Art as Social Action

In a conversation about breaking into art and forging a theater of the present, Sellars and Seale will explore how to bring fresh perspectives to centuries-old operas and plays,  the creative processes of theater directors, and how the arts can act as a catalyst for social change.

About the speakers:

Yasmine Seale is a writer whose work includes poetry, criticism, translation and visual art. Her essays on literature, art and film have appeared in many places, including Harper’s, The Nation, Paris Review, and the Times Literary Supplement. Among her books are Agitated Air: Poems After Ibn Arabi (Tenement Press), a collaboration with Robin Moger, and The Annotated Arabian Nights (W. W. Norton), described by the New Yorker as “an electric new translation”. Seale was a 2022-2023 Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination and she is currently a fellow of the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.

Peter Sellars is an internationally acclaimed director best known for his innovative interpretations of operatic masterpieces, and one of the leading living figures of theatrical history. From setting Così fan tutte in a diner in Cape Cod and The Marriage of Figaro in a luxury apartment in Trump Tower, to working with artists such as Warhol and receiving praise from critics such as Edward Said, Sellars’ groundbreaking stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays have made him one of the most compelling director of our times.  Since 1988, he has been a professor at UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures / Dance. His production of Vincenzo Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda will be performed at Opéra Bastille in February and March of 2024.

Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speakers will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.

Co-organized by:

This conversation is part of the Entre Nous series organized in partnership with the The American Library in Paris and Columbia Global Centers | Paris.

This event is a collaboration with AUP’s Center for Writers and Translators.