NYC Salon for Aspiring Artists Has its Last Hurrah

Soror Amy, the executive producer of Thelema, NOW! suggested I post this. No occult content or apparent  involvement. But admittedly, these kinds of gathering of aspiring artists and cultural rebels has occurred repeatedly in NYC and and while there was occult involvement – that’s never been part of the mainstream versions of their histories. For instance, during the heyday of the 60’s when underground filmmakers, artists and the first Gay rights advocates swapped ideas, bodily fluids etc. occultists like Harry Smith, Ira Cohen and Angus MacLise were important figures on the scene. Anyway…

‘About a year ago, a literary salon sprang to life in a run-down townhouse in the West Village of Manhattan. Dozens of young writers, critics, artists, theater actors and filmmakers started going there almost nightly to drink, smoke, talk, dance and argue, much like their bohemian predecessors in the days before sky-high rents priced poets out of the neighborhood…

‘Mr. Rosset, nervy and thin, wearing a dark suit, stood up and faced the crowd. “It wasn’t so long ago I was sitting here by myself and I didn’t even know any of you yet,” he said. “Now the building is getting sold, but I’m just thankful to so many of you for what this place became.” Some of the regulars started sobbing and hugging each other.

‘To its adherents, Beckett’s had become a downtown sanctuary for the city’s creative underclass. It started last spring, when the playwright Matthew Gasda, who is known for staging his works in lofts and apartments, was looking for a place to mount his satire “Dimes Square.” So an actor in his play, Fernanda Amis (the daughter of the novelist Martin Amis), approached her cousin, Pablo Marvel, who lives in the townhouse and is related to the family that bought the building decades ago, to ask about renting the ground floor. Mr. Rosset soon started managing things. During the run of “Dimes Square” performances, a scene was born…”

Read the whole shizzle:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/01/style/the-last-days-of-becketts-a-smoky-new-york-literary-salon.html.

Frater Lux Ad Mundi

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