Unlike most non-denominational holidays, this annual celebration of James Joyce’s Ulysses occurs on a date that is neither a birthday, nor a death day, nor the anniversary of a globally important event. Rather, modernist merriment ensues on this day for an appropriately esoteric reason; the protagonist Leopold Bloom’s entire epic journey through Dublin occurred on June 16th, 1904. Though Joyce himself chose to immortalize the real date of his first amorous outing with then-girlfriend (later his wife) Nora Barnacle by making it coincide with his day-in-a-life masterpiece, Joyceans worldwide take today as an opportunity to rekindle their love for the groundbreaking novel with readings, relevant foodstuffs (gorgonzola sandwiches, anyone?), and a Dublin day’s worth of drinking.
Here are a few Bloomsday activities to help you navigate your own urban Odyssey:
- Irish writer and rocker Larry Kirwan facilitates a book club discussion of Ulysses @ The Bryant Park Reading Room [12:30 p.m., Free]
- Reading and discussion with textually relevant eating and drinking @ Ulysses Folk House. [Financial District, All day, Free]
- The New York Irish Center leads their third annual Bloomsday Trail, meets @ PJ Leahy’s [LIC, 2 p.m., Free]
- Artists transform the novel’s 18 chapters into 18 installations @ Knockdown Center [Maspeth, Queens; 6-10 p.m., Free]
- Preeminent scholar of Ulysses (and all things Joyce) Robert Seidman speaks and hosts a celebration with whiskey and “Joyce artifacts” @ McNally Jackson Books [SoHo, 5 p.m., Free]
- Reading favorite passages from Ulysses with actors Lisa Flanagan and Malachy McCourt, New Yorker poetry editor Paul Muldoon, and other avid Joyceans @ Symphony Space [UWS, 7 p.m., $26]
Too busy just because Bloomsday is a work day? Instead of just reading of the above activities, try to remember the last line of Ulysses (context be damned). Like Molly Bloom, your reaction to these events should simply be “yes I said yes I will Yes.”
