Date: Sep 14, 2012

“Larry Kirwan’s Rock & Read Tour” Back at Hofstra

Esteemed Irish Writer and Black 47 Vocalist to Read From His Latest Novel

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY – Larry Kirwan, playwright, author, and lead vocalist and guitarist for New York City-based Celtic rock band Black 47, returns for a second year to Hofstra to perform songs and read from his latest novel, “Rockin’ the Bronx,” on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. in the Helene Fortunoff Theater at Monroe Lecture Hall, South Campus. The show, part of “Larry Kirwan’s Rock & Read Tour,” is free and open to the public, but those interested should register online at Hofstra.edu/LarryKirwan. The event is sponsored by the Hofstra University Honors College and the Hofstra College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

The performance will combine readings from “Rockin’ the Bronx” with excerpts from his other novel, “Liverpool Fantasy,” an alternate history of the Beatles, as well as his memoir, “Green Suede Shoes,” which was published in both the U.S. and the U.K.  Kirwan will also integrate relevant songs from Black 47's 12 albums.  After the performance, he will take questions from the audience and sign books and CDs, which will be available at the event. To hear samples of Larry Kirwan’s solo work, visit myspace.com/LarryKirwan.

“Last year’s audience at Hofstra was very engaged and interested in learning the back stories of the Black 47 songs through readings from the novels and memoir,” says Kirwan.  “That's very gratifying to a writer.”   

Published in February 2010, “Rockin' the Bronx” is an immigrant tough-love story set in 1980-82, circa the deaths of John Lennon and Bobby Sands. Kirwan’s naïve protagonist, Sean, travels  to New York hoping to find his girlfriend, Mary, and returning to their native Ireland. But he soon finds that, en route to becoming a man, he must combat the harsh realities of unrelenting poverty, drugs, aids, racial tension and political unrest that plagued the Bronx during the 1980s.

“Using an Irish storyteller's technique, combined with rock and roll chops, Rock & Read is a very personable, one-on-one experience between performer and audience,” Kirwan said. “I employ only an acoustic/electric guitar, with occasional drum machine, to highlight the character-driven songs.”

“Although the show resonates with Irish-American audiences,” says Kirwan, “the story of emigration and assimilation is a universal one and appeals to both young and old, especially parents interested in introducing matters of a historical, social and political nature to their families.”  In its review of “Rockin’ the Bronx,” the Library Journal said: “The prolific Kirwan offers writing about the transformative and curative powers of music and performance that is brilliant on its own, but his lovingly rendered portrait of American and Irish social and political realties in the 1980s is both brutal and magical.”

Originally from Wexford, Ireland, Kirwan has written 13 plays and musicals, five of which are collected in the book “Mad Angels”.  “Hard Times” is currently running at The Cell Theatre in New York City, and “Liverpool Fantasy” has been produced Off-Broadway and at the Dublin Theatre Festival.  Additionally, Kirwan has published a collection of songs and stories entitled “Living in America,” hosts the popular Celtic Crush for Sirius XM Satellite Radio, and is a columnist for the nationally distributed Irish Echo newspaper.

In 1989, Kirwan and Chris Byrne formed Black 47, which built its reputation by performing an unblinkingly political and thoroughly Irish form of rock and roll, with songs covering topics from the Northern Ireland conflict to civil rights and urban unrest in contemporary New York. Merging rock, reggae, hip hop, folk and jazz influences, Black 47 is often recognized as the group that paved the way for the current Irish punk explosion led by bands such as Flogging Molly and The Dropkick Murphys. The band is currently celebrating more than 20 years on the road with its newest album, “Bankers and Gangsters.” 

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Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution of higher education where more than 11,000 full and part-time students choose from undergraduate and graduate offerings in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education, health and human services, honors studies, a School of Engineering and Applied Science, a School of Law and the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine.