Just got my gorgeous copy of David Wojnarowicz, Arthur Rimbaud in New York. Great essays, beautiful book, fabulously designed. @skira_arte@leslielohmanmuseum@nichoolas@wojfound #gayart
#gayartist
#gayartists
#queerart
#queerartist
#queerartists
#queerarts
#gayauthor
#gayauthors
#queerauthor
#queerauthors
Notes on ongoing programming during the Bill Dixon Centennial Year.
Visiting and viewing ‘Working On & Out Things:
Selections From the Bill Dixon Papers’
Encouraging you to visit The Fales Library & Special Collections at New York University to view the Dixon exhibition. The show is up through the month of January. PLEASE NOTE that the library is a secure space - one cannot simply walk in. Arranging access is simple: email [email protected]. Tell them we sent you.
Listening Sessions at Fales Library
Dixon’s biographer Ben Young will present listening sessions in a special audiophile space in the library - pairing unreleased recordings with special guests. This will start in November - watch this space for details.
INDEX
Sam Eastmond is considering mounting a UK tour of Dixon’s music - diving deeper and exploring new instrumentation for the ensemble.
Ethan Cohen - our partner who developed and presented Dixon 100 at HQI - is already looking at October 2026 to present a large Dixon event, book ending the centennial year. We have similar thoughts here in the US.
Taylor Ho Bynum and I are developing plans, partnerships and funding for a modest east coast tour of Index, adapted for small ensemble. Stay tuned for details.
And more…
Stephen Horenstein is working on new music for trio and orchestra celebrating Bill Dixon during his centennial year. This will likely involve touring. Horenstein will be with Ben Young at NYU in November.
Bassist/composer George Kokkinaris is planning a series of events in Athens celebrating Bill Dixon.
If you are considering and/or planning something where you live for the Dixon Centennial, please be in touch.
Working On & Out Things:
Selections From the Bill Dixon Papers
Curated by Nicholas Martin
Curator for the Arts and Humanities
October 7th, 2025 - January 26th, 2026
Bobst Library / @nyulibraries
The Fales Library & Special Collections
Special Collections Gallery / Second Floor
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY
Images by Mephisto
Index: Bill Dixon, Vision Festival 2000
#billdixoncentennialyearcelebration
On the train, heading home. My heart is full! Shout out to Nicholas Martin and the team at Special Collections - and to all of you who were able to join us tonight. The show will be up through January, and I encourage you to see this powerful and illuminating sharing of Bill Dixon’s work. Not for nothing, the presentation is out of this world.
Working On & Out Things:
Selections From the Bill Dixon Papers
Curated by Nicholas Martin
Curator for the Arts and Humanities
October 7th, 2025 through January 26th, 2026
Bobst Library / NYU Libraries
Special Collections Gallery / Second Floor
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY
/projects/working-on-out-things
#billdixoncentennialyearcelebration
Heading down to the city. Come join us if you are nearby.
Working On & Out Things:
Selections From the Bill Dixon Papers
Curated by Nicholas Martin
Curator for the Arts and Humanities
Opening Event
6-8 PM, Tuesday, October 7th
Bobst Library / @nyulibraries
Special Collections Gallery / Second Floor
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY
#billdixoncentennialyearcelebration
Join us tomorrow in the city as we kick off the first exhibition of materials from the Bill Dixon Archive!
Working On & Out Things:
Selections From the Bill Dixon Papers
Curated by Nicholas Martin,
Curator for the Arts and Humanities
Opening Event
6-8 PM, Tuesday, October 7th
Bobst Library / @nyulibraries
Special Collections Gallery / Second Floor
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY
Admission Free / RSVP here
/e/working-on-out-things-selections-from-the-bill-dixon-papers-tickets-1704326258719
Portrait of Bill Dixon by Elena Carminati
#billdixoncentennialyearcelebration
Today would have been Bill Dixon’s one hundredth birthday. We plan to celebrate his centennial for a full year, and that celebration has started early, as many of you know. And there is (much) more to come.
Later today, there will be a day of activities in London culminating in an orchestra performance of Dixon’s Index. The entire event will be live-streamed on Twitch. We will post details amd and a link separately later this morning.
On Tuesday evening, there will be an opening for Working On & Out Things: Selections From the Bill Dixon Papers, an exhibition at The Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University.
And we are just getting started.
#billdixoncentennialyearcelebration
I’ve been installing a really exciting show: Working On & Out Things: Selections from the Bill Dixon Papers. Here’s some snaps from my research and the last few days installing.
