MUSIC
FRIDAY, JUNE 29
7:00 & 10:00 PM

National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

$25 each show; $35 "bundle" for both
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/john-zorn-presents-women-visionaries-inspirations-from-hildegard-von-bingen-hilma-af-klint-and-agnes-martin/
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/john-zorn-presents-films-by-maya-deren-marie-menken-and-raha-raissnia/

These two shows are part of National Sawdust's Hildegard Month, honoring women artists.  John Zorn isn't a woman, but in these shows he pays tribute.  In the early show, various ensembles play music written by Zorn in honor of visionary woman artists:  his famous The Holy Visions, a mystery play inspired by Hildegard von Bingen herself; and pieces honoring the Abstract Expressionist-into-Minimalist painter Agnes Martin and the visionary early Abstract painter -- indeed, she may have been the very first -- Hilma Af Klint(whose profile is going to get a major boost from a Guggenheim retrospectivelater this year).  The late show has Zorn and various other musicians playing along with some silent films.  I'm going to get personal here.  Maya Deren's hallucinatory Meshes of the Afternoon is one of my favorite movies -- indeed, one of my favorite works in any genre -- ever; it was the first non-narrative film I ever saw, I think (at least the first one I really liked), and that initial viewing remains one of the signal aesthetic experiences of my life.  Marie Menken, whose Go! Go! Go! is being shown, is not only a great film artist in her own right but mentored Andy Warhol, Stan Brakhage, and Kenneth Anger, thus creating the very aesthetic world in which I live.  So this show means a lot to me.  Also on the bill is a new film by the Iranian-Brooklyn artist/filmmaker Raha Raissnia; obviously that hasn't had a chance to change my life yet.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT:  If you go to both shows -- and why wouldn't you? -- your best option may be to hightail it over to Sauvage afterward in time for its midnight closure.  Before?  Do what you want.  Maya Deren was born in Ukraine, which borders on Poland -- so maybe the delicious, slightly cheffy food at Dziupla.  Or, Hilma Af Klint was from Sweden, part of which was once ruled by Denmark -- so maybe the Danish-controlled Norman.