laurie-anderson

Laurie Anderson plans year-long residency as Joe's Pub 2020 Vanguard Artist

Laurie Anderson has been named the 2020 Vanguard Artist at Joe’s Pub, which honors her contribution to the arts. The award comes with a $50,000 prize, and she’ll be performing and curating a Sunday Evening Series from March through December. “The end of the weekend is such a no man’s land—an interesting time to play with new combinations,” said Anderson, who also says she’s looking forward to exploring political themes in the election year.

The Sunday series kicks off February 3 with a performance at the Vanguard Gala, and will then be monthly at Joe’s Pub where, according to The New York Times, she will perform at four shows and select the lineup for the rest. Anderson says she plans to mix musicians and writers for each Sunday Evening Series event. “I’m tending to invite a writer and a musician to collaborate in ways that they wouldn’t otherwise,” she told New York Times. “The writers are from all across the board, from novelists to poets to lyricists to just people who think and write. So it’s a pretty odd, jaggedy sort of thing that I hope will be fun.” Stay tuned for lineup details and tickets

The first Vanguard Award was given to Nona Hendryx in 2018, and the 2019 recipient is Judy Collins (who has a Joe’s Pub residency in November). Laurie Anderson just released Landfall, which she made with Kronos Quartet.