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!
135 free talks, lectures, discussions in New York City (NYC) Sat, 12/02/2023 - 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!
Symposium | In Common: Romare Bearden and New Approaches to Art, Race & Economy
Two generations after the passing of American icon Romare Bearden in 1988, The New School’s Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, the Romare Bearden Foundation, and The Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University combine forces to examine Bearden’s legacy under three distinct lenses: the impact of his activist work, especially his prints; the role of music in both his practice at large and the activist projects; and the resonance of his oeuvre in contemporary art making. The multi-tier initiative In Common: Romare Bearden and New Approaches to Art, Race & Economy consists of a three-day symposium. Featuring contemporary creative works and perspectives from socially-conscious, politically engaged BIPOC artists and commentators, the symposium will draw on Bearden’s activist legacy to spotlight the potent, yet still-too-rarely-acknowledged relationships between race, culture, economy, and the Common Good. Through plenary discussions, live performances, and a striking new exhibition, we will investigate the themes of purposeful creativity, the artist as activist, BIPOC leadership in creative culture and economy, and much more.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Dec 2
9:00 am
Free
9:00 am
Free
Discussion | Capturing Times Square
Artist Jane Dickson and scholar Lynne Sagalyn discuss how they have made Times Square—one of New York’s most iconic, mutable, and perplexing places—a central focus of their work. Author, architect, and filmmaker James Sanders moderates.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Dec 2
2:00 pm
Free
2:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Innards: Stories by Magogodi oaMphela Makhene
Magogodi oaMphela Makhene will be in conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Harding (author of This Other Eden), talking about her new book, Innards: Stories. This incendiary debut of linked stories narrates the everyday lives of Soweto residents, from the early years of apartheid to its dissolution and beyond. Set in Soweto, the urban heartbeat of South Africa, Innards tells the intimate stories of everyday black folks processing the savagery of apartheid with grit, wit, and their own distinctive bewildering humor. Rich with the thrilling textures of township language and life, it braids the voices and perspectives of an indelible cast of characters into a breathtaking collection flush with forgiveness, rage, ugliness, and beauty. Meet a fake PhD and ex-freedom fighter who remains unbothered by his own duplicity, a girl who goes mute after stumbling upon a burning body, twin siblings nursing a scorching feud, and a woman unraveling under the weight of a brutal encounter with the police. At the heart of these stories about deceit and ambition, appalling violence, familial turmoil, and love is South Africa’s history of slavery, colonization, and apartheid. Like many Americans today, Innards’ characters must navigate the shadows of the recent past alongside the uncertain opportunities of the promised land.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Dec 2
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Latinisimo: Home Recipes from the Twenty-One Countries of Latin America
A conversation with journalist and cookbook writer Sandra A. Guitierrez to celebrate her new encyclopedic cookbook celebrating Latin American home cooking--the first to cover the day-to-day home cooking of all twenty-one nations--by one of the most respected authorities on the subject. In this monumental work, Gutierrez shares more than three hundred everyday dishes--plus countless variations--that home cooks everywhere will want to replicate. Divided by ingredient--Beans, Corn, Yuca, Quinoa, and almost two dozen more--and featuring an extensive pantry section that establishes the fundamentals of Latin American cooking, Latinisimo brings together real recipes from home cooks in Argentina, Brazil, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Dec 2
5:00 pm
$5 suggested donation...
5:00 pm
$5 suggested donation...
Talk | Rebecca Doll Day
Calling fans of the American Girl dolls of all ages! They are celebrating with a full day of fun inspired by the story of Rebecca Rubin, a young Jewish girl living in New York City in 1914 who dreams of becoming an actress. There willl be a discussion with Jacqueline Dembar Greene, author of American Girl’s Rebecca series, Hanukkah- and Rebecca-inspired crafts, a tour of the museum’s exhibitions inspired by Rebecca, and more.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sun, Dec 3
1:00 pm
$10 suggested donation...
1:00 pm
$10 suggested donation...
Discussion | Film Historian Richard Peña in Conversation
The career of Richard Peña spans a thirty-plus-year period of enormous transformation in global film culture. In this event, Peña will discuss his career as a film programmer and educator in conversation with MoMA curator Josh Siegel. What does a programmer do? And what is their responsibility in curating films and film history for an audience?
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sun, Dec 3
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Conference | Jewish Travel Literature in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Arrival 8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. Panel 1 - Perspectives on Palestine 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Uriel Gellman, "Eyes to Zion: Contesting Images of the Holy Land in East European Jewish Travelogs" Yithak Lewis, "Beyond the Pale: Exploring the Horizons of Jewish Modernity in Nachman of Braslav’s Tales of Travel" Ken Frieden, "Reflections on Approaches to Hebrew Travel Narratives through Textualism, Cultural Studies, and Textual Referentialism" Panel 2 - Jewish Travelers to Asia 10:35 a.m. - 12:25 p.m. Mateusz Majman, "These Sufferers, Constantly Lamenting Their Bitter Fate”: The Image of the Mountain Jews in the Writings of Joseph Judah Chorny and Ilya Anisimov" Richard Marks, "On Jacob Sapir in India" Samuel Kessler, “Mapping the Bavli Through Text and Travel: The Case of Adolphe Neubauer’s La Géographie du Talmud (1868)” Phil Keisman, "Awakening sympathy for our 'Unhappy brethren:' Towards a Reception History of Benjamin II and the Transnational Jewish Imagination" 12:30 p.m. - 1:10 p.m. Keynote Address 1:15 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Melissa Klapper (Rowan University), "American Jewish Women Traveling to Europe"
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 4
8:30 am
Free
8:30 am
Free
Lecture | Holocaust Remembrance and Testimony in Primo Levi’s If This Is A Man (online)
Speaker: Professor Subarno Chattarji, Professor, English Literature, Delhi University, Delhi, India
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 4
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Discussion | Safeguarding Students from Antisemitism on Campus (online)
In the aftermath of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel, the ADL has recorded a vast increase in antisemitic incidents around the U.S. On campus, we’ve also seen an explosion of hate. What should you do when you or someone you know faces antisemitism on campus? What role does the U.S. Department of Education have in safeguarding students? What is Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and how does it protect Jewish students?
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 4
12:30 pm
Free
12:30 pm
Free
Lecture | A Strategy to Address Japan's Declining Fertility Rate
Speaker: Randall S. Jones, Research Associate, Center on Japanese Economy and Business
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 4
12:45 pm
Free
12:45 pm
Free
Book Discussion | A Holly Jolly Ever After: A Holiday Story (online)
Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone discuss the next book in the Christmas Notch series, a new spicy story about an actress and a perpetually single former boy-band member reunited as costars on a steamy holiday film.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 4
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Exhibition Closing Reception and Conversation: The Afterlives of Incarceration
Closing night reception and program of The Afterlives of Incarceration for the acclaimed exhibition Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration curated by Dr. Nicole R. Fleetwood. MacArthur Fellows Dr. Reuben Jonathan Miller (2022) and Dr. Emily Wang (2022) join Dr. Fleetwood (2021) in conversation about the afterlives of imprisonment. Dr. Miller is Associate Professor in the Crown Family School and Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation. Dr. Wang is a professor in the Yale School of Medicine and directs the SEICHE Center for Health and Justice. Schedule 6 PM Closing Reception 7 PM Afterlives of Incarceration: Dr. Nicole R. Fleetwood in conversation with Emily Wang, MD, MAS and Reuben Jonathan Miller, PhD 8 PM Final Look The exhibition will be on view from 10 AM - 9 PM on Monday, December 4.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 4
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | The Cast of Tony Nominated Musical Legs Diamond Reunites
The musical Legs Diamond told the story of a true-life gangster who always wanted to be in the theater business. The show, written by Charles Suppon and Harvey Fierstein, only lasted for 64 performances in the late 80s. But it has developed a cult following and it even received some Tony Award nominations, and Willa Kim was nominated for Drama Desk Award for her fantastic costume design. The original cast of the Tony-nominated Broadway musical Legs Diamond reunites to celebrate this remarkable but largely forgotten musical. Join an evening of song and dance as the cast shares never-before-told stories about the making of the show. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 4
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | King: A Life (in-person and online)
Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s bestselling book is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. ― and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. Eig gives us an MLK for our times: a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history’s greatest movements, and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 4
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Marx for Cats: A Radical Bestiary (online)
What is the role of cats in history’s struggle between economic freedom and limitation? Might we view them as comrades? Jodi Dean and Leigh Claire La Berge discuss La Berge's book which uses 1200 years of economic history to argue not only that Marxism has the ability to be an interspecies project, but that it already is one.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 4
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Expressing the Feminine Divine: A Discussion Between Artists (online)
Artists damali abrams, Katerina Lanfranco, and Hiba Schahbaz in conversation.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 4
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Lecture | The Reign of Tutankhamun: What New Evidence Reveals (online)
