Event Recordings
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Tuesday, December 5, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredThree of today's top mystery writers – Danielle Arceneaux, S.J. Rozan, and Paul Vidich - discuss their newest books and converse together about the writing process and the state of the modern mystery field.
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Thursday, November 30, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredA revolutionary guide to flourishing in times of flux and angst by harnessing the overlooked power of our uncertainty, from the award-winning journalist and author of DISTRACTED.
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Tuesday, November 21, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredVladimir Putin's first invasion of Ukraine, in 2014, set off a global economic clash, as the West used its clout with international markets to deter and penalize the Kremlin. This startling new book by Foreign Policy Research Institute fellow Maximilian Hess lifts the lid on Russia's response to Western sanctions and the resulting conflicts over finance, energy, and capital markets.
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Thursday, November 16, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredIt's the case of Amanda's lifetime, but solving it will require her to betray another spy - who just so happens to be her father. In this special publication-week event, Anna Pitoniak discusses her globe-trotting new spy thriller with bestselling novelist Cristina Alger.
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Tuesday, November 14, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredA tender biography of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century and an elegant exploration of artistic endurance, as told by a lifelong lover of Willa Cather’s work.
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Wednesday, November 8, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredA memoir of an extraordinary life—from a poet, international human rights activist, founding member of Amnesty International USA, journalist, hostess, famous beauty, foreign policy advisor; friend to politicians, movie stars, the legendary; discoverer of Philip Roth, longtime wife of Bill Styron and half of America’s literary golden couple at home and abroad. “[Rose Styron] has lived a life in interesting times, among legendary characters, a life well worth telling—and reading about.” —The Washington Post
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Thursday, November 2, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredRobert Rubin, former secretary of the Treasury and co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, shares thoughts on decision-making developed over more than six decades in markets, business, government, and politics, and offers readers an astute and original guide for navigating uncertain times. In this special event, he discusses his book and its relevance to current events with author and speechwriter David Litt.
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Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredTwo of America’s master essayists, Roger Rosenblatt and Lance Morrow, discuss the art of the essay and the state of American journalism, then and now, with Jim Kelly, former managing editor of TIME.
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Friday, October 20, 2023 - 12:00 PM | Lecture | Livestream | open to the public | free of charge | registration requiredFor the past four years, an international team of researchers led by the University of Liverpool in the UK has been exploring the history of libraries and reading habits in the eighteenth century, shedding dramatic new light on the contribution made by books to social, cultural and political change in this vital period in the formation of the modern world. This talk will feature two of the leading researchers on the project talking through some of their key findings, while also giving audience members a behind-the-scenes look at the project’s database before it is launched to the public later this year.
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Monday, October 16, 2023 - 6:15 PM | Special Event | Livestream | open to the public | free of charge | registration requiredThe Hudson Review celebrates its 75th anniversary this year with an original in-depth essay by A.E. Stallings, "Frieze Frame: How Poets, Painters (and Actors and Architects) Framed the Ongoing Debate Around Elgin and the Marbles of the Athenian Acropolis." At this special event, Ms. Stallings will give an illustrated talk about the history of the Elgin Marbles, discussing the 19th century’s many attitudes toward them through the present-day debate about their future.
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Monday, October 2, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredThe bestselling author of The Happiness Project discovers a surprising path to a life of more energy, creativity, luck, and love: by tuning in to the five senses. In this special event, Gretchen Rubin converses with Alexandra Horowitz, author of On Looking: A Walker's Guide to the Art of Observation and other books.
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Thursday, September 28, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Livestream | open to the public | $10 per person | registration requiredAward-winning historian Blair LM Kelley illuminates the adversities and joys of the Black working class in America through a stunning narrative centered on her forebears, in conversation with Eloquent Rage author Brittney C. Cooper.
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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | Members' Room | open to the public | free of charge | registration requiredTwo Black sisters growing up in small-town New England fight to protect their home, their bodies, and their dreams as the Civil Rights Movement sweeps the nation in Promise, a “magical, magnificent novel” (Marlon James). The Library joins the Harlem Arts Salon in presenting this special event with National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson. Light refreshments will be served.
