Photo by Marc Millman

On Jan. 13, David Byrne will participate in a conversation for the Museum of the City of New York as part of their 2021 program series. The conversation will be alongside author, illustrator and artist Maira Kalman; the two worked together on a book version of Byrne’s American Utopia musical. The Q&A will be hosted by WNYC’s Alison Stewart.

Byrne and Kalman’s book, also titled American Utopia, was released on Oct. 27. The book contains some words from the musical, but it is mostly centered around the illustrations. According NPR’s review of American Utopia, “[the book] contains little of the play’s language; in fact, it contains little language, full stop. Some pages offer only a few words, or a notable place name — Truth or Consequences, New Mexico makes an appearance, as do Bullfrog, Utah and Goofy Ridge, Illinois—or, in one case, the chorus of the Talking Heads hit ‘Road to Nowhere.’ The resulting effect is much more like reading a book-length poem than reading a play, though few poems or poetry collections come filled with charming illustrations of trees, dancers, and party-hatted dogs.”

Just before the book was released, a concert-film version of American Utopia was released on HBO, directed by Spike Lee. For more information on that, click here.

The conversation will be hosted on Zoom and will begin at 7 p.m. ET. While it is free to register, there is a suggested donation component. Click here to register.