In spite of Tutankhamun’s tomb — excavated 101 years ago — being the richest burial chamber discovered in Egypt, his reign has been obscured due to the erasure of his memory by later Pharaohs and a dearth of hard evidence. He was long considered an unimportant king, and his sovereignty was largely disregarded because of its short duration of less than 10 years. However, considerable documentation to the contrary is available nowadays. This lecture by Professor Nozomu Kawai of Kanazawa University, presented in collaboration with ARCE’s New York Chapter and National Headquarters, introduces the current understanding of Tutankhamun and his time utilizing new information.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 4
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Mon, Dec 4
7:30 pm
Regular: $69
Member: $0
7:30 pm
Regular: $69
Member: $0
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Discussion | An Evening with David M. Friedman, Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel (online)
David Friedman served as the United States Ambassador to Israel from 2017 to 2021. He played a pivotal role in the United States moving its embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Friedman is the author of Sledgehammer: How Breaking with the Past Brought Peace to the Middle East. MODERATORS: Dr. Alan Kadish President, Touro University Samuel J. Levine Professor of Law, Director of the Jewish Law Institute
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 4
8:00 pm
Free
8:00 pm
Free
Conference | A Decade After the Euromaidan: Reflecting on Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity and Its Ongoing Impact (in-person and online)
This winter marks a decade since Ukraine’s Euromaidan protests, which took place from 21 November 2013 to 22 February 2014. Also known as the Revolution of Dignity, this mass mobilisation was triggered by then President Yanukovych’s refusal to sign an association agreement with the EU, and later transformed into a struggle for Ukrainian democracy and independence, which eventually brought down the government. The subsequent ten years have seen significant shifts in Ukrainian culture, society, domestic politics, and foreign relations, which have set Ukraine on a more democratic, western-oriented path, and also been used by Russia to justify the onset and then escalation of its war upon Ukraine. Whilst the world’s attention has understandably shifted to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in order to understand the Ukraine of today, one must continue to study the Euromaidan. To mark the ten-year anniversary of the protests, this event is bringing together scholars. The research shared at this workshop will not only help us better understand this important mass mobilization, but also its connection to and long-term impact upon the resistance, attitudes, and identities of Ukrainians today.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
9:00 am
Free
9:00 am
Free
Conference | Jewish Travel Literature in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Panel 3 - New Methodological Departures in the Study of Travel Literature 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Rachel Smith, "'Here I am, Send Me!' Nineteenth-Century Jewish Ethnography and the Making of a Mission" Eyal Ben Eliyahu, "On a Maskilic Geographical Chapter: A Hebrew Manuscript from the NYPL" Raphael Thurm, "On Orthodox Travelogues" Trip to the Jewish Theological Seminary Rare Book Room (participants only) 10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. Presentation on manuscripts related to Modern Jewish Travel by Dr. Mordy Schwartz Concluding discussion as a group (participants only) 12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
9:00 am
Free
9:00 am
Free
Book Discussion | Escalation Dynamics in Cyberspace: Rival Nations and the Threat
Dr. Erica D. Lonergan and Dr. Shawn W. Lonergan discuss their book which grapples with the question of how cyberspace operations contribute to the increasing risk of escalation among rival nations, demonstrating through detailed case studies and policymaking insights that cyberspace is not as dangerous as conventional wisdom suggests.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
12:30 pm
Free
12:30 pm
Free
Book Club | Poetry Discussion Circle: What's New in American and English-Language Poetry
Join fellow poetry enthusiasts in unpacking the layered meanings of poetry through an informal group discussion. Please note that contemporary poetry deals frankly with contemporary issues and all works discussed are artistic expressions selected for an adult audience.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
2:30 pm
Free
2:30 pm
Free
Discussion | A Conversation with the Eldest Son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
A conversation with Michael Meeropol, eldest son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, on the history and future of antidemocratic tendencies in American politics and life. Michael Meeropol (born Michael Rosenberg in 1943) is a retired professor of economics. He is the older son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Born in New York City, as Michael Rosenberg, Meeropol spent his early childhood living in New York and attending local school there. His father Julius, an electrical engineer, was a member of the Communist Party. His mother Ethel (née Greenglass), a union organizer, was also active in the Communist Party. When Michael was seven years old, his parents were arrested. In 1953, they were convicted and executed for conspiracy to commit espionage and passing secrets to the Soviet Union.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Lecture | G7, BRICS and Capitalism vs Socialism
Capitalism's contradictions have always generated tensions and conflicts within and among capitalist economies and between them and non-capitalist regions. Some emerge from capitalism's instability (cycles or 'crises'); some from its inequalities of wealth and income; and some from its global division of centers and peripheries (via colonialism, imperialism, global north vs global south). Contradictions and conflicts also beset capitalist enterprises' core structures - the employer vs employee nexus. For those who prioritize that nexus as a key social problem, the solution is transition beyond capitalism (i.e. beyond its core structures) to a different system (often called "socialism") based on workers self-directed enterprises as its alternative core structure. In this context we explore how today's G7 vs BRICS struggle shapes a new global economy. Speaker: Richard Wolff, visiting professor in the Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs and Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Putin’s Political Rhetoric on the War in Ukraine (in-person and online)
This talk will analyze the political discourse on the war against Ukraine in today’s Russia with a focus on Putin’s rhetoric. He argues that this discourse is based on a paranoid interpretation of history, in which two main elements are of key significance: a sense of deep resentment and discursive practices of reenactment. At the same time, both these elements are evidence of a very particular perception of temporality in Putin’s Russia, where the past, interpreted in a conspiratorial way, determines the perception of the present and the future. Importantly, this discourse owes its internal coherence to the fact that it functions in the same way as conspiracy theories: nourished by strong emotions, it produces a fundamental semiotic clarity in its interpretation of global history, whereby any particular events are not seen as contingent, but always as having significance in the context of the narrative thus constructed. This is why this discourse is therefore not falsifiable. Speaker Riccardo Nicolosi is a Professor of Slavic Literatures at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Black and Brown Voices in Pre-Modern Music: Early Instruments and Diverse Voices Before 1800
Welcome Patricia Ann Neely, a performer of early music instruments with a dedication to re-discovering Black and Brown’s legacy in pre-modern Music. This event will highlight the often-overlooked narratives and legacy of Black and Brown composers and musicians from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque eras. It will also feature a discussion/performance around the history and unique sounds of historical string instruments. Neely is a distinguished string performer with a specialization in historical instruments (viola da gamba, vielle, violone, Double Bass). She has performed in various early music ensembles, including the Folger Consort, Smithsonian Chamber Players, The Washington Bach Consort, ARTEK, The New York Consort of Viols, and Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, among others, and is a founding member of Abendmusik and Parthenia. She has toured with the acclaimed European-based medieval ensemble Sequentia on the medieval fiddle performing at many festivals, including Oude Muziek, Utrecht, Bach Tage, Berlin, and Tage Alte Musik, Herne.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
5:00 pm
Free
5:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Reproductive Rights with a Global Focus (in-person and online)
Professor of Law Melissa Murray, in conversation with reporter Julianne McShane on reproductive rights with a global focus.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
5:00 pm
Free
5:00 pm
Free
Discussion | The Artists Roundtable (online)
A talk with artist Tony Oursler. Deeply rooted in conceptualism, the work of Tony Oursler conjures multimedia and immersive experiences that combine traditional art-making tools with new technologies. He is known for his work with moving images, installation and projection—drawing inspiration from telecommunications, narrative evolution, conspiracy, social media, facial recognition, mysticism and environmental concerns. His works often take the form of a “palimpsest,” layering possible futures with the recent past, while focusing on present day issues. In recent years, Oursler has used his extensive archive in conjunction with installations to blur the boundaries between art, fact and belief systems.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
5:00 pm
Free
5:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Diability and Public Space: The Lived Experience in Bogotá, Santo Domingo, and New York City
An event on research on disability informed by the personal experience of the researcher in three cities. Speaker Pedro Javier Jaramillo Cruz is a professor at the University of Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano in the Architecture and Habitat School. Since 1997, following a car accident that he suffered, his practice has been oriented towards the problematization of the relationship between physical space and people with disabilities. This is how the topics of his expertise focus on universal accessibility, inclusive design, and human safety.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Sex Work in a Global Frame
A roundtable with Kamala Kempadoo, Angelique Nixon, Elena Shih, and Yin Q This panel brings together scholars and activists working across different sites – the United States, the Caribbean, Thailand, and China – who are at the forefront of theorizing sex, gender, labor and migration. Challenging colonial narratives of rescue, redemption, and rehabilitation that undergird the global anti-trafficking movement, the panelists collectively envision global gender/sexual/economic justice by foregrounding the perspectives, expertise, and organizing efforts of workers themselves.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Talk | Community: Designing for Social Change
What do design, community and social change have in common? This is a talk by Yin Kong, director of Think!Chinatown, and Amanda Ramos of the Innovation Field Office, about creating a better world through design. As we prepare ourselves for the new year, how are you invoking the power of design for social innovation?
