KRAMPUS NIGHT at PRS - An Evening of Folkloric Holiday Traditions

KRAMPUS NIGHT AT PRS — An Evening of Folkloric Holiday Traditions with author Al Ridenour, featuring pre-show Cocktail Hour, live Germanic holiday songs, actual Krampuses and Der Struwwelpeter!!

Join us for an evening celebrating the winter holidays in ancient Teutonic style with author and Krampus expert Al Ridenour and friends. Ridenour is the author of The Krampus and the Old Dark Christmas (Feral House, 2016), the only in-depth English-language study of the Teutonic folk-demon, Krampus. Now in its second printing, it has been praised by critics including the LA Times’ Elizabeth Hand, who found the book “gleefully erudite,” remarking that it “deserves to become a classic.”

This illustrated presentation will reveal how the often-misunderstood figure of Krampus is connected to centuries-old witchcraft beliefs and an older, darker understanding of the Christmas season as a time offering access to the spirit world. Expect to be visited A PACK OF COSTUMED BEASTIES from KRAMPUS LOS ANGELES who will sniff out exactly who has been naughty this year! Attendees will see a rare showing of extended excerpts from the film, DER STRUWWELPETER by noted fairy-tale film director Fritz Genschow (Germany, 1955, 30 min. total). Evocative of the 19th-century “sugar-bread and whip” style of parenting favored in Mittel Europa, the film brings to life the notorious collection of rhymed cautionary tales penned and illustrated in 1845 by asylum medic, Dr. Heinrich Hoffman. Staged in series of charming tableaux precisely mirroring Hoffman’s drawings, narrated in rhyme, and often incorporating ballet, this exceedingly rare film was subtitled by Ridenour himself, when he discovered there was no available English language copy and is only available in screenings presented in-person by the author.

In addition to Ridenour’s presentation and film screening, attendees will enjoy a pre-show cocktail hour with the musical stylings of Jerry Wheeler on hammered dulcimer player evoking the ambiance of the Austrian Alps. And an after-event performance by renowned singer Christina Linhardt performing Germanic songs of the winter holiday season.

Signed copies of The Krampus and the Old Dark Christmas will be available at the PRS bookstore before and after the event. Author Ridenour will be available for personal inscriptions immediately after his presentation. And there will be plenty of photo ops with Krampus!

Al Ridenour has lectured on Krampus traditions (and related) topics at the international Goethe-Institut, The San Diego Art Institute, New Americans Museum, Tucson Museum of Modern Art, The Bowers Museum, and in the UK at London’s Last Tuesday Society and Whitby’s Winter Ghosts conference. He discusses dark folklore topics similar to the Krampus in his bi-monthly podcast Bone and Sickle. In 2013, as co-founder of Krampus Los Angeles, Ridenour helped gather a troupe of Krampus performers, crafted suits and went on to organize an ongoing series of parades and themed shows known as LA Krampusfest. In 2014, Ridenour’s group hosted the first Europeans visitors to appear stateside in traditional costumes, and in 2015 they hosted an entire 15-person troupe from the state of Salzburg. Ridenour also directs an annual production of a 19th-century Austrian Krampus play from a script of his own translation and has exhibited his handcrafted suits at the University of Southern California’s Doheny Museum, and provides Krampus suit rental for film and television and events.

Ridenour is also the author of Offbeat Food, Adventures in an Omnivorous World. As a journalist, he has contributed articles to Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Fortean Times, Maxim, Stuff, Saveur, and other periodicals as well as the websites Boing Boing, Laughing Squid, Atlas Obscura, Folklore Thursday, Morbid Anatomy, among others.

Christina Linhardt has enjoyed an eclectic and versatile career as a concert singer, writer, and actress. She is most known for her “Classics to Cabaret” act (which was the headliner for the opening of the Grand Concert Hall in Saxony, Germany), and her independently produced cd’s, “Circus Sanctuary” and “Voodoo Princess” (available on iTunes and Spotify). As well as being a regular entertainer at the World Famous Hollywood Magic Castle. Ms. Linhardt is a recommended chanteuse for the coveted Southern California Chamber Music Consortium. In Los Angeles, she is the official national anthem singer for the German Consulate, and represents Berlin at the Los Angeles Sister Cities Festival. She has performed for the 2010 Los Angeles Opera Ring Festival, the House of Blues Gospel Brunch, The Grove, The Brand Plaza Concert Series and even down in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She is the main subject of the award winning 2016 documentary “Flight of the Gypsy Nightingale”.  Christina was the lead singer of the acclaimed Angels of Venice (Windham Hill Records)  and The Honey Lulus Tiki Trio.

In-person tickets and online ZOOM ticket option available for lecture only. Please email [email protected] if you have any questions.

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