“There was a ship, quoth he…”
Ever since the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings moved to the South Street Seaport Museum about six years ago, the Series’ executive curator, Jim Freund, has mused about the idea of holding a reading aboard ship. When he broached the question to the Seaport’s management, to his delight, they were aboard with it and gave him an “Aye, aye.”
Thus, on the evening of Tuesday, 2 June 2009, the NYRSF Readings Series featured the most unusual reading in its two decades, aboard the Peking, a 377-foot-long 4-masted barque, launched in Hamburg in 1911 and one of the last windjammers, now moored at Pier 17 at the Seaport. The marvelous venue called for an equally extraordinary program, and the evening delivered on the promise, featuring author Catherynne M. Valente and musician S.J. Tucker in a dual performance integrating prose and song.
Earlier that day, the weather started getting rough, threatening to disappoint and move the event indoors to the main building of the South Street Seaport Museum, at 12 Fulton Street, but the imperfect storm passed and the event remained shipboard, though, in concession to the weather, shifted from the foredeck to a canopy-covered (and, unfortunately, less roomy) upper deck. The wheelhouse, however, made a nifty backdrop. (To the surprise of some and the relief of others, the ship didn’t lift anchor, but remained docked, “as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.”)
Following brief opening remarks before the audience of nearly 50 about how the shipboard event came about; July’s special, season-extending book-launch party for John Joseph Adams’s latest anthology; and the upcoming 20th season’s readings (shanghai’ing past curators), Freund, the evening’s skipper and host of WBAI-FM’s Hour of the Wolf radio program on sf and fantasy, introduced Valente and Tucker.
Valente, a recipient of the Tiptree Award, the Mythopoeic Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Million Writers Award, read a series of captivating, imaginative and, at times, morbid vignettes from Palimpsest—a book of stories set in the City of Maps (whose characters include a beekeeper named November, Ludovico the bookbinder, and Casimira of the vermin factory)—interspersed with performances by Tucker (who, fittingly, was in piratical garb) of ballads inspired by the stories. Her music, wonderfully spellbinding on its own, ranged among alternative-rock, blues, Celtic, punk, folk and, aptly, sea chanteys, suiting and illuminating the piece just read by Cat. (The down side of the outdoor venue, regrettably, was the ambient noise of tourists, an annoyingly persistent, and decidedly nonmusical band saw, and occasional overhead choppers.)
After a brief intermission, Cat shifted to reading from the first book of her Orphan’s Tales series, In the Night Garden—fantastic fables of a she-satyr and a selkie, and of a girl abducted by a crew of inhuman female pirates—interwoven with Tucker’s dazzling homages in song. S.J.’s rousing concluding number, a buccaneer-themed sea chantey (“There’s nothing a shipful of women won’t do!”), was dedicated to the Peking on its 98th birthday, and drew enthusiastic clapping-along and a hearty “Aarrrhhh!” from those present.
The audience included Richard Bowes, S.C. Butler, Rose Fox, Harold Garber, Liz Gorinsky, David Hilberg, Merav Hoffman, Trina King, David Barr Kirtley, Barbara Krasnoff, Gordon Linzner, Patrick O’Leary, Andrew Porter, and Robert Rodriguez. Afterward, as customary, the guests and members of the audience adjourned to a nearby pub for dinner and conversation.
Jim Freund’s wonderful photos of the evening are available here.