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Drawing Dialogues
Artists Mel Chin and Shellyne Rodriguez, featured in the exhibition Drawing as Practice, talk about their work, with a particular emphasis on the role of drawing in their practice. To foster dynamic conversations among participants in the exhibition, the evening will feature a pair of artists presenting. The pairings will celebrate the vitality of technique and approaches to contemporary drawing and create opportunities for interesting discussions among artists and audiences.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Lecture | The Paduan 9/11 Memorial and the Fosse Ardeatine in Rome
The topic of this talk focuses on the notion of ruins. The main theme of the first part is not 9/11 per se, but rather how the Paduan memorial reflects the way in which Italians have interpreted and appropriated this event. The talk will read contemporary Italian culture through this neglected memorial in Padua. Shifting to a different form of memorial, the second part of the talk centers on the Fosse ardeatine in Rome and examines how the notion of ruins acquires a significantly different connotation in this memorial that is quickly becoming obsolete. Speaker Armando Maggi is the Arthur and Joan Rasmussen Professor of Western Civilization at the University of Chicago.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | The Price of Humanity: How Philanthropy Went Wrong―And How to Fix It
Amy Schiller in a discussion of her newest book, an attempt to rescue philanthropy from its progressive decline into vanity projects that drive wealth inequality, so that it may support human flourishing as originally intended.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Target Hong Kong: A True Story of U.S. Navy Pilots at War (online)
Professor Steven Bailey's book examines the U.S. Navy airstrikes on Japanese-held Hong Kong during the final year of World War II. Operation Gratitude involved nearly 100 U.S. Navy warships and close to a thousand planes. Target Hong Kong brings this massive operation down to a human scale by recounting the air raids through the experiences of seven men whose lives intersected at Hong Kong in January 1945: Commander John D. Lamade, five of his fellow U.S. Navy pilots and the POW Ray Jones.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 5
8:00 pm
Free
8:00 pm
Free
Talk | Address by Israel's Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism (online)
Speaker: Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel's Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism, Jerusalem, Israel
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Book Discussion | Feeling Moved: Upward Mobility and Emotions in Socialist Poland
In this presentation, Magda Sczceśniak offers a theorization of socialist upward mobility stories, a heterogenous genre which aimed to capture the experience of class advancement in state socialism, on the example of the Polish People’s Republic. A key declaration of the new post-war state was the promise of mass upward mobility of the peasant and working classes. The new system’s introduction was to precipitate the improvement of material living conditions for working classes, their symbolic appreciation, and—perhaps most importantly—their participation in state management. The professed end goal was a classless society, if classes are understood as hierarchical groups remaining in conflict over differing interests and the ownership of means of production. Although this goal was never achieved, the socialist period in Poland was in fact a time of intense social mobility. Drawing on diverse representations—from propaganda newsreels through film and literature to working-class writing—Szcześniak will examine recurring figures and tropes of the newly identified genre. Socialist upward mobility stories developed over time in response to the evolving class politics of the state and transforming class relations and influenced the ways in which class was thought and lived in state socialism. Szcześniak argues that socialist upward mobility stories were characterized by four recurring ideologemes: the collective character of socialist upward mobility, the state’s role as benefactor, the diffusion of upward mobility, and a heightened emotionality. Magda Szcześniak is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Polish Culture, University of Warsaw. Author of Normy widzialności. Tożsamość w czasach transformacji (Norms of Visuality. Identity in Times of Transition, 2016) and Poruszeni. Awans i emocje w socjalistycznej Polsce (Feeling Moved. Upward Mobility and Emotions in Socialist Poland, 2023). Two-time Fulbright scholar (2010/2011, 2019/2020) and mentor in the Fulbright Poland “Top Minds” program. She has also received stipends from the Polish National Science Centre and the Ministry of Higher Education and Science.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Klaus Friedeberger (1922-2019): Journey Around the World (online)
Born in Berlin in 1922, the artist Klaus Friedeberger escaped Nazi Germany in 1937. After studying at the Quaker School in Holland he arrived in London as a refugee in 1939. Classified as ‘enemy alien’ he was interned and subsequently deported to Australia on the transport ship Dunera. He spent two years in internment camps at Hay in New South Wales. Released in 1942 he joined the Australian Army labour corps and after demobilisation he studied art at East Sydney Technical College. After ten years in Australia Friedeberger returned to Europe and settled in London where he lived and worked until his death in 2019. Lecture by Monica Sidhu, followed by Q&A with wife Julie Friedeberger, both in London
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Mainstreaming and Game Journalism by David B. Nieborg and Maxwell Foxman
Mainstreaming and Game Journalism (MIT Press, September 2023) addresses both the history and current practice of game journalism, along with the roles writers and industry play in conveying that the medium is a “mainstream” form of entertainment. Through interviews with reporters, David B. Nieborg and Maxwell Foxman retrace how the game industry and journalists started a subcultural spiral in the 1980s that continues to this day. Ultimately, Mainstreaming and Game Journalism provocatively questions whether games ever will—or even should—gain widespread cultural acceptance.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
12:30 pm
Free
12:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Absolution: Women's Lives and the Vietnam War (online)
Author Alice McDermott discusses her new book, a riveting account of women's lives on the margins of the Vietnam War, from the renowned winner of the National Book Award.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Discussion | The Craft of Writing
Author Emily X.R. Pan as she sits down with Caron Levis.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
5:45 pm
Free
5:45 pm
Free
Discussion | Political Trust in Europe: Is There a Crisis, and Does it Matter?
Political trust is commonly said to be critical for the functioning of liberal democracy. It indicates the belief that parties and politicians are ready and able to govern in the interests of citizens in reliable ways, even if exposed to little supervision or scrutiny. Trust facilitates political compromise, political integration, and social peace. Public debates and some studies suggest that European voters may be losing this important disposition. The surge of populist parties across European democracies, shrinking vote shares of mainstream parties, and visible protest movements are widely seen as clearcut signals in this regard. This conversation explores the scope of this perceived crisis and what the conditions and long-term consequences might be. It brings together international experts from the fields of political theory, empirical political sociology, and party politics. The panel participants will present their insights on the state of political trust in European politics in short introductory statements, discuss them in a panel a conversation, and respond to questions from the audience. Participants: __ Marc Hooghe is a full professor of Political Science at the University of Leuven (Belgium), and a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Mannheim, Lille-II and Utrecht. -- Mark Warren is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia, former Merilees Chair for the Study of Democracy, and President of the American Political Science Association. -- Milada Vachudova is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. -- Thomas Zittel is Professor for Comparative Politics at Goethe University Frankfurt and currently Max Weber Visiting Professor for European and German Studies at the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, New York University.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Telephone Telephone: Discussions About Video Art, Television and Their Descendant Media
A discussion about video art, television and their descendant media and how artists have used these to extend exhibition space and build new distribution networks for their ideas. Presented as part of the Library's ongoing exhibition, City Scenes: Video Art from the Collections of the n.b.k. and EAI. They will be discussing the architecture of televised communications and how artists integrated their works into existing circuits of presentation for art and performance.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Artist Talk: Process and Practice (online)
In this virtual talk, artist Cannupa Hanska Luger will discuss his exploration of papermaking in the context of his multidisciplinary artistic practice with Apsara DiQuinzio, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nevada Museum of Art, and Tatiana Ginsberg, Dieu Donné Artistic Director and Master Collaborator. Rooted in generational knowledge of Indigenous craft and art, Luger creates monumental artworks utilizing repurposed materials, ceramics, textiles, steel, and digital media. In an ongoing collaboration with Dieu Donné, Luger has created handmade paper feathers and bustles to replicate and reinterpret customary regalia of Northern Plains tribes as part of a larger body of new work, Speechless, currently on view at the Nevada Museum of Art.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
6:30 pm
$5-$10 suggested donation...
6:30 pm
$5-$10 suggested donation...
Discussion | Conspiratorial Memory in Russia
In 2021, the National Liberation Movement (NOD), a nationalist social movement backed by the Russian state, started gathering signatures to petition the Russian Supreme Court to overrule the USSR’s breakup. The petition claims that the dissolution of the USSR was unlawful and resulted from a conspiracy between Mikhail Gorbachev and other key politicians of the time. To motivate people to sign, the activists addressed current problems: the reunification of the USSR would have stopped the war in Donbas (pre-February 24, 2022) and would stop the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, prevent opening the “second front” in Georgia, strengthen the country against the hostile West. The idea that the dissolution of the USSR was a conspiracy is not new; in fact, it has been circulating in other milieus, especially pro-Soviet communities. Some of them also petitioned the courts or even went as far as claiming that the USSR still existed, Russian passports are void, and that the current regime has usurped power. The latter communities are now outlawed. However, the topic is new for the National Liberation Movement, which previously did not engage deeply with the Soviet memory.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Discussion | How Can We Solve the Border Crisis? (in-person and online)
Fernanda Santos leads a panel of Elizabeth F. Cohen, Julia Preston, Cinthya Santos-Briones, and Van Tran on this urgent topic. What can be done to alleviate the chaos and human suffering at the U.S.-Mexico border? Without comprehensive immigration reform by Congress, what actions can the Biden administration take to create safe and legal pathways for asylum seekers? A panel of experts discusses creative solutions to America’s immigration crisis, and how to end the past decade’s debacle at the southern border.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Flores and Miss Paula: Mother-Daughter Drama
Melissa Rivero presents her new novel, a wry, tender work about a Peruvian immigrant mother and a millennial daughter who have one final chance to find common ground.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Lesbian Poetic Traditions (In Person AND Online)
The iconic feminist poet Judy Grahn re-explores the traditions of lesbian poetry from Sappho to Pat Parker and beyond. In 1985, Judy Grahn boldly declared that lesbians have a poetic tradition and mapped it from Sappho to the present day in the groundbreaking book The Highest Apple. In 2023 the book is being reprinted as part of the Sapphic Classics series, which is dedicated to reprints of iconic works of lesbian poetry. Grahn revisits the original text, which situates poetry by Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, and more as central to lesbian culture—and more radically as central to society as a whole. Judy Grahn is joined by scholar and poet Julie R. Enszer and others to discuss the continued relevance and dynamism of Grahn’s seminal work.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Revelations on Mandela's Legacy
A conversation with Justice Malala and Jonny Steinberg. This is an insightful and engaging conversation as these two prominent authors discuss their newly released books on the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela with moderator Jody Jacobs. This unique event offers a deep dive into the complexities, challenges, and profound impact of one of the most iconic figures in modern history.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Talk | The Great Rewiring: What Phone-Based Childhood Has Done to Our Children (online)
A lively and in-depth discussion on the ways technology is shaping childhood, with a focus on the impact of social media on teen mental health. Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business, will explore practical solutions that both parents and school leaders can implement, recognizing that homes and schools are formative, and that when aligned, they form a vital partnership.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 6
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North (online)
Through over 120 remarkable works including paintings, needlework, and works on paper from from the late seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, the exhibition Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North shares the untold stories of Black experience in New England and the Mid-Atlantic. In this program, exhibition curators Emelie Gevalt, RL Watson and Sadé Ayorinde walk us through the exhibition, reconsidering a selection of early American objects and archives with Black visibility in mind.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 7
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Talk | Finding Joy, Passion and Purpose Through Photography (online)
