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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!
143 free talks, lectures, discussions in New York City (NYC) Thu, 11/13/2025 - 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 | International Textile History Conference (In Person AND Online!)
Experience a symposium on the Interdisciplinary Approaches to Textile History. What is the place of textile history scholarship today? What does it mean to use textiles to write history, and which methodologies are most effective in this form of writing history? How do textile objects speak to us and what can they tell us? Program:
9:00 am - 9:15 am Registration & Coffee
9:15 am - 9:20 am Welcome Remarks
9:20 am -10:45 am Panel 1. Byzantine Textiles: Iconography & Attribution (Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, Jennifer Ball, Warren Woodfin)
10:45 am -10:55 am Coffee Break
10:55 am -12:20 pm Panel 2. Asian Textiles: Iconography & Circulation (Mariachiara Gasparini, Eiren Shea, Debarati Sarkar, Molly Aitken)
12:20 pm - 1:05 pm Lunch Break
1:05 pm - 2:35 pm Panel 3. Asian Textiles: Markets & Meaning (Amanda Phillips, Rachel Silberstein, Nazanin Hedayat Munroe)
2:35 pm - 2:45 pm Coffee Break
2:45 pm - 4:15 pm Panel 4. Spanish Textiles: Embodying the Nation (Jackie Edwards, Amanda Wunder, Inés Corujo Martín)
4:15 pm - 5:00 pm Closing: Textile Study in Museums (Carol Bier, Eva Labson)
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
9:00 am
Free
9:00 am
Free
Gallery Talk | Treasures of the Griffin Warrior: Discovering Mycenaean Secrets
Join archaeologists Sharon Stocker and Jack L. Davis, co-investigators of the Griffin Warrior grave in Pylos, as they reveal their extraordinary discoveries of gold, silver, bronze, and precious gems. Learn how these finds are reshaping our understanding of the Mycenaean civilization and the rise of Europe’s first states around 1450 BCE, and explore the ongoing story of archaeological work in Pylos since 2015.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Lecture | Learn about Electronics in Classical Music: Interactive Lesson
Enjoy the inaugural lecture of a brand-new Chamber Music Lecture Series, being offered by our faculty member Dr. Levy Lorenzo. Over the past century, repertoire and performance practice in classical music have evolved alongside the development of modern technology. This performance-lecture focuses on electronics in classical music, tracing their impact from early analog experiments to today’s digital sound manipulation techniques. Drawn from Dr. Lorenzo’s internationally recognized work as a percussionist, sound designer, electronic musician, and instrument inventor, he will perform custom-built instruments and present works for acoustic instruments and electronics that highlight live performance in conversation with computers. The presentation will also feature interactive pieces with electronics, illustrating how classical chamber instruments can engage dynamically with digital systems.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Talk | Learn about Writing & Literature in Contemporary Russia (In Person AND Online!)
This talk will be given by the co-founders of The School of Literary Practices is an independent, avant-garde, Russian-language creative writing program. Award-winning novelist Evgenia Nekrasova will discuss Russia’s younger generation of literary authors and emergent trends in their writing today, while professor and curator Tatiana Novoselova will speak on the broader topic of how the book industry is managing as a whole in contemporary Russia.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Expert Discusses Abolitionist Education (In Person AND Online!)
Urban planning researcher and professor Dr. Akira Rodriguez speaks on "'Teachers Care': Student Walkouts, the Teachers' Strike, and Schools as Collectivized Plots of Abolitionist Education in Los Angeles."
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
4:15 pm
Free
4:15 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Experts Celebrate Primo Levi's Classic Short Story Collection, Periodic Table
On the 50th anniversary of Primo Levi's short story collection, Periodic Table, enjoy a celebration of the book from many perspectives. Scientists, translators, and writers come together to address the impact of this influential memoir/collection of stories. "The triumph of human identity and worth over the pathology of human destruction glows virtually everywhere in Levi's writing," said Toni Morrison. Levi (1919-1987) observed his life--his Italian Jewish community, his time as a chemist and as a partisan, and then his imprisonment in Auschwitz--with wry humor, compassion, and the lucidity of a scientist doing a lab report.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
5:00 pm
Free
5:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Experts Talk about Freedom of the Press & Censorship
Attend a panel discussion that features scholars and writers offering perspectives on news media and investigative journalism as a global authoritarian turn erodes norms of press freedom. The varied playbook of intimidation includes the use of laws on libel to sanction commercial print media outlets, withdrawal of funding, surveillance and physical attacks on journalists, and the criminalization of dissent under vague national security and defamation laws. Panelists will discuss how regimes of India, China, the United States, and the UK have tried to restrict if not control what journalists and writers produce, as well as coping strategies that deployed in response.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
5:00 pm
Free
5:00 pm
Free
Talk | Artist & Theorist Discusses Her "Dark Play" Creative Process
In this talk, artist and theorist Aliza Shvarts will discuss the broader arc of her practice, and explore how "dark play" can offer an aesthetic and political strategy to navigate increasing forms of censorship. Performance theorist Richard Schechner describes “dark play” as the condition when the performer knows they are performing, but the audience does not. The term also invokes the “dark arts” or clandestine powers attributed to witches as reproductive criminals: women who, as described by Marxist feminist Silvia Federici, not only often helped others manage their reproductive health, but whose speech—insofar as they possessed the power to cast spells or curses—possessed the power to act. The talk with be followed by a Q&A led by NYU Performance Studies Department Chair and Professor Ann Pellegrini and a reception.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Learn about Pioneering Mexican Writer, Elena Garro
