free things to do in New York City
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Free Events, Free Things to Do in New York City! Read More
New York attracts world's best minds to its shores: they come here to interact with each other at conferences and seminars, and while they are here they are often invited to give a talk, a lecture, to be a part of a public discussion. We at Club Free Time give you an opportunity to be a part of it: to watch how those best minds in the world work! Don't miss the opportunities that only New York City (NYC) provides!
Join the Club!
The quality and quantity of
free events,
free things to do
that happen in New York City
every day of the year
is truly amazing.
So don't miss the opportunities
that only New York provides:
stop wondering what to do;
start taking advantage of
free events to go to,
free things to do in NYC
today!
The quality and quantity of
free events,
free things to do
that happen in New York City
every day of the year
is truly amazing.
So don't miss the opportunities
that only New York provides:
stop wondering what to do;
start taking advantage of
free events to go to,
free things to do in NYC
today!
94 free talks, lectures, discussions in New York City (NYC) Mon, 05/29/2023 - and on...
In New York City, you can talk with and listen to the best minds in the world without spending a dime! Just take a look at free talks, lectures, discussion, seminars, conferences listed on this page below!
Lecture | Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in the Context of Antisemitism in Eastern Europe in the Interwar Period of the 20th Century (online)
By the end of the First World War, antisemitism became a moral and political marker of social consciousness as well as a behavior of many right-wing politicians as anti-Jewish discourse was actively imposed in many post-imperial states in Eastern and Central Europe. At the same time, the newly created Ukrainian states (both the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic attempted to provide a positive policy toward the Jews and proposed a new anti-imperial alternative to the harsh legacy of imperial and post-imperial, great-power chauvinist policy. After the UNR and ZUNR leadership ceased to control the territory and effectively influence interethnic relations within the borders of their state, relations between Ukrainians and Jews worsened, and were deformed under the impact of the conditions and policies of other states, in which these two peoples existed. In this presentation, Andrii Bolianovskyi will elucidate the key figures and main aspects of Ukrainian-Jewish relations, as well as the intervention of "transnational players" in a broad global geopolitical context. Considerable attention will be paid to clarifying the positive experience of relations and highlighting the history of attempts to establish mechanisms of interaction between Ukrainian and Jewish political, public and other organizations and social groups in Western Ukraine. Also considered is the impact of the politics of the right-wing political parties of the Second Polish Republic, which inspired state antisemitism, as well as of the politics of Bolshevik Russia as a state with latent antisemitism.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, May 30
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Central Park West: Thriller from Former FBI Director James Comey (online)
In this mystery, a murder investigation reveals deadly connections between high-ranking politicians and the mafia.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, May 30
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Threads That Bind: Murder Among the Descendents of the Gods
In a world where the children of the gods inherit their powers, a descendant of the Greek Fates must solve a series of impossible murders to save her sisters, her soulmate, and her city. Descendants of the Fates are always born in threes: one to weave, one to draw, and one to cut the threads that connect people to the things they love and to life itself. The Ora sisters are no exception. Io, the youngest, uses her Fate-born abilities as a private investigator in the half-sunken city of Alante. But her latest job leads her to a horrific discovery: somebody is abducting women, maiming their life-threads, and setting the resulting wraiths loose in the city to kill. To find the culprit, she must work alongside Edei Rhuna, the right hand of the infamous Mob Queen--and the boy with whom she shares a rare fate-thread linking them as soul mates before they've even met. The investigation turns personal when Io's estranged oldest sister shows up on the arm of her best suspect. Amid unveiled secrets from her past and her growing feelings for Edei, Io must follow clues through the city's darkest corners and unearth a conspiracy that involves some of the city's most powerful players before destruction comes to her own doorstep. With author Kika Hatzopoulou.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, May 30
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Jeff Sharlet and Lilliana Mason: Political Violence & Antidemocratic Extremism
Discuss the ever-hardening fractures in politics, culture, and social life with a bestselling journalist and a political scientist who both focus on American polarization. In their recent books, Jeff Sharlet and Lilliana Mason have both looked for answers to why American politics have become so deeply and seemingly irreparably divided. In The Undertow, Sharlet attempts to understand how, over the last decade, reaction has morphed into delusion, social division into distrust, distrust into paranoia, and hatred into fantasies--sometimes realities--of violence. In Radical American Partisanship, Mason and co-author Nathan Kalmoe examine the rise of radical partisanship among ordinary Americans and the risks that it poses for American democracy. Sharlet and Mason speak about the fissures in American life and what they might signal for the days ahead. About the Speakers Lilliana Mason is the author of Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity and co-author, with Nathan P. Kalmoe, of Radical American Partisanship: Mapping Violent Hostility, Its Causes, and the Consequences for Democracy. She received her PhD in political psychology from Stony Brook University and her BA in politics from Princeton University. Her research on partisan identity, partisan bias, social sorting, and American social polarization has been published in journals such as American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Political Behavior, and featured in media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and National Public Radio. Jeff Sharlet is a contributing editor for Vanity Fair and best-selling author or editor of seven books, including The Family, adapted into a Netflix documentary series. He is the winner of the National Magazine Award for Reporting, the Molly Ivins Prize, and the Outspoken Award, among other honors. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, May 30
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Lesbian Love Story: A Memoir In Archives
An intimate journey into the archives—uncovering the romances and role models written out of history and what their stories can teach us all about how to love When Amelia Possanza moved to Brooklyn to build a life of her own, she found herself surrounded by queer stories: she read them on landmark placards, overheard them on the pool deck when she joined the world’s largest LGBTQ swim team, and even watched them on TV in her cockroach-infested apartment. These stories inspired her to seek out lesbians throughout history who could become her role models, in romance and in life. Centered around seven love stories for the ages, this is Possanza’s journey into the archives to recover the personal histories of lesbians in the twentieth century: who they were, how they loved, why their stories were destroyed, and where their memories echo and live on. Possanza’s hunt takes readers from a drag king show in Bushwick to the home of activists in Harlem and then across the ocean to Hadrian’s Library, where she searches for traces of Sappho in the ruins. Along the way, she discovers her own love—for swimming, for community, for New York City—and adds her record to the archive.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, May 30
7:00 pm
$5
7:00 pm
$5
Lecture | A Look Into Dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov (In Person AND Online)
Dance writer Marina Harss will show rarities from the Baryshnikov collection, with a focus on his "Russian" period. She will show and discuss recordings from the Jerome Robbins Dance Division from his Soviet performances and from his time at the Kirov Dance Academy as well as later collaborations with George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. The lecture will include reflections by Baryshnikov from his post-defection interviews on subjects like his love of Leningrad and his memories of Soviet life. Through this discussion, Harss explores the idea of Baryshnikov's Russianness, particularly featuring his collaboration Robbins, Balanchine, and Mark Morris. A streaming link will be emailed to everyone on the morning of the event for those wishing to attend virtually. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, May 31
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Donna Dennis: Poet in Three Dimensions
A panel discussion with Donna Dennis, architectural sculptor and installation artist, to mark the publication of Donna Dennis: Poet in Three Dimensions, which contextualizes Dennis’s work within contemporary art and the women’s movement, tracing the arc of her four decades long career and the evolution of her architectural sculpture.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, May 31
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, with Tochi Onyebuchi (In Person AND Online)
In Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's new novel, Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly popular and controversial profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. Gladiators and prisoners compete in death-matches for packed arenas, vying for the ultimate prize: their freedom. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. In just a few matches, Thurwar will be free—but before she goes, can she help her fellow All-Stars preserve their humanity and defy these games? And what will CAPE’s corporate overlords do to stop her? Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah speaks with science-fiction writer Tochi Onyebuchi about his unflinching look at the American prison system’s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, May 31
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Horse Barbie: Memoir of a Trans Pagaent Queen
Producer, model, and trans rights advocate Geena Rocero to discuss her dazzling, heartfelt memoir of a trans pageant queen from the Philippines who went back into the closet to model in New York City—until she realized that living her truth was the only way to step into her full power.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, May 31
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Talk | Artist Talk: Material Sensibilities (online)
Jazmine Catasús will discuss her recent research-driven projects and how handmade paper and pulp has become a foundational material in her practice that spans painting, sculpture, and print. She considers how the materiality of objects engages the senses and ties to a vast narrative that is rooted in the transformation of natural material.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, May 31
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | 2 New Novels: Halcyon / Hestia Strikes a Match
American history as we know it is the result of countless overlapping butterfly effects, coincidences, and collective choices. But what if the many drops in the bucket amounted to something just a little different? Former Marine Corps Special Operations Team Leader and writer Elliot Ackerman and science journalist Christine Grillo discuss their takes on an alternate United States of America—one where the reflections of the past echo differently in the present. Ackerman’s Halcyon is set during Al Gore’s second term as president after he has successfully funded a cure for death, and Grillo’s debut novel, Hestia Strikes a Match, imagines daily life against the backdrop of a new, present-day civil war.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, May 31
7:00 pm
$10 suggested admission...