Sony's Chris Orwig discusses why practicing the craft of photography matters more than ever. Discover a deeper connection to your craft and create your best work by reconnecting with the real reason photography matters.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 7
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | The Money Kings: The Epic Story of the Jewish Immigrants Who Transformed Wall Street and Shaped Modern America (online)
Author Daniel Schulman and UC Riverside's Michael Alexander explore the captivating narrative of German-Jewish immigrants who transformed modern finance and the stock market in America. Arriving with little, they rose from peddling trinkets to founding global giants like Goldman Sachs, Kuhn Loeb, and Lehman Brothers. Their clashes and collaborations with industrial magnates like J.P. Morgan shaped America's financial destiny, capitalizing industries, and underwriting giants such as General Motors and Macy's.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 7
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Talk | Artist Talk: Projecting Tradition Into the Future in Three Solo Works
Jen Shyu will offer an inside look into her process behind research, composition, and improvisation that led to her three of her solo ritual-theater-music works: Solo Rites: Seven Breaths (2014) directed by Garin Nugroho; and Nine Doors (2017) and Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses (2019), both directed by Alexandru Mihail. These works were inspired by 20+ years of study of traditional music and dance from five countries, including epic storytelling and East Coast shaman music from South Korea; music from East and West Timor; Hengchun Folk Song with moon lute from Taiwan; Ledhekan, which combines Javanese dance with improvisational singing from Indonesia; and the “speaking-the-song” or “katari” with Japanese biwa, the rare 4-stringed instrument originally used by monks and priests.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 7
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Reporting About Russia Amid Repression and Censorship (in-person and online)
A conversation with Sergei Smirnov, Ksenia Zhivago, and Alexander Borodikhin, all of Mediazona. Moderated by Ann Cooper. During these times of war, political oppression, and intense military censorship, the work of independent Russian news media is more challenging than ever—professionally, personally, organizationally, and logistically.” Launched in 2014 by Pussy Riot, Mediazona anticipated the growing grip of autocracy on Russian public life, covering the criminal justice system and the intensifying political trials. The invasion of Ukraine escalated the severity of cruelty and injustice, affecting people both outside and inside of Russia’s borders. As the Russian news media restructured their operations in exile, Mediazona remains one of the few outlets who maintains presence in the country, actively covering trials, reporting on the Kremlin’s wide-ranging abuses, and publishing investigations into the casualties in Ukraine despite challenges and threats.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 7
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Lecture | The Geography of American Income Inequality (in-person and online)
Speaker Franziska Disslbacher is Assistant Professor at Vienna University of Economics and Business.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 7
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else)
“Identity politics” is everywhere, polarizing discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom and amplifying antagonisms in the media, both online and off. But the compulsively referenced phrase bears little resemblance to the concept as first introduced by the radical Black feminist Combahee River Collective. While the Collective articulated a political viewpoint grounded in their own position as Black lesbians with the explicit aim of building solidarity across lines of difference, identity politics is now frequently weaponized as a means of closing ranks around ever-narrower conceptions of group interests. But the trouble, author Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò deftly argues, is not with identity politics itself. Through a substantive engagement with the global Black radical tradition and a critical understanding of racial capitalism, Táíwò identifies the process by which a radical concept can be stripped of its political substance and liberatory potential by becoming the victim of elite capture—deployed by political, social, and economic elites in the service of their own interests.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 7
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Les Arts Florissants: A Discussion of the Chamber Opera-Ballet by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (online)
Using video excerpts, Catherine Turocy and James Richman share insights into their research, telling amusing anecdotes along the way. Created in 1685, Les Arts Florissants was originally written for the Duchesse de Guise in Paris, who led an intellectual and artistic salon where Charpentier was the composer-in-residence. Conducted by James Richman with the Dallas Bach Society Chamber Orchestra, which he heads, and choreography and direction by Catherine Turocy, with dancers of The New York Baroque Dance Company, of which she is the artistic director, this period movement production is costumed in historical style. Turocy and Richman were both decorated by the French Republic for their groundbreaking work in bringing back French opera-ballet as an influence on today's stages. Using video excerpts from a recent production, they share insights into their research, telling amusing anecdotes along the way.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 7
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Artist Talk: Realism and Relevance
Using the premise of the true and historical definition of “Realism,” Garin Baker will discuss and examine various forms of contemporary realist painting and sculpture, decretive, stylized, and or symbolic. Should work that is merely representationally in form garner the definition of Realism? Or does Realism connotate works that are seemingly rare in our contemporary art world representing an objective truth about the times in which we live? Are these works relevant in our times? Does the future of Representational Painting in our modern world allow for diversity of vision and narrative works that move past the rigid mold of contemporary classical realism now so celebrated as a singular voice? These and many other questions will be raised and surely a lively discussion will ensue. Born in 1961 in New York City, speaker Garin Baker was raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. With a strong focus on working from life, his works include complex compositions to simple figure studies. His works are a poignant testament to his unwavering dedication to storytelling. Each brushstroke serves as a vessel for conveying the intricate nuances of contemporary life. An artist who upholds the torch of Traditional Realism in its truest form. Baker breathes life into his subjects, capturing not only their physical forms but also the essence of the human experience.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 7
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Straw Dogs of the Universe: Chinese Immigrant in the Old West (online)
Ye Chun's highly anticipated novel is a sweeping historical story of the American West from the little-seen perspective of those who helped to build it. It traces the story of one Chinese father and his young daughter, desperate to find him against all odds.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 7
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Slide Lecture | Contemporary Visions of African American Culture in Public Art (online)
Art historian and lecturer Sylvia Laudien-Meo presents an illustrated presentation and discussion. Public art in New York reflects cultural growth and changing global dynamics. Advances in social awareness, human rights, travel, and education are expanding views and inclusiveness in the art world. As political and civil equality has become a right not a priviledge, more artists of color are commissioned to create art in public places of prominence. Talks include influential art by Martin Puryear, Mildred Howard, and James Yaya Hough in Battery Park City, and local and international art by Kara Walker, Nari Ward, Simone Leigh, Hank Willis Thomas, and others.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Dec 8
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Conference | Between the Black Sea and the Bering Strait: Environmental Histories Across a Subcontinent
2:00 – 2:15pm | Opening Valentina Izmirlieva (Columbia University) 2:15 – 3:45pm | Session 1: Climate Histories Across a Subcontinent Moderator: Julia Lajus (Columbia University) Pey-Yi Chu (Pomona College, CA), Toward Crucial Climate Histories of Eurasia Jonathan Oldfield (University of Birmingham, UK), Geoengineering the Climate: Soviet and Russian Perspectives Ryan Jones (University of Oregon), The Russian Far East and the Shock Decarbonization of the 1990s 4:00 – 5:30pm | Presentation of the book Thinking Russia’s History Environmentally Catherine Evtuhov (Columbia University) David Moon (University College London, UK) Julia Lajus (Columbia University) John McNeill (Georgetown University) Jane Costlow (Bates College, ME) Anna Olenenko (University of Alberta, Canada) Anna Mazanik (Max Weber Foundation/LMU Munich, Germany) Ronald Meyer (Columbia University) Jennifer Goetz (Columbia University) 5:30 – 6:15pm | Screening of the Film Anarcadia Ruth Maclennan, artist (Institute Associate, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UK)
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Dec 8
2:00 pm
Free
2:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Museum Highlights Tour
A highlights tour of these exhibitions: A Collection without Borders -- celebrates the art and culture of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, Goa and the Philippines. Includes a wide range of paintings and decorative arts. Featuring works by Velazquez, Goya, El Greco, Murillo, Tapies, Viladrich, Arrieta, and many more. Anatomy of a Fresco: Drawings of Jose Clemente Orozco from the Wornick Collection -- Anatomy of a Fresco features a rare group of figurative sketches for portraits and preparatory works for large-scale murals made during the Mexican Mural Movement. Sorolla's Vision of Spain -- The monumental series of 14 paintings known as Vision of Spain by the Valencian master Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida. A truly unique, immersive experience that captures the essence of turn-of-the-century rural Spain. Sculpture on the Audobon Terrace -- Immerse yourself in Penetrable, an interactive sculpture created by Jesus Rafael Soto, as well as Marta Chilindron's Orange Cube 48, the inaugural selection for Art on the Audubon Terrace, a partnership with the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Dec 8
2:00 pm
Free
2:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Side Hustle Safety Net: How Vulnerable Workers Survive Precarious Times
Alexandrea Ravenelle's book is the first major study of how the pandemic affected gig workers—a sociological exploration that reads like a novel.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Dec 8
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Reassembly: Field Notes for Unknowing
An evening of readings and presentations by devynn emory, Samita Sinha, Joseph M. Pierce, David Thomson, and Danspace's Judy Hussie-Taylor and Seta Morton. Reassembly consists of “musings on artistic transmission and institutional transactions, scores for our organs, financial literacy resources, books and podcast recommendations, questions for stargazing,” writes editor Seta Morton.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Dec 8
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Conference | Between the Black Sea and the Bering Strait: Environmental Histories Across a Subcontinent
9:00 – 10:30am | Session 2: Technology and Environment in Soviet/Post-Soviet Contexts Moderator: Andy Bruno (Northern Illinois University) Elena Kochetkova (University of Bergen, Norway), The Green Power of Socialism: Wood, Forest, and the Making of Soviet Industrially Embedded Ecology Julia Lajus (Columbia University), Use of Science and Technology for Increasing Biological Productivity of Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems in the Late Soviet Union Artemy Kalinovsky (Temple University), Maintenance and Markets: The Water Energy Nexus in Central Asia after Socialism 10:45am – 12:30pm | Roundtable: Land, Space, Scale and the Methodology of Environmental Humanities Moderator: Catherine Evtuhov (Columbia University) Bathsheba Demuth (Brown University), Land as Method in Environmental History Mieka Erley (Colgate University), Reading Against the Grain: Film and the Natural Trace Jane Costlow (Bates College, ME), Messy reading and the unexpected [context, connection, collaboration] Jennifer Keating (University College Dublin, Ireland), Thinking environmentally about space and scale 1:15 – 2:45pm | Session 3: Environmental Transformations, Disasters, Ecocide Moderator: Anna Mazanik (Max Weber Foundation/LMU Munich, Germany) Dmitry Arzyutov (Ohio State University), Thinking with Novaya Zemlya in the Anthropocene: A Palimpsest of Environmental Transformations of the Arctic Archipelago Sarah Cameron (University of Maryland), Aral: Life and Death of a Sea Anna Olenenko (University of Alberta, Canada), Kakhovka Dam Disaster: Cycles of Ecocide 3:00 – 4:30pm | Contributions of Our Field to Global Environmental History Moderator: John McNeill (Georgetown University) David Moon (University College London, UK), Were the Steppe Rivers Drying Up? Debates over Environmental Change in the Russian Empire Taylor Zajicek (Columbia University), The Black Sea at the Cold War’s End—Local Oddity or Global Catastrophe? Andy Bruno (Northern Illinois University), From Place-Based to the Planetary: The Tunguska Explosion in Global Environmental History 4:30 – 4:45pm | Closing
New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Sat, Dec 9
9:00 am
Free
9:00 am
Free
Gallery Talk | Museum Highlights Tour
A highlights tour of these exhibitions: A Collection without Borders -- celebrates the art and culture of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, Goa and the Philippines. Includes a wide range of paintings and decorative arts. Featuring works by Velázquez, Goya, El Greco, Murillo, Tápies, Viladrich, Arrieta, and many more. Anatomy of a Fresco: Drawings of José Clemente Orozco from the Wornick Collection -- Anatomy of a Fresco features a rare group of figurative sketches for portraits and preparatory works for large-scale murals made during the Mexican Mural Movement. Sorolla's Vision of Spain -- The monumental series of 14 paintings known as Vision of Spain by the Valencian master Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida. A truly unique, immersive experience that captures the essence of turn-of-the-century rural Spain. Sculpture on the Audobon Terrace -- Immerse yourself in Penetrable, an interactive sculpture created by Jesús Rafael Soto, as well as Marta Chilindron’s Orange Cube 48, the inaugural selection for Art on the Audubon Terrace, a partnership with the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance.