At this event, María Julia Rossi (John Jay) will speak with author Jazmina Barrera about her new book on Mexican author Elena Garro, The Queen of Swords, recently longlisted for the National Book Award. A limited number of books will be available for give-away at the event.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Talk | Learn about Recent German Right-Wing Fiction with Experts
As a genre, the novel seems ill-suited to the whims of the 21st century. What once made writers praise the novel as quintessentially modern—its discursive capaciousness, its ability to incorporate other genres within itself—appears less impressive in the digital age, where new forms are constantly being produced and character-limits reign king. As many a cultural critic has lamented, no one has the attention span to finish a novel anymore. Even if we set aside our current obsession with AI and social media, the novel still seems constitutionally ill-suited to political messaging. The very act of reading a novel stagnates political action: reading takes time, of course, but also demands isolation and a retreat from collective life. And yet, even today, writers are still turning to the novel as a tool for political persuasion. What do these novels understand themselves to be doing? How do they work? By investigating recent political novels in German, especially from the far right, this talk argues that the contemporary political novel is preoccupied with the question of its own efficacy. With Sophie Salvo, Assistant Professor in Germanic Studies and the College at the University of Chicago
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Prize-Winning Author Discusses Enlightenment Philosophy & Death
This lecture explores the question: What would the Enlightenment look like if we viewed it through the eyes of the philosophers as they were facing death? In The Rest Is Silence: Enlightenment Philosophers Facing Death, Professor of French and prize-winning author Joanna Stalnaker discusses works written at the end of the Old Regime and at the end of their authors’ lives. These works, all written before the French Revolution, cast a retrospective glance over the intellectual movement their authors participated in, and over the authors’ own lives and works. Stalnaker shows that the beauty of these works stem from their authors’ efforts to give literary form to the fragility of their dying bodies. As they reflected on writing as a means of reaching posterity, Enlightenment philosophers embraced the possibility that neither their names nor their writings would survive long beyond the decomposition of their bodies. They inscribed the silence and nothingness of death into their last works, capturing their sense of an ending rather than the confidence in a glowing future so often attributed to them.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Theater Historian Shares Her New Book, History Hiding around Broadway (+ Signing)
Enjoy a conversation with theater historian Teale Dvornik to celebrate her book, History Hiding around Broadway, the illustrated guide to the need-to-know and never-known-before of New York's theater district. She will be in conversation with Jonathan Merritt, followed by a signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Award Winning Architect Explores Design, Subjectivity, & Labor in Architecture (In Person AND Online!)
Hear from Peggy Deamer, Professor Emerita of Yale University's School of Architecture and principal in the firm of Deamer, Studio. Her theory work explores the relationship between subjectivity, design, and labor in the current economy. She received the Architectural Record 2018 Women in Architecture Activist Award and the 2021 John Q. Hejduk Award. Dr. Deamer is a founding member of the Architecture Lobby, a group advocating for the value of architectural design and labor. She is the editor of Architecture and Capitalism: 1845 to the Present and The Architect as Worker: Immaterial Labor, the Creative Class, and the Politics of Design and the author of Architecture and Labor. The lecture will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Dila Koksal.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Dance, Movement, and Social Change
Join a 90-minute conversation exploring the power of dance and movement as social, collaborative, and political practice. The discussion delves into the creative goals and considerations behind a three-week program of open rehearsals, participatory classes, and group work that unites choreography, somatic practices, and sound. Participants will examine how both structured choreography and unstructured, improvisational movement can foster individual expression, group dynamics, and societal transformation.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Expert Discusses His New Book: The Life and Poetry of Frank Stanford
History scholar and writer James McWilliams discusses his book, The Life and Poetry of Frank Stanford, with poet and translator Patricio Ferrari. Synopsis: When twenty-nine-year-old Frank Stanford put three bullets in his chest on June 3, 1978, he ended a life that had been inextricably linked with poetry since childhood. Deeply influential but largely unknown outside his corner of the poetry world, this prodigy of the American South inspired a cult following that has kept his reputation and work flickering on the periphery of the American literary tradition ever since. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Books will be available for sale after the conversation.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Exploring the Boundaries of Performance and Image
Artist Will Rawls joins curators in conversation to discuss a project that blends photography, cinema, and performance to question the line between the living, the rehearsed, and the recorded. In a world saturated with images and mediated identities, this work invites audiences to consider how Black performance resists capture and redefines storytelling through movement, language, and collective imagination.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Music Jam & Conversation Blending Art, Music, & Technology
Enjoy a musical jam and conversation between Jaron Lanier, often referred to as the "father of virtual reality"; multiple GRAMMY Award winner Will Calhoun; theoretical physicist Stephon Alexander; composer, musician, and writer Melvin Gibbs; multi-instrumentalist, educator, composer, and electro-acoustic adventurer LaFrae Sci; and moderated by the one and only Nona Hendryx. There are two ways to access this event: 1. General Admission, first-come first-served. Just show up! 2. Fast Track opening the Monday before the event at noon
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 13
7:30 pm
Free
7:30 pm
Free
Conference | Learn about Visual Arts & the Figure of "The Worm"