Dixon was so much more than one of the most important innovators in free jazz and trumpet in American history. A brilliant visual artist, educator, scholar, community organizer, labor activist…and I have had the pleasure of putting together an exhibition drawn from his voluminous archives.
Show opens on Tuesday, 6pm, @nyulibraries and all are welcome and invited—link in bio, RSVP so we have enough snacks and beverages on hand!
On view will be manuscripts, drawings, sheet music, correspondence, photographs, flyers and ephemera, as well as newly preserved audio recordings for listening and two newly scanned films on our projector screens. A feast! See you there 🎺
Got to visit a treasure on Friday afternoon at @nyupreservation , a few days before David Wojnarowicz’s birthday - the original mask used in his photo series Arthur Rimbaud in New York, which has been under the care of our conservators and was recently photographed by our digital imaging specialists @dlts_nyu . A photostat spraymounted to a piece of board with a rubber band pinched in for the wearer, it was not built to last, and it needed some rest and care after seeing relatively frequent use in recent years, including going on loan for the 2018 Whitney retrospective. It’s still too fragile to be in the upcoming exhibition at @leslielohmanmuseum (opening 9/30!) but we are working on creating the best possible storage environment so that students and researchers will be able to view the original into the future. Everything we do at NYU Special Collections is focused on making our collections as accessible as possible for as long as possible. Images of the mask will soon be published in the finding aid for the Wojnarowicz Papers, where you can already see all of DW’s journals and photographic contact sheets in hi-res.
“David Wojnarowicz: Arthur Rimbaud in New York” will be on view October 1st - January 18 2026, curated by @antoniosergiobessa . See you at the opening September 30!
This past Tuesday, I took an early train into the city to meet with Nicholas Martin, Curator for the Arts and Humanities at The Fales Library & Special Collections, @nyulibraries . I always enjoy, and learn from, these sessions with Nick. We reviewed all of the sets of materials drawn from the Bill Dixon archive that will make up the Centennial Exhibition. I loved his interpretative take on, and sense of, Bill and his work. Towards the end of our time together, he wheeled a library cart into the room and said, “Since I know you are working with Index later today, I pulled everything we have in the archive with that label.” After reviewing boxes filled with loosely sorted music (another project, this) he handed me two large folders containing the original score.
Following that, joined Taylor Ho Bynum for a read through of material from Index at The New School. Students of Taylor’s and Dave Douglas - who joined in the workshop - along with a handful of musicians from our community formed the ad hoc ensemble. I linked Sam Eastmond, in London, via a WhatsApp video call to observe the process, as he is preparing to present Index in the UK.
Taylor was wonderful, blending his direct experience with Bill with his own take on how to use Index as the compositional codex that it is. Suffice it to say that the score - and Dixon’s intent - contain multitudes.
I need to say that - at the time and during reflection over the past few days - I have come to understand that Bill is present during these activities and working through us. He was, as he was fond of saying, “In the room.”
#billdixoncentennialyearcelebration
We had to say a hard goodbye to our Francis last week after an acute but short illness. He loved being brushed on the toilet. We loved catching him with his tongue out. Thank you for being our beautiful gray boy for 13 years. Man, will we miss you 🩶
Turned 40 and decided to take the fixie on a 2-day, 135-mile journey through the woodsy, beachy, strip mally wonders of New Jersey? Joy, misery, monotony (rte 9, not a fan!) — Jers happens to be a dang beautiful place! 80ish miles day one, 60ish day two, arrived in Ocean City and the kids made signs and presented a cheesesteak and a beer in a Crash Bandicoot coozie. Swam in the ocean later and it was very cold and healing. Took Vera for a boardwalk ride but she was cheesed that the bike down there has training wheels.
Fortieth year was weird! Came back from partial parental leave and have not yet recovered from the resulting work overwhelm; got knocked off my bike by a driver and broke both my arms; started going to the gym (?) and emerged as a 40 year-old who goes on long fixie rides. I don’t know. Parents sent me a birthday card with a midlife crisis joke and one of the dudes on the card was on a bike.
Chronologically 1) 5:30am Friday in Ridgewood, 2) Asbury Park, 3) Asbury, 4) day two leaving LBI, 5) pines, 6) snack break, 7) arrival, 8) cheesesteak, beer, 9) boardwalk, 10) come after me
Sheyla Baykal color slide photos of the Angels of Light, as seen in the current exhibition at Soft Network. Please join me on Tuesday May 6th as I try to keep up in conversation with Mary Lou and Eloise Harris — who performed with the Angels at 10 years old! dearly Loved friends: Photographs by Sheyla Baykal, 1965-1990 is on view through May 10th. I’ve got a link in bio with more info ✨
