TICKETED EVENT: Olivia Harrison with Ashley Kahn

An evening with Olivia Harrison in conversation with Ashley Kahn to celebrate Came the Lightening: Twenty Poems for George.

Please note:

• This event is ticketed. Tickets will not be available at the door.
• Seating is limited and will be first come, first served.
• Doors open at 5:30 pm.
• The signing line will only be open to those who have purchase a copy of the book from Rizzoli Bookstore.
• Can't attend? Preorder your signed copy here.

We're thrilled to present an evening with Olivia Harrison in conversation with Ashley Kahn about her new book Came the Lightening: Twenty Poems for George, marking the twentieth year since his passing.

"Here on the shore, twenty years later, my message in a bottle has reached dry land. Words about our life, his death but mostly love and our journey to the end." —Olivia Harrison

"Olivia evokes the most fleeting gestures and instants, plucked from the flow of time and memory and felt through her choice of words and the overall rhythm... She might have done an oral history or a memoir. Instead, she composed a work of poetic autobiography." —Martin Scorsese

As a contributor to the book Concert for George, the revised edition of I Me Mine, and George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Olivia is no stranger to writing beautiful words that have an ethereal connection to love.

Came the Lightening sees Olivia reflect upon her life with George, examining the intimacy of the emotional bond in their relationship through a memorable series of poems. She delves into the phenomenon of losing a partner and the passage of time.

Featuring an introduction written by Martin Scorsese, Came the Lightening also includes a selection of photographs and mementos curated by Olivia, including pictures of herself and George, to accompany the twenty poems.

Came The Lightening presents rare and previously unseen work by photographers such as the legendary Henry Grossman, award-winning wildlife and travel photographer Sue Flood, acclaimed portrait and reportage photographer Mary McCartney, and artist, photographer, and filmmaker Marcus Tomlinson. A drawing by artist and musician Klaus Voormann, and a portrait of George taken in Maui by Genesis's founder, Brian Roylance, also appear within the collection.

Olivia Trinidad Harrison is a film producer, and the widow of musician George Harrison of the Beatles. She first worked in the music industry in Los Angeles, for A&M Records, where she met George and then helped run his Dark Horse record label.

Olivia co-produced the Grammy award winning film of the 2002 Concert For Georgewhich she organised in memory of George. Olivia also received an Emmy for Outstanding Nonfiction Special from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2012 for her role as producer on the Martin Scorsese directed documentary: George Harrison: Living in the Material World. Olivia is a producer on the multi award nominated The Beatles: Get Back.

In late 2005, coinciding with the reissue of the album and film from the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh, Olivia established The George Harrison Fund for UNICEF with an initial focus on programs in Bangladesh. The fund had also assisted children affected by civil conflict, natural disasters or poverty in Afghanistan, Brazil, India, Angola, Romania, the Horn of Africa, Burma and Nepal and Mexico.

Olivia is a director of the Material World Foundation, a charity set up by George in 1973, overseeing the Foundation’s ongoing work in encouraging and promoting the exploration of alternate and diverse forms of artistic expression, and philosophies. The Foundation has lent its support to many established charities around the world. Olivia and the Foundation are also partners with Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation to ensure the preservation of film history from across the globe. Restoring such diverse works as Charlie Chaplin’s The Count to Mexican classic Enamorada, to the British The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

Ashley Kahn is a Grammy-winning American music historian, author, professor and producer. He teaches at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music, co-wrote Carlos Santana’s award-winning autobiography The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story to Light (Little, Brown, 2014), and has written books on two legendary recordings: Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, and one on a legendary record label: The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records. His most recent book is George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters. He also edited Rolling Stone: The Seventies, a 70-essay overview of that pivotal decade.

Kahn has worked on many music documentaries in a variety of roles: as producer/director—Carlos (to be released, in partnership with Imagine Documentaries); Kind of Blue: Made in Heaven for Sony Music (2005)—as a consultant/writer—Netflix’s Chasing Trane 2016) and Stanley Nelson’s documentary on Miles Davis for PBS (2018)—and as on-screen interviewee: PBS’s Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music (2016); BBC’s 1959: The Year That Changed Jazz (2009); and many others.

Kahn, who broke into the music business as a tour manager and music festival producer, has held a variety of positions in radio, television, and online businesses. As a journalist, his byline has appeared in many publications and websites, including Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The New Statesmen, and others, and his writing has garnered four ASCAP/Deems Taylor awards, and three Grammy nominations. In 2015, he was awarded a Grammy for his album notes to the John Coltrane release Offering: Live at Temple University, and in 2017, he received the Robert Palmer-Helen Oakley Dance Award for Excellence in Writing from the Jazz Journalists Association.