Worms for Brains is a graduate student conference that takes up “the worm” as a subject and paradigm for studying visual arts. Like a compost pile, where heterogeneous materials intermingle and decompose into nutrient-rich soil, the conference will combine varied perspectives from Art History, Arts Education, Film and Media Studies, Musicology, and Performance Studies. Panels will examine place-making through participation, the worm's-eye view, and critical methodologies as grunt. Presentations will wiggle between sonic, visual, and textual elements of worms both as a subject and as a theoretical springboard.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Nov 14
5:00 am
Free
5:00 am
Free
Forum | Experts Discuss Economic Security in New York City
Attend a half-day forum with leaders from government, academia, and advocacy engaged in dynamic discussion regarding New York City's rising costs. Featured speakers include:
Jennifer Jones Austin, Co-Chair of the National True Cost of Living Coalition and CEO of FPWA
Darrick Hamilton, Founding Director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School
Brad Lander, New York City Comptroller
Lauren Melodia, Director of Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School
Joyce McMillan, Founder and Executive Director of Just Making A Change for Families
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Nov 14
9:30 am
Free
9:30 am
Free
Book Discussion | Author Talks about Sounds, Movement, & Migration through His book, Black Sounds of Switzerland
The Zolberg Institute and the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York will host a discussion with Jessie Cox (Harvard University), author of Black Sounds of Switzerland, moderated by Mia White (New School). Jessie Cox is a composer, drummer, and scholar who works on critical theory, Black studies, and music. His talk will explore questions of sound, movement, and migration. His recent book, Sounds of Black Switzerland, affirms the value of Black life through sound and explores the Blackness in relation to citizenship, immigration laws, gender, kinship, and belonging.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Nov 14
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Art Historian & Curator Shares her New Book, Women Artists in Their Own Words (+ Signing)
Art historian, curator, and writer Jennifer Samet celebrates her new book, Women Artists in Their Own Words, a collection of introspective words from 95 of the most prominent women artists of the past 150 years, shown alongside their most notable artworks. She will be in conversation with Christian Levett, followed by a signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Nov 14
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Art in Focus: Slow Observance and Conversation
Take a moment to slow down and connect with a single work of art through guided observation and group discussion. No background in art is needed--just curiosity and openness. This relaxed, welcoming program invites all adult learners to engage deeply with one piece at a time. Note: Space is limited; first-come, first-served. Stickers are distributed 15 minutes before the program starts.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Nov 14
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Learn about Artist Lotty Rosenfeld's Work with Curators
Curators Natalia Brizuela and Julia Bryan-Wilson offer new insights about artist Lotty Rosenfeld drawn from their extensive archival research for the development of the exhibition Lotty Rosenfeld: Disobedient Spaces. Their conversation will highlight key works on view and consider Rosenfeld's enduring artistic influence in Chile and beyond. Lotty Rosenfeld: Disobedient Spaces is the first solo retrospective of Rosenfeld's practice in the U.S. and illuminates her many contributions to critical dialogues about public space, from large-scale video projections to her iconic street intervention One Mile of Crosses on the Pavement (1979), in which she crossed the white directional lines of roads.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Nov 15
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Hidden in Plain Sight: The Story Behind the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument
Join art historian Akela Reason for a fascinating talk on the complex legacy of the New York Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. Drawing from her recent book, Politics and Memory: Civil War Monuments in Gilded Age New York, Reason explores the intersection of art, politics, and memory in the city’s Civil War monuments and how their meanings have evolved.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Nov 15
2:00 pm
Free
2:00 pm
Free
Talk | Learn the History of the New York Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument
Akela Reason, art historian and professor of history at the University of Georgia, will discuss the complex history of the New York Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Riverside Park. Her talk derives from her recent book, Politics and Memory: Civil War Monuments in Gilded Age New York. The book illuminates the historical context of Civil War soldiers’ monuments in New York City, exploring the fascinating intersection of art, politics, and memory within these works, while also highlighting the ever-changing ways different constituencies have engaged with them in symbolic and physical terms.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Nov 15
2:00 pm
Free
2:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Death Cafe Discussion Group
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, Nov 15
3:30 pm
Free
3:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Vex: Exploring Movement, Scores, and the Unthought
Join a scored conversation that investigates the “vex” in performance and choreography. Choreographer Moriah Evans and performance theorist Rebecca Schneider engage in live thinking around bodies, scores, and the ways work unfolds in and against received forms. The conversation explores moments of unbecoming that gesture toward the unthought, revealing new possibilities in movement and performance practice.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Nov 15
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Slide Lecture | Collaboration and Creativity in 1920s Paris
Dive into the world of Man Ray and his collaborators through a series of lectures exploring the lives and work of Berenice Abbott, Kiki de Montparnasse, and Lee Miller. Exhibition curators provide an overview of Man Ray: When Objects Dream, followed by insights from experts on these artists’ creative partnerships and contributions to the international avant-garde of the 1920s.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sun, Nov 16
2:00 pm
Free
2:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Exploring the Universe: Astro Live (Online!)
