Rapture Cafe & Books is proud to sponsor POWER ROOM, a multi-media projected installation as part of DiVA Fair 2007 New York. POWER ROOM takes place in one of many public containers "dropped" around the Chelsea neighborhood. Located at the northeastern corner of W. 23rd Street and Seventh Avenue, POWER ROOM's exhibition has been dubbed the most "shocking" and "provocative" (Daily News) of this
week-long international fair.

Please join us at Rapture Cafe & Books for a reception to celebrate the accomplishments of these esteemed artists on Saturday, Feb. 24th from 6 - 8pm.


ARTISTS
Spencer Sweeny
Gary Indiana
Nick Zedd
Genesis P-orridge
Nikola Strbac
Giorgio Handman
Baris Ger
Rachel Blackwell

POWER ROOM is a program of new video work curated by Giorgio Handman where eleven artists explore their ideas about the concept of power. The videos examine power's various manifestations in relationship to the social/political and the individual. The manifestations are anger, examinations of human sexuality, cultural ideas about
gender, reflections on roles in this culture, our place in post 911 New York, and our reactions to a war that seems to be never ending. With the kinetic force
of a post utopian tidal wave Power Room confronts the viewer with revolutionary ideas.

POWER ROOM PROGRAM

Spencer Sweeny-Video Distribution Propaganda
Liz N Val-NEXT
Baris Ger-Eden
Anne Hanavan-Liar
Gary Indiana-Paraih
Nick Zedd-No Plague Like Home
Gary Indiana-Mala Hierbe No Muere
Breyer P-orridge-New York Story
Giorgio Handman-Endurance
Nikola Strbac-Tessa
Peacock!revolution!is!our!revolution!-1 plus 1
Rachel Blackwell-Death for Sale


contact:
Giorgio Handman
power_roomnyc@yahoo.com

About Digital Video & Arts Fair 2007:
DiVA is the first art fair dedicated to Video and Digital Art. Since
the invention of photography, nothing has had a greater impact on
artistic practice than the emergence of the personal video camera
and, later, digital technology. Now, with the aid of computers, the
cameras and video camcorders have become the ultimate tools in
creating a dynamic arena for art making, regardless of the final
product. With the advent of video and computer technology, artists
are no longer restricted by their immediate technical parameters.

Hi my lovelies-

Penny Arcade sent me this cogent essay about Rapture and the East Village bohemia that it represents. I'm confused, cause I wasnt aware that the piece in the Times had come out?

Regardless, I include her letter here as she really gets the spirit and the promise of Rapture:

quote:

FYI penny's 2 cents to NY Times journalist

-----Original Message-----
From: Penny Arcade
Sent: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 6:10 PM
Subject: Re: Tim Murphy from New York Times

Hi Tim

While some people, even old time EV people, think that there is just a
lot of grousing going on about the continued gentrification of the
EV/LES. The reality for many of us is that it is not only the continued
artist evictions, the glossy storefronts , door to door restaurants and
three million dollar price tags on studios apartments that are
trumatizing the long time downtown community. It is the loss of
cultural memory in nearly all of our cultural institutions. Many venues
are turning away from the artists that created them as they fully
embrace the notion of emerging arts which creates a largely
monogenerational scene. The EV has gone from being a multigenerational
artists scene that was multidiciplinary to being a largely student and
academic art scene that is focused on the professionalisation of the
arts and lets face it 'professionalized ' academic art is not what the
EV has ever been about. The downtown art scene was in opposition to
academia.
or to quote myself in New York Values :An Autopsy On The Death Of
Bohemia, "While academia is a reflection of the art scene, academia can
never be the art scene." PA 1996

What Rapture Cafe represents for me is the continuation of an
artistic, literary and aesthetic ethos that has always existed in the
EV and is one that has always been shared by artists and non artists
alike. In other words it is grounded in the values of living an
artistic life . Living an artistic life is quite seperate from being an
artist. The EV was always 1/3 artists to 2/3 people living an artistsic
life. People who would never write a play, paint a painting or write a
poem,and whose identity was formed by books, music, film, theatre,
painting and sculpture , dance and photography. Not every artist lives
an artistic life.

Rapture represents the values that have represented the EV/LES since
the 1800's, eclectic ,artistic excellence, flowing into the 2000's.
Rapture is carrying forward these artistic , literary traditions
without being mired in the past , without being moored in what can no
longer be. No one, not even me can stay focused on how the EV turned
into the made-for-tv-movie- of -downtown or how NY has gone from being
a cultural capitol to being a marketing capitol.

