Past Events
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Repeats every month until Tue Apr 21 2020 except Fri Nov 01 2019, Sun Dec 01 2019, Wed Jan 01 2020, Sat Feb 01 2020, Sun Mar 01 2020, Wed Apr 01 2020. Also includes Sun Nov 10 2019, Sun Dec 15 2019, Sun Feb 09 2020, Sun Mar 15 2020, Sun Apr 19 2020.Sunday, October 20, 2019 - 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM, Sunday, November 10, 2019 - 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM, Sunday, December 15, 2019 - 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM, Sunday, February 9, 2020 - 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM, Sunday, March 15, 2020 - 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM, Sunday, April 19, 2020 - 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM | Reading Group | Whitridge Room | for members only | by donation | advance registration requiredEducator Blanche Siegal leads informal discussions of the beloved Victorian author Anthony Trollope and other master writers of the same century. This popular group is now in its ninth season.
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Nicholas Birns, The Marginal and the Universal: Ellison’s Invisible Man and Nguyen’s The Sympathizer
Repeats every month until Thu Dec 12 2019 except Tue Oct 01 2019, Fri Nov 01 2019, Sun Dec 01 2019. Also includes Wed Oct 16 2019, Wed Nov 13 2019, Wed Dec 11 2019.Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Wednesday, October 16, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM | Reading Group | Whitridge Room for members only | $60 for the set of four sessions | registration requiredRalph Ellison and Viet Thanh Nguyen both treat marginal experience as potentially universal to create masterworks of epic scope and astonishing innovation. -
Repeats every month until Wed Oct 30 2019 except Tue Oct 01 2019. Also includes Tue Oct 15 2019, Tue Oct 29 2019.Tuesday, September 24, 2019 - 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM, Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM, Tuesday, October 29, 2019 - 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM | Reading Group | Whitridge Room | for members only | $50 for the set of three sessions | advance registration requiredPoet and professor Bherwani leads discussion of lyric expressions eastern and western, old and new, that celebrate or lament the natural world.
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Thursday, October 10, 2019 - 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM | Special Event | Members' Room | open to the public | $20 per person | advance registration requiredUptown at Night returns to the Members’ Room with a vibrant new lineup of humorous storytellers and comedians including Lisa Birnbach, Annabelle Gurwitch, Maeve Higgins, Chip Kidd, David Litt, and James Harvey on piano.
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Wednesday, October 9, 2019 - 4:00 PM | Children | Whitridge Room | Grades K+ | For Members Only | Free of Charge
Join us to celebrate global cultural events.
This month, we'll travel to Mexico to honor the dearly departed.
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Repeats every month until Thu Dec 19 2019 except Fri Nov 01 2019, Sun Dec 01 2019. Also includes Wed Oct 30 2019, Wed Nov 20 2019, Wed Dec 18 2019.Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Wednesday, October 30, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Wednesday, November 20, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Wednesday, December 18, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM | Reading Group | Whitridge Room | for members only | $60 for the set of four sessions | advance registration requiredThis seminar looks at Whitman (born in May 1819) as poet, American, man.
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Repeats every month until Fri Dec 13 2019 except Tue Oct 01 2019, Fri Nov 01 2019, Sun Dec 01 2019. Also includes Thu Oct 24 2019, Thu Nov 21 2019, Thu Dec 12 2019.Thursday, September 26, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Thursday, October 24, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Thursday, November 21, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Thursday, December 12, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM | Reading Group | Whitridge Room | for members only | $60 for the set of four sessions | advance registration requiredEuripides' tragic plays competed directly with Homer's epic Iliad to challenge his Athenians. Twenty-four hundred years later, they still shock.
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Wednesday, September 25, 2019 - 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredThe editor of the American Scholar brings us the first major biography of P.T. Barnum in a generation, a vivid account of the forefather of American entertainment.
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Tuesday, September 24, 2019 - 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM, Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM, Tuesday, October 29, 2019 - 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM | Reading Group | Whitridge Room | for members only | $50 for the set of three sessions | advance registration requiredPoet and professor Bherwani leads discussion of lyric expressions eastern and western, old and new, that celebrate or lament the natural world.