Journey beyond our world in this monthly space science series. Meet astronauts, scientists, engineers, and space enthusiasts as they share insights into the mysteries of the cosmos. This interactive livestream brings together leading voices in astronomy and exploration for an afternoon of discovery and Q&A.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sun, Nov 16
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Experts Speak on Syrian Refugees in Turkiye & Jordan
Postdoctoral researcher Shaddin Almasri and Postdoctoral fellow Sam Dinger will discuss the evolution of Syrian refugee policies in Turkiye and Jordan over the last decade and explore the role of embedded (im)permanence in their governance. The surprise fall of the Assad-led government in Syria in late 2024 by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied forces triggered a wave of responses across the region and beyond. These were characterized most prominently by uniformity: nearly all host states of Syrian refugees called for returns. What explains this phenomenon in refugee rentier contexts that had previously spent significant time and resources supporting Syrian refugee integration?
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Nov 17
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Fashion and the Unconscious: Nearly 100 Striking Garments Created by McQueen, Kawakubo, Westwood & More
This groundbreaking exhibition explores the cultural history of fashion through the lens of psychoanalysis. Nearly 100 striking garments by designers such as Alexander McQueen, Rei Kawakubo, Vivienne Westwood, and Rick Owens are reinterpreted through themes of the body, sexuality, and the unconscious. This five-year research project delves into how desire is stitched into the fabric of what we wear.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Nov 17
5:30 pm
Free
5:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Chicago and the Rise of the Concrete Skyscraper
Architectural historian Thomas Leslie explores how postwar Chicago shaped the development of high-rise concrete construction. The talk highlights the city's innovations in engineering, materials production, and collaboration between research institutions and industry, showing how concrete, once a craft material, became an industrially engineered solution that challenged the steel industry.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Nov 17
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Prize-Winning Writer Shares His New Essay Collection, Wild Fictions (+ Signing)
2025 recipient of the Pak Kyongni Prize Amitav Ghosh celebrates his newest collection of essays, Wild Fictions: Essays on Literature, Empire, and the Environment, writings on subjects such as literature, climate change, travel, and discoveries thread together with reflections on the spaces that we inhabit and how we occupy them. He will be in conversation with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, followed by a signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Nov 17
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Understanding the Food Painted in Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper
Enjoy a gastro-philosophical and socio-political angle of looking at The Last Supper. In 1494-98, Leonardo da Vinci painted what is arguably the most famous painting of all times, The Last Supper. And he graces the Lord's Table--inevitably a Jewish meal--with dishes of eels, a Renaissance delicacy but clearly a non-kosher food. Why? Italian essayist, editor, translator and award-winning poet Luigi Ballerini explores the context of real food beginning to be painted in Last Suppers in the second half of the 15th century, as a result of the liceity of pleasure, resurrected by Florentine Humanists' reading of Classical Texts (primarily Lucretius and Aristotle), which, in ever larger quantities and surprising varieties, remains a staple of that painterly subject throughout the 16th century. And a hypothesis is formulated about da Vinci's painting that transcends the painter's minimalistic gastronomic interests, as well as his incessant scientific curiosity.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Nov 17
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Lecture | Hear from Multidimensional Film Artist about Her Craft
Enjoy a lecture with artist Mika Rottenberg, who is devoted to a rigorous practice that combines film, architectural installation, and sculpture to explore ideas of labor and the production of value in our contemporary hyper-capitalist world. Using traditions of both cinema and sculpture, she seeks out locations around the world where specific systems of production and commerce are in place, such as a pearl factory in China, and a Calexico border town. Through the editing process, and with footage from sets built in her studio, Rottenberg connects seemingly disparate places and things to create elaborate and subversive visual narratives. By weaving fact and fiction together, she highlights the inherent beauty and absurdity of our contemporary existence. Each of Rottenberg’s video works is situated within a theatrical installation, made up of objects from the parallel worlds in her videos. Sacks of pearls, deflated pool toys, plastic flowers and sizzling frying pans seem to open a portal into the realm of the work. Her multidimensional film projects are often accompanied by standalone sculptural works, connected by allegory. Rottenberg was the recipient of the 2019 Kurt Schwitters Prize, which recognizes artists who have made a significant contribution to the field of contemporary art. In 2018, she was the winner of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s James Dicke Contemporary Artist Prize, which recognizes an artist younger than 50 who has produced a significant body of work and consistently demonstrates exceptional creativity. Rottenberg’s work is held in numerous major museum and public collections including the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Nov 17
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Preserving Heritage in Fragile Times
Join archaeologist Dr. Nadine Panayot to explore how museums safeguard cultural heritage in challenging contexts. Learn about innovative conservation practices, emergency preparedness, and digital reconstruction techniques that help fragile objects transmit identity, memory, and continuity across generations.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Book Discussion | Facebook Co-Founder Examines the Unseen Politics of American Capitalism (Online!)
Economist, writer, and co-founder Chris Hughes presents his new book Marketcrafters: The 100-Year Struggle to Shape the American Economy. For decades, policymakers have claimed that free markets thrive best when government stays out of the way. Hughes argues the opposite: that American leaders across the political spectrum have long been "marketcrafters," intentionally shaping markets to serve social and political goals. Through vivid historical examples, he reveals how decisions about inflation, industry, innovation, and climate have all been guided by deliberate design rather than invisible forces. This program includes a discussion and audience Q&A. The first 100 registrants will receive a complimentary electronic copy of Marketcrafters.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Book Club | Discuss James by Percival Everett
Participate with fellow readers for lively discussion and thoughtful socializing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Femininity-Focused Painter Discusses Her Craft (In Person AND Online!)
Hear a talk by Isabelle Schipper, who makes paintings teeming with signs and symbols of femininity. Thinking about community, connectivity, and bodies in space, she plays with the lines between painting and drawing, between abstraction and figuration, between flatness and depth. In 2018, she collaborated with Small Editions to publish the risograph zine Bikini Girls, first presented at the New York Art Book Fair (MoMA PS1). The work is now held in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ohio University, SUNY Purchase, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, University of Michigan, and Virginia Commonwealth University.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Book Club | Discuss A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Economist Discusses Crypto's Impact on U.S. & Global Finance
Dr. Epstein from the Department of Economics and Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at UMASS/Amherst, will present his paper :" Too Much Crypto? The Political Economy of the Crypto Economy". Finance, especially in the United States, is entering a new era. It is becoming more deeply entwined with and perhaps even dominated by the “tech” industry. Of course, financial innovation has often occurred hand in hand with innovations in communications and now digitization. However, with the technological innovation and the political rise of crypto, AI, and high-tech billionaires, especially in the US under the Trump administration, we must consider whether there is now, or will soon become, “Too much ‘Crypto’”, where ‘crypto’ is a shorthand for the marriage of tech, finance, and fossil fuel. This paper explores the nature of this new form of high fossil-fueled finance. This talk analyzes its likely impact on growth and distribution in the US and the dangers it might pose for the rest of the world.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Learn about Women Documentarians in Stalinist Russia (In Person AND Online!)
This lecture, given by Cambridge Film Studies PhD candidate Kirill Goriachok, explores the complex dynamics behind the careers of first two generations of Soviet women documentarians: How did studio hierarchies and shifting political agendas shape their work? Why, despite the number of women at Soyuzkinochronika (the state documentary studio), did a distinct women’s documentary movement never take hold? And what does their experience tell us about gender, authorship, and professional identity in Stalinist cinema?
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Expert Explains Understanding Mobility across Borders (In Person AND Online!)
Filiz Garip, Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University whose research lies at the intersection of migration, economic sociology and inequality, presents a talk on Predictability of Human Mobility Across Borders. Between 1965 and 2015, over 12 million Mexicans have crossed the border into the United States. Experts use the largest survey data on this flow from the Mexican Migration Project, which covers 160,000 people observed over 50 years. They explore the predictability of about 20,000 documented and undocumented migration decisions with supervised machine learning. They consider how predictability varies across different decision windows, time periods, and geographic regions. They also explore what failures in predictions can teach us about migration behavior and migration policy.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
4:15 pm
Free
4:15 pm
Free
Book Club | Discuss Bestselling Author's Horror Novel, THe Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Enjoy a book discussion of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones, the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians. Often hailed as the Indigenous Stephen King, famed horror writer Stephen Graham Jones' chilling historical horror novel launches into a tailspin as a diary written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered inside a wall. What unfolds is a story of murder, monsters, and revenge that begins when 217 Blackfeet are found dead in the snow. Told through diary entries and transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet man named Good Stab, it follows the life of a vampire who haunted the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Learn about Challenges Faced by Higher Education
Experience a crucial conversation about the historic and current challenges immigrants face in higher education. This event will bring together scholars, students, and advocates to explore how immigrant communities are transforming academic spaces and to discuss possibilities for solidarity, policy change, and institutional transformation.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Symposium | Conference on Critical Issues in Human Rights and Rule of Law
This symposium examines critical issues in human rights and the rule of law, including sentencing enforcement, correctional education, and recidivism prevention. It also explores how international judicial bodies interact with national legal systems, analyzing the intersection between global frameworks and domestic justice practices. The program features practical case studies demonstrating how human rights are implemented and managed in real-world contexts. The symposium will address fundamental questions: What do universal human rights mean in contemporary society? How do these principles benefit our communities? And what legal and institutional mechanisms exist to uphold justice and protect individual rights across different legal traditions?
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
5:00 pm
Free
5:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | The Wrigley Building: Chicago's Iconic Skyscraper
Celebrate the publication of The Wrigley Building: The Making of an Icon with a two-part program exploring Chicago's historic terra-cotta tower. The first session features the book's authors and photographer, who highlight archival research, new photography, and the intertwined stories of William Wrigley Jr. and architect Charles Gerhard Beersman. The second session brings together scholars and artists for a discussion comparing Chicago's Wrigley Building with New York's Woolworth Building, examining their architectural, cultural, and urban significance. Schedule: 5 pm - 6 pm: Session 1 Break 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm: Session 2 Reception
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
5:00 pm
Free
5:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Exploring Psychoanalysis in Music and Fashion
Moderator Jasmine Edwards leads a conversation with art therapist Ayde Rayas and violinist Njioma Chinyere Grevious, whose performance draws inspiration from Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis. This interdisciplinary event looks at psychoanalysis’s influence on contemporary music and culture.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
5:30 pm
Free
5:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | The Guardian & LitHub Writer Shares His Debut Novel, Pilgrims
Writer and teacher Devin Kelly will be in conversation about his debut novel, Pilgrims, with poet Maya Popa. Synopsis: A monk leaves the monastery to search for his teenage brother, who has run away from home in the middle of a high school cross-country race. Alternating between each brother’s perspective, Pilgrims follows its protagonists as they encounter Appalachian Trail thru-hikers, greyhound rescuers, eccentric communists, and tiny cemetery-keepers. A rumination on abandonment and the intimacies we’ve lost to a world obsessed with progress and material success, Pilgrims announces the arrival of a striking new voice in American fiction. Devin Kelly is a high school teacher in New York City. He writes the newsletter Ordinary Plots, and his work has appeared in The Guardian, Longreads, LitHub, The Year’s Best Sportswriting, and more. Pilgrims is his first novel.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Expert Discusses the Rise of Anti-Intelelctualism in the West & Its Consequences
Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Paris, Eric Fassin, examines the trend of state anti-intellectualism in France, the U.S., and beyond, demonstrating that this tendency is not limited to ostensibly illiberal regimes such as Turkey, Hungary, and Brazil. He argues that today’s world requires an examination of this phenomenon beyond Cold War geopolitical divisions and highlights a global shift towards authoritarian neoliberalism, including attacks on universities, the media, and freedom of speech and thought. Fassin argues for the political urgency of intellectual work in a global moment of political anti-intellectualism.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Experts Explore Artist Evelyn Beatrice Longman’s Role in Creating American Monuments
Pat Hoerth Batchelder, author of Evelyn Beatrice Longman: The Woman Who Sculpted Golden Boy, Thomas Edison, and Other Monuments speaks with and Diana Thompson, Director of Collections at the National Academy of Design. Together, the two will discuss the often-overlooked contributions of artist and National Academician Evelyn Beatrice Longman’s role in the creation of American monuments.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Fashion Designer Shares Her New Book, The Nature of Fashion
Fashion designer and sustainability expert Carry Somers celebrates her new book, The Nature of Fashion, which travels across landscapes and centuries, through myth and memory, tracing the roots of materials and dyes and revealing how the choices we once made shape the world around us today. She will be in conversation with lacemaker and historian Elena Kanagy-Loux, followed by a signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Street-Level Satire and Solidarity: Exploring Tsiang’s 1935 Novel (Online!)
Join Dr. Christopher Seiji Berardino for an illustrated discussion of H.T. Tsiang’s 1935 novel, recently reissued in the Penguin Classics series, The Hanging on Union Square. Tsiang, a refugee and political activist, blends experimental prose, street-level realism, and biting satire to capture life in Depression-era New York. His novel follows a restless worker navigating the streets, cafés, movie houses, and underground clubs around Union Square, a hub of radical politics and social movements. Offering humor, protest, and visions of collective solidarity.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Documenting Colonial Violence: Visual Techniques in Legal Advocacy
Transdisciplinary scholar and writer Nabil Ahmed presents the launch of An Image of Colonial Violence Pulled from the Air, a new digital publication documenting a decade of research and advocacy by a forensic investigation agency. The eBook compiles work using spatial and visual analysis to support legal actions and petitions to the International Criminal Court. Writer and curator Anisa Jackson joins Ahmed for a conversation about how visual methods can expose suppressed histories and foster accountability.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Translator Discusses Classic German Book, Effingers
Translator Sophie Duvernoy will discuss Gabriele Tergit and her underrated masterpiece, Effingers—woefully underrated when it first appeared in 1951, and only recently rediscovered in Germany—with Noah Isenberg. Gabriele Tergit’s Effingers is a novel, at once epic and intimate, about the lives and fates of three generations of a German Jewish family. Beginning in 1878 and ending in 1948, readers follow the Effingers, a family of modest craftsmen from southern Germany, who soon rise to prominence as one of the most important German industrialist families in Berlin. With the outbreak of World War I, however, they fall on hard times and must navigate the tumultuous changes of the Weimar Republic. Full of parties and drama and delicious gossip, and featuring a kaleidoscopic cast of characters, Effingers is a keenly observed account of German Jewish life in all its richness and complexity. Tergit's precise and limpid prose dazzles in Sophie Duvernoy's elegant translation.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Tue, Nov 18
6:30 pm
Regular: $45
Member: $0
6:30 pm
Regular: $45
Member: $0
Join the Club!
