Book Talk: Guy Trebay | Do Something

EventIn Person

In Partnership with Housing Works

On Wednesday, September 25 from 6-8 PM, join us for another installment of the Municipal Art Society + Housing Works author series. Writer Guy Trebay will discuss his new coming-of-age memoir, Do Something, with New Yorker staff writer Rachel Syme.

The book is “the story of the education of a wayward wild child and acidhead who, searching for meaning and purpose, found refuge in the demimonde of the ruined but magical metropolis that was New York City in the 1970s” (Penguin Random House). Trebay and Syme will discuss Do Something, plus dive into how New York City features in the memoir and Trebay’s other work.

Light refreshments and snacks will be available for purchase. Additionally, there will be copies of Trebay’s book available for purchase at the event. Doors at 6 PM. Event at 6:15 PM. Email events@mas.org with any questions.

About the Book

Born in the Bronx, Guy Trebay was raised in an atmosphere of privilege on Long Island’s North Shore after his entrepreneurial father struck business gold with Hawaiian Surf, a wildly successful cologne company that capitalized on the optimism of the 1960s as marketed to “an adventurous new breed of men.’’ But behind the facade of material prosperity lay the emotional disarray of a household dominated by a charismatic, con artist father, a glamorous yet lost and careless mother, a family haunted by tragedy. By the time Trebay established a foothold at the fringes of Andy Warhol’s Factory and the diverse artistic tribes that thrived in Manhattan in that pre-digital era, his father had lost his fortune, his younger sister had been arrested for armed robbery and fled underground, the family house was in ashes, and his mother was dead.

Unschooled and on his own, Trebay became a striver, wending his way through a seemingly apocalyptic landscape populated by a vibrant cast of characters, including washed-up Hollywood screenwriters of the ’30s; Warhol superstars like Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling; fashion geniuses like Charles James; and emerging artists, filmmakers, writers, designers, photographers, and deejays who would powerfully influence mainstream culture in the decades to come. Read more here >

Wednesday, September 25
6:00 PM — 8:00 PM

Housing Works Bookstore
126 Crosby Street
New York, NY 10012

Tickets:
Free!

Attend
  • Writer Guy Trebay and New Yorker Staff Writer Rachel Syme. Photos: Elena Seibert and Rachel Syme.
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  • Do Something: Coming of Age Amid the Glitter and Doom of '70s New York. Image: Penguin Random House.
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Meet the Speakers

Guy Trebay (Featured Writer)
Guy Trebay has chronicled culture, high and low, since the 1970s, writing for The New Yorker, The Village Voice, Interview, Esquire, Artforum, and many other publications. For the past two decades, he has been a style reporter and critic for The New York Times. Among his professional recognitions, Trebay has twice been the recipient of the Meyer “Mike” Berger Award from Columbia University. His work is widely anthologized, and he is the author of In the Place to Be: Guy Trebay’s New York. He lives in New York.

Rachel Syme, Writer (Moderator)
Rachel Syme, a staff writer at the New Yorker, has covered Hollywood, theatre, fashion, television, style, music and other cultural subjects for the magazine since 2012. Her cultural criticism and reported features—which focus primarily on the intersections of women’s lives, artistic production, history, and fame—have also appeared in the Times Magazine, GQ, New York, Vogue, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair, among other publications. Syme is currently writing an upcoming book of essays for Knopf, and also a coffee-table book about the joys of handwritten correspondence for Clarkson Potter, which will be out in early 2025.