It is too depressing and too alienating. What Rapture Cafe gives this
hard hit community is a new way to be in the EV/LES that is polished,
light, sophisticated, and contains our past with room for our future.
Many of us have taken refuge in the cyber world since the early 90's
where we feel internationally connected with like minded entities
however many of us want to have a place to gather in the flesh. Rapture
hooks us into the kind of feelings of connectedness and community that
one got from walking down Avenue A in the 80's, going to Jackie 60 and
Mother , The Poetry Project and PS 122 in 1990's. It is a clean,calm,
well lit space that is robust in the spirit of the values artistci and
spiritual , of what created it. We are all over stimulated and over
informed. We need the calm clear and clean space where people and ideas
can stand in bold relief.

An art scene cannot thrive without an artistic community otherwise
places like New York's downtown, Paris 's Left Bank, San Francisco's
North Beach and London's Soho would have been uneccessary. Certainly
young artists do not have a chance of real developement if they cannot
gather to talk and interact about ideas , concepts and what came before
them.Every era needs a gathering place. At it's most simplistic, that
is what Rapture Cafe is and In fact it is just perfect!

xxoopenny arcade

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chi Chi,

Thank you, Empress, for posting this astute observation from Penny. She has exactly interpreted the vision for Rapture. Rapture can thrive because it meets certain needs that have gone undernourished and that a more corporate New York cannot and has no interest in meeting.

The article has not yet come out; should be in the next couple of weeks.

All our love,

mr.joe

"The Rapture Cafe is exactly what New York needs right now".
—Michael Cunningham

A little heads up for our Rapture family here on the Motherboards: We have a fab event tonight, which marks our inaugural evening to serve libations beyond the caffeinated. In other words, the bar is OPEN!

We'll do our best to keep you warm.


Thursday March 8th, 8PM
Starlette Productions & Shelly Mars Present:
Real & Raw
with Shelly Mars, Mike Albo and Reno
plus Special Guests

WonderBar, Starlight Lounge and Clubhouse were just a few of the venues that Starlette Productions helped to found/co-produce, thereby rewriting the book on queer-friendly nightlife south of 14th Street. Shelly Mars is an actor, playwright and provocateur whose "repertoire extends beyond her uncanny genius at stretching the boundaries of gender." Tonight these heavy-hitters join forces to bring you a virtual three ring circus of literate and unconventional performance.

Mike Albo is an author (Hornito: My Lie Life HarperCollins 2000 and The Underminer Bloomsbury USA 2005), monologuist and performer who has performed throughout New York as well as internationally and is a founding member of the legendary downtown dance troupe, The Dazzle Dancers.

http://www.mikealbo.com

Shelly Mars is among the East Village's first wave of ground breaking drag kings. Her original one-woman shows (Sex On Mars, Whiplash: Tales Of a Tomboy and How Should I Live?) have been mounted in venues as varied as The Kitchen, PS 122, NY Theater Workshop and Naked Angels.

http://www.shellymars.com/

Reno is a stream of consciousness solo comedic performer, whose evening length shows have had several runs Off-Broadway, both commercially and at non-profit venues and tour regularly to the leading regional theaters, museums and performance spaces. She adapted her show Reno In Rage And Rehab into an ACE Award nominated (“Best Writing for an Entertainment Special”) HBO comedy hour. Her show, Reno Once Removed was commissioned by Lincoln Center for their Serious Fun Festival and sold out with rave reviews. It subsequently moved to the Joseph Papp Public Theater and continued on around the country. She has made other, short-form tragi-comic essays for various outlets such as PBS, VH-1, Comedy Central and National Public Radio, and occasionally contributes written articles to magazines, such as Ms.

"...Body language that's part prizefighter, part baggy-pants clown." NY Times

"Quirky, unpredictable, inventive... NY Post

http://www.citizenreno.com/

Rapture E-vents: Mid-March Update:


Friday March 16th, 8PM
D-list Radio Live
Free Admission

Join Dlist Radio for another of its popular, raucous, live broadcasts from Rapture Café & Books. Burlesque sensation, the World Famous *BOB* “warms up” the live studio audience, buck-some go-go stud Christof hosts the new radio-format-friendly game show "Name That Ass!"... why, radio has never been so raunchy! They'll be giving Andrew Christian Underwear and Gina Varla Vetro's Hot Nuts away all night long! Robert Notter of Whole Life Healing will be teaching his ten tips for creating the life you dreamed of, and choosing one of you from the audience to work with for three weeks.
Plus, Neil The Erotic Hypnotist will HYPNOTIZE someone from the audience in a sexy fashion, and super hottie
Matthew Duffy and the rockin' Shimmerplanet (Vox Populi Independent Music Award winners) will give it up performance-wise!

http://www.wholelifehealing.org

http://dlist.com/greebo

http://www.dlist.com/mduffy

http://www.shimmerplanet.com/

DList Radio, the official radio show of DList.com, featuring a high energy cast of some of the stars of New York City's downtown nightlife scene, is hosted by the "Pasha Of Prurience,” party-icon Daniel Nardicio. Dlist Radio is a New York party on the air.

