November Events For Myth Lovers
Virtual Events
On November 1, listen to an online lecture about sirens, mythology and maritime navigation.
In an online class that starts November 4, learn which yoga practices to use with which moon phase.
On November 4, listen to an online lecture about the Crossroads Enclosure, a boulder in Athens that was covered with hundreds of small vessels, placed there in the latter part of the 5th century BCE, along with an eclectic collection of unusual objects, including gilded pebbles, knucklebones, writing styli, and fragments of broken sculptures.
On November 4, learn about how early bronze age women in Central Anatolia had weapons in their graves and were also sometimes depicted as fighters.
On November 7, learn about how Alexander and his successors, who brought the cults and myths of Greek heroes such as Herakles to the territories they conquered, actively connected them with local gods and founding sites for their worship.
On November 9, Louise Erdrich will give a virtual talk about her new book The Sentence with Ann Patchett. Erdrich’s novel tells of a bookstore in Minneapolis whose most annoying customer refuses to leave after dying on All Soul’s Day. The protagonist, who has landed a job in the bookstore that she can’t lose after years of incarceration, must solve the mystery behind the haunting.
On November 10, you can join an online discussion of Jorge Luis Borges' short story, "The Gospel According to Mark," an allegorical take on the time-worn story of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
On November 11, participate in an online salon from the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology about “The Old European Roots of Women’s Circle Dance.”
On November 11, learn about religious rituals on the Greco-Roman ship.
On November 12, listen to Sarah Walker, Eric Schaller, Rudi Dornemann and Daniel Braum read short selections from their stories from the forthcoming folk horror anthology the Dark Heart of the Wood from Oxygen Man Books.
On November 16, author Mohamed Mbougar Sarr will discuss his recent novel La plus secrète mémoire des hommes, which follows the story of a young Senegalese author in contemporary Paris who pursues the backstory of a mythical and mysterious book “The Labyrinth of the Inhuman.”
On November 17, learn about a 13 foot sculpture of Juno that stood in a garden in Boston for a century, a reflecting the break-up of the great papal and aristocratic collections in late 19th century Rome.
On November 23, listen to the radio broadcast of the opera Eurydice, which is based on Sarah Ruhl’s play, which tells the story of Orpheus going back to Hades for his wife from her perspective.
New York City Events
From November 3 through the 6, watch an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Whisperer in the Darkness at the St. John’s Lutheran Church.
On the weekends from November 6-21, you can watch the play An Oresteia, or What We Have Seen, an adaptation of classical mythology commissioned in response to current events. The play starts with the story of Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek assault on Troy who ended up killed by his wife, and details the repercussions through the generations.
From November 4-7 the Art Show takes place online as well as at the Park Avenue Armory.
On November 9 tell ghost stories around a firepit at Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room.
On November 10 watch some comedians play a table-top RPG game set in NYC during the year 2101 at Caveat (since obviously RPG games will be the only thing we have left by then…)
The New York Comedy Festival takes place from November 8-14, and will include events such as “Praying for Godot: A Two-Nun Show.”
From November 12 through January 9, you can see the immersive light show Luminocity, including Chinese lanterns and a “doughnut tunnel Homer Simpson would love” at Clark Botanic Garden in Long Island.
On November 15, tell a five minute story about the Lady Luck to an audience at the Moth.
On November 19, the Oz archeologist, Gabriel Gale, will be in conversation at the Rizzoli bookstore with Oz historian John Fricke about the illustrations of wicked witches, fairies, robots, insects, two-sided people, and more in The Wizard of Oz.
From November 23 to December 16, you can watch the opera Eurydice, which is based on Sarah Ruhl’s play, which tells the story of Orpheus going back to Hades for his wife from her perspective.
Edward Poynter’s Orpheus and Eurydice is in the public domain.
On November 25 you can watch a gigantic, air-filled baby yoda and other familiar characters floating through the air in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, either in person or on NBC.
On November 28 you can watch a puppet show of the fables the Lion and the Mouse and the Tortoise and the Hare.
All month on Fridays-Sundays through November 8, take an outdoor tour on the grounds of Washington Irving’s estate in Sleepy Hollow and go on a literature-themed scavenger hunt. Later that evening, watch a performance of the legend.
All month through November 21, meander through an 18th-century landscape and discover more than 7,000 illuminated jack o’ lanterns. made to resemble mythical creatures.
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.
Watch a string quartet perform the soundtracks from movies such as Aladdin, the Little Mermaid, Cinderella, and more in candlelight at the Mondrian Hotel Terrace. Tickets available on different days.
Check out the images of buddhas, bodhisattvas, tantric deities, protectors and more at the Rubin Museum’s Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room.
U.S. Events
"Myth.Slide1.16" by c.a.francese is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
From November 4-7, the World Fantasy Convention takes place in Montreal both online and in person.
From November 20-21, you can go to the Long Island Dr. Who convention in Holtsville, NY and listen to some timely panels, such as one about plague and disease on the show and another on how the pandemic influenced viewing habits.
From November 26-28, international Comic Con takes place in San Diego.
DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention, no longer takes place August 25-29, 2021. Instead, it will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington DC on December 15-19, 2021, with both virtual and in person components.
The conference Anime Los Angeles 17 has been postponed for a year. Instead of this month, it will take place from January 6-9, 2022, in Long Beach California.
World Events
On November 13-14, you can attend Comic Con Liverpool. Guests will include actors from Vampire Diaries/The Originals, Harry Potter, The Walking Dead, Star Wars and more.
From November 19-21, you can see Hagrid, Dr. Who, the witch Marnie from True Blood, Fa Mulan and more at the London Film and Comic Con.
Recurring Virtual Events
Nina Allender’s 1915 cartoon “Fairy Godmother Wilson: 'The pumpkin shall be a coach; the mice will be the horses to pull it; and YOU shall go to the polls!'" is in the public domian.
Starting May 1 until November 22 at 7 pm U.K. time, twice a month you can attend Fairy Tales and Therapy: “group discussion spaces exploring fairytales and mythology stories to expand our understanding of individual and collective psychology.” £17.50
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.
On Sunday mornings, Krista Lea will present an online meditation class that uses sound, aroma, poetry, and goddess mythology to focus on the archetype of the Divine Feminine. Tickets $11
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.
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