Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture at our museum – tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Absinthe
Doors open at 6:30pm and lecture starts at 7pm
Absinthe — there is no spirit so notoriously favoured by the rebellious minds of art & literature. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec famously meandered the brasseries & brothels of bohemian Paris carrying a hallowed cane, filled with a personal stash of the green spirit. Paul Verlaine & Arthur Rimbaud’s explosive affair, famously fuelled by a shared love for Absinthe, would eventually result in the attempted shooting of his young lover by Verlaine, twice. An Absinthe induced vision of 19th century France is forever immortalised in Vincent Van Gogh’s jarring colour juxtapositions and, most famously, in the tale of his self-mutilated ear gifted by the artist gifted to his favourite prostitute. Pataphysics founder, Alfred Jarry, was perhaps the only Absintheur mad enough to drink his Absinthe neat, being a devout alcoholic who considered water to be a terrible poison. Even the ‘Wickedest Man in the World,’ Aleister Crowley, wrote an ode to “The Green Goddess” while observing its lucid influence upon the patrons of The Old Absinthe House in New Orleans. Pablo Picasso, Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, Émile Zola — the list of famous Absintheurs would inspire anyone to pick up a glass of this tantalising elixir, but what is this “tongue-numbing, brain-warming, idea-changing, liquid alchemy” as described by fellow Absinthe drinker Ernest Hemingway?
Join Allison Crawbuck, curator of The Last Tuesday Society’s absinthe exhibition ‘Let Me Be Mad!’ on view summer 2024, for an exploration of the spirit’s notorious influence over the creative minds of the Belle Époque.
Allison Crawbuck
Allison Crawbuck is co-owner of The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society and Director of the Viktor Wynd Museum od Curiosities. Allison Crawbuck is also author of Spirits of the Otherworld: A Grimoire of Occult Cocktails & Drinking Rituals, published by Prestel/RandomHouse (Sep 2021 | ISBN 9783791387147).
In January 2021, Allison Crawbuck and Rhys Everett launched the UK’s first Absinthe distillery: Devil’s Botany located in East London. The award-winning Devil’s Botany Absinthe range is copper-pot distilled with British wheat spirit and the traditional trinity of grand wormwood, green anise, fennel seed, along with other botanicals that can be found growing wild across Britain.
Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour & Cocktail Bar. Celebrating spirit’s connection to art, literature & mixology, Devil’s Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today.
We are unable to give refunds for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances