Online Stuff You Might Not Have Known About To Occupy Your Time
Hey folks––
This sucks. In a lot of different ways for a lot of different people at a lot of different levels. And I feel rather hindered in how to help folks out, especially since I’m mostly trained in writing post-dramatic plays and analytic philosophy, fields that have appropriately waned in their public use and footprint in the last few weeks (implying these fields had much public use to begin with).
I’ve said it in conversation with friends already: I’m very lucky in that my biggest problem right now is boredom, sitting at home all day everyday. But if you’re among the many people who have bigger problems than boredom right now, please let me know and I will try to help. Those who know me well will know that almost every activity I enjoy involves being around people (theater, going to movies, museums, etc). In fact, I do those things so much that I got a job in my program at school writing a newsletter about all the things people should do in the city.
Sometimes I felt overwhelmed by the amount of art I wanted to see or find in New York, and it’s common knowledge that there’s no way to see or participate in every interesting event or exhibition in the city. So, on the bright side, that isn’t stressing me out anymore. However, a chunk of these institutions in the city have tried to move online in different ways, and I with my professor Brandon Woolf decided to distribute a list of those online resources instead of live events.
Then I thought about how the monthly stuff is not necessarily worth circulating beyond the program––it’s all in New York, time limited, and usually costs money (though I try to recommend stuff I consider affordable). But this stuff is almost entirely free, all online, and most of it is accessible at any time. So I thought it would be worthwhile to share the list I made below for everyone I know outside of NYU. I threw in extra commentary, like recommendations, and also added more non-theater related sites I’ve found online, like free e-books, PDFs, and so on. I’m sticking to the type of stuff I usually recommend, which is less about TV shows or movies to binge/veg out with, and more stuff that’s off the beaten path (not to say I’m not all for binging and vegging, but we tend to get loads of recommendations for those constantly––I don’t want to tell you, like everyone, to watch Bojack Horseman already). Some of this is more geared to people actively working in theater or the arts, but I tried to include a good amount of stuff for anyone who likes live performances or books of most kinds.
I’ve also tried to ensure that all of the stuff below is 100% free, or if you need an academic log-in I’ve mentioned it. Reach out if any of this isn’t accessible to you and I’ll either give you my own log-in info or I’ll see about other ways to get it to you. I’m on the side of “fuck paywalls” and whatnot so if you also want anything from NYU-specific resources like academic papers or other paywalled stuff (even New Yorker articles), I’m happy to pirate.
Honestly, the theater, dance, and straightforward talks from 92Y isn’t what excites me about their work––that stuff can tend to be more entertainment-industry focused than what I enjoy. But the poetry readings include most major American poets of the 20th and 21st century, reading at the peak of their careers. Douglas Kearney, John Ashbery (!), Gregory Pardlo and Eileen Myles in conversation with Chris Kraus are some highlights. Plus they have some taped classical music concerts that might be worth exploring.
This online streaming service is free to anyone with an NYU email, and I believe a good number of other academic emails too. It’s mostly independent and foreign films (about half of the Criterion Collection), plus some great taped performances from The Wooster Group, Moscow Art Theatre, and all Shakespeare’s plays. That’s not to say it’s all arthouse––Lady Bird, Midsommar, Moonlight and Memento are all available too.
A “nightly theatrical broadcast” on Instagram, with material from the likes of Maria Irene Fornes, Jocelyn Bioh, and Bill Irwin.
The New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library
Like the 92Y archives, the online resources available through New York’s libraries are always accessible but especially worthwhile now.
Irish Rep presents across various social media platforms online performances of great Irish theatre, literature and music by their deep pool of performers.
One of a few groups using instagram, around 20 new monologues are performed and posted, roughly weekly. Writers and actors include Pulitzer, Tony and Oscar winners, nominees and finalists.
A subscription-based online platform for New York theatre makers that redistributes all of its money made on subscriptions to artists affected by the crisis.
A D.I.Y. Dance for Your Home, From Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer, global titan of postmodern dance, has a funny and endearing proposal for staying active at home.
Planned through the end of April, these Facebook watch parties stream past full-length HERE productions.
Past work and current livestreams of performances are available on their dedicated YouTube channel.
The Tank, arguably the heart of off-off Broadway in New York for the past decade, now broadcasts online roundtable discussions each Tuesday on various topics at the intersection of theatrical performance and pandemic.
La Mama — 3/23, likely more
La Mama has been setting up livestream panels and discussions intermittently. Though none are scheduled currently, this is subject to change.
Schaubühne — Through April
This is by far the site I’m most excited about, at least out of the live performance ones. The Schaubühne is probably the single most globally influential theater of the past 50 years, with countless daring and world-famous productions in that time, and now a new recorded performance from the archives will be available each day. Ostermeier’s Hamlet is probably the most lauded production of theirs, and it’s a definite goal of mine to watch on the 1st.
The Metropolitan Opera — Until Performances Resume
This opera company has everything––world-class directors, a repertoire spanning lesser 20th century works (Dialogue des Carmelites) to the best-known operas of all time (The Ring Cycle), and now online, one per day. If you’re reading this you’ve just missed the Ring Cycle, but throw a rock at this list and you’ll hit something worth watching.
