March 2023 Events for Myth Lovers
Virtual Events
On March 1, learn about Cara Blanca, Belize, where the ancient Mayans used to go on pilgrimage to commune with gods and ancestors or pray for rain.
On March 1, learn about “Operation Demeter,” an investigation into the looting of archeological artefacts that recovered 20,000 of them valued at some 40 million Euros, and resulted in the arrest of 23 people.
On March 1, learn about a huge metropolis that began to emerge in the Basin of Mexico around 100 CE, one the Aztecs would later call Teotihuacan, or “Birthplace of the Gods.
On March 3, attend an author talk with Andrew Wheeler.
On March 4, attend a free three hour event on storytelling that includes speakers that range from the author and classist Natalie Haynes to the Manifest actress Melissa Roxburgh.
On March 5, learn about Mytilene, home to the poet Sappho and a sanctuary of the fertility goddesses, Demeter and Kore. Materials there include an 18th century Ottoman cemetery with a vampire burial, a rich range of imported fine painted pottery, and remnants of a Roman brothel.
On March 5, discover the links between women and magic in Irish history and how women may have used ritual/spells.
March 7, in the talk “How to Hang out With Dragons, Spirits and Beyond,” Assistant Professor with the Department of English Language and Literature at the National University of Singapore, will discuss the use of Malaysian mythology and more in Zen Cho's short story collection Spirits Abroad!
March 9, the Hedge Sisters will bring you a selection of stories from world myths, legends, folk and faerie tales that explore aspects of the divine feminine associated with bogs.
Starting March 12, take an eleven week course for $250 that examines male archetypes in Greek mythology as a springboard for understanding your relationship to the gender.
On March 13, listen to a free lecture on Norse Mythology by a Viking Age historian.
Take a live (in the UK) and online 5-week introductory course that will discuss sections of the Odyssey and compare contemporary writers’ responses to particular characters and episodes, including texts by Margaret Atwood, Madeline Miller, Carol Ann Duffy, Michael Longley, Linda Pastan and Louise Glück.
March 14, art historian Dr Julia Dr Julia Musgrave will explore Titain’s challenge to present Ovid's tales from Greek mythology with a paintbrush.
On March 14, Katy Cawkwell will share little-known tales featuring Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt in Greek mythology: An ecstatic early morning encounter with the Dawn; A mother demanding to be remembered; A woman who escapes domesticity to take sweet revenge on her cheating husband, and more.
March 24, Helena Meskanen, an archaeologist with PhD in ancient history and years of experience excavating around the Mediterranean, will give a presentation and take your questions about the Trojan war, Greek myths, or archaeology in general.
On March 25, attend a generative workshop for speculative fiction writers. $45.
On March 27, learn about mystery, medicine and music in a Greek healing sanctuary.
March 27, Jon the Storyteller will give a new take on the legend of Robin Hood, spanning the dreams and grim realities of the Middle Ages to the present day.
On March 31, attend a virtual or in person tour of the Penn Museum at night and stay up late with the sphinx.
On April 20, Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link will discuss her new story collection, White Cat, Black Dog, in a free virtual conversation with Zach Powers, novelist and Artistic Director at The Writer’s Center.
Whenever you want, watch C.L. Clark’s reading and live Q&A about her new book The Faithless, the second volume in anti-colonialist Magic of the Lost trilogy.
Whenever you want, listen to the free audiobook sample of The Book of Gothel by Mary McMyne, a retelling of Rapunzel from the witch’s perspective.
Gustav Klimt’s painting The Kiss is in the public domain.
New York City Events
On March 1, attend an event that explores poetic contributions that have reframed the narrative around The Invisible Man by focusing on houselessness, incarceration, and femme, trans, and LGBTQ identifying people. The evening will include conversation and readings.
On March 1, Samantha Shannon will discuss A Day of Fallen Night, her epic fantasy prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree.
On March 6, Erica Berry will talk about her book Wolfish, which examines myths about wolves and what they tell us about our relationship to fear.
On March 7, Sarah Underwood will talk about her novel Lies We Sing to the Sea. After Queen Penelope’s 12 maids are hanged and cast into the sea, Poseidon demands in vengeance that Leto and eleven others die similarly. Leto finds, however, that death is not what she thought.
On Tuesday, March 21, watch a musical about the nymph Echo, after she is cursed to repeat only the last words someone says to her and embarks on a journey to find her voice again.
On March 21, Jacqueline Holland will talk at Barnes and Noble in Tribeca about her book The God of Endings, which is about a lonely vampire artist running an elite fine art school for children in upstate New York. But her life is suddenly upended by the arrival of a gifted child from a troubled home, the return of a stalking presence from her past, and her own mysteriously growing hunger for blood.
On March 29, Victor LaValle will talk at the Center for Fiction about Lone Women, about a woman in 1915 whose secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging a mysetrious trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the “lone women” taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it—except that she isn’t alone.
On March 29, Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel will discuss her new novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.
From March 31- April 1, attend the 2023 National Black Writers Conference Biennial Symposium Diasporic Visions: A Celebration of Black Speculative Fiction, along with ward-winning authors Sheree Renée Thomas, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Dr. Reynaldo Anderson, Tananarive Due, Jewelle Gomez, Deirdre Hollman, Wayétu Moore, L. Penelope, and Tim Fielder, among others.
