The Library is delighted to announce its calendar of fall events. Skim through these highlights or go to the EVENTS tab for complete listings.
Past Events
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Tuesday, July 10, 2018 - 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM | Special Event | Whitridge Room | for members only | free of charge | no registration required
If you’d like to join a book club, meet like-minded readers at this informal open house. The Library provides wine and suggestions, and you and your new group do the rest.
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Wednesday, June 13, 2018 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredThe revered New York Times bestselling author traces the development of technology from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age to explore the single component crucial to advancement—precision—in a superb history that is both an homage and a warning for our future.
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Thursday, June 7, 2018 - 2:00 PM | Special Event | Open to the public | Whitridge Room | free of charge | advance registration requiredAfter a recent visit, Library staff members Harriet Shapiro and Cathy McGowan present a talk with images and music about Red Cloud, Nebraska, the prairie town where Willa Cather grew up.
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Sunday, June 3, 2018 - 3:00 PM | Performance | Open to the public | Members' Room | $25 per person | advance registration requiredEven if you’re not aware of it, you know Johnny Mercer. His more than 1,400 songs for radio, records, motion pictures and Broadway include “Laura,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Accentuate the Positive,” and “Moon River.” He was both a top radio personality and recording artist himself and was the co-founder and President of Capitol Records. Johnny Mercer’s poetic genius continues to reflect the romantic yearnings, the wit, the energy, and the personality that is our America dream. Return to a golden age of American songwriting with host Michael Lasser and musicians Cindy Miller (vocals) and Alan Jones (piano and vocals).
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Thursday, May 31, 2018 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | Open to the public | Members' Room | Free of charge; advance registration requiredIn our occasional series, experts on a current-events topic bring their knowledge to an informal presentation and discussion with readers who want to get beyond the headlines. Join us for a special live recording of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research’s Podcast for Social Research, as three experts on Middle Eastern culture, history, and politics consider the relationship between religion and mass politics in the modern age.
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Wednesday, May 30, 2018 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the public | Members' Room | $15 per person | advance registration requiredThe Yale professor and author of The Protestant Ethic Revisited gives us an authoritative account of the long battle between exclusionary and inclusive versions of the American story.
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Wednesday, May 23, 2018 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredFrom the author of the acclaimed Queen of Fashion – a brilliant look at the glittering world of turn-of-the-century Paris through the first in-depth study of the three women Proust used to create his supreme fictional character, the Duchesse de Guermantes.
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Monday, May 21, 2018 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | For members and guests | Members' Room | free of charge | advance registration requiredThe Young Writers Awards honor excellent writing by young Library members. Award winners and participants are honored at a ceremony and reception, with writing advice and inspiration from the author judges.
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Thursday, May 17, 2018 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredThe story of how one woman's long love affair with New York's Central Park led her to organize its rescue from a state of serious decline, returning it to the beautiful place of recreational opportunity and spiritual sustenance that it is today.
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Wednesday, May 9, 2018 - 6:30 PM | Special Event | Open to the public | Members' Room | free of charge | advance registration requiredClimate change is already happening. Authors Amitav Ghosh and Helen Phillips talk with photographer and filmmaker Nathan Kensinger about the role novelists and artists play in helping others to better imagine its effects.
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Tuesday, May 1, 2018 - 6:00 PM | Reception | For members and guests | Members' Room | reception at 6:00 PM, presentation at 6:30 PM | free of charge | advance registration requiredThe New York City Book Awards, founded in 1996, honor each year’s best books about the city. This annual ceremony honors the winning authors and publishers.