For the agoraphobic, or just plain far away, this broadcast can also be heard on:

http://www.eastvillageradio.com
http://www.dlistradio.com

-----

Saturday March 17th
The First Annual Narrowback Ball
Starring Kirk Kelly & Paddy On the Railway
and "The Pride Of Woodside" Thomas Patrick Maguire
Donation $5 (To Benefit the Artist Worker Action League)
7PM

"Narrowback- slang, noun- a derogatory name given to Irish immigrants in 19th century America; also, a person incapable of doing his or her share of hard physical labor"

What better place to fete some of America's earliest reviled immigrants and their patron saint than right here in the East Village, the birthplace of Antifolk, the Labor movement and Irish America itself? Tonight, join leading Irish-American and Antifolk patriarch Kirk Kelly (the Joe Hill of Avenue A) for a truly authentic East Village St. Patrick's Day celebration at our first ever Narrowback Ball. Please be assured there will be no lace curtains here!


The event will feature sets by Kirk Kelly and his band Paddy On The Railway, solo acoustic artist Thomas Patrick Maguire, and lots of special guests.

Kirk Kelly has been performing since the late 1980's, "successfully melding the protest song with the punk ethic.". His first album, entitled Go, Man, Go, was released by SST Records in 1988 and he also appears on Windham Hill's Legacy: A Collection Of New Folk Artists, and Schoolhouse Records' Light Of Day: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen. He is the founder of both Mugsy Records and the Artist-Worker Action League, which works to expose college students to the music and struggle of working people.

Some press quotes about Kirk Kelly:


“Kirk Kelly lies somewhere between Shane McGowan and Bob Dylan. The voice is gravelly and the politics very definitely radical.”-- The Irish Voice


“…a James Deanish folk-punk with working class Irish roots.” --High Times


“…unbridled passion…fast wit and humor…” -- Irish Echo



http://www.antifolk.net/artists/kirkkelly/

http://www.myspace.com/thomaspatrickmaguire



-----

Monday March 19th
Iraq War 4th Anniversary Vigil 6PM
The Church Of Craft to follow afterwards
Free Admission

"Busy hands, heavy hearts: craft is a motivational force for creation - a small but powerful _expression of your desire to stop the destruction of precious life, of support for the people who live through the scars of war, of your independent spirit in the face of greed and corruption!"

The staff of Rapture Café will be joining Viva of the Dazzle Dancers and the members of the Church Of Craft tonight at 6PM, along with thousands of other Americans co-ordinated by MoveOn.org, in order to honor the supreme sacrifice made by more than 3,000 of our countrymen and women, and to quietly protest our country's continued involvement in this morass created by the Bush Administration. Candles will be lit on the street in front of Rapture during the vigil, so feel free to bring by your white votives, and/or the craft you are working on, and participate with us.

Then...

Following the vigil, we'll be continuing with the premier edition of the Church Of Craft at Rapture. Truly a nationwide phenomenon, local members of the COC will remain in our humble café tonight bearing knitting needles, crotchet hooks and scrapbooks and creating something magical and useful in a very social atmosphere.

"The Church of Craft aims to create an environment where any and all acts of making have value to our humanness. When we find moments of creation in our everyday activities, we also find simple satisfaction. The power of creating gives us the confidence to live our lives with all the love we can. By promoting creativity, we offer access to a non-denominational spiritual practice that is self-determined and proactive."-- from the Church Of Craft Website

http://www.churchofcraft.org

-----

And, coming in early April... a special "early evening" D List Radio celebrity exclusive presentation... keep tuned for more!!!

-----
Get Smart.
Rapture Café & Books

200 Avenue A (Between 12th & 13th Streets) NYC

212-228-1177

http://www.rapturecafe.com

Rapture Café & Books Special Event!

Please join us in celebrating the births of our very own Hattie Hathaway and Derrick Little (aka Derrick-In-A-Dress:

Sunday March 25th, 8PM
Tell Tale Art #2 and
The Royal Arien Society Ball
Free Admission

Twenty-odd years ago, the late and legendary Wendy Wild-- influenced by the Krewes of New Orleans-- created two East Village "society events" to celebrate those who came to life in either the sun-signs of Virgo or Aries. Thus, the Royal Arien (certainly not to be confused with "aryan") and Royal Virgonian Societies were born. We at Rapture Café think it high time we re-institute these worthy traditions. And so we present, in conjunction with Tell Tale Art, the Return of The Royal Arien Society Ball-- a celebration of all things Aries... and the Ram itself! Cake will be served.