Tue, Nov 18
7:00 pm
Regular: $20
Member: $0
7:00 pm
Regular: $20
Member: $0
Join the Club!
Talk | Documentary & Portrait Photographer Discusses Her Craft
Enjoy a talk with documentary and portrait photographer Nicky Quamina-Woo, a Black and Native Hawaiian visual storyteller who divides her time between the African continent, Southeast Asia, and New York City. Woo has traveled to and lived in more than 22 countries within the Global South, mainly focusing on stories related to healthcare, social justice, and anything connected to the long shadows of trauma that often fall across marginalized communities. Her projects center on the complex realities that are precipitated by Western colonization, exploring how cultures survive in the wake of systemic rupture.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Portraits That Speak Truth
What makes an image feel alive? This lecture series delves into the art of portraiture as a tool for empathy, exploring how photographers build trust and reveal humanity through the lens.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 18
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Experts Discuss Their New Books about Russia's Economic & Digital Trajectories (In Person AND Online!)
Attend a joint book talk featuring Françoise Daucé and Olessia Kirtchik, who both authored books on Russia’s economic and digital trajectories. Political sociologist Françoise Daucé will share her new book, Digital Authoritarianism in the Making: Repression and Resistance on the Russian Internet. This book reveals the policies regulating the Runet, resituating them within their historical context starting in the early 2010s and ending with the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022. It offers a political sociology of the Russian digital space, including the variety of actors who have sought to occupy it: access providers, developers, journalists, activists, web professionals, and mobilized citizens. Sociologist Olessia Kirtchik will share her new book, Economic Knowledge in Crisis: Economists and the State in the Late Soviet Union. This book aims to shed new light on the puzzle of the late Soviet conversion to the “market” and capitalism by revisiting the history of Soviet reform economics. Using a variety of sources, including interviews with economists, archival files, and published materials, it examines the social contexts in which economists employed in economic administration and research institutions could have played a crucial public and political role, the forms of their participation, and the social and political logic behind the selection of economic experts and their rise to power during perestroika and the “transition” period.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
12:30 pm
Free
12:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Psychologist Shares His New Book, Professor Irvin Schonfeld (In Person AND Online!)
Psychologist Dr. Irvin Schonfeld's book talk on his new book, Professor Irvin Schonfeld (co-authored by Renzo Bianchi). Burnout has become a popular indicator of the distress that individuals can experience at work. In Breaking Point: Job Stress, Occupational Depression, and the Myth of Burnout, the authors, in the context of more than a decade of research, show how the phenomenon hidden behind the label of burnout is, in fact, depressive in nature.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
2:00 pm
Free
2:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Learn How a Historic Mansion Turned into a Museum
Join a museum educator for a brief gallery talk tracing how a Gilded Age mansion was transformed into a world-class art museum.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
3:30 pm
Free
3:30 pm
Free
Book Club | Discuss Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
For this book club meeting, the group will discuss Joseph Conrad's 1899 book, Heart of Darkness. The story tells of Charles Marlow, an Englishman who took a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a ferry-boat captain in Africa. Heart of Darkness exposes the myth behind colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters--the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the European's cruel treatment of the natives, and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Romance and Rococo: Fragonard’s The Progress of Love
Join a museum educator for a focused gallery talk on a celebrated series capturing the playful elegance and emotional intensity of 18th-century French courtship. Through lush color and dynamic composition, Fragonard weaves a visual narrative of passion and refinement that epitomizes the Rococo spirit.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Experts Discuss the Culture of Early Modern Jewish Women
Drawing on untapped archival sources, Debra Kaplan and Elisheva Carlebach uncover the vibrant lives of early modern Jewish women through their new book, A Woman Is Responsible for Everything. A Woman Is Responsible for Everything uncovers the vibrant lives of Jewish women in early modern Europe, from bustling cities to rural villages. Drawing on untapped archival sources, Debra Kaplan and Elisheva Carlebach reveal women as economic agents, skilled creators, readers and authors, and custodians of faith within their communities. This richly illustrated work brings their voices to life, offering a groundbreaking look at the kehillah and the essential role women played in shaping Jewish communal life. Debra Kaplan is the Samuel Braun Chair for the History of the Jews in Germany at Bar-Ilan University. Her books include The Patrons and Their Poor: Jewish Community and Public Charity in Early Modern Germany. Elisheva Carlebach is the Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture, and Society at Columbia University. Her books include Palaces of Time: Jewish Calendar and Culture in Early Modern Europe.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Exploring "Rembrandt’s Portraits" Through Conversation (Online!)