7:00 pm
$10 suggested admission...
Lecture | Jan Matejko: Painting, History, Modernity
Prof. Andrzej Szczerski, Director of the Polish National Museum in Krakow, speaks about Jan Matejko, one of the most famous Polish painters. Despite being part of the canon of Polish art history, the work of Jan Matejko has been overshadowed in Poland’s cultural life for many years. On one hand, the artist was given a prominent place in museum exhibitions and included in school textbooks, but on the other hand, his work was treated as a closed chapter, referring to the 19th-century world and the realities of the partition period, which has little to offer to today’s audience. This paradoxical absence of Matejko and a consistent attempt to change this situation inspired the National Museum in Kraków to propose the idea of establishing the year 2023 as the Year of Jan Matejko, which was officially declared by the Senate of the Republic of Poland. The date is not accidental and refers to the 185th anniversary of the artist’s birth, the 130th anniversary of his death, and the 125th anniversary of the founding of the first biographical museum in Polish lands – the Jan Matejko House, a branch of the Kraków Museum. The Year of Matejko is primarily an opportunity to take a fresh look at the painter’s work and confirm the relevance of his message for our contemporary times.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, May 31
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Curators Preview Their Exhibitions (online)
A lunchtime preview of two summertime exhibitions at the Morgan Library & Museum: Blaise Cendrars (1887–1961): Poetry Is Everything and Bridget Riley Drawings: From the Artist’s Studio. Blaise Cendrars (1887–1961): Poetry Is Everything Blaise Cendrars (1887–1961) was a catalyzing force for new expressions in European art in the first part of the twentieth century. An intrepid spirit, he led an itinerant life, leaving behind his native Switzerland for St. Petersburg, New York, São Paulo, and Paris. Cendrars came to prominence in 1913 as the author of La Prose du Transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France—a freewheeling poem self-published as a colossal vertical arrangement of polychrome typography with imagery by Sonia Delaunay-Terk. Cendrars formulated his poetics by adapting Delaunay-Terk’s beliefs and those of other artists in the possibilities of rhythm, motion, and depth in the simultaneous contrast of colors. Bridget Riley Drawings: From the Artist’s Studio British artist Bridget Riley (b. 1931) is one of the most celebrated abstract painters of her generation. This exhibition—the first dedicated exclusively to her drawings in over fifty years—provides an intimate view of Riley's studio practice, in which the making of works on paper plays a central role. The exhibition includes more than 75 studies from the artist's collection, created between the 1940s and the 2000s. They include early figurative and landscape drawings made during her student years; black-and-white studies for Riley's best known paintings from the 1960s, when she became closely associated with the Op art movement; and a diverse array of color compositions, which have occupied her attention since the late 1960s. Together they demonstrate Riley's unceasing commitment to paper, pencil, ink, and gouache, as tools of exploration and innovation.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 1
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Yiddish Publishing after the Holocaust: I.L. Peretz and the Legacy of Polish Jewry (online)
Yiddish publishers in the postwar period sought to collect, codify, and (re)produce Yiddish literature as a preservative measure against cultural erasure. This was in part a reaction to the aftermath of the Holocaust and a fear that the legacy of this culture could soon be lost forever. Many major resulting publications bear the marks of these anxieties most prominently in their form, which was characteristically accumulative: large scale book series, anthologies, lexica, encyclopedias, and reprinted editions of the collected or complete works of Yiddish's classic writers, Mendele, Sholem Aleichem, and I.L. Peretz. As these new volumes traveled around the world, from Buenos Aires to New York, Montreal to Warsaw, and many places in between, their creation and circulation highlights a changing transnational literary network that had recently flourished during the interwar years. Publishers responded to a network in flux by flooding a literary market with new volumes. In this lecture, Rachelle Grossman will give an overview of global Yiddish after the Holocaust by focusing on competing publications made in honor of two literary jubilees of I.L. Peretz, "the father of modern Jewish literature": his 30th yahrzeit and his 100th birthday. These publishing efforts were not only a means to create new Yiddish books, but they were also a form of public debate over the meaning of Peretz the figure, his work, and the place of Yiddish in postwar Jewish life. Speaker Rachelle Grossman is a specialist in Yiddish print culture, and she is completing a doctorate in Comparative Literature at Harvard University.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 1
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Discussion | 50 Years of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive
The Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), the first and foremost collection of video recorded live theatre performances in the world, is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a new exhibition. Janice C. Simpson, theatre journalist, critic, and professor, interviews Patrick Hoffman, director and curator of TOFT about the exhibition and the history of the archive over the years with exciting video excerpts from the exhibition and its vast collection to be included. Janice C. Simpson is a theater journalist who writes the theater blog Broadway & Me and hosts the BroadwayRadio podcasts All the Drama and Stagecraft. She directed the Arts & Culture Reporting program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY for 10 year and spent three decades at TIME magazine, where her positions included associate managing editor, deputy chief of correspondents for national news and arts editor. She currently sits on the executive committee of the Outer Critics Circle and is a member of the Drama Desk and the American Theatre Critics Association. Reservation required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 1
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Curators in Conversation
A conversation between curators Christopher Bedford, Melissa Chiu, and Lynn Zelevansky on the occasion of Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers. The noted curators will join in an in-depth discussion on Kusama’s remarkable career, her place in the canon of art history, and her influence beyond its boundaries.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 1
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Duke Ellington: An American Composer and Icon by Dancer and Choreographer Mercedes Ellington
A book reading and conversation with dancer and choreographer Mercedes Ellington, the granddaughter of iconic bandleader Duke Ellington. Mercedes Ellington will discuss her recent book entitled, Duke Ellington: An American Composer and Icon. A Jazz Ensemble will perform under the direction of Daniel Bennett. About the Speaker Dancer and choreographer Mercedes Ellington was born and raised in New York City. Her grandfather was renowned composer and bandleader Duke Ellington. In 1963, Mercedes Ellington became the first African American member of the June Taylor Dancers, the featured performers on the Jackie Gleason Show. She danced with them for seven years, until moving on to perform in Broadway shows like No, No Nannette; The Night That Made America Famous; The Grand Tour; and Happy New Year. In 1981, Ellington starred in Sophisticated Ladies alongside her father, who conducted the Duke Ellington Orchestra. In 2004, Ellington founded Duke Ellington Center for the Arts, a non-profit organization dedicated to scholarship, education, and performance connected to the legacy of Duke Ellington. In 2016, she co-authored the book entitled Duke Ellington: An American Composer and Icon with Stephen Brower. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 1
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | The Auburn Conference: An Imagined Meeting fo Twain, Douglass, Melville, Whitman, and More (online)
Set in 1883, Tom Piazza’s narrative follows an idealistic young professor at an upstate New York college who has convinced Mark Twain, Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Confederate memoirist Forrest Taylor, and romance novelist Lucy Comstock to participate in the first (and last) Auburn Conference for a discussion about the future of the nation examining race, class, gender, and democracy. Author David Gates will join Piazza in conversation, unpacking serious issues that are as pertinent today as they were in 1883 through a comic, poetic, lens.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 1
7:00 pm
$5
7:00 pm
$5
Thu, Jun 1
7:30 pm
Regular: $29.50
Member: $0
7:30 pm
Regular: $29.50
Member: $0
Join the Club!
