LIVE from the NYPL: No One Belongs Here More Than You: Miranda July and Friends David Byrne, Becky Stark

May 25, 2007

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A night in which Miranda July and her friends Becky Stark and David Byrne gather together to create a feeling of belonging. Miranda will read stories, Becky will sing songs, and David will ask Miranda questions. In moments the audience may also be asked to sing or read or ask questions of Miranda or of themselves. One thing is for certain, Miranda will not sing.

Both Miranda July's collection of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You and Becky Stark's album with her band Lavender Diamond, Imagine Our Love, have just been published and released. Both these works were enjoyed by David Byrne, who has released many albums and published many books, most recently, Arboretum.

About David Byrne

David Byrne co-founded the band Talking Heads. In addition Byrne has collaborated with Robert Wilson (The Knee Plays, The Forest), Jonathan Demme (Stop Making Sense), Bertolucci (The Last Emperor), 15 of the best Latin musicians in New York (Rei Mom), and most recently he performed Here Lies Love, a project about Imelda Marcos with musical contributions from Fatboy Slim, at Carnegie Hall. David Byrne has been publishing and exhibiting his photography and design work for the past decade. Like his film and musical projects, his artwork is often described as elevating the mundane or the banal to the level of art, creating icons out of everyday materials to find the sacred in the profane. Byrne has mixed exhibitions with public art: from billboards in Belfast and Toronto and subway posters in Stockholm to an audio installation in Stockholm that turned a building into a giant musical instrument. His books include Strange Ritual, Your Action World, The New Sins / Los Nuevos Pecados, Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information (containing 5 PowerPoint presentations set to music), and his most recent Arboretum (McSweeney's).

About Miranda July

Miranda July is a filmmaker, performing artist and writer. She grew up in Berkeley, California where she began her career by writing plays and staging them at the local punk club. July?s videos, performances, and web-based projects have been presented at sites such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and in the 2002 and 2004 Whitney Biennials. Her short fiction has been published in The Paris Review, Harper?s, and The New Yorker, and her new book is No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories (Scribner). July created the participatory website, learningtoloveyoumore, with artist Harrell Fletcher and a companion book will be published in Fall 2007. July wrote, directed and starred in her first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, which won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and four prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, including the Camera d?Or. July recently debuted a new performance, and is currently working on her second movie. She lives in Los Angeles.

About Becky Stark

Becky Stark's band, Lavender Diamond, just released their first album Imagine Our Love on Matador Records.?They are currently touring the United States. Becky has written and performed many songs, fables, mythologies and operettas.? She toured the US with the operetta "Birdsongs of the Bauharoque," a musical story she created with Xander Marro about the invention of peace on earth.?She has recently written and performed an operatic adaptation of The Little Match Girl.?Becky studied Russian Literature at Brown University and dance at the Merce Cunningham Conservatory. She is currently developing a musical comedy variety show.?She is also the creator of the "Peace Comics" along with cartoonist Ron Rege, Jr.?