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Watch Laurie Anderson Perform Lou Reed’s The Raven and Other Unreleased Works

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 12: Artist Laurie Anderson (L) attends Laurie Anderson in Conversation with Alex Ross MasterCard Stage at the SVA Theatre during The New Yorker Festival 2014 on October 12, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images for The New Yorker Festival)

Lou Reed‘s personal archives–a diverse collection featuring everything from original writing drafts, to quirky personal affects, to hours of unreleased audio and video–are now on display at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in New York City. To commemorate the archives’ unveiling, Laurie Anderson participated in a performance of Reed’s 2003 work The Raven, a reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem of the same name that was an outgrowth from POEtry, a collaborative opera Reed did with stage director and writer Robert Wilson in 2000.

Reed’s former producer Hal Willner assembled a large chamber ensemble consisting of classical, rock, and jazz musicians, as well a revolving cast of guest readers for both the poetry from The Raven and other works of Reed’s. As the event description clarified, many of the non-Raven works were being “publicly recited for the first time.” Anderson read and played as well, seated at the back of the stage. You can watch the entire two-hour concert, streamed live last night, below.

A performance of Reed’s installation and soundscape Drones, also celebrating the unveiling of the archives, will also take place on March 15 at the Stephen A. Schwartzman Building in NYC, featuring tai chi demonstrations prior to the show.

https://livestream.com/accounts/7711185/events/7130357/videos/151717634/player?width=640&height=360&enableInfo=true&defaultDrawer=&autoPlay=true&mute=false