Janaka Stucky featuring Carter Logan
Join mystic poet and performer Janaka Stucky for an immersive, multidisciplinary performance of his book ASCEND ASCEND featuring live musical accompaniment from Carter Logan of SQÜRL.
In 2017, Janaka Stucky wrote ASCEND ASCEND over the course of twenty days, coming in and out of trance states while secluded in the tower of a 100-year-old church. Rooted in the Jewish mystical tradition of Hekhalot literature, this book-length poem makes us both passenger and witness as we participate in the ecstatic destruction of the self through its union with the divine.
In celebration of Neurot Recordings’ release of a new vinyl double LP of Janaka reciting ASCEND ASCEND during a 2019 performance at Seattle’s All Pilgrims Church with legendary local cellist Lori Goldston (Nirvana, Cat Power, Earth), Janaka will be performing the piece in full for the first time since the recording was captured in a curated 4-city tour produced by Atlas Obscura.
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"Janaka Stucky is extraordinary, and his work riveting."— Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin
"It is steeped in soil, rot, stardust, moonlight, the dissolution of the self, and ‘heartblood pouring from a ram horn/ On the pubic shadow of the earth.’ Part prayer, part yowl, part spell, it’s grounded in the ancient and the occult."— The Boston Globe
"Ascend Ascend is a mystical epic in which visionary experience continually emerges from life in the world"—BOMB Magazine
"Janaka Stucky performs poetry readings like he's part fire-and-brimstone preacher, part doom-metal frontman"—VICE
"Janaka Stucky‘s haunting, intense readings are some of the most gripping examples of the form you’re likely to witness."—Vol.1 Brooklyn
Irondale exists at the intersection of art, education, community engagement and social justice. We develop in long-term artistic collaborations to create theatre that expands the boundaries of the art form and helps audiences and artists make sense of today’s world.
Every play and program we produce is chosen for its relevance to what is going on in the world now. Our projects range from epic theater pieces developed over several years to work that immediately engages at-risk youth, young scientists and engineers, and the New York City Police Department.
At the core of what we do is the notion that theatre can lead us to a greater understanding of who we are and how we can communicate with each other—and coexist with empathy and compassion—in an increasingly polarized world.
Janaka Stucky is the founding editor of the award-winning press Black Ocean, and has authored four poetry collections, including Ascend Ascend (Third Man Records & Books, 2019). His writing has appeared in a variety of publications such as The Huffington Post and Poetry Foundation—and has been profiled in The Believer, Vice, and BOMB Magazine. He incorporates esoteric & occult influences to develop a trance poetics, which he has taught or performed in over 60 cities around the world.
Carter Logan is New York City based musician and composer. He has been a member of the NYC independent and DIY music scenes for nearly two decades and is most known for his longtime collaboration with filmmaker/musician/artist Jim Jarmusch in the experimental band SQÜRL.
As a composer and member of SQÜRL, Logan has co-created the scores to ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (2013), PATERSON (2016), THE DEAD DON’T DIE (2019) and the documentary ROBBY MÜLLER: LIVING THE LIGHT (2019). The group has contributed music to the films SILLAGES (2019), and MOTIVATION 2: THE CHRIS COLE STORY (2015), and independently, Logan has also created music for the television series GHOST ADVENTURES, and the film BOOM FOR REAL: THE LATE TEENAGE YEARS OF JEAN MICHEL-BASQUIAT (2017). SQÜRL have four EPs and four Original Score albums to their name, and in May 2023 released their debut full-length album entitled Silver Haze to great acclaim.
