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Annual Bloomsday Events in NYC

Celebrate Joyce, Ulysses & Homer

Today, June 16, 2010, marks the 106th anniversary of the day that James Joyce’s epic novel,Ulysses, took place. The novel is set in and around Dublin, Ireland and follows the adventures of several characters, including Leopold Bloom, Molly Bloom, and Stephen Dedalus through a single remarkable day.

“Bloomsday on Broadway“, staged annually at Symphony Space since 1981, has a cabal of actors and writers performing scenes from the novel. This year’s iteration, which will be simulcast on WNYC radio, wnyc.org and symphonyspace.org, explores the parallels between “Ulysses” and Homer’s “Odyssey.” Excerpts from both works will be enacted by a cast that includes Stephen Colbert, Ira Glass, Malachy McCourt, Tony Roberts and David Margulies. Isaiah Sheffer, artistic director of Symphony Space, will host.

The illustration that opens this post is part of Robert Berry and Josh Levitas’s just released “Ulysses Seen,” a graphic adaptation of Joyce’s celebrated work. That particularly plate, though, was one of the reasons Apple App Store banned the Webbook from IPads and IPhones, reportedly because it violates Apple’s policy on nudity depiction on its apps. Apple’s loss, obviously.

The high quality of Berry and Levitas’ work is a fitting homage to Joyce, whose own “Ulysses” was greeted in equal parts with praise and controversy from its inception, over a century ago. In other words, never mind the bullocks. There’re plenty of reasons to celebrate Joyce, “Ulysses” and the people that annually honor them both around New York City today.

Not to be left out, Colltales also pays its humble homage below to the great Irish. Sláinte!