BAY AREA CELEBRATES THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF JAMES JOYCE’S SEMINAL WORK, ULYSSES
Throughout the month of June, “Bloomsbay” offers diverse events for Joyceans and Ulysses neophytes alike.
On February 2, 1922, James Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulysses, was published by Sylvia Beach, the American owner of the famous Shakespeare & Company bookstore in Paris, and the literary world was never the same.
Each year, Joyce fans around the globe come together on June 16, the day on which Ulysses is set, to commemorate the life of the Irish writer. Known as Bloomsday, the celebration is named after the book’s protagonist, Leopold Bloom. This June, the Consulate General of Ireland, San Francisco Public Library, Mechanics Institute, Irish Culture Bay Area, the United Irish Cultural Center and the Irish Studies Program at University of California, Berkeley have organized a citywide, multi-event celebration in honor of the book’s centennial.
Bloomsbay will take place from June 1 through July 31 at various locations throughout San Francisco with activities for all ages.
EVENTS
View/Print Schedule here (*Schedule subject to change)
Exhibit: Transcultural Joyce: The Reception of James Joyce in World Literatures Book Display
1 June – 31 July 2022
San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, International Center (3rd Floor)
FREE
The San Francisco Public Library’s International Center hosts a display of books in 19 languages by authors inspired by James Joyce.
INFO
Exhibit: Ulysses at 100
1 June – 31 July 2022
San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, General Collections & Humanities Center (3rd Floor)
FREE
The San Francisco Public Library’s General Collections & Humanities Center hosts a display of books by and about James Joyce.
INFO
Book Club: World Literature Book Club Discusses James Joyce’s Ulysses
June 2, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, Latino/Hispanic Room (Lower Level)
FREE
Join fellow literature lovers to discuss what has been called the most influential novel of the 20th century, Ulysses . This novel, written one hundred years ago by the Irish author James Joyce, follows a day in the life of Dublin native Leopold Bloom.
INFO
Film Screening: Shalom Ireland
June 5, 2-4pm
San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, Koret Auditorium
FREE
Shalom Ireland is a fascinating documentary about Ireland’s remarkable, yet little known Jewish community. The film chronicles the history of Irish Jewry while celebrating the unique culture created by blending Irish and Jewish traditions. From gun running for the Irish Republican Army during Ireland’s War of Independence to smuggling Jews escaping from the Holocaust into Palestine, the film tells the story of Irish Jews involved in the creation and development of both Ireland and Israel.
Following the screening there will be a discussion about Jewish Irish identity and how it is represented in James Joyce’s seminal work, Ulysses, with filmmaker Valerie Lapin Ganley and Dr. Joshua Gang, Professor of English at UC Berkeley.
INFO
Exhibit: International Joyce
June 11 – October 13, 2022
San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, 6th Floor
FREE
Presented by San Francisco Public Library and the Department of Foreign Affairs Culture Unit.
A display of the life of Irish author James Joyce—his life in Ireland, his education, his travels and his eventual residence in Paris — and discussion on the writing of his books Dubliners, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, Finnegans Wake and, of course, Ulysses. The exhibit will also include special material on the novel’s publisher Sylvia Beach, founder of the famous Shakespeare & Co. bookstore in Paris.
INFO
Music Performance: Goldenhair– A Song Cycle Based on Ulysses
14 June 2022, 7.30 p.m.
Feinstein’s at the Nikko
$55 per person
Presented by the Consulate General of Ireland and the Department of Foreign Affairs Culture Unit
Composer Brian Byrne leads premiere talent from Ireland and the Bay Area in an ambitious song cycle based on Joyce’s seminal novel. Enjoy a song cycle based on Ulysses featuring Byrne and musicians from Ireland and the Bay Area.
INFO
World Premiere: Penelope Animation Project
Virtual Event: Video available from noon, June 16.
FREE
Through kinetic captioning, award-winning Irish actor Maria Doyle Kennedy and animator and ‘Joyce geek’ Adam Harvey bring to life an excerpt from “Penelope,” episode 18 of Ulysses. Project creator Catherine Flynn, associate professor of English at UC Berkeley and editor of The Cambridge Centenary Ulysses: The 1922 Text with Essays and Notes, launches the piece in an online event with discussion of the text and its storied performance history.
