Book Launch – Michael Gallope, The Musician as Philosopher: New York’s Vernacular Avant-Garde, 1958–1978

Thursday, October 17, 20248:00 pm

+ SPECIAL TICKETING includes paperback copy of the book ($10 off retail price)

$50 ADVANCE: Includes ticket and copy of The Musician as Philosopher: New York’s Vernacular Avant-Garde, 1958–1978 (University of Chicago Press, 2024)

***PLEASE NOTE – books will be available for pick up at Roulette at event only. No shipping or other arrangements will be made.

A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing. Watch below or on YouTube.


Join us for a panel conversation and Q&A for Michael Gallope‘s recent book, The Musician as Philosopher: New York’s Vernacular Avant-Garde (University of Chicago Press, 2024). Gallope’s book is an investigation into the way an array 1960s and 70s musicians associated with various strains of the New York avant-garde (David Tudor, Ornette Coleman, The Velvet Underground, Alice Coltrane, Patti Smith, and Richard Hell) embodied philosophical positions through their work as artists. It tackles complex and unsettling questions of race, gender, spirituality, and social dissent during the period with an enlightening framework about the enduring philosophical drive that animates their work.

Gallope will be joined by Benjamin Piekut, author of Experimentalism Otherwise: the New York Avant-Garde and Its Limits (University of California Press, 2011) and Henry Cow: The World is a Problem (Duke University Press, 2019); Sara Marcus, author of Political Disappointment: A Cultural History from Reconstruction to the AIDS Crisis (Harvard University Press, 2023), and Girls to the Front (Harper Perennial, 2010) a history of the 1990s punk-feminist movement Riot Grrrl; musician and scholar Kwami Coleman, who is at work on a book entitled Change: The “New Thing” and Modern Jazz; and guitarist and composer Wendy Eisenberg.

Performances by Kwami Coleman (solo) and Wendy Eisenberg w/ Ryan Sawyer.


Michael Gallope is Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota where he is affiliate faculty in the School of Music, Department of American Studies, Program in Religious Studies, and the Program in Moving Image, Media, and Sound Studies. He is the author of Deep Refrains: Music, Philosophy, and the Ineffable (University of Chicago Press, 2017) and The Musician as Philosopher: New York’s Vernacular Avant-Garde, 1958–1978 (University of Chicago Press, 2024). As a musician, he has worked in a variety of genres that span a range of experimental music, rock, and electronic dance music. In Brooklyn, he has collaborated with Janka Nabay, Skeletons, Starring, Oneida, and New Pope. In Minneapolis, he performs as a soloist and as a member of the minimal-ambient band, IE.

Book Launch – Michael Gallope, The Musician as Philosopher: New York’s Vernacular Avant-Garde, 1958–1978

Thursday, October 17, 20248:00 pm

+ SPECIAL TICKETING includes paperback copy of the book ($10 off retail price)

$50 ADVANCE: Includes ticket and copy of The Musician as Philosopher: New York’s Vernacular Avant-Garde, 1958–1978 (University of Chicago Press, 2024)

***PLEASE NOTE – books will be available for pick up at Roulette at event only. No shipping or other arrangements will be made.

A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing. Watch below or on YouTube.


Join us for a panel conversation and Q&A for Michael Gallope‘s recent book, The Musician as Philosopher: New York’s Vernacular Avant-Garde (University of Chicago Press, 2024). Gallope’s book is an investigation into the way an array 1960s and 70s musicians associated with various strains of the New York avant-garde (David Tudor, Ornette Coleman, The Velvet Underground, Alice Coltrane, Patti Smith, and Richard Hell) embodied philosophical positions through their work as artists. It tackles complex and unsettling questions of race, gender, spirituality, and social dissent during the period with an enlightening framework about the enduring philosophical drive that animates their work.

Gallope will be joined by Benjamin Piekut, author of Experimentalism Otherwise: the New York Avant-Garde and Its Limits (University of California Press, 2011) and Henry Cow: The World is a Problem (Duke University Press, 2019); Sara Marcus, author of Political Disappointment: A Cultural History from Reconstruction to the AIDS Crisis (Harvard University Press, 2023), and Girls to the Front (Harper Perennial, 2010) a history of the 1990s punk-feminist movement Riot Grrrl; musician and scholar Kwami Coleman, who is at work on a book entitled Change: The “New Thing” and Modern Jazz; and guitarist and composer Wendy Eisenberg.

Performances by Kwami Coleman (solo) and Wendy Eisenberg w/ Ryan Sawyer.


Michael Gallope is Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota where he is affiliate faculty in the School of Music, Department of American Studies, Program in Religious Studies, and the Program in Moving Image, Media, and Sound Studies. He is the author of Deep Refrains: Music, Philosophy, and the Ineffable (University of Chicago Press, 2017) and The Musician as Philosopher: New York’s Vernacular Avant-Garde, 1958–1978 (University of Chicago Press, 2024). As a musician, he has worked in a variety of genres that span a range of experimental music, rock, and electronic dance music. In Brooklyn, he has collaborated with Janka Nabay, Skeletons, Starring, Oneida, and New Pope. In Minneapolis, he performs as a soloist and as a member of the minimal-ambient band, IE.

Michael Gallope at Roulette (audio)