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Monday, April 23, 2018 - 6:30 PM | Special Event | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $20 per person | Advance registration required
Once I was a stranger to this people; Now I am one of them, and, because I came from so far, better was I able to see them with their good qualities, and with their defects…
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Thursday, April 19, 2018 - 6:30 PM | Special Event | Open to the public | Members' Room | free of charge | advance registration requiredClimate change is already happening. Jeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach trilogy, speaks with visual artist Zaria Forman, conservation biologist Gleb Raygorodetsky, and Indigenous leader Victoria Tauli-Corpuz about “transitional environments”—that is, regions of land undergoing change so dramatic they’re barely recognizable. They’ll be joined by a representative from an indigenous community, and together, will discuss how art and activism can bring greater awareness to the communities and environs most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
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Wednesday, April 11, 2018 - 6:30 PM | Special Event | Open to the public | Members' Room | free of charge | advance registration requiredClimate change is already happening. Author William T. Vollmann, playwright Chantal Bilodeau, and journalist David Wallace-Wells approach its dialogues through different mediums—book-length and magazine journalism, and through theatre. They’ll discuss their approach to gathering stories, their thoughts on why those stories matter, and the challenges they’ve faced when shaping issues of climate change into digestible narratives for the public.
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Tuesday, April 10, 2018 - 10:00 AM | The Writing Life | For members only | Whitridge Room | Free of charge; advance registration requiredWhat’s it like to work with a freelance editor? Walter Bode, editor of many award-winning books, takes you into the heart of the matter with a before-and-after example of editing.
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Saturday, April 7, 2018 - 3:00 PM | Special Event | Open to the Public | Members' Room | Free of charge | Advance registration requiredApril is National Poetry Month! In this one-time-only event, three distinguished poets read poems inspired by New York City. In discussion, they then consider the connections between place and poetic identity.
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Tuesday, April 3, 2018 - 6:00 PM | The Writing Life | Open to the public | Members' Room | $15 per person | advance registration requiredUptown at Night returns to the Members’ Room with a vibrant new lineup of humorous storytellers and comedians. Fresh, funny and fearless, these talented humorists shine a light on our modern foibles large and small. Please join us for a delightful evening that showcases the Library’s lighter side.
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Thursday, March 22, 2018 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the public | Members' Room | $15 per person | advance registration requiredThe mysterious, highly influential hidden world of Yale’s secret societies is revealed in a definitive and scholarly history.
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Wednesday, March 14, 2018 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the public | Members' Room | $15 per person | advance registration requiredThe spectacular true story of a scrappy teenager from New York’s Lower East Side who stowed away on the Roaring Twenties’ most remarkable feat of science and daring: an expedition to Antarctica.
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Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - 10:00 AM | The Writing Life | For members only | Whitridge Room | free of charge | advance registration requiredJoin DAUGHTERS OF THE SAMURAI author Janice Nimura for a workshop on what can be the most joyful part of the publishing process: sharing your story in person.
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Tuesday, March 6, 2018 - 6:00 PM | The Writing Life | Open to the public | Members' Room | $15 per person | advance registration requiredLibrary members read from their own short stories, novels, poetry, criticism, memoir, and plays. Refreshments and wine will be served.
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Sunday, March 4, 2018 - 3:00 PM | Performance | Open to the public | Members' Room | $25 per person | advance registration requiredThe Move-Ment looks at four historical movements—Slavery, the Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights, and Black Lives Matter—and examines how women were an integral part of each. This one-woman piece by writer, performer, and educator Shontelle Thrash combines lecture and performance to show how people are “moved” to take action and bring about change.
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Saturday, March 3, 2018 - 3:00 PM | Children | For members and their guests | Whitridge Room | for ages 2 and older | $10 per child | advance registration requiredOn Saturday, March 3, please don’t tarry On your way to the Children’s Library For Seussical stories will be told To entertain everyone young and old!
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Thursday, March 1, 2018 - 5:30 PM | Children | For members and their guests in grades 7-12 | Whitridge Room | $15 per person | advance registration requiredPoet, performer, and teacher Ellen Hagan leads a performance poetry workshop using contemporary poems and improvisational games. Teens will leave this workshop with fresh new work of their own and techniques for taking their work from page to stage.
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Wednesday, February 28, 2018 - 5:30 PM | Children | For members and their guests in grades 3-8 | Whitridge Room | $15 per person | advance registration requiredIn this ongoing series, young writers are invited to join notable authors in exploring different genres. Poet and playwright Dave Johnson leads a discussion on contemporary poetry and teaches participants how writers turn ideas into poems, giving children the inspiration and knowledge to craft their own poems.