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Thursday, September 19, 2019 - 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM | Special Event | Members' Room | open to the public | free of charge | advance registration requiredWhile our country continues to wrestle with the complex legacies of slavery, a look at the history of enslaved people’s clothing and sartorial agency as a form of resistance. This event is co-sponsored with More Speech.
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Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM | Reception | Members’ Room/Peluso Family Exhibition Gallery for members and guests | free of charge | no registration requiredJoin us for a festive opening to the Wanderlust exhibition of travel books, which is open to the public through December 31, 2019.
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Nicholas Birns, The Marginal and the Universal: Ellison’s Invisible Man and Nguyen’s The Sympathizer
Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Wednesday, October 16, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM | Reading Group | Whitridge Room for members only | $60 for the set of four sessions | registration requiredRalph Ellison and Viet Thanh Nguyen both treat marginal experience as potentially universal to create masterworks of epic scope and astonishing innovation. -
Monday, September 16, 2019 - 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM | Special Event | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | advance registration requiredIn this lecture with recorded music, renowned author and broadcaster Michael Lasser offers an evocative and probing account of the popular songs - including some written originally for the stage or screen - that America heard, sang, and danced to during the turbulent first half of the twentieth century.
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Tuesday, September 10, 2019 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | advance registration requiredA mind-bending exploration of gravity, a cold case that scientists are closer to cracking than ever - and whose very investigation has yielded untold truths about the cosmos and humanity itself.
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Monday, June 10, 2019 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | Members' Room | for members and guests | free of charge | registration requiredMembers and guests are cordially invited to a celebration of Library members who have published books January-June 2019.
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Sunday, June 9, 2019 - 2:00 PM | The Writing Life | Members' Room | open to the public | $20 per person | registration requiredMarcia Butler’s new documentary The Creative Imperative blends many artists’ interviews about their relationship with the creative process. In this one-time-only event, Ms. Butler screens her film, then further explores its questions in a panel discussion with four remarkable authors.
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Thursday, June 6, 2019 - 2:00 PM | Special Event | Whitridge Room | open to the public | free of charge | registration requiredExhibition curators Harriet Shapiro and Cathy McGowan introduce the women (and men) behind American women’s right to vote.
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Monday, May 20, 2019 - 6:00 PM | Reception | Members' Room | for members and guests | free of charge | registration requiredAward 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 16, 2019 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredRunning from her father’s brutal legacy, Joseph Stalin’s daughter defects to the United States during the turbulence of the 1960s. This sweeping historical novel and unexpected love story is inspired by the remarkable life of Svetlana Alliluyeva.
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Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - 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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Tuesday, April 16, 2019 - 6:00 PM | The Writing Life | Members' Room | open to the public | $20 per person | registration requiredUptown at Night returns to the Members’ Room with a vibrant new lineup of humorous storytellers and comedians including Jim Shepard, Emmy Blotnick, James Harvey, Jocelyn Chia, and Dr. George Lombardi.
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Saturday, April 13, 2019 - 3:00 PM | Special Event | Members' Room | open to the public | for ages 13 and up | free of charge | registration requiredJoin the conversation with award-winning, bestselling author Renée Watson and writer/performer Ellen Hagan as they discuss their powerful new YA novel Watch Us Rise.
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Monday, April 8, 2019 - 6:30 PM | Special Event | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredIn this one-of-a-kind event, two outstanding American poets read and discuss their work. Jenny Xie is the author of the debut poetry collection Eye Level, winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets and a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry. Gregory Pardlo's collection Digest won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
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Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - 11:00 AM | Reading Group | Whitridge Room | for members only | $50 for the set of three sessions or $20 per session | registration requiredIn his ambitious historical novels Barnaby Rudge and A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens ventured from his usual subject matter to ask political and social questions that still resonate today.
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Tuesday, April 2, 2019 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredBestselling author Lessard takes a deep dive into our surroundings—cities, countryside, and sprawl—to explore change in the meaning of place and reimagine our American landscape. Ms. Lessard discusses The Absent Hand with the president of the Foundation for Landscape Studies, author Elizabeth Barlow Rogers.
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