Gallery Talk | Highlights of the Morgan Library Collection (online)
A session of close looking at what J. Pierpont Morgan might have described as “a few of his favorite things.” Explore several objects from our permanent collection, which were highly prized by Morgan, paying special attention to the bronze statue of Running Eros that was originally displayed in Morgan’s study, across from his desk.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jun 2
12:30 pm
Free
12:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Turn the World Around: A Tribute to Harry Belafonte
Acclaimed novelist Walter Mosley and New York Times critic-at-large Wesley Morris are part of a public program celebrating the life and impact of the legendary singer, actor, activist, and humanitarian Harry Belafonte. In 2006, Belafonte interviewed Mosley about his book, Life Out of Context, and discussed ways to fight poverty, exploitation, injustice, and racism. Morris and Mosley will reflect on that conversation and its relevance in a contemporary context as they discuss Belafonte’s indelible mark on our world and the barriers that he broke.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jun 2
7:30 pm
Free
7:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Heavily Redacted by Robert Mennella
A celebration for the book launch of Heavily Redacted. Immerse yourself in the gripping tale of a courageous whistleblower who fearlessly battled a big powerful bank, uncovering corruption and illegal practices. Meet author Robert Mennella, 60, a native New Yorker from the Village, and gain unique insights into the personal and professional journey as well as the obstacles he faced and sacrifices he made along the way. Mennella will discuss current corporate corruption, financial regulation, and the transformative power of individuals seeking justice.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Jun 3
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | 3 Authors on Friendship
An in-person panel event with award-winning authors Daniel Allen Cox, Sarah Schulman and Paul Lisicky. Sarah Schulman (Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993), Paul Lisicky (Later: My Life at the Edge of the World), and Daniel Allen Cox (I Felt the End Before It Came: Memoirs of a Queer Ex-Jehovah’s Witness) discuss how they’ve explored the concept of friendship in their books. What are constructive ways for friendships to grow? What are the differences between loyalty and keeping your word? Can friends stay friends when they endure the same trauma but survive differently? The authors discuss what friendship makes possible for queer life and beyond.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Jun 3
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Yiddish to the Core: Wedding Music and Jewish Identity in Postwar New York City (online)
If you attended a typical American Jewish wedding in the 1950s, you might have noticed some departures from tradition, such as a photographer buzzing around the rabbi, a floral wedding canopy, or "kosher style" catering. The modern formula varied from one wedding to another, but one thing was certain: if it was a Jewish wedding, you danced a hora. Even as Jews became increasingly Americanized and abandoned older practices, they held on to Jewish dances and dance music as an easy and accessible way of articulating their Jewish identity at a public event, in front of their family and friends. Jewish music and dance underwent significant changes during the postwar period, absorbing strong influences from American popular music and Israeli folk songs. Nonetheless, dances like the hora, freylekh, and sher remained "Yiddish to the core." For many American Jews, these dances became a symbol of cultural continuity, and one of the important elements that defined their wedding as Jewish. In this talk, Uri Schreter will explore the evolution of Jewish wedding music in the early postwar period across different sectors of New York's Jewish community. We will discuss the relationship between diverse musical genres such as klezmer, Israeli folk song, swing, and Latin music, and learn how the choice of musical repertoire intersected with factors such as social class, religiosity, and political affiliation. Speaker Uri Schreter is an interdisciplinary musicologist, composer, keyboardist, and film-editor.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 5
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres by Kelefa Sanneh
Author Kelefa Sanneh in conversation with Joe Coscarelli of the New York Times. Kelefa Sanneh has been a New Yorker staff writer since 2008, before which he spent six years as a pop-music critic at The New York Times. He is also a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning. Previously, he was the deputy editor of Transition, a journal of race and culture based at the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at Harvard University. His writing has also appeared in a number of magazines and a handful of books, including Shake It Up: Great American Writing on Rock and Pop from Elvis to Jay Z, a Library of America Special Publication, and Da Capo Best Music Writing (2002, 2005, 2007, and 2011). Joe Coscarelli is a culture reporter for The New York Times with a focus on popular music and the author of Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story. His video series Diary of a Song -- featuring Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Rosalia and more -- pulls back the curtain on how hit songs and emerging artists are made, discovered, and marketed. A Florida native and a graduate of New York University, he previously worked at New York magazine and The Village Voice. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 5
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Lecture | The Work of Playwright Noel Coward
Noel Coward fellow Arianne Johnson Quinn will present her work to inventory the work of playwright Noel Coward, preserved around the world. The outcome of the fellowship will be a research guide publication of Coward holdings, digitization of significant holdings, a publication related to her research, and she will also curate a case exhibition. Dr. Arianne Johnson Quinn is the Music Special Collections Librarian at the Warren D. Allen Music Library, Florida State University. She holds an MA and PhD in Musicology from Princeton University, MA in Music/Women's and Gender Studies from Brandeis University, and BA (Honors) in Music from the University of New Mexico. Her research focuses on the intersections between the American and British musical in London's West End from 1920-1960, particularly Noel Coward, Kurt Weill, Lerner and Loewe, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. She has a forthcoming monograph on the history of the musical from 1920-1970 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (Palgrave MacMillan). Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 5
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | King: A Life (online)
Biographer Jonathan Eig discusses highly anticipated new book. The first major biography of Martin Luther King Jr. in decades, Eig’s new book is a landmark — a product of exhaustive new analysis and research (including recently declassified FBI files) that reveals fundamental humanity that grounded the defining civil rights activist of his century. Hear Eig and Alexander discuss the significance of King’s enduring legacy — why our understanding of King must continue to evolve, the ongoing struggle for equality and civil rights in America, stories and research that didn’t make it into the book, and more.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 5
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | 2 Books on Women Writers: Undaunted / Tomorrow Perhaps the Future
Two new books focus on the influence women have had on groundbreaking writing and journalism from the mid-1800s to the present day. Brooke Kroeger (Undaunted) and Sarah Watling (Tomorrow Perhaps the Future) present portraits of extraordinary writers, artists, and journalists -- women “hungry for adventure” and eager to make their name. From Margaret Fuller, reporting from Rome on the revolutions of 1848, to Martha Gellhorn in Madrid, as Spain fell to Franco in 1948, women were on the front lines, telling the story as they saw it. Kroeger and Watling will appear in conversation with Laurie Gwen Shapiro, award-winning author and contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Times.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 5
8:00 pm
Free
8:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Franz Kafka: The Diaries (online)
Dating from 1909 to 1923, Franz Kafka's handwritten diaries contain various kinds of writing: accounts of daily events, reflections, observations, literary sketches, drafts of letters, accounts of dreams, as well as finished stories. A new translation by Ross Benjamin makes available for the first time in English a comprehensive reconstruction of the diary entries and provides substantial new content, including details, names, literary works, and passages of a sexual nature that were omitted from previous publications.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 6
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Book Club | Poetry Discussion Circle: Pride Month
Join fellow poetry enthusiasts in unpacking the layered meanings of poetry through an informal group discussion, and explore poetry that celebrates the complex experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 6
2:30 pm
Free
2:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | The Secret Book of Flora Lea: Family Mysteries Exposed (online)
When a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed. With author Patti Callahan Henry.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 6
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Lesbian Love Story by Amelia Possanza (In Person AND Online)
When Amelia Possanza moved to Brooklyn to build a life of her own, she found herself surrounded by queer stories: she read them on landmark placards, overheard them on the pool deck when she joined the world's largest LGBTQ swim team, and even watched them on TV in her cockroach-infested apartment. They inspired her to seek out lesbians throughout history who could become her guides, in romance and in life. Possanza journeys into the archives to recover the personal histories of lesbians in the 20th century: who they were, how they loved, why their stories were destroyed, and where their memories echo and live on. Amelia Possanza speaks with author Casey McQuiston about how lesbian love could help reimagine care and community. About the Speakers A full-time book publicist and part-time writer, Amelia Possanza's work has appeared in The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, Electric Literature, The Millions, and NPR's Invisibilia. Lesbian Love Story is her first book. Casey McQuiston is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of romantic comedies, including One Last Stop, Red, White & Royal Blue, and I Kissed Shara Wheeler, whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Bon Appetit. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 6
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Talk | Erwin Blumenfeld from Berlin to New York: A Life in Photography (online)
Granddaughter Nadia Blumenfeld Charbit gives her personal insights into one of 20th century most innovative photographers, Erwin Blumenfeld. Photographer Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969) survived two world wars to become one of the world's most highly-paid fashion photographers and a key influence on the development of photography as an art form. An experimenter and innovator, he produced an extensive body of work including drawings, collages, portraits and nudes, celebrity portraiture, advertising campaigns and his renowned fashion photography both in black and white and color. Yet one of the most innovative photographers of the 20th century is little known today - and the reasons for this lie in his unconventional lifestyle. In this talk, Paris-based granddaughter Nadia Blumenfeld Charbit gives her personal insights into the life and work of the photographer Erwin Blumenfeld.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 7
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | 2 Authors Discuss Their Books on Hollywood
Featuring: Paul Rudnick, author of Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style Joel Thurm, author of Sex, Drugs, and Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director Hosted by Ilana Levine, Actress and Podcaster
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 7
12:30 pm
Free
12:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Jason Fulford: The Heart Is a Sandwich
Profound, absurd, and filled with unexpected beauty, Jason Fulford's new collection is drawn drawn from a decade of encounters with Italy.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 7
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Intersections: Marking Fifty Years of Hip Hop and the WTC
Intersections examines the often-surprising connections between 9/11 and today's world. From global industries to individual lives, the attacks marked a fundamental shift for many, altering trajectories in ways both expected and unforeseen. These programs explore these shifts and make visible 9/11's continuing legacy. Amid one of New York City's most tumultuous decades, 1973 saw the dedication of the World Trade Center and the birth of Hip Hop. As we look at 9/11's impact across culture, we mark this twin milestone 50 years later with Dr. MC Debbie D, Hip Hop historian and pioneer MC; Chuck Creekmur, CEO of AllHipHop.com; and Rocky Bucano, Executive Director of the Universal Hip Hop Museum. Together in conversation with Museum Director Clifford Chanin, they reflect on the history of Hip Hop, how the genre has evolved in a post-9/11 world, and how New York City and its ever-changing skyline influenced the artistic movement that now spans the globe.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 7
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Against Nature: Artist's Walkthrough
A guided tour of Matthew Day Jackson’s exhibition led by the artist and Mark Beasley, Curatorial Director. This walkthrough of Jackson’s debut solo show will center on his new landscape paintings, shedding light on his expansive thinking across disciplines and genres. In his latest works, Jackson mines the history of landscape painting while also referencing the conventions of landscape in science fiction film and literature, where the strange and familiar converge. Engaging with both the suburban and the sublime, Jackson combines digital and physical modes of art making in these new works, inviting questions of medium, materiality, and meaning that are only answered through sustained consideration and interrogation. Rife with visual paradoxes, the artist’s landscape paintings offer views into worlds operating in parallel to our own.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 7
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Artist Talk: Against Nature
This presentation will mark Jackson's debut solo show with the gallery and his first exhibition in New York in a decade. Titled Against Nature, the artist's upcoming exhibition will center on a focused body of work that includes painting and sculpture. Through his expansive practice, Jackson explores a wide range of subjects--historical, futuristic, scientific, spiritual, and fantastical. At the core of his work is a deep interest in finding similarities within binaries and dichotomies, particularly the simultaneity of beauty and horror. In his research-based, experimental process, the artist considers conceptual and physical underpinnings equally significant, incorporating combinations of traditional, industrial, and found materials in his work across painting, sculpture, installation, and other mediums.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 7
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Discussion | From Vienna to the US: Expulsion and Renaissance of Psychoanalysis
A panel discussion about the expulsion and renaissance of psychoanalysis with four wonderful panelists. After the "Anschluss," the annexation of Austria into National Socialist Germany, numerous members and candidates of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society (Wiener Psychoanalytische Vereinigung, WPV) were affected by increased oppression, radicalized attacks and antisemitic legislation. With the commitment and support of the international psychoanalytic community, all threatened Viennese psychoanalysts and candidates left Vienna by spring 1939. The majority emigrated to the US, with a particularly large contingent coming to New York. The panel discussion will discuss the historical events and biographies of Viennese emigre analysts and will consider their influence on psychoanalysis in the decades to follow.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 7
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Group Works: Art, Politics, and Collective Ambivalence
A night of readings and artistic responses to cellist and writer Ethan Philbrick’s forthcoming book Group Works: Art, Politics, and Collective Ambivalence (Fordham University Press, 2023). The evening brings together contributions from Morgan Bassichis and Mariana Valencia, Laurem Bakst and Niall Jones, Brandon Lopez and Fred Moten.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 7
8:00 pm
Free
8:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Alexis Rockman: Oceanus
Artist Alexis Rockman depicts an ominous and complex vision of ocean life affected by humankind in a monumental new series.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 8
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History (online)
Richard Thompson Ford in an insightful and entertaining history of the laws of fashion from the Middle Ages to the present day. Walk down history's red carpet to uncover and examine the canons, mores and customs of clothing--rules that we often take for granted. The Renaissance era Florentine patriarch Cosimo de Medici captured the power of fashion and dress codes when he remarked, "One can make a gentleman from two yards of red cloth."
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jun 9
5:00 pm
Free
5:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Light and Flow: Liliane Lijn's Crossing Map
American-born Liliane Lijn is a pioneering and visionary artist, whose richly varied contributions to contemporary art span more than six decades. Living in Paris, New York and Athens before making London her home from the mid-1960s, she became known while still in her early twenties for her mesmeric kinetic and light-based sculptures. Passionately absorbed by scientific and Buddhist perspectives on reality, she made energy, or what she called 'atomic truth', the subject and medium of her art. In the early 1980s, Lijn continued with her light-based work but also wanted to create a new imagery of the feminine spirit, for herself and for other women. Seemingly changing her direction, she made body-related sculptures including, later, bronze casts taken from her own body. This lecture will look at this pivotal period within Lijn's evolution, focusing on her 1983 artist book, Crossing Map and specifically its 150 or so original drawings, executed mainly in pencil, that have not been discussed in literature on the artist or seen publicly for forty years. Reflecting Lijn's vision of life as flow, these intriguing and beautiful images slip seamlessly across the volume's pages like a visual score. Part autobiography, part science fiction and part reflections about human relationships, Crossing Map is an ambitious but little discussed tour de force that evolved over sixteen years.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jun 9
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Talk | An Evening with Stanley Stellar: Photographing Pride and Progress
Embark on a five-decade journey of the LBGTQ community through the lens of Stanley Stellar. Celebrated for his powerful observations of street life and empathic studio portraits, Stellar’s photographs acutely define the freedom, beauty, fear, and joy of one of NYC's most historic and influential periods from the Stonewall riots of 1969 through the Gay Liberation Movement and beyond. Stellar's vivid document of the West Village's long-gone Christopher Street Piers, the first Gay Pride Parades, and individuals facing the unfathomable realities of the HIV/AIDS epidemic bear witness to both the struggles and triumphs of the human experience.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jun 9
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Assembly: Center for Dialogue and Exchange in the Arts
Center for Dialogue and Exchange in the Arts is a creative incubator and an experiment at the intersection of artistic practice and expansive thinking. Danspace Project unveils CDEA with this inaugural Assembly, a day of collective thinking, discussion, attunement, celebration, and breaking bread, organized and hosted by 2021-2023 Danspace Project Research Fellows devynn emory, Okwui Okpokwasili, Samita Sinha, and David Thomson. The day will include a special performance from internationally renowned musician and founder of Red Baraat, Sunny Jain.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Jun 10
2:00 pm
Free
2:00 pm
Free
Forum | Death Cafe: A Discusson on Death
An informal, group-directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives, or themes. The purpose of Death Cafe is "to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives." This is a discussion group rather than a grief support or counseling session.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Jun 10
3:30 pm
Free
3:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Nothing to Fear: Alfred Hitchcock and The Wrong Men
In 1956, Alfred Hitchcock focused his lens on an issue that cuts to the heart of our criminal justice system: the risk of wrongful conviction. The result was The Wrong Man, a wrenching and largely overlooked drama based on the real-life arrest of Queens musician Christopher "Manny" Balestrero for two robberies he did not commit. With documentary-like authenticity, Hitchcock and his team meticulously re-created Manny's journey through the corridors of justice and the devastating effect of the arrest on his wife, Rose. In so doing, the director cast a damning light on New York's history of mistaken identity cases. The Balestreros fell victim to the same rush to judgment and suggestive eyewitness identification procedures that had doomed innocent defendants in earlier cases. Their ordeal is part of a larger story of the state's failure to reckon with its role in other wrongful prosecutions in the first half of the twentieth century. Attorney Jason Isralowitz tells this story in a revelatory book that situates both the Balestrero case and its cinematic counterpart in their historical context. Drawing from archival records, Isralowitz delivers a gripping account of Manny's trial and new insights into an errant prosecution. He then examines how Hitchcock fused striking visual motifs with social realism to create a timeless work of art, with memorable performances by Henry Fonda and Vera Miles. The film bears witness to issues that animate the contemporary innocence movement, including the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, the need for police lineup reforms, and the dangers of investigative "tunnel vision."
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 12
12:30 pm
Free
12:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Dark Matter in Breaking Cyphers: The Life of Africanist Aesthetics in Hip Hop (online)
With authors Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder. This book draws on over a decade of research and provides a detailed look into the vitality of Africanist aesthetics and the epistemological possibilities of the ritual circle.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 12
5:00 pm
Free
5:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | The Spectacular: A Novel of Radio City Music Hall
Fiona Davis launches her new novel, set amidst the glamour and glitz of Radio City Music Hall in its mid-century heyday.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 12
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Club | Love That Story by Jonathan Van Ness
In his New York Times best-selling memoir Over the Top, Jonathan van Ness showed readers how the incredibly difficult moments from his life (surviving sexual abuse and addiction, being diagnosed with HIV) have existed alongside great joy and positivity (landing a breakout role on Netflix’s Queer Eye, becoming an amateur figure skater and professional standup comedian, doting on his five cats). If Jonathan learned anything from the painful life experiences, it’s that in order to thrive, he needed to push past the shame and fear of being his true self, which meant getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. In this candid and curious essay collection, he takes a thoughtful, in-depth look at today’s hot-button issues, viewed through the lens of his personal experience. From the evolution of his signature style to an investigative report on the queer history of his hometown, Jonathan reflects on his life and how he has learned to embrace change—doing the work to challenge internalized beliefs, finding compassion and confidence, and learning more about what makes us all so messy and gorgeous. About the Author Jonathan Van Ness is a bestselling author, podcaster, comedian, and television personality. He is known for his work as the beauty expert on the Netflix series Queer Eye, for hosting the Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness podcast, and for the web series parody Gay of Thrones. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 12
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Unfriendly to Liberty: Loyalist Networks and the Coming of the American Revolution in New York City (in-person and online)
Author Christopher Minty focuses on the origins of the American Revolution in New York City from the perspective of those who became loyalists. It argues that longstanding political partisanship played a hitherto underappreciated role in determining their allegiance during the Revolution.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 12
6:30 pm
$5 in-person...
6:30 pm
$5 in-person...
Book Discussion | Your Table is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maitre D' with Author Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
From the glamorous to the entitled, from royalty to the financially ruined, everyone who wanted to be seen--or just to gawk--at the hottest restaurants in New York City came to places Michael Cecchi-Azzolina helped run. His phone number was passed around among those who wanted to curry favor, during the decades when restaurants replaced clubs and theater as, well, theater in the most visible, vibrant city in the world. Join Cecchi-Azzolina at this event for a conversation about his recently-released book, Your Table Is Ready, with fellow author and podcaster Andrew Friedman of Andrew Talks to Chefs. From his early career serving theater stars like Tennessee Williams and Dustin Hoffman at La Rousse right through to the last pre-pandemic-shutdown full houses at Le Coucou, Cecchi-Azzolina has seen it all. In Your Table Is Ready, he breaks down how restaurants really run (and don't), and how the economics work for owners and overworked staff alike. "Riveting...provides plenty of celebrity encounters, but also reveals how restaurants work. Readers will gobble up the juicy gossip and decadent stories from a man who has seen it all." (Publishers Weekly) Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 12
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | My Friend Anne Frank: The Inspiring and Heartbreaking True Story of Best Friends Torn Apart and Reunited Against All Odds (online)
Journalist Dina Kraft with award-winning biographer Ruth Franklin for a special conversation about Anne Frank and her childhood friend, Hannah Pick-Goslar, on what would have been Frank’s 94th birthday — and Pick-Goslar’s stunning new memoir. Completed just before she passed away last October at the age of 93, beautifully channeled and expertly ghostwritten by Kraft, My Friend Anne Frank is a tribute to the power of friendship through one of history’s darkest moments. It is also a celebration of a vibrant girlhood cut tragically short. Hear Kraft and Franklin on the book’s composition, Pick-Goslar’s profoundly moving account of her friend, the importance of hearing the stories of Holocaust survivors before they disappear, and more.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 12
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | After Claude: The Prophetess of Greenwich Village
In Iris Owens's novel, Harriet is leaving her boyfriend Claude, “the French rat.” That at least is how Harriet sees things, even if it’s Claude who has just asked Harriet to leave his Greenwich Village apartment. Well, one way or another she has no intention of leaving. To the contrary, she will stay and exact revenge—or would have if Claude had not had her unceremoniously evicted. Still, though moved out, Harriet is not about to move on. Not in any way. Girlfriends circle around to patronize and advise, but Harriet only takes offense, and it’s easy to understand why. Because mad and maddening as she may be, Harriet sees past the polite platitudes that everyone else is content to spout and live by. She is an unblinkered, unbuttoned, unrelenting, and above all bitingly funny prophetess of all that is wrong with women’s lives and hearts—until, in a surprise twist, she finds a savior in a dark room at the Chelsea Hotel.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 13
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Elisabeth Smolarz: Encyclopedia of Things
Inspiring conceptual lens-based artist Elisabeth Smolarz (Morgan Lehman Gallery, PBS Documentary) shares her ongoing photography project, "Encyclopedia of Things." She documents the most critical moments in the lives of individuals by aiding in selecting their most cherished objects, which transform their personal belongings into art installations that embody the identities and personal narratives of their owners. In 2014, two years after Hurricane Sandy destroyed the lives of thousands, Smolarz conceived this project and visited people in their homes. Eight years later, a selection of over 100 portraits from the series was published in her monograph Encyclopedia of Things.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 13
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Lecture | Ukrainian Composers in the Time of War: An Oral and Video Presentation by Musicologist Dr. Oksana Nesterenko
Since the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022, an overwhelming majority of composers in Ukraine have remained determined to continue making music despite unprecedented circumstances, such as frequent air raids, electricity shortages and strikes on civilian targets. Moreover, the escalation of the military conflict has changed their creative outlook in significant ways. The need to draw international attention to the cruelty of war and the desire to protect future generations from similar misfortunes, triggered the transformation of apolitical composers into messengers, diplomats, social commentators and sonic writers of history. This presentation by Dr. Oksana Nesterenko will discuss the responses of Ukrainian composers of art music to the 2022 Russian invasion, and describe the range of their emotions triggered by the war itself and by its sounds. The presentation will feature video recordings of music composed in 2022-2023 by Valentyn Silvestrov, Victoria Polyova, Zoltan Almashi, Roman Grygoriv, and Illia Razumeiko that have been performed in major concert halls in New York, Western Europe, and Ukraine over the past year. About the Speaker Dr. Oksana Nesterenko is a musicologist specializing in twentieth- and twenty-first-century music, with the focus on Eastern Europe and postcolonial studies. She earned a PhD in Music History and Theory at Stony Brook University in 2021 and presently teaches at Union College. Her current book project, A Forbidden Fruit? Sacred Music in the USSR before its Fall, explores concert music with religious and spiritual themes, composed in four Soviet republics: Armenia, Estonia, Russia, and Ukraine. She hosts the podcast Extended Techniques and serves on the advisory board of the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival in New York. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 13
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Form and Innovation in the Art and Writing of Kahlil Gibran
Art historian Anneka Lenssen and professor of Arabic literature Huda Kakhreddine discuss with curator Claire Gilman the formal innovation and influence in the work of Kahlil Gibran.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 13
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Talk | Keep It Wild: Native Plants in the Park
Celebrate native plants in the park. This conversation, led by Director of Horticulture Richard Hayden, will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the wild-inspired gardens we see today. Horticulturalists aim to create sustainable, resilient, and pollinator-friendly landscapes—native plants are the cornerstone of these efforts. Taking inspiration from the self-seeded landscape of the once-derelict railway, “keep it wild” became one of the original design tenets when the park was transformed into public open space. Native plants fit into the local ecosystem better than traditional ornamentals, as they provide much-needed food sources and habitat for local butterflies, bees, and birds.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 14
10:30 am
Free
10:30 am
Free
Book Discussion | 2 New Novels on Puzzles and Puzzlers
Featuring: Danielle Trussoni, The Puzzle Master A.J. Jacobs, The Puzzler Hosted by Ilana Levine.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 14
12:30 pm
Free
12:30 pm
Free
Book Club | O by Zeina Hashem Beck
This third collection from Lebanese poet Hashem Beck examines issues of faith, family, aging, and mental health using a variety of expertly executed forms, including odes, triptychs, ghazals (a lyric form originating in Arabic literature), and bilingual duet poems in which Arabic and English "exist separately and in relationship to each other."
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 14
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Alchi: Visions of Enlightenment: Curatorial Tour
Jeff Watt, a leading scholar of Himalayan Art and founding curator at the Rubin Museum of Art, discusses the iconography in Peter Van Ham’s monumental photographs of Alchi Monastery. The Alchi murals are a part of the main features of the cultural heritage of Ladakh, and the complex of monastic temples with breathtakingly preserved art from the 11th centuries have become a significant tourist destination. Combined with the brilliant colors and complex iconography dating back to the 10th-11th centuries, the incredibly well preserved Alchi murals have become world famous for their exceedingly rich detail, bright colors, and exemplary execution, as well as their colorful historical documentation of the jataka tales (stories of the Buddha’s past lives), monumental mandalas and iconographic depictions of major Buddhist deities created by teams of master artisans. Choosing specific aspects of the exhibition, Watt will give a guided tour discussing the technical skill, taste, and finesse of the Alchi artists: the shading of a skin portion of a large figure, miniature-like attendants, the variant and multicolored outlines of a cloth design and its combination of colors, the elegant twist of energy rays emanating from a deity, the delicate line of attributes held by small depictions of Bodhisattvas in mandalas are painted (seemingly executed with single-haired brushes), the abundant jewelry, or the decorative elements such as volutes, borders, and floral structures.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 14
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | The Woman Who Changed How Americans Cook Italian
Emmy- and Peabody-winning filmmaker Peter Miller will provide an insider perspective of Marcella, the first-ever documentary about Marcella Hazan, the woman who transformed how Americans prepare and understand Italian food. Miller will share a clip from his work-in-progress and speak to Marcella's eventful life story. Marcella’s son, the celebrated cooking teacher and award-winning author of best-selling cookbooks Giuliano Hazan, will join Miller to add his memories of his mother. Jordan Frosolone, Executive Chef of The Leopard at Des Artistes, will reflect on how Marcella's influence remains relevant to chefs today. A sample of one of Marcella’s iconic recipes will be served.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 14
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Max Weinreich and the Meaning of Yiddish (online)
Max Weinreich spent the entirety of his adult life building YIVO and the field of Yiddish Studies. A 'convert' to the cause of Yiddishism in his adolescence, he pursued a doctorate in German philology in Weimar Germany with the explicit goal of returning to Eastern Europe to contribute to the project of building a modern, secular Yiddish culture. His study visits to Yale University and Vienna in the early 1930s proved transformational in broadening and revising his understanding of the role of the social sciences in Jewish life as a tool for strengthening Jews' psychological and material resources. The destruction of the traditional Yiddish heartland in Eastern Europe and his experiences leading YIVO in post-WWII New York City added yet another dimension to Weinreich's conception of the importance of both Yiddish and Jewish Studies for the future of American and world Jewry. Would Max Weinreich recognize Yiddish studies today? Moderated by Kalman Weiser and featuring Naomi Seidman, Kenneth Moss, and Jeffrey Shandler, this panel will examine Weinreich's evolving understanding of the meaning of Yidishe visnshaft (Yiddish studies) and the role of Yiddish in Jewish life throughout his career.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 15
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Dirt Creek: Small-Town Girl Goes Missing (online)