Starring:
Emmanuel Xavier
Seaman & Queerfunkel
Hattie Hathaway
Jeff Seal
Sally Connors
Remi Kanazi
Cam MacDonald
Nora From Tribal Soundz

Tell Tale Art Created and Hosted by:
Derrick-In-A-Dress

In 1996, Emanuel Xavier took the New York City spoken word scene by storm, quickly becoming one of the most significant voices to emerge from the neo-Nuyorican poetry movement. Following in the tradition of writers/performers like Miguel Piñero, Xavier captivated audiences with a fresh and poignant brand of art that celebrated sexuality, Latino heritage, and the often brutal streets of New York. A prolific writer (Pier Queen 1997, Lambda Literary Ward nominee Christlike 1999 and Americano 2002), founder of the House Of Xavier and the annual Glam Slam, Xavier has also appeared on PBS's In The Life and Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry on HBO as well as performing as a spoken word artist throughout the country. He received the Marsha A. Gomez Cultural Heritage Award for his contributions to gay and Latino culture as well as a City Council Citation for his contributions to the gay and lesbian community of New York City.

http://www.emanuelxavier.com/

Seaman and Queerfunkel, Jason Conover and Jade Barbee respectively, call their music "sweet anthem rock." And sweet it definitely is-- with soaring harmonies, adroit acoustic guitar and piano, and extremely well-crafted songs. Little wonder that the duo has become a fixture at Tell Tale!

http://www.myspace.com/seamanandqueerfunkel

Hattie Hathaway (Brian Butterick,) one of the founding lights of Rapture, has a long history of nightlife production-- Pyramid, Grey Gardens at Irving Plaza, and Jackie 60, as well as the upcoming annual Night Of A Thousand Stevies, to name just a few. He also co-founded the 1980s post-punk band 3 Teens Kill 4, originally produced the outdoor festival Wigstock and has appeared onstage as an actor with Blacklips, in countless Off-Off Broadway plays, and, most recently, on Broadway in The Threepenny Opera. Hattie also currently moderates the popular online nightlife community, The Motherboards.

http://www.queenmother.tv/nyc/hattie/hattie_main.php
http://www.motherboardsnyc.com/


-----

And don't forget...

Wednesday March 28th, 7-10 PM
Wednesday April 4th, 7-10 PM
Saturday April 7th, 2-5 PM
Paul Wirhun's Egg Workshops
$5 donation for material costs

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mr.joe,

This Sunday at Rapture:

OK, everyone. Hold onto your ink wells! April is packed! Here's a preview:

“I’m still alive. That may be soon
a sin. Perhaps these days to live
is not the human thing to do.
Perhaps this age is iron and all
must fall. Perhaps it’s not the poet
anymore who writes the poem.”
----Marina Tsvetaeva (April 17, 1918 at The Stray Dog Cabaret in St. Petersburg)

Rapture Café & Books celebrates April, National Poetry Month, with a challenge to our swelling numbers of devotees: to read or write at least one poem each day this month. Coming soon – details on Rapture’s First Annual Poetry Competition! Winners will receive…what else? Rapture Gift Certificates to be used as currency in our bookstore or café. This month:


Tuesday April 10th, 7PM (Sign up at 630 PM)
Anti-Mike
Open Stage Event Hosted by Kirk Kelly
Free Admission

Downtown Anti-Folk legend Kirk Kelly curates this weekly turn for undiscovered local talent to shine in the spotlight. Expect poets, storytellers, performance artists and purveyors of "wooden music" in the Woody Guthrie tradition to abound. Sign in by 6:30 PM to ensure a place on the limited bill.

Kirk Kelly has been performing since the late 1980's, "successfully melding the protest song with the punk ethic." His first album, entitled Go, Man, Go, was released by SST Records in 1988 and he also appears on Windham Hill's Legacy: A Collection Of New Folk Artists, and Schoolhouse Records' Light Of Day: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen. He is the founder of both Mugsy Records and the Artist-Worker Action League, which works to expose college students to the music and struggle of working people.

