The Creative Life: A Conversation with Susanna Hoffs - November 9

woman with brown hair smiles at camera

Prime Performance - Thursday, November 9, 2023 at 7pm
Please note: This event takes place at Page Hall on the downtown UAlbany campus at 135 Western Avenue

Susanna Hoffs rose to fame as the founder, lead singer and guitarist of 1980s “hit machine,” The Bangles, a band known for "Manic Monday" (1986), "Walk Like an Egyptian" (1986), "In Your Room" (1988), and "Eternal Flame" (1989). Hoffs is also the author of a bestselling debut novel, This Bird Has Flown (2023)— the sad, joyful, sexy, and laugh-out-loud funny tale of Jane Start, a broke thirty-something singer who once had a big hit.  She is interviewed on stage by WAMC's Joe Donahue discussing her creative inspiration, craft and career. A question and answer session with the audience will follow.
 

  • Free admission
  • No tickets required

Past Creative Life guests & archive of conversations

Presented in partnership with the University Art Museum, NYS Writers Institute and WAMC Northeast Public Radio.  Funding support provided by University at Albany Foundation and University Auxiliary Services. (Photo by Jay Roach)

Susanna Hoffs rose to fame in the 80s as lead singer and guitarist of The Bangles, an all-female band that blended ’60s garage rock, lush harmonies, and jangly guitars and released a string of hits including "Manic Monday" (1986), "Walk Like an Egyptian" (1986), a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "A Hazy Shade of Winter" (1987), "In Your Room" (1988), and "Eternal Flame" (1989).

Hoffs is also the author of a bestselling debut novel, This Bird Has Flown (2023) — the sad, joyful, sexy, and laugh-out-loud funny tale of Jane Start, a broke, thirty-something one-hit wonder now performing to karaoke tracks in Las Vegas. Her life takes a turn when her longtime manager sends her to London to record a new album and she meets an elegant, handsome Oxford professor of literature. The New York Times reviewer called it, "a total knockout" and "the smart, ferocious rock-star redemption romance you didn’t know you needed."

Universal Pictures has acquired the movie adaptation rights to This Bird Has Flown. “As a lifelong fiction, film, and music junkie, writing the novel was the realization of a dream,” said Hoffs in an interview published in Deadline Hollywood. “As I was writing This Bird Has Flown, songs provided the score; I visualized the action and unfolding dialogue as if I were watching a movie spring to life in my head. Getting to adapt the book for the screen is the cherry on top of this joyous experience.”

In addition to her work with The Bangles, Hoffs has released five solo albums including “The Deep End,” an album of covers released in April 2023, and collaborated with an array of musicians.  After working together as members of Ming Tea in Mike Myers’ “Austin Powers” film trilogy, Hoffs and Matthew Sweet released three volumes of their highly acclaimed “Under the Covers” series, culling tunes from the '60s, '70s, and '80s.

The Creative Life series brings leading figures from writing, music, dance, choreography, visual arts, architecture, theatre, and filmmaking to the University for conversation with Donahue about their creative inspiration, craft, and careers. Previous guests in The Creative Life Series have included fiction writer Joyce Carol Oates, tap dancer-choreographer Savion Glover, jazz violinist Regina Carter, painter David Salle, author Lois Lowry, choreographer Garth Fagan, Broadway star Patti LuPone, Warhol film star Bibbe Hansen, sculptor Jean Shin, author/essayist Esmeralda Santiago, NEW YORKER journalist/author Susan Orlean, comedian/actor Paul Reiser, high-wire artist Philippe Petit, rapper Rakim, novelist Jhumpa Lahiri, chef/food writer Ruth Reichl, designer Debbie Millman, author Roxane Gay, art critic Lucy Sante and actress/comedian Jane Curtin.  Additional guests in the series will be added for the spring of 2024.