[caption id="attachment_70207" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Charles Hale."]
For the past 10 months the Irish American Writers & Artists, whose signature event is the annual presentation of the Eugene O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award, has sponsored another event, the IAW&A Salon, which has grown rapidly in popularity in the Irish-American community in New York. The salon allows members 10 minutes to present a reading, musical performance, comedy skit, video or any performance art of their choice. The salon is open to all, but readers are drawn from the membership. Occasionally, though, visitors from Ireland and other places do get to the microphone.
Hell’s Bells and the “The Bells of Hell” was a central theme of the salon last week, held in front of a full house at the Thalia Café at Symphony Space. Malachy McCourt, one of the owners of the old Greenwich Village saloon Hell’s Bells, told a riotous story of how the name of the saloon was banned from the New York telephone directory. And, as has become the tradition at the Thalia Salon, Malachy closed out the evening with a song, leading the attendees in a chorus of “The Bells of Hell.”
There were a number of highlights: David Coles invoked the spirit of Hell’s Bells, reading from his novel “In the Midnight Choir.” Coles writes of New York City life in the 1970s, which includes many nights in two Village saloons, Hell’s Bells and the Lion’s Head. A wonderful story from a first-time reader.
Salon regular John Kearns reminded the audience that his play “In the Wilderness” will be opening in early June, while another first-time presenter, Guenevere Donohue, read and sang from her new play “Killer is My Name.” As Guenevere described it, “Killer” is personal myth, memory as legend, and the mystery of the Marine, poet, and spy who was her father. I look forward to hearing more from this talented artist.
Robert Haydon Jones read “My Tawdry Story,” a tale about what happens to a highly respected senior citizen from Connecticut when his DNA is a perfect match with semen found at an unsolved rape murder in Miami more than 30 years ago. Jones artfully presented this taut, riveting tale.
Upcoming Irish American Writers and Artists’ salons are Tuesday, March 20, at the Cell, located at 338 W.23 Street, Tuesday, April 3 at the Thalia Café at 95th Street and Broadway and the Cell on Tuesday, April 17. The salons start at 7 p.m.
For more information about the salons or the Irish American Writers & Artists http://i-am-wa.org/ contact Charles R. Hale at chashale1@yahoo.com