Some press quotes about Kirk Kelly:

“Kirk Kelly lies somewhere between Shane McGowan and Bob Dylan. The voice is gravelly and the politics very definitely radical.”-- The Irish Voice

“…a James Deanish folk-punk with working class Irish roots.” --High Times

“…unbridled passion…fast wit and humor…” -- Irish Echo

Read more:
http://www.antifolk.net/artists/kirkkelly/

-----
Thursday April 12th, 8PM
Starlette Productions & Shelly Mars Present:
Real & Raw #2
Starring Shelly Mars, Reno, Nancy Balbirer, Susan Jeremy
Admission to show only: $5

Last month's debut of Real & Raw with Shelly Mars, Mike Albo, and Reno was a success beyond our wildest dreams. Excellent performance work is still being created in this battered and bruised city of ours; and, yes, audiences do go out on a weeknight to experience it!

April's edition of R&R features the return of Reno ("...part prizefighter, part baggy-pants clown.") and Shelly Mars, along with the additional talents of noted actress Nancy Balbirer (of Friends fame and Jennifer Aniston's infamous real-life roommate), and standup comic/actor Susan Jeremy.

Read more:
http://www.shellymars.com/
http://www.citizenreno.com/
http://www.myspace.com/susanjeremy

WonderBar, Starlight Lounge and Clubhouse were just a few of the venues that Starlette Productions helped to found/co-produce, thereby rewriting the book on queer-friendly nightlife south of 14th Street. Shelly Mars is an actor, playwright and provocateur whose "repertoire extends beyond her uncanny genius at stretching the boundaries of gender." Tonight these heavy-hitters join forces to bring you a virtual three-ring circus of literate and unconventional performance.

-----
Friday, April 13th, 8PM
Hypnodad!
Suggested donation $5 or 1 beverage minimum

You have undoubtedly seen a few shows featuring hypnotists around town of late; hypnosis appeals as much to 21st century New Yorkers as it did to late-Victorian Chautauqua attendees. Tonight, we'd like you to experience the "grandaddy" of the modern hypnotist/showmen – Hypnodad. He's been doing "erotic hypnosis" events for over 20 years, has been featured at various GMSMA workshops (and has a PhD, too!) Erotic hypnosis sounds kinda nasty, huh? Well, it's really not.... it's all in good fun, and strictly within the limits of the law. Remember, hypnotists cannot make you do something unless you really want to do it. Now... “you're getting sleepy...."

Hypnodad will return to Rapture on Wednesdays April 18th and 25th, also at 8PM.

For more info on Hypnodad and hypnosis in general:

http://www.hypnodad.com

-----
AND...later that same evening...

D-list Radio Live 10pm - Midnight
Free Admission

Join Dlist Radio for another of its popular, raucous, live broadcasts from Rapture Café & Books. Daniel Nardicio and guest host, literary lion Michael Musto keep the rapt studio audience on tenterhooks, assisted by the sexy and soulful Robbyne, the Advice Diva... live radio has never been more in-your-face! Special guests include the incredible 20's-style band, Huxley Vertical Cabaret Noveau, who could very well be Ivor Novello's progeny; and the insane chanteuse Margarita Pracatan, just back from Gay Pride on Gran Canaria. "See" auditions for Dlist's young and virile interns-to-be, and more... With CD and other giveaways all night long.

DList Radio, the official radio show of DList.com, featuring a high energy cast of stars plucked from New York City's downtown nightlife scene, is hosted by the "Wizard Of Was,” party-icon Daniel Nardicio. Dlist Radio is a New York party on the air.

For the agoraphobic, or just plain far away, this broadcast can also be heard on:
http://www.eastvillageradio.com
http://www.dlistradio.com

Read more:
http://www.myspace.com/huxleyvertical
http://www.margaritapracatan.com

-----
Sunday, April 15th 7pm
Pagan Follies
with Lissa Moira, Richard Revel & Friends

Tonight's a mixed bag of a performance celebration including the melodic gems of Richard Revel, Lissa Moira's "Wild Poetry", the jazz stylings and spoken words of Louisa Bradshaw (of Timbilia fame,) and Richard West, Susan Mitchell and Jiggers Turner from Melange


http://www.lissamoira.com

http://www.myspace.com/timbila


-----
Monday April 16th, 7PM
The Church Of Craft Returns
Free Admission

Truly a nationwide phenomenon, local members of the Church Of Craft will descend upon our humble café tonight bearing knitting needles, crochet hooks and scrapbooks and creating something magical and useful in a very social atmosphere.
At COC's last "service" at Rapture, we spotted a woman working with a very young girl on what seemed to be the girl's first crochet project-- truly a beautiful sight!

http://www.churchofcraft.org

-----

Coming:
Wednesday April 18th: The Return of Hypnodad!
Friday April 20th: Readings At Rapture #1: Dean Johnson & Dee Finley
Sunday April 22nd: After-Party for the theatrical smash "Before God Was Invented"
Wednesday April 25th: The Return Of Hypnodad, Part 2
Thursday April 26th: TellTale Art
Saturday April 28th: Appelmoes
Sunday April 29th: Fundraiser for the Lisa Jackson Documentary Film
Tuesday May 1st: Urban Folk Magazine release party


