Usually He Fell Asleep at These Things
Usually, he fell asleep at these things….
“This was the best one,” he said. “I come to them all, and usually, I fall asleep at these things. This was the best reading I’ve ever been to.” We were at the reception, after the reading we did at Hudson View Apartments.
And it was, it really was, good!
First, the setting, in Manhattan, at the very very top tip, was stunningly beautiful. The Hudson View Apartments, built in 1924, were designed around the idea of intentional community living. The Lounge was always intended for artists and writers and lecturers. Communal dining was optional; each apartment was outfitted with a dumbwaiter so if you didn’t want to eat with your neighbors, your food could be sent up.
Hudson View has the most amazing views of not just the Hudson, with ice sheets floating down softly, like sweet banter, but the also the wild cliffs across the river from the Cloisters, land bought by Rockefeller when the Cloisters was assembled, so that the views from the faux monastery would always be pure. If that isn’t enough, Hudson View also has a stunning view of the city itself, south, and boroughs shimmering to the north, a sparkly blanket of beauty. It’s just like being in a book or a dream, being in this place. I had such a hard time coming home.
Soho Voce, an a capella group of super geniuses, opened. This was my favorite moment of all. Hearing these women sing. I could listen for days and days. They do things with sound that seem to me to be more powerful than what we can do with words. I was star struck and levitating. They made the room into this angel palace. That’s what I stepped in to, when it was my turn to read. The angel palace space of those voices. I think I’ll never forget that moment. That song they made. They make it up together, as they sing, improvising with their voices. It’s absolutely amazing, how they do this, building these little platforms and taking turns standing, turning, dancing sound.
I read my essay from O magazine, “Cups of Men.” I love to read my work aloud (who doesn’t) and I love to read wearing a brand new dress, which I was, happily: black wool lace and boots and the silver necklace, made of threads and knots.
Song between the pieces, threads and knots, stitched the whole event together. When Sarah showed her movie, “Bone on Bone,” which is the most delightful, savvy, sweet and smart delineation of hip replacement surgery, in any form, I was so happy to see her beaming. Hudson View is her home, and this was her party. Song on song, word on word, laugh after laugh—what a happy perfect Sunday afternoon. In New York. In winter. Awake. We were all so very deliciously awake.
It was the best one. I’m so lucky to know these women—Ruth, Kate, Laurie, Sarah.
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