DATE: SAT, MAY 11, 2024, 7 PM
VENUE: LeFrak Concert Hall
TICKETS: $10/FREE with Online RSVP for QC Students, Faculty & Staff w/ ID 

Join us for an exclusive live episode of the SongWriter podcast where stories turn into songs! We welcome two iconic artists to the stage: the legendary author Joyce Carol Oates and the innovative musician and novelist Ali Sethi, recognized in TIME’s 100 Next list. Hosted by the podcast’s creator and producer, Ben Arthur, this live event promises captivating stories, mesmerizing music, and thought-provoking conversations.

The performance will focus on caregiving, and Dr. Allison Applebaum will join in a conversation about the contemporary research on the subject. Dr. Applebaum is the founder of the Caregivers Clinic at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and author of the recent narrative non-fiction book Stand By Me: A Guide to Navigating Modern, Meaningful Caregiving.

There is no more versatile and accomplished American writer than Joyce Carol Oates. The author of many books, Oates has penned bestselling novels, critically acclaimed collections of short fiction, as well as essays, plays, poetry, a memoir, A Widow’s Story, and an unlikely bestseller, On Boxing. Her remarkable literary industry – which includes work as an editor and anthologist – spans forms, themes, topics and genres. Joyce Carol Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and since 1978, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Ali Sethi, a New York-based writer, composer, and performer, gained global fame with his hit single “Pasoori,” topping Spotify’s Global Viral chart in 2022 and becoming Google’s most hummed-to-search song. Blending traditional South Asian melodies with global beats and drawing on “folk” and “woke” iconographies to tell powerful tales of identity, Sethi’s work has been described as “stealthily subversive” by The New Yorker. His innovative approach has earned him a spot on TIME’s 100 Next list.”

Ben Arthur is an Emmy-nominated songwriter, and the host and creator of SongWriter, a podcast that turns stories into songs. Featured guests of the show include Questlove, Neil Gaiman, Roxane Gay, Susan Orlean, Steve Earle, Cheryl Strayed, and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.

Dr. Allison Applebaum is a caregiving scientist, writer, researcher, speaker, and advocate. She is an Associate Attending Psychologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and an Associate Professor of Psychology at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Applebaum is the Founding Director of the Caregivers Clinic at MSK. The Caregivers Clinic is the first of its kind to provide targeted psychosocial support to caregivers of patients receiving cancer care at MSK.

This event is presented by the Queens College School of Arts, the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Literary Translation, and Kupferberg Center for the Arts. This SongWriter event is made possible by a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation.