Gabriel Byrne and a Dozen Local Authors Read to Benefit Brooklyn Heights School

By on November 20, 2009 11:30 am in Brooklyn Heights
Photo by Aki Tuccu

Photo by Aki Tuccu

A P.S. 8 parent  files this dispatch about last night’s reading event to benefit the school:

Despite drizzling rain, over a hundred people turned out for the first annual PS8 Night to Celebrate Reading Event at Umbrage Gallery in Dumbo last night to hear from over a dozen local authors, as well as actor/director/producer Gabriel Byrne. The event featured well-known authors such as Tad Friend, Warren St. John, Paul Zelinsky, and Josh Neufeld, as well as PS8 parent Melissa Milgrom and future PS8 parent Beth Feldman and others. After much coaxing, Gabriel Byrne joined author Arthur Phillips in an unplanned enactment of Phillips’ The Song is You: A Novel, which required “someone who can act a bit and has an Irish accent,” said Phillips, pointing to Byrne at the back of the room. Byrne reluctantly joined Phillips at the microphone to play a young female Irish piano teacher, much to the audience’s amusement. He finished his piece with a reading from James Joyce’s “The Dubliners.” The event raised money for the school’s enrichment programs and other necessities, and was made possible by generous donations from local businesses, authors, and publishers.

More photos by Aki Tuccu here.

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  • stephanie milligan

    Oh be still my heart! Why doesn’t he do this stuff when I’m in town!!!!?????

  • Cranky

    lol – I hear ya Steph. :-)

  • davoyager

    I think it was a great success. Some cast of characters these local authors are, and a great range of books. It was a real hit with Mr. Byrne’s reading at the end.

    We live on fertile ground for the written and spoken word and I think this will be an annual event for years to come.

    Congratulations P.S.8

  • Monty

    I think Byrne cashed in all of this artistic credentials with his turn in End of Days. I guess that stuff pays the rent and the book readings cleanse his palate.

  • Stella

    Gosh, Monty. Were you there, lending your name to a worthy cause? Somehow, I think not.

  • Lozzie

    Thank you so much for sharing your impressions of the evening. I have the audio book of Gabriel Byrne reading James Joyce, and his voice brings the text to life. Sounds like a wonderful event! Thank you also for the pictures. He really is VERY easy on the eye …

  • strozzi

    Shame on you, Monty. Mr. Byrne exhibited iextraordinary generosity and civic responsibility by lending his talent to an event that raised funds for reading materials and programs at YOUR local public, elementary school, PS8. Our community is fortunate to have him, and is in his debt. After such a public lapse in manners, you could “cleanse” everyone’s palate with an apology to Gabriel, not to mention your check made out to the PS8 PTA reading programs.