Quentin Crisp - The Naked Bon Vivant! March 7, 2009

QUENTIN CRISP - THE NAKED BON VIVANT! A 100th Birthday Celebration

Hosted by Linda Simpson

Performers:
Gordon Gano
Gina X
Frank Decard
Adam Dugas
Anne Hanavan
Pixie Harlots
Amber Martin
Eric Leven
Jack Ferver
Emanuel Xavier
Paul Bernstein
Chris Lowe
Guy Hettelhack

Music DJ Baby K

The fabulously flamboyant and witty gay icon Quentin Crisp (who died in 1999 at age 90) gets a party fit for a queen. The lively literary salon includes readings, recollections and performances by some of Crisp's most ardent admirers.

The event is produced by Joe Birdsong (owner of the dearly departed bohemian stronghold Rapture Café), in association with curator Phillip Ward and the Quentin Crisp Archives. Proceeds from the event go to funding the archive. (For more information about the archive, visit www.crisperanto.org).

Hosting the event is drag-queen performer Linda Simpson. The line-up includes celebrity journalist Frank DeCaro, post-modern cabaret singer Adam Dugas (WEIMAR NEW YORK, THE CITIZENS BAND), independent film auteur and performer Anne Hanavan (VOLUPTUOUS HORROR OF KAREN BLACK), guitarist-songwriter Gordon Gano (of the pioneering folk-punk group VIOLENT FEMMES), Radical Fairie dance troupe Pixie Harlots (LUSTRE), performance artist Amber Martin (Rapture Cafe's WIG SHOP), LGBTQ blogger and activist Eric Leven (knucklecrack.blogspot.com), actor/dancer Jack Ferver (DANCE THEATRE WORKSHOP Studio Series, STRANGERS WITH CANDY), ground-breaking queer latino poet Emanuel Xavier, glam rock musician Paul Bernstein and his WIDE STANCE band (myspace.com/paulbernsteinandhiswidestance), West Village crooner Chris Lowe, GinaX, erotic poet and blogger Guy Hettelhack, and other performers to be announced. Providing music is DJ Baby K.

The evening also includes screenings of excerpts of film and video starring Mr. Crisp.

Quentin Crisp is the author of the classic and flamboyantly eccentric coming-of-age memoir THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT. The award-winning 1975 film version, starring John Hurt, made him an instant international celebrity. Mr. Hurt reprises the Crisp role in the recently completed movie AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK (for which Mr. Hurt just won Best Actor at Berlin's International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival), written by Brian Fillis for Leopardrama and England's ITV. This BBC television biopic is to be released in Spring 2009, and will also star Denis O'Hare (Phillip Steele, an amalgam of two close friends and confidants of Mr. Crisp: Phillip Ward and Tom Steele), Swoosie Kurtz (Connie Clausen, QC agent), Cynthia Nixon (Penny Arcade, performance artist), and Jonathan Tucker (Patrick Angus, artist). To learn more about the movie, visit: crisperanto.org.

December 25, 2008 was the centenary of Quentin Crisp's birth and November 21, 2009 is the 10th anniversary of Mr. Crisp's death. Also December 21, 2008 marked the 30th anniversary of his first U.S. appearance at The Players Theatre here in New York City. And in 2009, Mr. Crisp's final book, THE DUSTY ANSWERS, will be published for the very first time. Plus his pink fedora will be on display in London's Victoria and Albert Museum in February through May 2009. These are the many reasons to join together and celebrate the life and legend of one of our cultural and literary icons, and hero and mentor to many at large. A party is necessary to celebrate such occasion.

As a fundraiser, the event will provide The Quentin Crisp Archives financial resources to continue maintaining the cataloging, preservation and presentation of materials from Mr. Crisp's very own archives. The fundraiser will also assist in providing another and larger event of performances and exhibition during June's Gay Pride 2009 and a smaller event in November 2009 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Quentin's death. Allen Ginsberg's Committee on Poetry sponsors The Quentin Crisp Archives as a 501(c)(3) non-profit. The tax number is available. The mission of The Quentin Crisp Archives is to preserve, maintain and present in exhibitions and online the manuscripts, letters, recordings, artwork by and about, and various artifacts and ephemera related to the life and legend of Quentin Crisp, and to promote his philosophy of individuality, self-acceptance, and tolerance. The Quentin Crisp Archives (crisperanto.org), the official Quentin Crisp web site, which Phillip Ward created in 1999 as executor of his estate, will publicize the centennial celebration via its homepage and mass email alerts. The web site is an integral part of The Quentin Crisp Archives and provides news and information about "All Things Quentin Crisp!"

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