Past Events
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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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Tuesday, June 6, 2023 - 10:00 AM | Children | Whitridge Room | For Members | Ages 24 Months and Younger
Join us for songs, stories, and movement for babies and toddlers.
Pick up a ticket in the lobby. -
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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Wednesday, May 24, 2023 - 12:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredA revelatory account of how the loving marriage of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth saved the monarchy during World War II, and how they raised their daughter to become Queen Elizabeth II, based on exclusive access to the Royal Archives.
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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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Tuesday, May 16, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Reception | Members' Room | 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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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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Wednesday, May 3, 2023 - 11:00 AM | Reading Group | Whitridge Room | for members only | $50 for the two sessions | registration requiredLong considered the most famous Italian novel, Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi) until now has never been compellingly rendered into English. Michael F. Moore’s new version brings us the novel in all its many-sided splendor. In two sessions, we will appreciate this newly accessible masterpiece of modern literature.
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Saturday, April 29, 2023 - 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM | Children | Children's Library | For all ages (including adults!)
Stop by the Children's Library to pick up a pocket-sized poem to celebrate poetry all day!
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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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Thursday, April 20, 2023 - 3:30 PM | The Writing Life | Whitridge Room | for members only | free of charge | registration requiredThe James Beard Award-winning food writer and columnist shares the treats and tricks of the trade.
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Wednesday, April 12, 2023 - 6:00 PM | The Writing Life | On the Zoom Meetings platform | for members only | free of charge | registration requiredBooks Walter Bode edited have won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In this seminar, he’ll help writers find the most effective words and make the best use of them – based on participants’ own writing samples.
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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.
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Saturday, April 1, 2023 - 2:00 PM | Special Event | Members' Room/Whitridge Room | for members and guests | free of charge | registration requiredThe Human Library is a library of people, where readers can borrow human beings serving as open books for rare open, unprejudiced discussions. The New York Society Library is honored to host the inagural in-person event with Human Library NYC.
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Wednesday, March 22, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Whitridge Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredIn 1971, a white, Jewish, former ballerina chose to have a child with the famous Black jazz musician Roy Ayers, fully expecting and agreeing that he would not be involved in the child’s life. In this highly original memoir, their son, Nabil Ayers, recounts his journey to re-draw the lines that define family and race. In this special event, he converses with award-winning civil rights journalist, podcaster, legal analyst, and author Jami Floyd.
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Monday, March 20, 2023 - 3:30 PM | Special Event | Members' Room | by invitation onlyThe Members' Room will be in use beginning at 4:00 PM on Monday, March 20, for a by-invitation event. Between that time and the Library's 5:00 PM closing time, magazines and newspapers will be available on the third floor.
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Tuesday, March 14, 2023 - 6:00 PM | The Writing Life | Members’ Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredLibrary members read from their own short stories, novels, poetry, criticism, memoir, and plays.
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Tuesday, March 14, 2023 - 11:00 AM | Whitridge Room Event | Little Whitridge Room | open to the public | free of charge | registration requiredThis 6-week workshop will explore new ways of connecting to storytelling and discovering how fulfilling writing one’s own story can be.
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Thursday, March 9, 2023 - 2:00 PM | The Writing Life | on the Zoom Meetings platform | open to the public; free for members | separate sessions | registration requiredJoin poet and teacher Esther Cohen to write the poems we've always intended to write.
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Tuesday, March 7, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Livestream | open to the public | $10 per person | registration requiredThe definitive history of World War II from the African American perspective, written by civil rights expert and Dartmouth history professor Matthew Delmont.