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Sunday, September 10, 2023 - 2:00 PM | Lecture | Livestream | open to the public | $10 per person | registration requiredA startling new portrait of George Eliot, the beloved novelist and a rare philosophical mind who explored the complexities of marriage. Clare Carlisle, professor of philosophy and author of books on Spinoza and Kierkegaard, discusses her new biography with novelist and editor Christine Smallwood.
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Wednesday, June 14, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room and Livestream | open to the public | free of charge | registration requiredTwo scholars of the early Christian movements find new perspectives in the texts that were excluded from the canonical New Testament.
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Thursday, June 8, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Whitridge Room & Livestream | open to the public | free of charge | registration requiredAn unconventional history of the world’s largest cellular workhorse, from chickens to penguins, from art to crime, and more. Lizzie Stark chats with Kirstin Chen, author of the bestselling novel Counterfeit.
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Wednesday, May 31, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room & Livestream | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredA kaleidoscopic portrait of an enduring metropolis by the New York Times' architecture critic, The Intimate City reveals why New York, despite COVID and a long history of other calamities, continues to inspire and to mean so much to those who call it home and to countless others.
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Saturday, May 20, 2023 - 2:00 PM | Special Event | Livestream | open to the public | free of charge | registration requiredThe Library is pleased to offer a new and unique panel in partnership with the New York City Regional Chapter of the Authors Guild. Join us for an exploration of what happens when a writer's imagination moves into worlds and identities that lie beyond expected parameters. Participants will consider the significance of extra-experiential writing for the writer's own creativity as well as its impact on the larger literary community. The panelists are Roberto Carlos Garcia, Maité Iracheta, SJ Rozan, and Jennifer Shyue, with moderator Catherine Martinez Torigian.
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Monday, May 15, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room & Livestream | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredA riveting, immersive account of the agonizing decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan—a crucial turning point in World War II and geopolitical history—with you-are-there immediacy by the New York Times bestselling author of Ike's Bluff and Sea of Thunder.
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Saturday, May 13, 2023 - 2:00 PM | Special Event | open to the public | free of charge | registration requiredThe Harlem Writers Guild and the New York Society Library are proud to present a conversation between two African-American cultural icons, talking about their experiences in theatre, concert, and event production with moderator Michael Dinwiddie.
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Wednesday, May 10, 2023 - 6:30 PM | Special Event | Members' Room & Livestream | open to the public | free of charge | registration requiredThe Library honors this year's New York City Book Awards winners at a reception and presentation. Light refreshments are offered at 6:00 PM, with the presentation of awards beginning at 6:30 PM.
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Thursday, April 27, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | free of charge | registration requiredIn Whistling in the Dark, Lucienne S. Bloch shares her beautifully written personal essays exploring her New York City world from the 1950s to the present. Readers will be swept up in the graceful prose that distinguishes her award-winning work, with universal themes of memory, belonging, family, identity, survival, and aging. In this one-of-a-kind event, Ms. Bloch converses with author and journalist Barbara Ascher.
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Monday, April 24, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room & Livestream | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredLess than a century ago, the Second World War took the lives of more than fifty million people; more than six million of them systematically exterminated. Yet amid such darkness, there were glimmers of light—courageous individuals who risked everything to save those hunted by the Nazis. In the Garden of the Righteous chronicles extraordinary acts at a time when the moral choices were stark, the threat immense, and the passive apathy of millions predominated.
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Thursday, April 20, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | Members' Room & Livestream | open to the public | free of charge | registration requiredIn honor of Earth Day 2023 (April 22), an all-star slate of poets illuminate through poetry the real impact of climate change, global warming, and the effects of environmental injustice on our world. The poems come from John Curl, Stephanie JT Russell, Megha Sood, and Joanie HF Zosike, with a joint presentation by Margaret Porter Troupe and Quincy Troupe.
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Tuesday, April 4, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredIn these diaries the great American poet illuminates not only her literary genius, but her life as a devoted daughter, sister, wife, and public heroine; and finally as a solitary, tragic figure. In this special event, her biographer Daniel Mark Epstein illuminates passages from Millay's writings, with dramatic readings.