New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Sat, Dec 9
2:00 pm
Free
2:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Spectacle of Chaos and Love: Inside Black Lodge
Opera and poetry provocateurs David T. Little and Anne Waldman sit down to discuss their Grammy-nominated opera/film hybrid that reimagines the operatic form through the fractured mythologies of artists like William S. Burroughs and David Lynch, with influences from glam metal and industrial music.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Dec 9
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Lecture | When Does Anti-Zionism Become Antisemitism? (online)
Dina Porat, professor of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University and chief historian of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Memorial Center, gives a timely lecture addressing the urgent question of the roots and history of the term "anti-Zionism" and its relationship to antisemitism. A distinction is drawn between objections to Zionism within the framework of the Jewish people and the use and abuse of the term as a political tool in the public international arena, which may be expressed with antisemitic motifs and images. The following topics and questions, among others, will be covered: -- The untold role of the Soviet Union in disseminating anti-Zionism, and the impact of its efforts -- Anti-Zionism before and after the Six Days War -- The Durban 2001 conference as a turning point: associating Jews with Israelis and antisemitism with anti-Zionism -- The aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and the resurgence of world antisemitism -- When and how does legitimate criticism of Israel's government and policies cross the line to anti-Zionism? -- Discussions, protests and demonstrations on college campuses and elsewhere -- What is known about the funding of antisemitic and anti-Zionist activities
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sun, Dec 10
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Discussion | YIVO Yiddish Club (online)
An event for Yiddish enthusiasts the world over, the YIVO Yiddish club is an informal monthly gathering to celebrate Mame-loshn. Hosted by Shane Baker, sessions take place in English, and are liberally peppered with Yiddish. Each month Baker is joined by a different guest who discusses their work and a related Yiddish cultural theme. In the spirit of a club, sessions are held as interactive zoom meetings in which participants can see and hear one another. Each session includes ample time for audience questions, group discussion, and, time permitting, knock-down, drag-out arguments. Attendees need not know any Yiddish to attend, though some familiarity with the language is highly recommended. This session features actor, singer, and filmmaker, Dylan Seders Hoffman. She is the founder and artistic director of Chava Productions, a film production company which presents original works located at the intersection of pop culture and 21st century Jewishness with a generous dose of Yiddish. Chava Productions' first short film Yiddish Mean Girls premiered in the fall of 2022. As an actor, she has performed Off-Broadway with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, including in their New York Times Critic's Pick production The Sorceress, with the New Yiddish Rep, and at the New York Theatre Festival.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sun, Dec 10
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence
Author, and speaker Joe Berger in conversation with Clyde Haberman. They will be discussing Berger's new book on author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. As an orphaned survivor and witness to the horrors of Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) compelled the world to confront the Holocaust with his searing memoir Night. How did this soft-spoken man from a small Carpathian town become such an influential figure on the world stage? Drawing on Wiesel's prodigious literary output and interviews with his family, friends, scholars, and critics, Joseph Berger seeks to answer this question.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sun, Dec 10
5:30 pm
Free
5:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Politicizing Islam in Central Asia: From the Russian Revolution to the Afghan and Syrian Jihads
Few observers anticipated a surge of Islamism in Central Asia after seventy years of forced communist atheism. Yet, Islamism became the dominant form of political opposition in post-Soviet Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Author Kathleen Collins explores the causes, dynamics, and variation in Islamist movements—first within the USSR, and then in the post-Soviet states of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic and historical research, she explains the strategies and relative success of each Central Asian Islamist movement. Collins argues that in each case, state repression of Islam, by Soviet and post-Soviet regimes, together with the diffusion of religious ideologies, motivated successive waves of Islamist mobilization. Sweeping in scope, this book traces the origins and trajectories of Central Asian Islamist movements from the Soviet era through the Tajik civil war, the Afghan jihad against the United States, and the foreign fighter movement in Syria.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 11
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Open Archive for Civil Rights Activists Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis
An interactive display and discussion of selected material from the Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee papers to celebrate what would have been their 75th wedding anniversary. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee were actors, directors, writers, and activists whose careers spanned the mediums of theatre, television, radio, film, and print. Their papers date from 1932 to 2015, and chronicle the couple's artistic careers as performers and authors, as well as their work as civil rights activists. Get up close and personal with the selected items.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 11
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Discussion | A Conversation with Broadway Star André De Shields
The Billy Rose Theatre Division celebrates five decades Broadway actor André De Shields. In this discussion with De Shields, there will be a screening of video clips of his many performances, exploring his illustrious career from the 1969 Chicago production of Hair to his critically praised turn as Ben Loman in the 2022 revival of Death of a Salesman. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 11
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | An Evening with Kennedy Center Honoree and Composer Tania León (in-person and online)
Tania León is a trailblazer as a composer, conductor, and educator. Born in Havana, Cuba, León has achieved acclaim over an illustrious career. In 2021, she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in recognition of her orchestral work Stride and, in 2022, was inducted into the prestigious ranks of Kennedy Center honorees. Through her years as a faculty member, she has inspired generations of students, recently concluding her tenure as a distinguished professor emerita. León joins in conversation about her extraordinary musical journey with Terrance McKnight, WQXR radio host, writer, and pianist. A concert follows the discussion, featuring a number of León's dazzling works performed by students, faculty, and guest artists. Works and Performers: “Oh Yemanja” (from Scourge of Hyacinths) Charlotte Mundy, soprano Kirsten Jermé, cellist Antonio Valentin, pianist Mistica Ursula Oppens, pianist Esencia Bergamot Quartet
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 11
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Club | LGBTQ+ Book Club: Queer Romance
LGBTQ+ Book Club meets monthly to read and discuss fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels centered around queer individuals, communities, and experiences. Please note that these books deal frankly, sometimes explicitly, with contemporary issues and all works discussed are artistic expressions selected for an adult audience. The theme of our this meeting is Queer Romance to warm up as we descend into the chilly months of winter. There will be an overview of some favorite romance titles and authors that fit the theme. Throughout the meeting there will be ample opportunity to discuss the titles shared that evening as well as any other swoon-worthy titles you come prepared to share! There is no prior reading or knowledge required - this is a space for folks to meet and share their love of (or fall in love with) LGBTQ+ literature.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 11
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Talk | Artist Talk: The Performance of Masculinity (in-person and online)
Kenneth Tam is an artist based in Houston, Texas, and Queens, New York. Tam received his BFA from the Cooper Union and his MFA from the University of Southern California. Tam works with video, sculpture, installation, movement, performance and photography. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, he examines themes including the performance of masculinity, the transformative potential of ritual and expressions of intimacy within groups. Tam often implicates the male body in his projects, using humor and pathos to reveal the performative and unstable nature of identity and often creates situations that foreground tenderness and vulnerability within unlikely settings.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 12
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Discussion | The Artists Roundtable (online)
A talk with Ragnar Kjartansson, an artist who engages multiple artistic mediums, creating video installations, performances, drawings and paintings that draw upon myriad historical and cultural references. An underlying pathos and irony connect his works, with each deeply influenced by the comedy and tragedy of classical theater. Kjartasnsson blurs the distinctions between mediums, approaching his painting practice as performance, likening his films to paintings, and his performances to sculpture.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 12
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Fascism in America: Past and Present (in-person and online)
A timely new book on the history of fascism in the United States from the 1930s to today. Co-editors Gavriel Rosenfeld and Janet Ward will lead a panel discussion featuring many of the volume's contributors, including Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Anna Duensing, Linda Gordon, Alexander Reid Ross, Ousmane Power-Greene, Matthew Specter, Richard Steigmann-Gall, and Thomas Weber. After the program, there will be a light reception.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 12
6:30 pm
Pay-what-you-wish
6:30 pm
Pay-what-you-wish
Book Discussion | Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South
Author Elizabeth R. Varon presents a long-overdue thorough re-evaluation of an American hero. It was the most remarkable political about-face in American history. During the Civil War, General James Longstreet fought tenaciously for the Confederacy. He was alongside Lee at Gettysburg (and counseled him not to order the ill-fated attacks on entrenched Union forces there). He won a major Confederate victory at Chickamauga and was seriously wounded during a later battle. After the war Longstreet moved to New Orleans, where he dramatically changed course. He supported Black voting and joined the newly elected, integrated postwar government in Louisiana. When white supremacists took up arms to oust that government, Longstreet, leading the interracial state militia, did battle against former Confederates. His defiance ignited a firestorm of controversy, as white Southerners branded him a race traitor and blamed him retroactively for the South’s defeat in the Civil War.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 12
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | The Great Gimmelmans: Clan on the Run
Welcome Lee Matthew Goldberg for a discussion of his new novel in which middle child Aaron Gimmelman watches as his family goes from a mild-mannered reform Jewish clan to having over a million dollars of stolen money stuffed in their RV's cabinets while being pursued by the FBI and loan sharks.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 12
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | The Last Ships from Hamburg: Business, Rivalry, and the Race to Save Russia's Jews on the Eve of World War I (online)
Bestselling historian Steven Ujifusa tells the largely forgotten, colorful story of three remarkable businessmen who, driven by very different motives, made much of this immigration possible and forever changed the fate of millions. They were: Jacob Schiff, managing partner of the investment bank Kuhn, Loeb & Company who used his immense wealth to help Jews to leave Europe; Albert Ballin, managing director of the Hamburg-American Line who created a transportation network of trains and steamships; and the notorious J.P. Morgan, mastermind of the International Mercantile Marine trust who tried to take over the lucrative steamship business. With often contradictory goals, these titans of industry forged powerful alliances and compelling rivalries.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 12
7:00 pm
$10 suggested donation...
