Joan Baez + Michael Moore: Am I Pretty When I Fly?

828 Broadway,New York NY 10003

10 April, 2023

Description

Join us for an in-person event with Grammy Award-winner Joan Baez for a discussion of her new book Am I Pretty When I Fly?: An Album of Upside Down Drawings. Joining Joan in conversation is multiple Academy award-winning filmmaker and author Michael Moore. This event will be hosted in the Strand Book Store's 3rd floor Rare Book Room at 828 Broadway on 12th Street. Can’t make the event? Purchase a signed copy of Am I Pretty When I Fly? here. STRAND IN-PERSON EVENT COVID-19 POLICY: Masks and vaccination checks are not required for entry. Attendees are welcome to wear a mask if they choose. If you do not have a mask and would like one, The Strand will provide masks at the door. Please note this is subject to change any time before or during the event per the author’s request. -------------------------------------------------------------------- “Joan Baez is much more than a cultural icon and spiritual/creative godmother to multiple generations of people on this planet. She has repeatedly put herself on the line for peace and justice and for the downtrodden who have nowhere to go. And then there’s that voice—stunning, earth-shattering, loving, reaching in and piercing one’s soul to help us hang on for dear life. And now her artwork and drawings, along with her pointed wit, reach into us again. We know we live in an upside down world, but the human eye, in its every waking moment, is actually taking an upside down picture and turning it right side up on the way to the brain. This book insists we see the world the way it really is. I’ve never seen such a work as this. Wow. Just wow.” —Michael Moore Like a long, funny letter from an old friend, an album of drawings by the legendary singer and activist for social justice, Joan Baez. Since retiring from active performing, Baez has focused her formidable talents on painting and drawing. This collection of drawings shows another side of Baez: lovingly loose and charming sketches on recurring themes such as politics, relationships, women, animals, and family. Each section, organized thematically, includes an introductory piece by the artist. Baez approaches her line drawings as exercises in freedom: she begins drawing upside down—often using her non-dominant hand—without any preconceived notion of where her marks might lead her. For more than six decades, Joan Baez has endured as a musical force of nature whose commitment to social activism has never wavered. Starting with her early 1960s recordings, she exerted a powerful attraction to a generation that sourced her traditional ballads for the rock vernacular, “House of the Rising Sun,” “John Riley,” “Jackaroe,” “House Carpenter,” and many more. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. At the same time, Baez’s role in the human rights and anti-war movements around the world has earned her a place in history, alongside friends and allies including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, the Irish Peace People, Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, and others. Today, the life and times of Joan Baez are reflected in her “Mischief Makers” series of paintings that immortalize risk-taking visionaries ranging from Dr. King and Bob Dylan to the Dalai Lama and Patti Smith. Photo credit: Dana Tynan