Bloomsday (USA)

James Joyce’s Ulysses is perhaps the most significant novel of the twentieth century: as a Modernist benchmark, as a document of social controversy, as the onetime subject of obscenity trials. It is perhaps most remarkable, however, for depicting in epic form a single day in one man’s life.

That day is June 16, now observed by Joyceans worldwide as Bloomsday. The day is every bit as singular as its inspiration: it is the only international holiday which recognizes a work of art. Below is a selection of Ulysses-inspired celebrations across the country.

June 14, 4 pm
Seattle, Location TBD
Wild Geese Players, ‘Oxen of the Sun’
For the past eleven years, Seattle’s Wild Geese Players have been performing dramatic readings from Ulysses. This year finds the Players at Chapter 14, ‘Oxen of the Sun’, a literary tour through the mind of Leopold Bloom.
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June 16, 12 p.m.
Philadelphia, Rosenbach Museum and Library
Bloomsday: Public Reading
The Rosenbach Museum is the proud owner of the Ulysses manuscript, and has a long tradition of celebrating Bloomsday in style. The main event – public readings from the published text, as well as selections from the original manuscript – is held at Delancey Place, and the day concludes, appropriately, with a pint at McGillin’s.
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June 16, 4 pm
Boston, Boston College, Bapst Library
Bloomsday Boston 2008: Love Across Boundaries
Visit the New Center for Arts and Culture, at Boston College, where Joyce Kulhawik will host an evening of reading, acting, food, and conversation. Discussions will place particular emphasis on themes of love in Ulysses.
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June 16, 7 pm
New York, Peter Jay Sharp Theatre
Bloomsday on Broadway XXVII
A performance of the complete text of the ‘Ithaca’ episode in an evening called Mr Leopold Bloom Comes Home. Soprano Judith Kellock will perform an interlude from Joyce’s ‘Chamber Music’, and Fionnula Flanagan gives us a rendition of Molly Bloom’s ‘Penelope’ monologue.
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June 16, 7 pm
San Francisco, Mechanics’ Institute
The Voice of James Joyce: Readings from Ulysses and Beyond

This expansive performance, featuring Renee Gibbons, Oonagh Kavanagh, and Robert Aryes, takes Ulysses as a starting point before spinning off into Joyce’s other celebrated works: the program will include dramatic readings from Finnegan’s Wake, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Pomespennyeach, and stories from Dubliners.
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Listings compiled by Catherine Tung.

To read an account of a Bloomsday event in New York, click here.