7:00 pm
$10 suggested donation...
Discussion | Year in Jazz Critics Roundtable
Organized and moderated by WRTI’s editorial director Nate Chinen, The Year in Jazz is a panel discussion about the music, the artists, and the moments that shaped jazz in 2023.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 12
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Lecture | A Jewish Guide to the Met: The History of Chanukah (online)
Historian Jonathan Goldstein gives for a very special Chanukah lecture telling the story of the Maccabees through the Greco-Roman rooms.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 13
10:30 am
Free
10:30 am
Free
Discussion | Domestic Support for Russia’s War on Ukraine: What We Know (online)
Many polls suggest that the majority of Russians consistently approve of Russia’s war on Ukraine. However, various experts and activists have argued that polling in an authoritarian regime, especially during the war, may be unreliable. How much should we trust these surveys, and what evidence of Russians’ support of or opposition to the war do we have? At this panel, scholars of Russian public opinion will present their new findings on support for the invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s regime, talk about how these attitudes changed since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, and discuss what we can and cannot learn from survey research in these circumstances. Speakers: -- Grigore Pop-Eleches, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and Department of Politics; Co-Director of the Princeton Workshop on Post-Communist Politics -- Timothy Frye, Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy at Columbia University -- Katerina Tertytchnaya, Associate Professor in Comparative Politics at the Department of Politics and International Relations; Tutorial Fellow at Brasenose College, University of Oxford -- Maxim Alyukov, Leverhulme Early Career Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Manchester; Research Associate at King’s Russia Institute at King’s College London; Researcher with the Public Sociology Laboratory
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 13
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | The Golden Path: Maimonides Across Eight Centuries: Exhibition Tour
Ilana Benson, Director of Museum Education, gives for a guided tour of the exhibition, illuminating the life and impact of the multifaceted luminary and great Jewish sage across continents and cultures through rare manuscripts and books. Exhibition highlights include manuscripts in Maimonides’s own handwriting, a carved 11th century door to the Torah ark from Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue, and beautifully illuminated medieval manuscripts.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 13
2:00 pm
Free
2:00 pm
Free
Slide Lecture | Organogenesis: Building Blocks of Life (online)
Andrei Duman will be showcasing and discussing his most recent personal photography project which he created in partnership with LEGO Master Builder Nathan Sawaya. The pair built huge scale versions of 13 integral human organs over the course of 16 months and then photographed them with Phase One cameras. In terms of physical scale, the skull organ alone is over 40” tall, uses over 36,000 bricks and weighs over 65lbs. Come listen and learn about the inspiration for the project and how it came to be, what gear was used to create these photographs, and what’s next for the project.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 13
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Book Club | Poetry Discussion: Constantine Cavafy
Reading and discuss a selection of Constantine Cavafy's work, translated by Edmund Keeley. Cavafy (1863–1933) is widely considered the most distinguished Greek poet of the 20th century. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, where his Greek parents had settled in the mid-1850s. Cavafy lived in England for much of his adolescence, and developed both a command of the English language and a preference for the writings of William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde. W.H. Auden noted as much in his introduction to the 1961 volume The Complete Poems of C.P. Cavafy when he wrote, “Cavafy was a homosexual, and his erotic poems make no attempt to conceal the fact.”
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 13
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Lecture | The Evolution of Racial Inequality in the United States
Dr. Ellora Derenoncourt will deliver the Heilbroner Lecture on the evolution of racial inequality in the United States, its consequences, and its historical determinants. Derenoncourt is Assistant Professor of Economics at Princeton University and the founder and faculty director for the Program for Research on Inequality.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 13
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Understanding Urban Warfare
As Israel continues its war against Hamas in Gaza, the challenges of conducting a military operation in one of the most densely populated areas in the world have become clear. To help us understand the characteristics and complexity of this conflict, Col. Liam Collins (ret.), former Director of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point and co-author of Understanding Urban Warfare, will be in conversation with Museum Director Clifford Chanin. Col. Collins will discuss his career as a special forces officer, the lessons learned from similar operations, and the future of warfare in an increasingly urban world.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 13
5:00 pm
Free
5:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | The Controversialist: Arguments with Everyone, Left, Right, and Center (in-person and online)
To mark the publication of Martin Peretz's autobiography, this is a conversation between Peretz and longtime New Republic literary editor, Leon Wieseltier. From 1974 to 2012, during his years as publisher and editor-in-chief of The New Republic, Martin Peretz was a familiar presence on the American political scene. In its time under his leadership, the magazine was always fresh, erudite, contrarian, and brave. Anyone interested in finding out the most distinctive expert takes on the issues that mattered--whether they be domestic or international, cultural, or political--knew that the New Republic was required reading. In addition, Peretz spent over 40 years as a teacher in the Social Studies program at Harvard. The list of his former students is a who's who of American political life, including former vice president Al Gore, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and many more. The Controversialist begins in a vibrant but tragedy-stricken community of Yiddish Jews in his native Bronx and takes Peretz, blessed with that rare trait of always being in the right place at the right time, into the same rooms as some of the most prominent writers, thinkers, businessmen, activists, and politicians of the 20th and 21st centuries. Peretz's insights into his relationships with these men and women--many of them his students, teachers, colleagues, friends, and, of course, enemies--are both original and illuminating. Through his examination of the personalities, not least his own, at the center of the events that have defined the postwar and neoliberal decades, Peretz makes a rich and compelling argument for the ideals that have been the focus of his life: liberalism, democracy, and Zionism. In revisiting this rich life, he considers, too, what will come next now that those ideals are no longer assured.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 13
6:30 pm
Pay-what-you-wish
6:30 pm
Pay-what-you-wish
Lecture | Atlantic Marginalia: A Performance-Lecture
A performance-lecture by artist, writer, archivist and scholar Adjoa Armah. Armah will extend her ongoing research into what she terms “Atlantic Marginalia.” Applying ideas developed from the Ghanaian coastline to the East Coast of the United States, Armah makes tentative steps into consolidating the circum-Atlantic perspective that this work, concerned with African diaspora history and epistemology, insists on. Atlantic Marginalia are innumerable; they form unstable ground; they are found at points of contact between land and water, as simple as any speck of sand on any of the beaches that connects the African diaspora. Atlantic Marginalia is always composite and potentially transformative, the things we build with, simultaneously particular and universal. Through this performance-lecture, Armah shares a series of narrative vignettes, spatiotemporal reflections, and material remnants of her research and artistic interests.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 13
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Harriet Tubman and the Quest for Freedom (online)
She was called "General Tubman" and "the Moses of her people," yet there is much we do not know about this heroic "conductor" of the Underground Railroad who risked all to rescue others. Kelly Hancock, Director of Programs at the American Civil War Museum, for an intimate look at the woman who may one day be the face of the $20 bill.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 14
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Talk | Meet Me in the Kitchen: Making Healthy Choices
Nutritionist Lauren C. Kelly offers creative twists on classic recipes, food prep and cooking trends. From appetizers, to entrees, to dessert, learn how to design menus using helpful tips and current research findings for better health and eating.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 14
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Discussion | The Algorithmic State: The Power and Peril of Artificial Memory (online)
A talk with artist Lozano-Hemmer and curator Kathleen Forde. Internationally celebrated artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer uses digital technologies and machine learning to develop works of art that powerfully engage viewers in new ways to engage memories as individuals and collectively. His works point to the promise of intelligent machines while questioning what artificial memory production may also portend. In this talk, Lozano-Hemmer and curator Kathleen Forde will discuss the artist’s machine-mediated practice with a focus on his most recent immersive art environment, Atmospheric Memory, and its implications for surveillance, collective memory and border politics.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 14
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Anti-Asian Violence during the Pandemic and Mental Health Outcomes Among Low-Income Chinese Elders (in-person and online)
Speaker Na Yin is Associate Professor in Marxe School of Public and International Affairs and CUNY Institute for Demographic Research at Baruch College.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 14
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Why Should I Care About Social Security? (online)
You’ve worked. You’ve saved. You’ve earned the benefits of social security. But this crucial element of the American safety net shows signs of fraying. How can it be made to last? This is a panel of experts from AARP for a virtual discussion exploring how to make social security work for you, and why you should care about its future. Learn about the benefits of social security and the current challenges it faces — along with its far-reaching economic and social impacts. In this free conversation, discover how we got here, why social security secures a safe future for all generations, and the potential policy changes that can enhance its sustainability — and your own retirement plans.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 14
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Museum Highlights Tour
A highlights tour of these exhibitions: A Collection without Borders -- celebrates the art and culture of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, Goa and the Philippines. Includes a wide range of paintings and decorative arts. Featuring works by Velázquez, Goya, El Greco, Murillo, Tápies, Viladrich, Arrieta, and many more. Anatomy of a Fresco: Drawings of José Clemente Orozco from the Wornick Collection -- Anatomy of a Fresco features a rare group of figurative sketches for portraits and preparatory works for large-scale murals made during the Mexican Mural Movement. Sorolla's Vision of Spain -- The monumental series of 14 paintings known as Vision of Spain by the Valencian master Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida. A truly unique, immersive experience that captures the essence of turn-of-the-century rural Spain. Sculpture on the Audobon Terrace -- Immerse yourself in Penetrable, an interactive sculpture created by Jesús Rafael Soto, as well as Marta Chilindron’s Orange Cube 48, the inaugural selection for Art on the Audubon Terrace, a partnership with the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Dec 15
2:00 pm
Free
2:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Partisans of the Nude: Curator's Talk
What can studying a borrowed genre, such as the nude, outside its European boundaries teach us that we do not already know? Recognized as foundational to Western art since Ancient Greece, the nude's role in carving out an Arab art and making modernity a cosmopolitan project has been ignored by both nationalist histories and Orientalist narratives. This lecture argues that starting with art and following it closely through its local histories and ontologies not only adds to our appreciation of art but promises to help us decolonize ourselves. Speaker Kirsten Scheid is curator of Partisans of the Nude and Professor of Anthropology and Art Studies, American University Beirut.