In Hayley Scrivenor's gripping mystery, a girl from a small-town goes missing and a community falls apart and comes together.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 15
5:00 pm
Free
5:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Artist Talk: This Is Not All There Is
Artist Naudline Pierre and curator Claire Gilman lead in-person walkthrough and conversation surrounding fantasy, flight, and reimagining atmosphere.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 15
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Artists Talk: The Signifigance of Quilting (online)
Artists Dindga McCannon and Aliyah Bonnette in an intergenerational conversation about the significance of quilting.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 15
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Club | Black Cake: A Novel by Charmaine Wilkerson
In this moving debut novel, two estranged siblings must set aside their differences to deal with their mother's death and her hidden past — a journey of discovery that takes them from the Caribbean to London to California and ends with her famous black cake. In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett's death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a traditional Caribbean black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking journey Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child, challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their family, and themselves. Charmaine Wilkerson's debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names, can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 15
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Gender and Sexuality in Egon Schiele's Work
Jane Kallir, Schiele scholar and Director of the Kallir Research Institute, will be joined by a panel of speakers spanning the disciplines of art history, queer studies and gender studies, for an interdisciplinary examination of the artist’s world and work. The panel includes: Jane Kallir, President of the Kallir Research Institute and Director of the Galerie St. Etienne Jonathan D. Katz, Associate Professor of Practice, History of Art and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, University of Pennsylvania (pre-recorded statement) Verena Gamper, Curator at Österreichische Galerie Belvedere David Rimanelli, Writer and Contributing Editor at Artforum Egon Schiele came of age during a period of contrast between bourgeois norms and the realities of contemporary sexual experience. Schiele is principally known for his unconventional, often unsettling depictions of the female nude. His connection to and depictions of a cadre of gay and bisexual men (Max Oppenheimer, Willy Lidl, and Erwin Osen), however, spark compelling questions surrounding his unique interpretations of human sexuality.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 15
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Bill Pedersen: Gesture and Response
Legendary architect and founder of Kohn Pedersen Fox, Bill Pedersen will present excerpts from his book Gesture and Response which is an inversion of one's initial perception when referring to architecture. In Pedersen's thesis, "the place offers the gesture and architecture is the response."The articles and buildings span 45 years of the architect’s career as KPF’s influence and global footprint grew. The presentation is not organized chronologically, as is the book: it will begin with the small and end large. Regardless of scale the same aspiration applies: his chairs are a response to the gesture of the human body and his tallest buildings are a response to connecting earth to sky in a specific place.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 15
7:30 pm
Free
7:30 pm
Free
Conference | Literary Festival
Celebrating authors of African descent and championing literacy and books across genres to amplify Black history and culture. Festival programming features some of the most talented writers and influential figures in culture today. The festival is built on the foundation created by Arturo Schomburg–encouraging freedom of thought, the relentless pursuit of Black history, and the engagement of our imagination towards our collective freedom. Readings, panel discussions, and workshops at the event range from prose to poetry, comic books to young adult novels, fiction and nonfiction. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Jun 17
11:30 pm
Free
11:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Corman/Poe: Interviews and Essays Exploring the Making of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe Films, 1960-1964
Produced on modest budgets for American International Pictures, Roger Corman's adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories were popular in their time as escapist horror cinema. Most starred horror icon Vincent Price and were written (and "freely adapted") by the likes of Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont and Robert Towne. Today the series is recognized as unique and sophisticated, one that delivers decadent Gothic chills while exploring ideas of faith, sexuality, psychology and the supernatural. Chris Alexander's is the only book to fully examine this important chapter in horror film history. In-depth conversations with the maverick Roger Corman are book-ended by engaging critical analyses of each of the eight films, which together stand as a fully realized and consistent creative vision.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 19
12:30 pm
Free
12:30 pm
Free
Book Club | Poetry Discussion Circle - Pride Month
Join fellow poetry enthusiasts in unpacking the layered meanings of poetry through an informal group discussion about poetry that celebrates the complex experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals. Readings are selected from Poetry Magazine and Poetry Foundation. Please note that contemporary poetry deals frankly with contemporary issues and all works discussed are artistic expressions selected for an adult audience. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 20
2:30 pm
Free
2:30 pm
Free
Symposium | Museums as Systems: Resources (online)
The two-day, annual Museums as Systems symposium gathers together arts workers to discuss alternative approaches to museum structures. The 2023 convening asks the question: what “resources" are necessary to reimagine the systems of museums? This symposium explores “resources” through four key themes: love and care, creative fundraising, reclamation, and radical hospitality. Over four sessions, “Museums as Systems: Resources” seeks to explore these concepts with the following questions: What do we have? What do we need? How do we get it? What are we willing to risk? to give up? What are the barriers to broadening access and how can we overcome them? What are alternative solutions to acquiring the resources we need?
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 20
5:30 pm
Free
5:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | The Glass Chateau: A Novel of Post-WWII France
One month after the end of World War II, amid the jubilation in the streets of France, there are throngs of people stunned by the recovery work ahead. Every bridge, road, and rail line, every church and school and hospital, has been destroyed. Disparate factions—from Communists, to Resistance fighters, to federalists, to those who supported appeasement of the Nazis—must somehow unite and rebuild their devastated country. With author Stephen P. Kiernan.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 20
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Up With the Sun: Has-Been to Murder
Thomas Mallon, a successful author of fiction and nonfiction will discuss his latest novel. Dick Kallman was an up-and-coming actor in the fifties and sixties—until he wasn’t. A costar on Broadway, a member of Lucille Ball’s historic Desilu workshop, and finally a primetime TV actor, Dick had hustled to get his big break. But just as soon as his star began to rise, his roles began to dry up and he faded from the spotlight, his name out of tabloids and newspapers until his sensational murder in 1980.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 20
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Talk | Family History Today: Novel NYC Records (online)
While New York's strict vital records laws can stymie genealogy researchers, there are several more obscure record types you can use to find your ancestors in the city. In this lecture, Alec Ferretti, professional genealogist at the Wells Fargo Family & Business History Center, will provide an overview of some NYC historical record sets that are often overlooked by genealogists, such as licensing records, voter registrations, and education records.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 20
7:00 pm
Pay-what-you-wish
7:00 pm
Pay-what-you-wish
Gallery Talk | Spirituality, Art and the Legacy of Kahlil Gibran
Leeza Ahmady, Director of Programs, Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts and Paul-Gordon Chandler, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming, Founder of CARAVAN Arts and Author of In Search of a Prophet A Spiritual Journey with Kahlil Gibran, discuss Kahlil Gibran in the context of art's longstanding engagement with the realms of religious faith and spiritual expression.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 20
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Symposium | Museums as Systems: Resources (online)
The two-day, annual Museums as Systems symposium gathers together arts workers to discuss alternative approaches to museum structures. The 2023 convening asks the question: what “resources" are necessary to reimagine the systems of museums? This symposium explores “resources” through four key themes: love and care, creative fundraising, reclamation, and radical hospitality. Over four sessions, “Museums as Systems: Resources” seeks to explore these concepts with the following questions: What do we have? What do we need? How do we get it? What are we willing to risk? to give up? What are the barriers to broadening access and how can we overcome them? What are alternative solutions to acquiring the resources we need?
