Ben Ratliff, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, and Alex Abramovich discuss writing about music, then guitarists Douglas Cuomo and Ken Wessel play a short set in the Hillsdale bookstore.
Saturday, October 17, 5–7pm | Hillsdale, NY | Free, reservations requested
Books & Cake in Hillsdale celebrates its first birthday month with an evening of music writing and music. At 5pm, three critics talk about listening and writing: Ben Ratliff, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, and Alex Abramovich, who will also take questions. Afterward, guitarists Douglas Cuomo and Ken Wessel play a “tiny bookstore concert.” The event is free, but the store asks guests to reserve a seat through the “Reserve a Spot” button on Eventbrite.
Ratliff was the jazz and pop critic for The New York Times from 1996 to 2016. His five books include Run the Song: Writing About Running About Listening, longlisted for the 2025 National Book Award for Nonfiction, and Coltrane: The Story of a Sound, a National Book Critics Circle finalist. He is also editing Nik Cohn’s Corner Boy: Loiterings New and Old, due this month.
Jelly-Schapiro is a geographer and writer whose books include Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made and Island People: The Caribbean and the World. He directs publishing at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn and teaches journalism at NYU. Abramovich writes for the London Review of Books and The New Yorker and teaches profile writing at NYU.
Cuomo is a composer and guitarist who has written for the concert hall, opera stage, film, and television, including the theme for HBO’s “Sex and the City.” His works include a concerto for saxophonist Joe Lovano and the opera Doubt, with a libretto by John Patrick Shanley. Wessel toured the world for 12 years, from 1988 to 2000, as guitarist in Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time band.
Books & Cake opened on October 25, 2025, at 8 Anthony Street, started by the children’s book authors Eve Yohalem and Julie Sternberg. It sells new books for adults and children, shelved under headings like “Read if You Need,” along with slices of cake, coffee, and tea.
Books & Cake, 8 Anthony Street, Hillsdale, NY. Reservations through Eventbrite.