Anytime you like other than a Monday or Tuesday, wander through two stories of luminous and immersive environments and a series of generative digital art at Inter_.
Anytime you like, go to Frieda Toranzo Jaeger’s exhibit Autonomous Drive at MoMA PS1, which “proposes a futurity of queer freedom, connection to nature, and the creation of new spaces of joy and pleasure” by examining traditional origin myths, such as that of Adam and Eve, and recasting them to envision new beginnings.
Later in the season you can have an immersive experience based on Harry Potter in the magical forest of Westchester.
On various dates throughout the month you can watch Cocktail Magique by Company IV, a vaudeville-esque show that includes art forms ranging from burlesque to opera, magic acts involving drinks, and more. The show unfolds around the audience, who can take part in the culinary fun.
On any day other than Monday or Tuesday, you can pretend to have a more interesting life by participating in an interactive experience that puts you in the center of a Stranger Things story.
Participate in the immersive theater experience Sleep No More, which portrays Shakespeare’s classic Scottish tragedy through the lens of suspenseful film noir. Tickets are available any night other than Tuesday.
Go to Gotham City, where top scientists are missing and Batman and Batgirl need new recruits. Gather intelligence, dodge lasers and communicate with some Gotham City characters in an interactive experience.
Any day you want you can go to Beetle House, a restaurant that takes inspiration from Tim Burton, Alfred Hitchcock, Bram Stoker, Washington Irving, Edgar Allen Poe and many more. The menu includes, Blood Bags, Hautned Lemonade, Bio-Exorcism’s, among other things. Dining in only, which adds a new COVID element to the scare show.
Check out the dragons, kings, pirate ships, Merlin’s flying machines and other spectacles at the new Legoland in Goshen, New York.
Get Butter Beer at the new Harry Potter-themed store and bar at 935 Broadway near the Flatiron Building.
Miss going to the movies? Watch a socially distanced one outside with your friends at Sidewalk Cinema on Thames Street in Brooklyn.
Check out the images of buddhas, bodhisattvas, tantric deities, protectors and more at the Rubin Museum’s Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room.
Events Outside NYC
"Myth.Slide1.16" by c.a.francese is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
On March 2 in Alberta, attend a lecture about the brothel in Pompeii, including its ancient graffiti and erotic frescoes.
On March 11 in Philadelphia, learn about the costumes of the Minoans and Mycenaeans immortalized in art and by Homer.
Anytime this month, you can visit the fairy tale ice caves at Lake George, which is about 3.5 hours from New York City by car.
Recurring Virtual Events
Every year in the secret realm of Bunnyville, magical creatures from around the world gather for their annual summit. This is supposed to be a time to reconnect with old and new friends, but this year someone (or some creature!) has stolen the Easter Bunny’s magical golden egg! Kids and adults can both enjoy this enchanted game featuring creatures like fairies, dragons, mermaids, and of course the Easter Bunny!
If you would rather be in France right now, view a selection of thematically-themed works from the Louvre online, including the ones in the Sully Wing, which includes major works of Greek and Egyptian art such as the Venus de Milo.
Take an online course with Stanford research scholar Adrienne Mayor in which you will “uncover the natural origins of stories about dragons. . .; ponder whether the Amazon horsewomen-archers of myth existed; consider the dilemmas of using poison weapons in myth and ancient historical times; and marvel at robots and other science fiction tales from the time of Homer.” $120.
Take an online mini-course about Rome, seeing how it exists not only in brick and mortar, but also in the realm of ideas, and through the eyes of locals and visitors. Topics will include Rome’s urban and architectural development, as well as its representation in maps and artworks from across the city’s exceptionally long lifetime. $99.
The NY Mythology Group, which is associated with the Joseph Campbell Foundation, holds presentations and discussions about mythology related topics ranging from the Greek goddess Hecate to Carl Jung. Their events usually take place on Tuesday evenings at 8 pm EDT, and have been online since the pandemic started.
BSFW, or Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers, meetings take place mostly online currently, but pre-pandemic were in the homes of writers mostly in Brooklyn but also on occasion Manhattan or Queens. Check out their calendar on meetup to attend their numerous writing workshops, social gatherings, meetings with editors/agents/authors, book clubs, and more. The group includes many published writers and has its own audio fiction magazine, Kaleidocast. If you post about your fetish for Olympian gods on their Facebook group feed, they (probably) won’t judge.
EREWHON BOOKS, a publisher focusing on novel-length works of speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, and related genres, holds readings usually on the second Thursday each month virtually for now and in a pre-apocalypse world at its high ceilinged office of many windows in Manhattan.
Fantastic Fiction at KGB is a monthly speculative-fiction reading series held on the third Wednesday of every month virtually for now, and in a pre-apocalypse world at KGB Bar in Manhattan. Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel host the event. As one might expect from a communism-themed bar, admission is free.
The NYC Greek Myth & Classical Lit Meetup meets every third Thursday of the month at the Cloister Cafe in the East Village to discuss the work of mostly long dead authors (e.g. Aristophanes, Dante.) The group has existed for more than a decade, so the long-term participants have already earned their unofficial classics PhD’s, and we already know that anybody who would do this for fun is as hip as a person can get.
Marcantonio Raimondi’s “A Bacchanal”. CC01.0 Public domain.
