“From their earliest setting out, the poems of Norman Finkelstein have fetched a new Vision, not only mapping but marking the Vision with supernal inscription, the signature of Heaven as it were. And theirs is not a cold heaven. Nothing in these poems is imposed or rehearsed. What is permanently remarkable here is that the work goes forward to imagine what no American poetry has imagined before: a society of Vision.” — Donald Revell
On Saturday
"Total Midrash"/A Talk and Reading
1:15 PM - 2:30 PM
Norman writes: "In my poetry and criticism, I have used to the term "midrash" (however cautiously) to help me to better understand how my (Jewish) imagination works, and more specifically, to conceptualize what I’m up to in a given poem. In this talk, I will discuss these concepts and read some of my poetry, considering how my work, somewhere on the borderline of the sacred and the profane, may be considered an instance of contemporary midrashic writing."
On Sunday
Book Launch Reading and Celebration
3 PM - 5 PM
Suite Bar
992 Amsterdam Avenue @ 109th Street
NYC
Red Harlem Readers invites you to a gala reading and celebration of the publication of The Ratio of Reason to Magic by Norman Finkelstein. The festivities will begin with a brief introduction and reminiscence by David M. Katz and will end with a reading by Norman. In between five brother-poets of Norman's will read a poem of Norman's plus a poem of their own in response. Besides Norman, the readers will be Michael Heller, David M. Katz, Burt Kimmelman, and Hugh Seidman.
