Welcome to the 2025 Season!

Welltone New Music and Cutting Edge Concerts in collaboration with The Village Trip and The Coffee House Club presents

Poets of Patchin Place: Musical Settings of Village Poets
September 24, 2025 at 7:00pm

Djuna Barnes – artist, illustrator, journalist, and author known for Nightwood (1936), a classic of lesbian fiction – lived for 40 years on Patchin Place where her neighbor, ee cummings, would poke his head into the stairwell of the reclusive Djuna’s building and shout “Are you alive, Djuna?” While Barnes was in Paris between the wars, she knew James Joyce, and he gifted her an annotated manuscript of Ulysses.

“Poets of Patchin Place” is a celebration of works by Barnes, cummings, and Joyce. The program features the première of Barnes’ poetry set to music by composer William Kentner Anderson and performed by soprano Sharon Harms. Following this piece will be Leopold Bloom’s Homecoming from Ulysses by James Joyce, composed by Victoria Bond and featuring baritone Michael Kelly and pianist John Arida. Following this piece will be Oceans Always Lead to Some Great Good Place composed by Nehemiah Luckett. This piece was inspired by James Baldwin’s Another Country, and it was commissioned by The Village Trip for Baldwin’s centennial. This piece will feature Nehemiah Luckett, baritone; William Anderson, guitar; and Joan Forsyth, piano. The program will conclude with settings of ee cummings set to music by Laura Schwendinger, performed by soprano Zoe Allen and pianist Christopher Allen.

This concert is presented by The Village Trip and Cutting Edge Concerts in cooperation with The Coffee House Club at the Salmagundi Club.

Poets: Djuna Barnes, ee cummings, James Baldwin, and James Joyce.
Composers: Laura Schwendinger, Nehemiah Luckett, Victoria Bond, and William Kentner Anderson
Baritones: Michael Kelly and Nehemiah Luckett
Sopranos: Zoe Allen and Sharon Harms
Pianists: Christopher Allen, John Arida, and Joan Forsyth
Harp: June Han

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