Thursday, February 22, 2024
5 - 9 pm
Industry City, Brooklyn

SCHEDULE
5 - 6:15 pm: The Morbid Anatomy Library; Industry City, 254 36th Street, Building 2, Room B421 (map here); Meet in front of elevator at 5 or 5:30pm next to Ends Meat Butcher Shop to be escorted to library
6:30 - 9: Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room; Industry City, 86 34th St, Brooklyn, NY 11232; Map here

This event is FREE to all. Please RSVP with your email address at checkout.

Tonight, we invite you to  join us as we raise a glass to our beloved friend Mel Gordon (1947-2018) in celebration of his posthumous book Cabarets of Death: Dance and Dining in Early Twentieth-Century Paris. 

We hope you will join us as we lovingly remember an impish and inspiring manifester and his newest work from beyond the grave. For years, Mel Gordon—whom The New York Times dubbed “drama scholar of the fringe”—was a beloved member of the Morbid Anatomy community; he also served as a mentor to our founder and creative director Joanna Ebenstein. When he died unexpectedly in 2018, the two were collaborating on a book about three infamous Parisian fin-de-siècle nightclubs called “The Cabarets of Death,” which were immersive, themed nightclubs inviting revelers to drink, dine, and debauch in immersive recreations of the afterworlds of Hell, Heaven, and Nothingness.

Editor Joanna Ebenstein will share a few words vabout Mel and the book, director Ronni Thomas will screen a short film about Mel, copies of Cabarets of Death will be available for sale and signing, and The Morbid Anatomy Library will be open with a special mini-exhibit of our Mel Gordon holdings.

*Joanna Ebenstein will join virtually while she recovers from a broken foot

Mel Gordon (1947-2018) was a Professor of Theater Arts at the University of California Berkeley and New York University Tisch School of the Arts as well as a director and writer. He wrote and staged many productions spanning Russian Constructivism, Yiddish plays, Grand Guignol horror and comedy, experimental theater, and a notorious recreation of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Berlin Museum of Sex that featured a fully engaging cabaret show.

A prolific author, he penned fifteen books and over a hundred and fifty articles on popular culture and American, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Yiddish theater–and lectured extensively. His books include Voluptuous Panic: the Erotic World of Weimar Berlin, Horizontal Collaboration: The Erotic World of Paris, 1920-1946, Grand Guignol: Theatre of Fear and Terror, and Erik Jan Hanussen: Hitler’s Jewish Clairvoyant. 

Joanna Ebenstein is a Brooklyn-based artist, writer, curator, photographer and graphic designer. She is the founder and creative director of Morbid Anatomy. Her books include Anatomica: The Exquisite and Unsettling Art of Human Anatomy, Death: A Graveside Companion and The Anatomical Venus. 

Ronni Thomas is a filmmaker and artist based out of New York City.  Career highlights include writing, producing and directing the acclaimed AMC documentary compendium to the Breaking Bad franchise. His first feature film, The Kybalion, is available in limited release. His short film works including The Midnight Archive and Morbid Anatomy Presents, have garnered nominations at Tribeca, Raindance, Toronto, and Hot Springs, among others. He was the filmmaker in residence at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA from 2020-2023. He is currently working on Von Cosel, a narrative dramatization of the uncanny story of Key West necrophile Carl Von Cosel.