Chez Parker and Charles: A Benefit for Light Industry

Tuesday, May 21, 2024 at 7pm
Renwick Street, New York

Jeff Preiss and Zeena Parkins invite you to their home for an intimate dinner, whose proceeds will help support another season of screenings and lectures at Light Industry. Following the success of our Les Blank and Marguerite Duras evenings last year, which were centered around their personal recipes, we now turn our attention and our appetites to a writer whose work has exerted a profound influence on our little cinema, the poet and critic Parker Tyler. Recently, while Ed was perusing the collection of Tyler’s papers at the New York Public Library, he came across a menu for a dinner party held by Tyler and his partner Charles Boultenhouse at their West Village apartment on April 3, 1960, at a time when guests might have included friends such as Maya Deren, Marie Menken, Willard Maas, and Gregory Markopoulos. The document begins, simply, with its setting: “Chez Parker and Charles.” Chef Athena Kokoronis will be adapting the five courses it outlines into a delectable spread, and, as with our other dinners, we’ll be forgoing the usual trappings of the benefit gala—no speeches, no honorees, just a nice meal among friends.

The evening will also mark the conclusion of our spring fundraising campaign. A benefactor has very generously offered to match all contributions to Light Industry over the next month, up to $25,000, whether they be tickets for the dinner, one-time donations, memberships, or sales of artworks and merch. Give today, and double your money!

The original menu:

Champagne
Champagne Cocktails
Black Olives, Radishes, Olives Stuffed with Nuts

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Homemade Pizza
Red Wine

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Filet Grey Sole in White Wine Sauce
Green Asparagus
Sauvignon

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Endive Salad with French Dressing
Bel Paese
Mouton Rothschild

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Raspberry Sherbet
Cookie Miniatures

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Demitasse of Brandy

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Vegetarian options available upon request.

Feel free to email us with any questions: [email protected]

Image: Maya Deren, Portrait of Parker Tyler, c. 1944