-----
Get Smart.
Rapture Café & Books

200 Avenue A (Between 12th & 13th Streets) NYC

212-228-1177

http://www.rapturecafe.com

Rapture CAfe profiled this month on the Faerie Home Companion. Featuring Joe, Hattie and MC "Special K"...
Listen here

Music by Jade Barbee, Daisy Shaver and Matt Bucy. Photo: Twinkletoes by Kevin Muth

Get our RSS feed for FHC podcasts here

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jade,

Can I just oink here and rave about the cupcakes in Rapture... which I hear are baked by the wonderful Master Baker Lee Chappell!! Cupcake Lee! Have to stop by again soon to put me nose in that cake trough.

Jade! FHC is fantastic! Thank you, doll. Your songs and the editing are first-rate faerie magic, as discussed in the piece. I listened to it at about 3:00am, then went promptly back into dreamland with visions of those Lee Chappell cupcakes in my head!

Thanks, Dean. You beat me to the punch. We're very excited about the first installation of READINGS AT RAPTURE. Read all about it and more on the calendar below:

Rapture E-vents Mid-April 2007:


HUGE Spring Sale!

For the rest of this month, Rapture customers still have the chance to pick up a whopping 25% discount on ALL books and magazines in our store. The sale lasts through April 30th, and sales are brisk, so don't hesitate to pick up any of the bios of Anna Nicole or that most essential copy of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead NOW at these extremely low prices. How's that for Spring cleaning?

Wild Edibles At Rapture!

We have just started carrying the amazing cookies and cakes crafted by Scrumptious Bakers, that will surely make your mouth water. Scrumptious is the brainchild of our dear friend Lee Chappell, who was responsible for starting what later became a New York nightlife staple-- Saturday Nights at the Roxy, and who is also an excellent couturier. We just knew that anyone who could produce the wildest gowns encrusted with hand-sewn beadwork and covered with trailing feathers would also be an ace baker... and we were right! Sample Lee's ever-changing roster of desserts from Chocolate-Espresso mini-cakes topped with Chocolate-Fra'ngelico Ganache, and Coconut, Coconut & More Coconut Cupcakes with French Buttercream Frosting to Grandma's Jumbo Chewy Oatmeal Cookies and Tuscan Fig and Pignoli Cake... mmmm!

Of course, our mainstay of breakfast goods continues to arrive daily, fresh from the ovens of the local Tompkin's Square Bakery over on 10th Street, where baker-extraordinaire Matt has been up all night long baking away. Matt also makes an over-the-top wedding cake or two (perhaps someday we will have need of that in this state,) but for us he provides wonderful croissants, pains chocolates, muffins and simply exquisite cinnamon buns.

For those who are not so wheat-friendly we also carry a wide assortment of Brownies, Blondies and Cookies made by Peace Bakery over in Chelsea that are gluten free.

We will also be introducing, later this week, the economical and very healthy daily Rapture Salad with our own special House Vinaigrette, served in a Chinese take-out bucket so you'll be able to eat one at the table and take another one home!

And this month, why not also sink your teeth into some of the following events...

-----

Special Early Event!
Friday April 20th, 4:20-7:11 PM
Faerie Tea Fridays Debuts
Free Admission

No matter what your lifestyles, come out (on 4/20, at 4:20) to support local faerie business and faerie economy. And get fresh tea (gossip) while you are at it. Come on out either after/before work, before dinner, or prior to some lovely theatre or soiree plans--- Miss Thing (YES WE MEAN YOU) come out be seen in the scene and support the New York faerie circle. Just show up at 4:20, hold court with your kweens and qings. In the words of own intra-continental fae DJ Texx: “Come for the coffee. Stay for the Tea!”

And then later...

Friday April 20th, 8PM
Readings At Rapture #1: Dean Johnson/Dee Finley
Free Admission

Tonight, Rapture inaugurates its own reading series curated by Joe Birdsong & Hattie Hathaway. Readings At Rapture is set to become a monthly reading series of local writers of varied disciplines whose work resonates with the spirit of what compelled us to open this little cultural oasis on Avenue A. Find here unpublished or overlooked writers along with shining literary lions... nobodies beside famous names... poets, playwrights, lyricists and wordsmiths of many perspectives... and ultimately an evening of important new spoken word that could very well be mind-expanding, mood-altering and gut-wrenching.

And who better to kick off this series, but two veritable legends of life as it is lived south of 14th Street...

