Montclair Magazine Back to School 2017 | Page 26

montclair arts Montclair Montclair Sept. 16, 2017 through Jan. 6, 2018 CONTEMPORARY WOMEN CAUGHT ON CANVAS The MONTCLAIR ART MUSEUM celebrates the work of resident and renowned contemporary artist PHILEMONA WILLIAMSON in its ROBERTS GALLERY with a selection of paintings spanning her three-decade career to date. The artworks highlight girls and young women, often caught in unusual, enigmatic moments. 3 S. Mountain Ave., (973) 746-5555, montclairartmuseum.org Montclair resident and author LEE SIEGEL’s new memoir, The Draw, looks at the role money played in the disintegration of his parent’s marriage, as well as the impact it had on his collegiate life. “The book poured out of me, I really had no choice in it,” says Siegel, a veteran of various publications including The Nation, Slate and The New Republic. “It wrote itself through me.” The book, which he called a “literary memoir,” is set in the Bronx, where Siegel was born, and in northern New Jersey, where he grew up. It examines the impact of his father, a real estate broker, who ran into deep debt in the 1970s. The 272-page hardcover book ($26) was released in the spring. Montclair A RACE FOR SURVIVAL Upper Montclair Upper Montclair Sept. 19 through Oct. 1 Sept. 16-17, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The American premiere off Karin Coonrod’s production of “THE MERCHANT OF VENICE” – here, at a staging in Venice, Italy – is most likely the only interpretation in which Shylock is played by five actors of different ethnicities and genders within a single performance. Drama critic Ben Brantley of The New York Times has dubbed Coonrod “a theater artist of far-reaching inventiveness.” ALEXANDER KASSER THEATER on the campus of Montclair State University, 1 Normal Ave., (973) 655-5112, peakperfs.org. If fall is around the corner, then so is the FINE ART AND CRAFTS SHOW in Anderson Park at Parkside Street and Bellevue and N. Mountain avenues. Roughly 150 vendors offer up oil and watercolor paintings, photography, jewelry, glass, leather, wood, clay and more. Event goes on rain or shine. A UNIQUE “MERCHANT” 24 BACK TO SCHOOL 2017 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE A SEASONAL FAVORITE In The Dogs of Avalon: The Race to Save Animals in Peril ($27), local author and James Beard award winner LAURA SCHENONE takes on the world of animal rights activists who champion mistreated greyhounds. Her heroine is Marion Fitzgibbon, the head of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who, along with a diverse, international cast of advocates, creates a sanctuary where animals can heal and thrive. She will be giving a reading from her work 7-8 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 14, at WATCHUNG BOOKSELLERS, 54 Fairfield St., Montclair, (973) 744-7177, watchungbooksellers.com OF THE FINE MEMOIR EXPLORES MONTCLAIR AUTHOR’S FAMILY