Our Events

Past Events

  • Wednesday, September 21, 2016 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | Open to the Public | Members' Room | Free of charge; advance registration required

    Before Connelly there was Christie. Before Child there was Chandler. And before King there was Queen.

    Embedded thumbnail for Panel: The Golden Age of Mysteries: Tracing the Bloodline of Crime Fiction
    Event Recording
  • Wednesday, September 21, 2016 - 11:00 AM | Reading Group | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | $50 for all four sessions (recommended); $15 per session

    This seminar will survey a collection of 19th- and 20th-century women who found independence in various ways, including the pen.

  • Thursday, September 15, 2016 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $10 with advance registration/$15 at the door

    Heaven’s Ditch illuminates the spiritual and political upheavals along this “psychic highway” of the Erie Canal from its opening in 1825 through 1844.

    Embedded thumbnail for Jack Kelly, Heaven's Ditch: God, Gold, and Murder on the Erie Canal
    Event Recording
  • Wednesday, June 15, 2016 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $10 with advance registration/$15 at the door

    Another wild, expansive collection from the eternally surprising Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.

    Embedded thumbnail for Poetry: Paul Muldoon, One Thousand Things Worth Knowing: Poems
    Event Recording
  • Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $10 with advance registration/$15 at the door

    Historians of the Revolutionary War in America have been fortunate in their resources: few wars in history have such a rich literary and cartographic heritage.

    Embedded thumbnail for Richard H. Brown and Paul E. Cohen with Barnet Schecter, Revolution: Mapping the Road to American Independence, 1755-1783
    Event Recording
  • Sunday, June 5, 2016 - 3:00 PM | Performance | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $20 with advance registration; $25 at the door

    A new play by Julia Izumi, directed by Ann Noling.

  • Thursday, May 19, 2016 - 6:00 PM | Children | For Members and Their Guests | Members' Room | Free of charge; advance registration required

    The New York Society Library Young Writers Awards, now in their fourteenth year, honor excellent writing by young Library members. Award winners and participants are honored at a ceremony and reception.

  • Sunday, May 15, 2016 - 3:00 PM | Performance | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $20 with advance registration; $25 at the door

    Sheldon Harnick’s words brought to life such beloved musicals as Fiddler on the Roof, She Loves Me (both back on Broadway this spring), and Fiorello. His collaborations with Jerry Bock, Michael Legrand, and Joe Raposo, among othe

  • Wednesday, May 11, 2016 - 5:00 PM | Reading Group | For Members and Their Guests | Whitridge Room | $40 for all three sessions (recommended); $15 per session

    Get an advance look at the 2016-17 season of exciting new plays at Primary Stages.

  • Tuesday, May 10, 2016 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $10 with advance registration/$15 at the door

    Over half of the world’s citizens now live in cities, and this number is rapidly growing. At the heart of these municipalities is the square—the defining urban public space since the dawn of democracy in Ancient Greece.

    Embedded thumbnail for Catie Marron with Adam Gopnik, City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World
    Event Recording
  • Tuesday, May 10, 2016 - 2:00 PM | Technology | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | Free of charge; registration required

    Taught by Syed Rasool

    This introductory class covers the basics of creating, editing, and presenting a PowerPoint slideshow and discusses simple and effective use of graphics, text, and animation in slideshow presentations.

  • Friday, May 6, 2016 - 2:00 PM | Technology | Taught by Diane Dias de Fazio

    You may also be interested in:
    PDF iconA Guide to Researching the History of a New York City Building by Christopher Gray

    Have you ever wondered about your building’s history? Curious about your neighborhood’s past?

  • Wednesday, May 4, 2016 - 2:00 PM | Technology | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | Free of charge; registration required

    Taught by Christina Amato and Erin Schreiner

  • Tuesday, May 3, 2016 - 6:00 PM | Reception | For Members and Their Guests | Members' Room | Free of charge; advance registration required

    The New York Society Library’s New York City Book Awards, established in 1996, honor books of literary quality or historical importance that, in the opinion of the selection committee, evoke the spirit or enhance appreciation of New York City.

    Embedded thumbnail for The New York City Book Awards Ceremony 2015-2016
    Event Recording
  • Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - 2:00 PM | The Writing Life | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | Free of charge; registration required

    Get the creative juices flowing in these fun and instructive sessions. Participants will receive a prompt and will have twenty minutes to write freely, after which they are encouraged to share their writing with the group.

  • Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $10 with advance registration/$15 at the door

    Mary Norris has spent more than three decades in the New Yorker’s copy department, maintaining its celebrated high standards.

    Embedded thumbnail for Mary Norris, Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen
    Event Recording
  • Thursday, April 21, 2016 - 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM | Children | Children's Library | All Ages | For Members Only | Free of Charge

    Stop by the Children's Library to pick up a pocket-sized poem to celebrate poetry all day!

    Registration is not required for this drop-in activity

  • Monday, April 18, 2016 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $10 with advance registration/$15 at the door

    Michael Dirda has been hailed as “the best-read person in America” (The Paris Review) and “the best book critic in America” (The New York Observer).

    Embedded thumbnail for National Library Week: Michael Dirda, Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books
    Event Recording
  • Friday, April 15, 2016 - 2:00 PM | Technology | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | Free of charge; registration required

    Taught by Peri Pignetti and Matthew Bright

  • Thursday, April 14, 2016 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Temple Israel, 112 East 75th Street (Park/Lexington) | $10 with advance registration; $15 at the door

    In June of 1961, A. E. Hotchner visited a close friend in the psychiatric ward of St. Mary’s Hospital. It would be the last time they spoke—three weeks later, Ernest Hemingway returned home, where he took his own life.

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $10 with advance registration/$15 at the door

    The bestselling author of Founding Gardeners reveals the forgotten life of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world—and in the process created modern environmentalism.

    Embedded thumbnail for National Library Week: Andrea Wulf, The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World
    Event Recording
  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016 - 10:00 AM | The Writing Life | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | Free of charge; registration required

    For National Poetry Month, together we will read and write poems—(ours, other people’s) and answer these questions:

    What is a poem?

    Why should we read them?

    How do we write them?

  • Friday, April 8, 2016 - 4:00 PM | Children | For Members and Their Guests ages 3 and up | $5 per person, payable at the door. Registration required.

    Do you like to wokka-wokka? What? You don’t know how to wokka-wokka?! Well, then, it’s time to learn.

  • Monday, April 4, 2016 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $10 with advance registration/$15 at the door

    Born Betsy Bowen into grinding poverty, the woman who reinvented herself as Eliza Jumel was raised in a brothel, indentured as a servant, and confined to a workhouse when her mother was in jail.

  • Thursday, March 31, 2016 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $10 with advance registration, $15 at the door

    The provocative and compelling story of one of the most fascinating and influential figures of the twentieth century: Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood—an indomitable woman who, more than any other, and at great personal cost, sha

    Embedded thumbnail for Ellen Feldman, Terrible Virtue

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