From his musical work with Dean & the Weenies and the Velvet Mafia to his career in the sex industry and his brilliant blog, Dean Johnson has never ceased to amaze us. Tonight he reads from recent (and stunningly excellent) literary efforts.

Dee Finley can tell an amazing story. She came of age in the rough-and-tumble world of Alphabet City's punk scene of the late '70s and early '80s, was befriended by Elizabeth Taylor at a homeless shelter in the mid-1990s and has now found her own unique literary voice in the 21st Century. Her recent work is at once romantic, gritty, hopeful and dark and very, very powerful.

www.myspace.com/velvetmafianyc
www.myspace.com/deefinlee


Saturday April 21st, 9PM-1AM
Special Event!
Free Admission

Meet the up-and-coming designer, Kerin Rose, as we celebratre the birth of this “drag-queen-by-birth.” Ms. Rose will soon debut her premier line of death-drag-glam-rock-inspired clothing (appropriately named A MORIR) right here at Rapture Café & Books (gasp! An Exclusive!). Tonight’s festivities will include a rare performance by the forever-young drag hostess and girl-about-town (Linda Simpson’s much, much, much, much, MUCH younger sister) Shania Rendezvous! Honestly, this girl once fooled an entire rock venue into thinking she was Avril Lavigne – she is not to be missed!

-----

Sunday April 22th, 8PM
Before God Was Invented: The AfterParty
Free Admission

Before God Was Invented, which ran most of this month at Theater For the New City, explores the origin of patriarchal monotheistic religious fanaticism, war, intolerance, greed and the divine right of kings, and was written and directed by local spoken-word diva Lissa Moira. Join the 11+ person, loincloth-wearing cast and crew as they celebrate their closing night and really let their hair down!

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Tuesday April 24th, 7PM
Anti-Mike hosted by Kirk Kelly
Sign-up at 6:30
Free Admission

A new chapter in the East Village's Anti-Folk history began this month when Rapture became home to New York's latest brand of renegade folk music. Kirk Kelly, founder of the post-punk Lower East Side folk movement which, over the years, presented a dazzling array of acoustic and spoken word artists from Michelle Shocked to John S. Hall, hosts this new weekly Anti-Mike reading and performance open stage.
As part of the legendary Antifolk duo "the Folk Brothers" in the mid-1980s, Kirk Kelly helped lead a generation of folksters away from the suffocating Greenwich Village folk scene, to a network of underground and sometimes illicit venues on the Lower East Side. Along with other Antifolk luminaries Cindy Lee Berryhill and Roger Manning, Kirk also appeared regularly at the Pyramid Club and his debut CD on the seminal L.A.-based punk label SST Records, produced by Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie, helped establish the Antifolk movement as a national underground phenomenon.
An added plus at Anti-Mike for us is definitely the homespun banjo-strummin' songwriter Debbie Dalton who has become a regular each week and never fails to impress us with her material-- a mixture of traditional and self-penned great songs!
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Wednesday April 25th, 8PM
Hypnodad!
Free Admission

It's your final opportunity this month to experience the amazing Hypnodad and see just what the hell "Erotic Hypnosis" is all about. It sounds kinda nasty, huh? Well, it's really not.... it's all in good fun, and strictly within the limits of the law. Remember, hypnotists cannot make you do something unless you really want to do it. Now... “you're getting sleepy...."

www.hypnodad.com

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Thursday April 26th, 8PM
TellTale Art
Free Admission

We don't mind saying that Derrick Little's TellTale Art is simply the best new performance monthly to come our way. Featuring amazing new music, riveting spoken word and innovative performance-- all "off-book", TellTale is on its third edition and getting better all the time!

Tonight's lineup:

Seaman and Queerfunkel, Jason Conover and Jade Barbee respectively, call their music "sweet anthem rock." And sweet it definitely is-- with soaring harmonies, adroit acoustic guitar and piano, and extremely well-crafted songs. Little wonder that the duo has become a fixture at Tell Tale!

www.myspace.com/seamanandqueerfunkel


Jenni Wolfson is a human rights activist, writer and performer. Tonight, she will be performing excerpts from her one woman show, Rash, the story how her experiences living in post-genocide Rwanda changed her life.

rashsolo.blogspot.com/

Mark Sam Rosenthal is a Brooklyn writer/performer, whose solo show Love Mercy had a sold-out run at New York’s People’s Improv Theater last Fall. . He was most recently in Jollyship the Whiz-Bang’s production of Little Building at Galapagos.

www.myspace.com/marksamiam

Sally Connors is an actress/writer whose excerpt last month from a work-in-progress, Women Who Kill, chilled us to the very bone. Tonight she performs another stunner from the piece and its bound to be blood-curdling!

