IT’S ALL IN YOUR MIND

John Habich and Andrew Solomon hosted a cocktail party downtown to celebrate the publication of Jack El-Hai’s book “The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and his Tragic Quest To Rid the World of Mental Illness” (John Wiley & Sons).

The book recounts the controversial work of a pioneering figure in the field of lobotomy, Dr. Walter Freeman.

The doctor kept about 80 of his prefrontal lobotomy patients conscious during their operations in order to determine the point at which their thought processes broke down. He believed that the disorientation would clear up within a few weeks. He asked several patients to recite the Lord’s Prayer. Mr. El-Hai said that Freeman once asked a patient during a procedure, “What’s going through your mind?” The patient replied, “A knife.”

In attendance were the author’s agent, Laura Langlie; an editor from Wiley, Eric Nelson; authors T.J. Stiles, Robin Marantz Henig, and Francine Prose, and Andras Szanto of Columbia University’s National Arts Journalism Program.

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SPEAKING OF PAIN

At the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s “Drink and Be Literary” series, writer Paul Auster quoted famed sports columnist Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith. Smith once observed that writing was easy – you just open a vein and bleed.

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TOE THE LINE

Aretha Franklin is recovering from a broken toe. She broke it in her Detroit home, her manager, Ruth Bowen, told the chairman of the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, Page Morton Black. Ms. Franklin has been getting around by wearing a special shoe.

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MOICO’S MOMENT

A crowd gathered to celebrate Moico Yaker’s exhibition “Having Trouble to Pray,” which is on display at Yeshiva University Museum through May 1. The Center for Jewish History show explores Yaker’s hybrid identity: It combines Jewish themes with Latin-American influences.

Those who loaned works for the exhibition include the president of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn.

Among the attendees were the director of the Queens Museum of Art, Tom Finkelpearl; independent curator Eugenie Tsai; the director of Art in General, Holly Block, and noted art collector Morris Orden. Many artists were at the opening, such as Fred Tomaselli, Alexis Rockman, Amy Sillman, Julie Wachtel, Rochelle Feinstein, Matvey Levenstein, Mierle Ukeles, and Vera Lutter. Writers included Isaac Goldemberg, Linda Yablonksy, and Rhonda Lieberman. Others from the magazine and publishing worlds turned out: the artist’s girlfriend Robin Cembalest of ARTnews; Aperture’s editor, Melissa Harris, and ARTnews magazine’s editor and publisher, Milton Esterow.

Upstairs, a second lively reception was held for photographer Jaime Permuth’s show “Manhattan Mincha Map,” running through June 19. Mr. Permuth’s work chronicles observant Jews reciting afternoon prayers throughout the city – thereby transforming secular spots such as pizza parlors and shipping offices into sacred space. The Knickerbocker noticed photographer and Kean University professor Tony Velez handing Mr. Permuth a Cuban cigar in congratulation.

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RISKY BEHAVIOR

At the bar Happy Ending’s weekly music and reading series, master of ceremonies Amanda Stern presented the terms for the evening: The three readers had to take a “public risk” in front of the microphone. Samantha Hunt read a poem from her novel, “The Seas” (MacAdam/Cage) – backwards. The book is about a woman who believes she is a mermaid. Ms. Hunt also read a passage about the narrator’s mother, a deaf woman, falling in love.

Tom Bissell, author of “God Lives in St. Petersburg” (Pantheon), told of the overwhelming self-consciousness that ruined his first attempt to play banjo in public. Then he read from his book, the protagonist of which is an American journalist stranded in wartime Afghanistan.

Graphic artist David Rees, who wrote “Get Your War On” (Soft Skull Press), used PowerPoint to present a mystery theater piece called “The Voicemail Murder.” For his risk, he read from a book he had privately printed 10 years ago. It was a combination of poetry, rap, and rant.

Young publishing workers in the audience talked over drinks like Red Stripe beer. Cooling off were Andrew Miller of Anchor/Vintage; a senior editor at Houghton Mifflin, Webster Younce, and Amber Qureshi of Picador.

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UNCOUTH BEHAVIOR

A history professor at Columbia University, Eric Foner, spoke at a CUNY Graduate Center panel on “Defending Academic Freedom in an Atmosphere of Terror.” Mr. Foner described a trip to the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. – a James Bond car was on display.

He recalled an exhibit on terror in America from 1776 to the present. Included were figures as diverse as John Brown, labor anarchists, Islamic fundamentalists, and the British who burned the White House. Burning the White House, he said, was “perhaps uncouth, but it wasn’t terrorism.”

Mr. Foner said that at the museum, “you can actually vote” on whether the government should have the authority to hold or deport people “suspected” of supporting groups hostile to America. Of the roughly 30,000 people who participated in the survey, 55% supported holding or deporting suspects and 35% did not. The rest were unsure. Underscoring the word “suspected,” Mr. Foner was alarmed that the majority of voters were prepared to “jettison principles of jurisprudence.”

“How to explain this?” he asked. Fear trumps liberty every time, he said.

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DIALOGUE & DISCUSSION

A large crowd attended a roundtable discussion at the close of a recent conference called “Black Masculinities” at the CUNY Graduate Center. Featured speakers were Ta-Nahesi Coates of the Village Voice; the Reverend Osagyefo Sekou of New York Common Ground; author Keith Boykin, who wrote “Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies, and Denial in Black America,” and an art history professor from York College and CUNY Graduate Center, Margaret Rose Vendryes.

During the question-and-answer period, audience member Dominick Zollo picked up on the word “dialogue” and began to wax eloquent on the subject. “Sir,” the moderator Jon Christian Suggs interjected, “This is a beginning to be a monologue about dialogue.”