HP Lovecraft Keynote Address Presented by WaterFire Providence and NecronomiCon

Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi, church historian Stanley Lemons, and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras welcome all to Lovecraft’s city, and to NecronomiCon Providence 2013. In partnership with WaterFire, this very special public event will be held in one of Lovecraft’s favorite buildings in Providence (“…the finest Georgian steeple in America”). In addition to engaging talks by Mr. Lemons and S.T. Joshi, the hour will feature music by internationally-famed classical singer and organist, Gigi Velasco. In particular, she will play Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in d minor, sing a unique Norwegian folk piece, and close with Boellman’s Toccata from the Gothic Suite. You might also to hear a little something humorous for the occasion (can you guess what?).   ALL are welcome!

Free and open to the public,  this is sure to be lively and engaging, don’t miss the opportunity to check out one of Providence’s most distinctive and historic buildings.

S. T. Joshi (B.A., M.A., Brown University) is a widely published critic and editor. He is the author of such critical studies as The Weird Tale (Univ. of Texas Press, 1990), H. P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the West (Starmont House, 1990), The Modern Weird Tale (McFarland, 2001), The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos (Mythos Books, 2008), and Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction (PS Publishing, 2012). He has edited the standard corrected edition of H. P. Lovecraft’s collected fiction, revisions, and miscellaneous writings, and prepared three annotated editions of Lovecraft’s tales for Penguin (1999–2004). His exhaustive biography, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (Necronomicon Press, 1996), won the British Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association; a revised and expanded edition has appeared as I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft(Hippocampus Press, 2010; 2 vols.). He has edited the critical anthologies H. P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio Univ. Press, 1980) and An Epicure in the Terrible (with David E. Schultz; Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, 1991; Hippocampus Press, 2011), compiled the standard bibliography of Lovecraft (Kent State Univ. Press, 1981; rev. ed. University of Tampa Press, 2009), and (with David E. Schultz) assembled An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia (Greenwood Press, 2001). Additionally, Joshi has translated Maurice Lévy’s Lovecraft: A Study in the Fantastic (Wayne State Univ. Press, 1988) and he is the editor of the Anthologies American Supernatural Tales (Penguin, 2007), Black Wings I–II–III (PS Publishing, 2010, 2012, 2013), A Mountain Walked: Great Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (Centipede Press, 2013), The Madness of Cthulhu (Titan Books, forthcoming), andSearchers After Horror: New Tales of the Weird and Fantastic (Fedogan & Bremer, forthcoming). He is the editor of theLovecraft Annual (Hippocampus Press), the Weird Fiction Review (Centipede Press), and the American Rationalist (Center for Inquiry).

Featuring renowned organist Gigi Mitchell-Velasco performing:

Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Ei veit i himmerik ei borg, Norwegian folksong
Léon Boëllmann Suite Gothique Toccata

Gigi Mitchell-Velasco

Providence resident Gigi Mitchell-Velasco is from Dallas, a multi-talented musician who is an organist, a world-class, award-winning mezzo-soprano, flutist, pianist-accompanist, chamber musician and teacher.  Recently returned to her first instrument, the organ, Gigi has been in demand as a substitute organist in many of Providence’s historic churches, including the First Baptist Church in America, First Church of Christ Scientist, and First Unitarian Universalist Church where she was interim music director while their music director was in sabbatical the first half of 2013.  Her favorite Lovecraft quote is: “What a man does for pay is of little significance. What he is, as a sensitive instrument responsive to the world’s beauty, is everything!” She is lucky enough to have both!

Check out Thursday’s full schedule of events.

Author: Tim Blankenship

I work on websites.

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