Marla Mase is a native New York writer, mother, and business owner. Her play, The Canarsie Line, ran at The Bank Street Theatre in January 2002, and she's performed solo works at various venues throughout the city (EST, Wings, Red Room.) She is currently workshopping her latest play, Man/Woman, which she hopes to mount later this year.

Angela Viditacolanna, a New York City-based poet and world traveller.

www.myspace.com/spatulalala

David Brown, a unique folk-rock performer and an excellent lyricist with a powerful voice, rounds out the bill.

www.davidbrownmusic.com/

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Friday April 27th, 8 PM
Spring Fling
Presented by the TransMasculine Community Network
Free Admission

The TransMasculine Community Network is heating things up just in time for summer with this mixer for all genders and sexualities. Expect acoustic music, spoken word, and speed dating where you'll definitely meet the trans-boi of your dreams!

tmcnetwork.com/

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Special Early Event!!!
Saturday April 28th, 1-3PM
D-List Radio Strip Auction Gay-rage Sale*
Free Admission

Daniel Nardicio joins Dirty Martini and and The World Famous *BOB* to sell their wares (a lucious array of porn, wearable items, books, CDs, and even home furnishings) at their Live Strip Auction where you can bid on clothes and costumes right off the backs of New York's hottest go-go boys and girls till they're durn-near nekked! Daniel will also be taping his radio show live during the event. You can even get your relationship questions answered from Robbyne, the Big Black Sassy Advice Diva ... and make a spectacle of yourself on the air!

* A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Sylvia's Place, a shelter for gay, bi, lesbian and transgender youth, named after our late and legendary sister, Sylvia Rivera.

DList Radio, the official radio show of DList.com, featuring a high energy cast of stars plucked from New York City's downtown nightlife scene, is hosted by "Mr. Antiques Roadshow" himself, party-icon Daniel Nardicio. Dlist Radio is a New York party on the air.

For the agoraphobic, or just plain far away, this broadcast can also be heard on:
www.eastvillageradio.com
www.dlistradio.com

and then, later...

Saturday April 28th, 8PM
Appelmoes
Free Admission


There's always room for Appelmoes! Here, ace doorman-around-town, Big Scott, veteran of the 1980's Gothic-Industrial-Art band Dem Vackra, is joined by the beautiful and quirky Naomi to present their own perfect blend of saucy pop music accompanied by well-produced tracks, toy instruments and... ukekele!
And oh yeah... Appelmoes means applesauce in Dutch.

www.myspace.com/appelmoesnyc

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Sunday April 29th, 7-10PM
The Lisa Jackson Documentary Fundraiser
$10 Donation

On January 1, 2006, 18 year-old Becca Goldstein started filming a year in the life of transgendered rocker Lisa Jackson. Becca has gathered footage of Lisa Jackson's musical journey as well as Lisa's personal gender transition. Now that the filming process is complete, the documentary is moving into the editing and post production stage. This is a project with a big heart and whole lot of rock 'n roll, glitter... and gender dysphoria!

This fundraiser will feature performances from some of New York's brightest Downtown luminaries. including: Sherry Vine, Michael Formika-Jones, Corey Tut, Michael Holland, Hattie Hathaway, Mimi Imfurst, Evelyn Eve Starr, and, of course, Lisa Jackson herself.

Expect also raffle prizes, a silent auction, special celebrity guests, a documentary sneak peak and much more!

www.lisajacksonrocks.com/documentary

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Monday April 30th
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Donation suggested

'Tis the night before Mayday... Walpurgisnacht to some... Beltane to others... Tonight, here at Rapture we'll be brimming with fertility, sensuality and hijinx as Stefani and the Soft Corps perform elegant and soulful jazz stylings, and John Marshall and Mizan appear as Titania and Oberon in a reprise of their legendary first appearance on Puck's Night, five years ago, at 55 Walker Street... "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania!"


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Get Smart.
Rapture Café & Books
200 Avenue A (Between 12th & 13th Streets) NYC
212-228-1177
www.rapturecafe.com

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mr.joe,

Hello family...

Just a reminder that tonight we are hosting a fundraiser for the Lisa Jackson Documentary.

Performances by Michael Formika-Jones, Dean Johnson, Sherry Vine,
Hattie Hathaway, Lisa Jackson, Evelyn Eve Starr, Mimi Imfurst, Michael
Holland, and more
Fabulous prizes, a brand new documentary sneak peek, and an OPEN BAR
sponsored by Stoli.
$10 cover
www.lisajacksonrocks.com/documentary