NOLA Book Launch Party for Winging It by Randy Fertel

Come join us for a night of celebration at the New Orleans Jazz Museum as we launch Randy Fertel's latest book, Winging It: Improv's Power and Peril in the Time of Trump. Get ready for an evening filled with live music, delicious food, and of course, great company. Meet the author, get your book signed, and immerse yourself in the vibrant literary scene of NOLA. Don't miss out on this unforgettable event!

The event is free but advance reservations are required.

In Winging It, literary scholar and cultural polymath Randy Fertel returns to the interrogation of improvisation he began with his earlier work A Taste for Chaos (2015). In this new volume, Fertel explores the wider landscapes of popular culture and public affairs, ranging deftly from the unmediated experience in Fred Astaire’s tap dancing, Frans Hals’s brush strokes, hook-up culture, psychedelic trips, social media, and Hamilton’s hip-hop to—last, though not least—the performative and demagogic posturing of Donald Trump. The gesture all improvisations share—“I will create this on the fly,” or as Trump has it, “my gut knows more than many brains”—defies rationality and elevates embodied emotions, instinct, and intuition, challenging our assumption that everything of value depends upon long study, tradition, and hard work. Claiming to be free of serious purpose, improvisation only pursues pleasure. Or so it says.