INFO
Community Celebration (I): Bloomsday at Mechanics’ Institute (Virtual)
Mechanics’ Institute
Thursday, June 16, 12:00 Noon
Online on Zoom
FREE
Mechanics’ Institute will will kick off Bloomsday with an online noon-time literary tribute with author Catherine Flynn who will share highlights from her much anticipated book, The Cambridge Centenary Ulysses: The 1922 Text with Essays and Notes, which features archival photographs, maps, and Joyce’s schemata. This midday program also includes a conversation with publishers of Ulysses: An Illustrated Edition (Other Press) which features the striking and humorous illustrations by renowned Spanish neo-figurative artist Eduardo Arroyo (1937–2018).
INFO
Community Celebration (II): Bloomsday Celebration at Mechanics’ Institute
Thursday, June 16, 5-7:30 p.m. (in person)
Mechanics’ Institute, 57 Post Street, San Francisco 94104
$15.00 – $20.00 per person includes a special Bloomsday Plate. Registration required.
This evening event features an annual gathering of Joycean celebrants for community readings, and performances with musicians Anne Bingham Goess (fiddle, vocals), Eamonn Flynn (piano,vocals), Jason Pollack (flute) and actors Bruce Bierman, Josiah Polhemus, Esther Mulligan and John Illyin. A séisiún follows with local musicians and participants! Costumes and readings welcome! A Bloomsday Plate will be served and libations will be available for purchase!
Additional activity: Audiences are invited to view Mechanics’ Institute’s 2020 video “Bloomsday Noon: A Performance Montage & Celebration,” featuring 16 eclectic performances. Available on YouTube Channel
INFO
LISTEN: World Premiere: U22 The Centenary Ulysses Podcast (Podcast launched June 16, 2021)
Catherine Flynn PhD associate professor of English at UC Berkeley and editor of The Cambridge Centenary Ulysses: The 1922 Text with Essays and Notes, and co-hosts Emily Moell and Louie Poore.
The U22 podcast anticipates and accompanies a reader-friendly edition of Ulysses Joyce scholar Catherine Flynn is bringing out with Cambridge University Press for the book’s centenary. On the podcast, she and co-hosts Emily Moell and Louie Poore talk with the contributors to the volume and with readers of Ulysses from around the world. They discuss their first impressions, later realizations, and the pleasures they met along the way. Tune in on Bloomsday for the latest episode as the team work their way towards the final chapter, “Penelope.”
podcast, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and everywhere podcasts are available.
Book Discussion: Biscuits & Books Live! – James Jo
June 16, 2022, 4 p.m.
In person, and on Zoom
United Irish Cultural Center, 2700 45th Ave, San Francisco, CA 94116
FREE
Join this free virtual book chat to discuss James Joyce and Dublin and related books from the Patrick J. Dowling collection at the United Irish Cultural Center.
REGISTER or stream live on Facebook
Author Talk
June 17, 2022, 1–2 p.m.
Virtual
FREE
Ireland’s Ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Mulhall on his New Book, Ulysses: A Reader’s Odyssey
Daniel Mulhall, Ireland’s ambassador to the United States, reads from Ulysses: A Reader’s Odyssey, a warm, wise and highly enjoyable introduction to James Joyce’s classic novel Ulysses. The Irish author James Joyce published his groundbreaking modernist novel Ulysses in 1922, an event that profoundly influenced the course of world literature. While Joyce’s astonishing novel is quite international in its references and appeal, it is also profoundly Irish. As Mulhall observes, “No other writer managed, or even attempted, such a lavishly forensic portrait of Ireland, and that is why, especially for Irish people, reading Ulysses is an invaluable adventure.” With his deep knowledge of Irish literature and culture and his lifetime of experience with Irish history and politics, Mulhall is the ideal guide to this novel’s Irish settings and characters.
INFO
Community Celebration (III): James Joyce Celebration and Open-Mic at the United Irish Cultural Center
June 18, 2022, 2–4 p.m.
United Irish Cultural Center, 2700 45th Ave, San Francisco, CA 94116
FREE
Gather with community at the United Irish Cultural Center to celebrate the centennial of James Joyce’s epic, Ulysses. Come in period garb (optional) with your favorite passage to read on stage.
INFO
For librarian-curated book recommendations, visit on.sfpl.org/ulysses100