To You, The Birdie — Available Through 3/30
This is also on Kanopy, but The Wooster Group is making it free here for everyone until the end of the month. It’s perhaps not the best recording of a production ever made, but if you care about the Wooster Group––and if you care about theater, you should––it’s worth a click.
All of that was in my newsletter. Here’s some other less theatre specific stuff I’ve learned about online.
This one is courtesy of Nick Ng, who has the deepest poetry library of anyone I know. Tang Yaping is one of a few female poets classed among the Misty poets of China, a post-Cultural Revolution movement that Nick turned me onto which includes better known folks like Bei Dao and Duo Duo. This PDF contains basically all her writing that’s made it into English, and like most of the work from the Misty poets it’s dark, imagistic, remarkably plain-spoken and incredible.
This fellow is the translator who put together the above PDF, and has a number of other worthwhile Chinese poets on his website. I haven’t done a thorough exploration of the list, but I’m excited to.
I found this site last week and I’m just giddy about it. PennSound is a project by UPenn to gather readings and audio recordings of authors in one place, and it’s amazing. Often it seems like they have everything ever recorded of some writers, like John Ashbery (including a still-unpublished play of his) and William Carlos Williams. Other fantastic names listed include June Jordan, Fred Moten, Samuel Delaney, CAConrad, Gertrude Stein, Wallace Stevens, Hart Crane, and some more offbeat figures like bpNichol, Carolee Schneeman, and bill bissett…I couldn’t be more thrilled about this resource.
Johnston is a handy translator of Greek, Latin, French and German who has done us an immense favor by dropping a good handful of translations online, with accompanying essays and lectures. I honestly don’t know how he’s regarded in academia since I just found him while googling about, but his translations seem clear and accurate and his essays are pretty readable and cogent.
Pretty much the holy grail of free online reading material. Importantly the site can only collect work that has gone out of copyright, so very little 20th century work. That goes for translations too––you won’t be reading recent translations if you seek out non-English language stuff. But they’ve collected pretty much everything that falls outside of that restriction. I especially recommend looking at Tender Buttons or Geography and Plays by Gertrude Stein.
Essentially a paid-subscription online library of ebooks, they’ve installed an option to subscribe for a month unpaid, with no attached credit card (so they can’t sneak charges onto your card after the month is up). They lean more heavily on contemporary pop fiction and nonfiction, so if that’s your speed, this is a steal.
The Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library
I just learned of this one today — you can virtually check out over 1.4 million books from this online library, made available specifically for the crisis. It’s a little poorly organized but from a quick glance it looks remarkably broad in scope, from pop self-help to major recent fiction to academic translations and historical papers. They also have some free books available always––Nick Ng recommends Cavafy, cummings, Eliot, Auden, Sappho, Horace, Perse, Celan, Li Bai (1, 2), Rumi (1, 2, 3) and Borges (1, 2, 3).
Update: 3/28
Thanks for everyone who reacted or replied to this. Here are some more good resources that I overlooked or didn’t know about the first time, plus I’ve added recommended reading from Nick to the above entry on archive.org.
Trakl’s a top tier German poet; here’s a smattering of his stuff translated by the brilliant American poets Bly and Wright. Courtesy of Nick Ng.
One of Canada’s best poets and one of the best concrete poets anywhere, bpNichol’s estate has made a huge amount of his work available online here.
Humanities Coronavirus Syllabus
This massive GDoc represents an open-source syllabus for the current pandemic put together by a wide swath of academics and edited by two Northeastern professors. Many though not all of the materials recommended include links to read for free, and there’s also a film and television list plus K-12 resources for those of you who are suddenly homeschooling your kids.
Fine Arts: MoMA, Met, Guggenheim, David Zwirner, etc.
Museums and galleries are responding at different frequencies to this crisis. New Museum and the Louvre, for example, seem to have barely changed their website beyond slapping on a warning not to come. The four above have gone to different lengths in doing a little more than that. Zwirner looks like they’ve done the most, with streaming events and an online-only exhibition. Guggenheim has released content about the building and their collection, but nothing on their current show “Countryside, the Future” (which based on reviews is for the best). The Met and MoMA both look like they’ve restructured their sites to push “#MuseumAtHome” programs, which don’t look too qualitatively different from their usual online offerings, but if you’re interested this is still a perfect time to dive in. Many library resources above also include fine arts materials if you’re curious.
Speaking of libraries, here’s an excellent academic resource online that’s just opened their doors. They mostly host criticism and journalistic papers, but they also have ArtStor and at least *some* fun stuff beneath all the academia.
NYTimes: What to Watch, Read and Listen To During Your Coronavirus Self-Quarantine
This Times list, and some of those linked in it and nearby, features a massive spread of cultural content to dig into during this time, including lots of things I didn’t hit like podcasts, other movie streaming platforms, and television.
This poetry-focused podcast is mostly based around interviews. I haven’t listened yet because this was recommended by Devanshi Khetarpal but I’m certainly going to try it.
That’s all I’m aware of for now. Let me know about other resources I can add to this list. It’s honestly as much for me as it is for other people, since I wanted a way to organize these things. Hope some folks find it useful as well.
Best,
Michael