New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Sat, Dec 16
1:30 pm
Free
1:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Museum Highlights Tour
A highlights tour of these exhibitions: A Collection without Borders -- celebrates the art and culture of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, Goa and the Philippines. Includes a wide range of paintings and decorative arts. Featuring works by Velázquez, Goya, El Greco, Murillo, Tápies, Viladrich, Arrieta, and many more. Anatomy of a Fresco: Drawings of José Clemente Orozco from the Wornick Collection -- Anatomy of a Fresco features a rare group of figurative sketches for portraits and preparatory works for large-scale murals made during the Mexican Mural Movement. Sorolla's Vision of Spain -- The monumental series of 14 paintings known as Vision of Spain by the Valencian master Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida. A truly unique, immersive experience that captures the essence of turn-of-the-century rural Spain. Sculpture on the Audobon Terrace -- Immerse yourself in Penetrable, an interactive sculpture created by Jesús Rafael Soto, as well as Marta Chilindron’s Orange Cube 48, the inaugural selection for Art on the Audubon Terrace, a partnership with the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance.
New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Sat, Dec 16
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, Dec 16
3:30 pm
Free
3:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Artist Talk: Embroidered Allegories
Esperanza Cortés will present her project, Embroidered Allegories, based on her research of textiles. Embroidered Allegories is a multidisciplinary visual arts project pointing to the migration of people, culture, traditions, materials, techniques, and designs. The work is also imbued by the balletic power and ferocity of the bullfighters' movements and the intricate beauty of the suit of lights (Traje De Luces) worn by Bullfighters. The maternal side of Esperanza's family have been bullfighters in Colombia for generations, including two generations of female Toreras.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Dec 16
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Night: Page One (online)
Speaker: Professor David Patterson, Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy, Senior Research Fellow; Hillel A. Feinberg Distinguished Chair in Holocaust Studies, Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 18
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Lecture | Bodies and Sound: A Performance-Lecture (online)
Amsterdam-based Kosovar artist Astrit Ismaili’s performance lecture extends their practice, which so heavily relies on the body and presence, into the digital space. Ismaili’s work centers on how bodies are constructed, modified, and interpreted through contemporary society, but also how they are heard, asking what it means to sonify a body politic. Exploring the politics of the body and voice, they aim to disrupt prevailing narratives around representation, imagining new and radical ways of thinking on how bodies inhabit and occupy space. Their work proposes bodies that consist of both imaginary and material realities, using alter egos, body extensions and wearable musical instruments to embody different possibilities for becoming and transformation.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 18
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Marvels of My Own Inventiveness: 5 Black Painters (online)
The exhibition Marvels of My Own Inventiveness foregrounds the formal innovations of five Black painters working in and around abstraction: Mary T. Smith, Claude Lawrence, J. B. Murray, Leonard Daley, and Purvis Young. In this presentation, Sade Ayorinde and Brooke Wyatt will reflect on their curatorial goals and discuss their collaborative decision-making process as it unfolded to shape the exhibition. The curators share behind-the-scenes insights on how they transformed the gallery into a visually arresting space foregrounding painterly interventions by contemporary Black self-taught artists from the Museum's collection. They will invite viewers to study the paintings while learning more about the artists' intentions and creative process.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 18
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 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.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 18
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Club | Poetry Discussion Circle: What's New in American and English-Language Poetry
Join fellow poetry enthusiasts in unpacking the layered meanings of poetry through an informal group discussion. Please note that contemporary poetry deals frankly with contemporary issues and all works discussed are artistic expressions selected for an adult audience.
New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Tue, Dec 19
2:30 pm
Free
2:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Cinema Chats: Golda (online)
Golda (2023), starring Helen Mirren, follows Israel's Prime Minister Golda Meir as she is faced with the potential of Israel's destruction during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. She must navigate overwhelming odds, a skeptical cabinet, and a complex relationship with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as millions of lives hang in the balance during these tense 19 days. Author and film instructor Professor Eric Goldman and moderator Lucy Shahar will lead a discussion of this new biopic. They recommend you watch the film in advance of this lecture.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 19
6:00 pm
Pay-what-you-wish
6:00 pm
Pay-what-you-wish
Lecture | Beethoven's Symphony No. 5: A Deep Dive (online)
Journey into Beethoven's most renowned symphony with Louis Rosen, a distinguished composer, lyricist, accomplished performer, published author, and recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. With over 35 years of dedicated teaching experience, Louis Rosen is your guide through this musical exploration.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 19
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in WWII America (online)
Author Michael Benson, in conversation with American Jewish University's Samuel Rosenbaum, reveals the untold saga of Jewish mobsters combating the rise of Nazism in 1930s and 1940s America. Discover stories of mob-led resistance to the terrifying wave of American fascism. Explore Long Island's "Nazi Town, USA," Meyer Lansky's audacious Manhattan raid, Fritz Kuhn's sinister American Bund, Newark's street battles, and Hollywood's mob-driven war on Nazis.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 21
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Lecture | A Very Jewish Christmas: When Jesus Spoke Yiddish (online)
It is a curious fact that among the first Yiddish books ever printed was a translation of the New Testament, which appeared in 1540, only 18 years after Luther's famous translation (which it shamelessly cribbed). In the centuries that followed, another dozen or so missionary translations directed to Yiddish-speaking Jews followed. This talk will explore a dramatic change in the character of these translations in the twentieth century, when new conceptions of the Yiddish language, new cosmopolitanism in Yiddish culture, and new understandings of Jewish-Christian conversion converged to create new translation styles that aimed to express Jesus's Jewishness through a rich and haymish Yiddish. Speaker Naomi Seidman is the Jackman Humanities Professor at the University of Toronto, in the Department for the Study of Religion and the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 21
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | The Golden Path: Maimonides Across Eight Centuries: Exhibition Tour
Ilana Benson, Director of Museum Education, gives for a guided tour of the exhibition, illuminating the life and impact of the multifaceted luminary and great Jewish sage across continents and cultures through rare manuscripts and books. Exhibition highlights include manuscripts in Maimonides’s own handwriting, a carved 11th century door to the Torah ark from Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue, and beautifully illuminated medieval manuscripts.
New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Sun, Dec 24
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Lecture | The Dance Historian Is In (In Person AND Online)
Filmmaker and choreographer Omonike Akinyemi takes the audience through the career of the incredible Puerto Rican-American dance artist Manuel Alum. A star dancer and director of the Paul Sanasardo Dance Company, Alum went on to run his own company and had a prolific career as a choreographer. Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Wed, Dec 27
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | The Golden Path: Maimonides Across Eight Centuries: Exhibition Tour
Director Gabriel Goldstein gives for a guided tour of the exhibition, illuminating the life and impact of the multifaceted luminary and great Jewish sage across continents and cultures through rare manuscripts and books. Exhibition highlights include manuscripts in Maimonides’s own handwriting, a carved 11th century door to the Torah ark from Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue, and beautifully illuminated medieval manuscripts.