New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Wed, Jun 21
5:30 pm
Free
5:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Material Witness: Folk and Self-Taught Artists at Work: Curator's Tour
Curator Brooke Wyatt leads an introductory tour. This in-person, hour-long tour will examine highlights from each of the exhibition’s four sections, with a spotlight on recent gifts to AFAM’s collection. Visitors will explore artists’ use of diverse materials, considering distinctive creations wrought from regionally sourced products, fascinating transformations of scavenged objects, and ingenious applications of both conventional and unexpected craft and fine art materials.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 22
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Alchi: Visions of Enlightenment: Curatorial Tour
Jeff Watt, a leading scholar of Himalayan Art and founding curator at the Rubin Museum of Art, discusses the iconography in Peter Van Ham’s monumental photographs of Alchi Monastery. The Alchi murals are a part of the main features of the cultural heritage of Ladakh, and the complex of monastic temples with breathtakingly preserved art from the 11th centuries have become a significant tourist destination. Combined with the brilliant colors and complex iconography dating back to the 10th-11th centuries, the incredibly well preserved Alchi murals have become world famous for their exceedingly rich detail, bright colors, and exemplary execution, as well as their colorful historical documentation of the jataka tales (stories of the Buddha’s past lives), monumental mandalas and iconographic depictions of major Buddhist deities created by teams of master artisans. Choosing specific aspects of the exhibition, Watt will give a guided tour discussing the technical skill, taste, and finesse of the Alchi artists: the shading of a skin portion of a large figure, miniature-like attendants, the variant and multicolored outlines of a cloth design and its combination of colors, the elegant twist of energy rays emanating from a deity, the delicate line of attributes held by small depictions of Bodhisattvas in mandalas are painted (seemingly executed with single-haired brushes), the abundant jewelry, or the decorative elements such as volutes, borders, and floral structures.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 22
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Lecture | International Archaeology Day
The Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations will speak on the occasion of International Archaeology Day, the committee's most significant annual lecture of each series. Previous such programs have included Permanent Representatives to the United Nations from Croatia, Egypt, Malta, and Sri Lanka.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 22
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | The Beat, The Scene, The Sound: A DJ's Journey through the Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of House Music in New York City by DJ Disciple and Henry Kronk
Join authors DJ Disciple and Henry Kronk in conversation with New York-based DJ and Producer Herb Martin as they discuss The Beat, The Scene, The Sound. This title chronicles the emergence, decline, and rebirth of the NY House Music as seen & experienced by Legendary Brooklyn DJ Disciple. About the Authors DJ Disciple is a Brooklyn-based Black artist, DJ, radio host, producer, and community advocate and has toured the world over a forty-year career, playing venues such as Studio 54 in New York, Ministry of Sound in London, and Cream in Ibiza. His Grammy-nominated track Caught Up reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in 2002 and was later featured in the Showtime series Queer as Folk. Henry Kronk is a freelance journalist who has covered a range of subjects over the course of his career. His non-fiction work has appeared in Exclaim!, the Burlington Free Press, International DJ, Vallum: Contemporary Poetry, and more. In 2018, he produced the investigative radio program and podcast Code Burst. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jun 23
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | A Conversation on Nora Thompson Dean, Preserver of Lenape Culture
An evening celebrating the Lenape traditionalist Nora Thompson Dean, who dedicated her life to preserving Lenape culture and language, with two of the founders of the Lenape Center, Joe Baker and Hadrien Coumans. The Lenape Center is a New York-based organization with the mission of continuing Lenapehoking, the original Lenape homeland in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, through community, culture, and the arts. The program will be moderated by Sal Robinson, Lucy Ricciardi Assistant Curator, Literary and Historical Manuscripts.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jun 23
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Cross-Dressing: Fashion and Gender Expression in the Eighteenth Century
Cross-dressing is a plot device in many 18th-century plays and stories, but what did it mean when real people put on the clothing associated with the opposite sex? Join Amelia Rauser, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Art History and Senior Associate Dean of the Faculty at Franklin & Marshall College, for a look at a few historical case studies of 18th-century cross-dressers and note the diverse historical circumstances that influenced their public gender expression. Amelia Rauser's most recent book, The Age of Undress: Art, Fashion, and the Classical Ideal in the 1790s, considered the meaning of the white, high-waisted empire-style dress and how it intersected with women's artistic and intellectual ambitions in the late 18th-century. Her current projects center on fashion and illness, political fashion, and the colonialist trade in textiles during the 18th century. 18th-Century Style is highly encouraged.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jun 23
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Freedom Is a Constant Struggle
A talk featuring artists, activists and historians.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Jun 24
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Freedom Is a Constant Struggle
A talk featuring artists, activists and historians.
New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Sun, Jun 25
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Book Club | The Engineer’s Wife: A Novel of the Brooklyn Bridge by Tracey Enerson Wood
She built the Brooklyn Bridge, so why don't you know her name? Emily Roebling built a monument for all time. Then she was lost in its shadow. Discover the fascinating woman who helped design and construct the Brooklyn Bridge.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jun 26
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Club | Graphic Novel Book Club
Comic books and graphic novels have long been popular with a wide range of readers and influential for many in creative endeavors. These graphic works have become an important means of artistic and literary innovation, while gaining long overdue scholarly and academic attention. Over the past few decades, the popularity of comic books and graphic novels has significantly risen. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Mon, Jun 26
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Material Witness: Folk and Self-Taught Artists at Work: Curator's Tour (online)
Curator Brooke Wyatt leads an introductory tour. This in-person, hour-long tour will examine highlights from each of the exhibition’s four sections, with a spotlight on recent gifts to AFAM’s collection. Visitors will explore artists’ use of diverse materials, considering distinctive creations wrought from regionally sourced products, fascinating transformations of scavenged objects, and ingenious applications of both conventional and unexpected craft and fine art materials.
New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Tue, Jun 27
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Sky-High: A Critique of NYC's Supertall Towers from Top to Bottom (online)
Part architectural guidebook and part critique, Sky-High documents the pencil-thin, supertall towers that are transforming New York City's skyline and streets. The new book by Eric P. Nash captures the city's penchant for building skyward, from the Woolworth and Chrysler buildings of an early 20th-century race to the top to today's super luxury aeries of Billionaires' Row and the World Trade complex in Lower Manhattan. They feature a new crop of "supertall" towers (commonly measured as at least 984 feet above the sidewalk), including One World Trade Center, Three World Trade Center, 30 Hudson Yards, 35 Hudson Yards, One57, 432 Park Avenue, 53West53, Central Park Tower, and One Vanderbilt.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jun 27
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Club | If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
The postmodernist narrative, in the form of a frame story, is about the reader trying to read a book called If On a Winter's Night a Traveler. Each chapter is divided into two sections. The first section of each chapter is in second person, and describes the process the reader goes through to attempt to read the next chapter of the book they are reading. The second half is the first part of a new book that the reader ("you") finds. The second half is always about something different from the previous ones.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 29
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Every Rising Sun: A Retelling of One Thousand and One Nights (online)
Pakistani American writer Jamila Ahmed launches her debut novel. Set in twelfth-century Persia, this retelling of One Thousand and One Nights re-centers Sheherezade in a feminist light, exploring her efforts to maneuver court intrigue to save her homeland-with her very own head at stake.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jul 18
7:00 pm
$10 suggested donation...
7:00 pm
$10 suggested donation...
Book Discussion | I Meant It Once: What It Means to Be Young (online)
Navigating one's twenties can be confusing, with the competing forces of love, loss, nostalgia for the past, and the new responsibilities of the present all claiming center stage emotionally. Kate Doyle launches of her collection of short stories paying homage to what it means to be young, searching for ways to break free of the expectations of others, and finding out how to exist in the world's chaos.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jul 19
7:00 pm
$10 suggested donation...
7:00 pm
$10 suggested donation...
Book Discussion | Vanishing Maps: Cuban Family Reunites in Germany (online)
Cristina García launches a sequel to her debut novel, Dreaming in Cuban. Set twenty years later, García’s new novel tracks four generations of the del Pino family against the tumultuous backdrops of Cuba, the U.S., Germany, and Russia. Cut off from their Cuban roots but still feeling the island’s pull, the family grapples with their histories over a momentous year before they meet in Berlin for an explosive reunion.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jul 25
7:00 pm
$10 suggested donation...
7:00 pm
$10 suggested donation...
Complimentary Tickets
to shows, concerts ... (CFT Deals!)
Play | A Modern Take on a Shakespeare Play with Broadway Actors
Regular Price: $40CFT Member Price: $0.00
Classical Music | Uplifting Choral Music at a Landmark Venue
Regular Price: $65CFT Member Price: $0.00
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