These musicians are booked up!
A group of local artists will celebrate the iconic immigrant tale “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn” with an evening of music on Sept. 14 in Dumbo. The Bushwick Book Club will present songs, dance performances, artwork, and food inspired by Betty Smith’s classic novel, and the group’s founder says they will be playing the event by ear.
“I generally don’t look at any of the submissions before the event,” said Susan Kwang. “I like being surprised like everyone else.”
The Bushwick Book Club is an art collective that has met monthly since 2009 to create musical responses to different books. It was created as an alternative to the traditional book club, said Kwang.
“I’ve never actually been to a book club meeting,” Kwang said. “They just drink wine and talk about books, but I do that all the time anyway, so I wanted to do something different.”
Over the years, the group has produced music inspired by works as ponderous as “Moby Dick” and as straightforward as Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” The changing nature of the event means that each session is a surprise to listeners, and sometimes to the ones making the music.
“It’s been a great source of inspiration,” said Ellia Bisker, a five-year veteran of the Club. “I’ve accidentally written a lot of great songs about books.”
The Club originally focused only on music, but recently expanded into other artistic realms. The Sept. 14 event, presented as a book-end event for the Brooklyn Book Festival the following weekend, will feature a visual art installation and a culinary offering from artist and chef Ori Cosentini, as well as two dance performances.
One performer says she was drawn to the book club after hearing about its forays into new art forms.
“It feels like such a culturally rounded off event,” said Renee Goust, a first-time contributor. “It always seemed like a cool project for a songwriter.”
Bushwick Book Club presents music inspired by “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” at Superfine [126 Front St. at Pearl Street in Dumbo, (718) 243–9005, www.superfine.nyc]. Sept. 14 at 8 pm.