New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Wed, Dec 27
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Club | Poetry Discussion Circle: Winter Poems
Join fellow poetry enthusiasts in unpacking the layered meanings of poetry through an informal group discussion. Each session focuses around a theme that celebrates the diversity and range of the poetic form and contemporary poetry culture. This month, explore poetry inspired by the coldest season of the year. Readings are selected from Poetry Magazine, Poetry Foundation, and poets.org. Please note that contemporary poetry deals frankly with contemporary issues and all works discussed are artistic expressions selected for an adult audience.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 2
2:30 pm
Free
2:30 pm
Free
Lecture | Vital Considerations in Teaching Holocaust Literature (online)
Speaker: Professor Bernice Lerner, Author, All the Horrors of War: A Jewish Girl, A British Doctor, and the Liberation of Bergen Belsen; Senior Scholar, Center for Character and Social Responsibility, Boston University, Boston
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jan 8
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Talk | Contemporary Antisemitism in the UK (online)
Speaker: Dr. Dave Rich, Director of Policy, Community Security Trust (CST), London, UK
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 10
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Gallery Talk | Stéphane Mandelbaum: Exhibition Discussion
Ranging from large-scale portraits to small sketches, Stéphane Mandelbaum’s drawings of historic figures, friends, and anonymous characters who populated Brussels’s subcultures are consummate in technique and deeply disturbing in subject matter. A native of Brussels, Mandelbaum made art for ten years, but in that time he created hundreds of drawings. Mandelbaum sought to capture the essence of his subject’s characters with a ballpoint pen, graphite, and color pencil, often adding collaged magazine clippings, scribbles, lists, and text in French, Yiddish, Italian, and German. Art historian Benjamin Buchloh and Cathy Caruth, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cornell University, with Executive Director Laura Hoptman, have a discussion on the subject of contemporary art, trauma and postwar European history in relation to the work of Stéphane Mandelbaum.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jan 11
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | January 6th: An American Story (online)
With: Farai Chideya, Marcus Childress, Soumya Dayananda, and Candyce Phoenix The January 6th Committee Hearings reached an audience of 20 million-plus people, and the investigators behind them stepped up to save American democracy. A surprising number of these investigators were Black, Latino, or South Asian — including three of the five team leads. January 6th: An American Story, is an audio documentary focusing on the Black and brown legal eagles of the January 6th Committee. These are the people whose work laid the foundation for the indictments of former President Trump. They endured the trauma of investigating the most powerful white supremacists in America, as well as tracing the legal and financial web of January 6th. In this special event hosted by Farai Chideya, the creator and host of Our Body Politic, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from three of the investigators of what it took to save our democracy.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jan 11
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | J Jan Groeneboer: Selected Views: Exhibition Discussion
J Jan Groeneboer's new multi-channel video installation Selected Views takes the singular view from the artist’s studio in Brooklyn as a starting point for a durational study of the politics of viewership. To create this work, Groeneboer undertook over three years of preparatory research, photography, and writing about the view, after which he began a daily practice of filming over the subsequent two-and-a-half years. By training his attention on the unfolding repetitions and rhythms of weather and industries, the artist creates space in Selected Views to reflect on how elements of the cityscape indicate relationships between democracy, global capitalism, the prison-industrial complex, and environmental crises. Conceived as a site-specific video installation for The Kitchen’s loft at Westbeth—a setting defined by a row of windows overlooking the Hudson River—Selected Views highlights the interconnections between the waterway visible outside the gallery and the bays that are central to the artist’s own view. In tandem with the installation, Groeneboer will convene a panel discussion on January 13 exploring themes and processes that are central to Selected Views, such as observational practices in contemporary art, the ethics of looking, and the role of public monuments. Panelists include artist and scholar Malik Gaines; artist Zoe Leonard; and cellist, artist, and writer Ethan Philbrick.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Jan 13
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Talk | New York Sports: Legendary Moments (online)
Let sports historian Len Deluca be your personal guide through some of the greatest moments in New York sport history — moments that every New Yorker should know. This is a reflection on sports that hold a special place in the heart of New Yorkers everywhere. First of two sessions.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 17
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Holocaust Memory in Mauritius: Legacies of Slavery, Colonial Violence and Jewish Displacement in Indian Ocean Literature (online)
Speaker: Dr. Roni Mikel-Arieli, Academic Director, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; Teaching and Research Fellow, the Rabb Center for Holocaust Studies, Ben Gurion University, Be'er Sheva, Israel
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jan 22
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Discussion | Rethinking Cold War History: Turkey, the Soviet Union, and the International Order (in-person and online)
This event brings together two historians of Russian-Turkish relations to discuss new archival evidence about Ankara and Moscow’s Cold War interactions. Onur İşçi will speak about economic and geopolitical factors that led to a period of mutual animosity between Ankara and Moscow in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, while Sam Hirst will discuss similar factors that facilitated subsequent reconciliation. Each of the two speakers situate bilateral relations in a broader international context, and together they shed light on events whose legacy continues to shape the region today.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jan 22
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Book Club | Graphic Novel Book Club: Eight Billion Genies by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne
If you had one wish, what would you wish for? What if everyone else on the planet had one wish too? That's Eight Billion Genies. Eight seconds after magical genies grant every person on earth one wish, the world is transformed forever...and that's just the beginning! 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.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jan 22
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Talk | Antisemitism and the Feminist Movement (online)
Speaker: Professor R. Amy Elman, Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy, Senior Research Fellow; William Weber Chair of Social Science; Professor of Political Science, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 24
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Book Discussion | Getting Russia Right: Post-Soviet Hopes Dashed (in-person and online)
As U.S.-Russian relations scrape the depths of Cold War antagonism, the promise of partnership that beguiled American administrations during the first post-Soviet decades increasingly appears to have been false from the start. Why did American leaders persist in pursuing it? Was there another path that would have produced more constructive relations or better prepared Washington to face the challenge Russia poses today? With a practitioner’s eye honed during decades of work on Russian affairs, author Thomas Graham deftly traces the evolution of opposing ideas of national purpose that created an inherent tension in relations. Getting Russia Right identifies the blind spots that prevented Washington from seeing Russia as it really is and crafting a policy to advance American interests without provoking an aggressive Russian response. Distilling the Putin factor to reveal the contours of the Russia challenge facing the United States whenever he departs the scene, Graham lays out a compelling way to deal with it so that the United States can continue to advance its interests in a rapidly changing world.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 24
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Ukraine 22: Ukrainian Writers Respond to War (in-person and online)
Editor Mark Andryczyk of his latest publication, a selection of Ukraine’s leading writers conveying the reality of life within Ukraine during the first year of the invasion On 24 February 2022, the lives of Ukrainians were devastatingly altered. Since that day, many of Ukraine’s writers have attempted to fathom what is happening to them and to their country. This anthology brings together writing from inside Ukraine, by Ukrainians, much of it available in English for the first time. Here they document everyday life, ponder the role of culture amid conflict, denounce Russian imperialism and revisit their relations with the world, especially Europe and its ideals, as they try to comprehend the horrors of war.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jan 25
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Conference | Dance Symposium
Join the Jerome Robbins Dance Division for its annual symposium, where the current class of Dance Research Fellows will present their projects on Martha Graham and her legacy as her company celebrates its centennial anniversary. The Jerome Robbins Dance Division’s annual symposium is the culmination of the Dance Research Fellowship, an annual cohort of dance scholars and artists invited to research a specific aspect of dance. This year’s class features Michael Byrne, Kim Jones, Alexandra Kamerling, Lloyd Knight, Virginie Mécène, and Alexa West, who explore the work and legacy of Martha Graham. Schedule 10:00 AM - Virginie Mécène, Reimagining and Rechoreographing Lost Solos of Martha Graham: Revolt (1927) and Immigrant (1928) 11:00 AM - Kim Jones, Fragmented Memories of Korea’s First Female Modern Dancer Choi Seung Hee: A Re-Imagining of her “Lost” Work During the Japanese Occupation 12:00 PM - Michael Byrne, Lament for the Land: Monumentality, Identity, and Innovation in Martha Graham’s American Document 2:00 PM - Alexa West, Dramatic Objects: Set and Prop Design of Martha Graham 3:00 PM - Alexandra Kamerling, A Formal Feeling: Poetic Scores in Martha Graham’s Letter to the World 4:00 PM - Lloyd Knight, Martha’s Influence… “The Effect of the Necessity”… Her’s & Mine Registration required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jan 26
10:00 am
Free
10:00 am
Free
Talk | Address by Ambassador Dennis Ross (online)
Ambassador Dennis Ross is Counsellor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Professor, Center for Jewish Civilization, Georgetown University, Washington.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 31
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Lecture | Lighting The Way: A Holocaust Lesson from Three Jewish Girls (online)
Speaker: Joanna Gilbert, Editor and Author, Women of Valor: Polish Jewish Resisters to the Third Reich and Victory for Miriam
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Feb 5
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Lecture | Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust (online)
Speaker: Professor Alexandra Zapruder, National Jewish Book Awardee; Author, Salvaged Pages; Founding staff, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, US
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Mar 4
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Lecture | Responding to Shoah: 5 Literary Responses (online)
Speaker: Professor Zev Garber, Editor, “Shofar” Academic Journal of Jewish Studies; Professor Emeritus and Chair of Jewish Studies, Los Angeles Valley College, Los Angeles
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Mar 18
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Lecture | The Holocaust and the Nakba in Israeli and Palestinian Literature (online)
Speaker: Professor Amos Goldberg, Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Apr 8
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Lecture | Understanding the Holocaust Through Literature: The Many Entry Wedges (online)
Speaker: Dr. Mehak Burza, Head, Global Holocaust and Religious Studies, Global Centre for Religious Research, Denver, United States; Assistant Professor in English, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Apr 15
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Complimentary Tickets
to shows, concerts ... (CFT Deals!)
Play | Pulitzer Prize Nominated Play with Broadway Actors
Regular Price: $35CFT Member Price: $0.00
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