JFK: The Fascination Continues with Opera, Performance Art, James Franco, and Money

by Paula Newton November 23, 2015
Photo: Courtesy Fort Worth Opera via TheaterJones.com

Photo: Courtesy Fort Worth Opera via TheaterJones.com

Of course there were exhibitions, lectures, and events on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, but yesterday marked the 52nd anniversary and the fascination still continues.

Newspapers and TV reports still run the “Where Were You When” stories. Over at Dealey Plaza, a moment of silence gathering was held Sunday afternoon, followed by events at the Sixth Floor Museum.

The Fort Worth Opera has been organizing a number of lectures and panel discussions throughout the area on topics relevant to JFK’s legacy—the space race, civil rights in America, Cuba and immigration issues, journalism, and the arts. (There are three events left.) All of this is to prepare its audience for its world premiere opera, JFK, recounting the final evening the 35th President of the United States spent in Fort Worth. There will be three performances of the opera in April and May 2016.

Out on the West coast, the Broad Art Museum hosted Karen Finley’s performance of “The Tip of Her Tongue: Karen Finley and The Jackie Look” this weekend. (History lesson: Finley, sometimes referred to as the “First Lady of performance art” [we’re not sure if makes her related to Marina Abramović, the “grandmother of performance art”] was involved with all of that National Endowment for the Arts shenanigans, beginning with the 1989 ruckus over Mapplethorpe and Serrano exhibitions and effectively ending with the Supreme Court case of NEA v. Finley in 1998.) For the LA Times review of “The Jackie Look,” go here.

D Magazine reported last month that James Franco was running around town filming 11/23/63, a TV miniseries based on the Steven King novel about that day (to be aired next year). Earlier this month, the license plates of the limo carrying JFK through Dallas went for $100,000 at auction. And just recently, a North Texas woman filed a lawsuit against the federal government for the return of her grandfather’s footage of the assassination (or she’ll accept $10,000,000).

0 comment

You may also like

Leave a Comment

Funding generously provided by: