentary by the filmmakers
This 90-minute feature docudrama A Terrible Beauty is a unique look at the events of Easter Week 1916 in Dublin through the eyes of Irish Volunteers, British soldiers, and innocent civilians caught in the middle, showing the human cost of the fighting on all sides. Followed by commentary and Q&A with producers Colin and Keith Farrell.
April 21-22, 2016: Independent Spirit: America and the 1916 Easter Rising symposium
This major academic conference showcases ground-breaking new research in the role of America in the Easter Rising. How did the American media capture the Rising? What was the role of women? What role did the American Catholic Church play? Who were the men and women behind the Rising in the U.S., both well-known and overlooked? Keynote lectures and panels will illuminate these previously under-explored topics and more at this two-day symposium. Venue: Glucksman Ireland House NYU.
Friday, April 22, 2016: Reading of the Proclamation of the Republic of Ireland
Representing Ireland's "exiled children in America," actress Fionnula Flanagan reads the historic document in which the Easter 1916 Provisional Government of Ireland declared its independence from Great Britain.
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