Join fellow art enthusiasts for an interactive online discussion centered on Rembrandt’s Nicolaes Ruts and Self-Portrait (1658). Led by educators, this live program invites participants to engage in thoughtful dialogue and close observation. Note: Space is limited to encourage active participation.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Quiet Reading Meet Up
Bring a book or check one out of the library to read to yourself for one hour. After that, spend an hour socializing with those around you!
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Forum | Reimagining Museums as Civic Spaces
Join leading architects for a conversation on the evolving role of museums as spaces that foster gathering, belonging, and connection. Learn about the philosophy and vision behind major projects, including new galleries, interactive spaces for children, revitalized entrances, and enhanced public areas. The discussion highlights how thoughtful architecture can shape the way people experience art, ideas, and community.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Sculptor Shares Her New Book, Superrealist Sculptures (+ Signing)
Enjoy a conversation with sculptor Carole Feuerman to celebrate her newest monograph detailing fifty years of the inspiration, creation, and transformation of her sculpture-making--Superrealist Sculptures. The conversation will be followed by a signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Populated Air: New Reflections on Art and Performance
Celebrate the release of Senga Nengudi: Populated Air, a publication that expands understanding of the artist's six-decade practice through never-before-seen drawings, poetry, prose, and performances for the camera. The evening features readings and reflections from collaborators and friends, with Senga Nengudi joining via live stream. Together, they explore the book's many dimensions and Nengudi's ongoing influence on art, performance, and Black feminist thought.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Author & Filmmaker Talks the Psychological Effects of Third Reich Authoritarianism
Filmmaker Amanda Rubin will discuss Charlotte Beradt’s groundbreaking book The Third Reich of Dreams, which recounts the dreams of witnesses to the rise of Nazism and, ultimately, provided invaluable insight into the effects that authoritarianism has on the unconscious mind. Rubin is the force behind the republication of The Third Reich of Dreams, the lost rights of which she discovered while researching her forthcoming film about Beradt. She will be joined in conversation by Gal Beckerman, senior books editor of The Atlantic and author of the National Jewish Book Award-winning When They Come For Us We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Writers Discuss James Baldwin's Life & Legacy (In Person AND Online!)
The author of a new biography of James Baldwin, Nicholas Boggs, speaks with New York Times columnist John McWhorter. Baldwin: A Love Story, the first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades, reveals how profoundly the writer's personal relationships shaped his life and work. Nicholas Boggs shows how Baldwin drew on the complex forces within these relationships -- cultural, political, artistic, and erotic -- and alchemized them into novels, essays, and plays that spoke truth to power, indelibly impacting the Civil Rights Movement and Black and queer literary history. Boggs speaks about the revealing new biography with John McWhorter, a columnist for The New York Times, author of the bestselling Nine Nasty Words and Woke Racism, and professor of linguistics at Columbia University.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Global Bestselling Author Daniel Kehlmann on The Director (Online!)
Author Daniel Kehlmann explores art, power, and survival in The Director. The novel follows famed filmmaker G.W. Pabst as he navigates Hollywood fame, Nazi coercion, and the moral compromises of his return to Austria under the Third Reich.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Talk | Multidisciplinary Artist Discusses His Craft & How He Plays with Narrative & Truth
Vishal Jugdeo is a multidisciplinary artist. His work across video, installation, performance, sculpture and text experiments with narrative, blurring fiction and truth. His recent films emerge from amassments of intimately gathered video and sound, which chart the ebbs and flows of his friendships with interlocutors. In doing so, the works track broader political histories as they unfold often through a lens that is both queer and diasporic. He is engaged in long-term research projects in Guyana, India, and in Los Angeles, where he lives and works. Recent screenings and exhibitions have occurred at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CCA Berlin, Cinema Akil, Dubai, and Commonwealth and Council Gallery in LA. Jugdeo is a 2015 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and a 2025 Creative Capital recipient.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Power, Politics, and the Making of Modern Conservatism
Journalist and biographer Sam Tanenhaus discusses his deeply researched new book on William F. Buckley, the influential founder of National Review, whose ideas helped define American conservatism. Drawing from exclusive access to private papers, Tanenhaus reveals both Buckley's public brilliance and his hidden involvement in covert political operations. In conversation with New York Times critic and author Dwight Garner (The Upstairs Delicatessen), this talk offers a fascinating look at power, ideology, and the forces that shaped a movement. Note: RSVP does not guarantee entry; coat check is limited.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 19
8:00 pm
Free
8:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Behind the Scenes with Ancient American Art
Join museum experts for an insider's look at a selection of objects from the Ancient Americas galleries. Curators, conservators, and scholars share new insights and untold stories, offering a closer look at the works of art and their histories. Visitors are encouraged to ask questions and engage directly with the experts in this interactive gallery experience.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Expert Discusses Societal Collapses in Ancient Spain & China (In Person AND Online!)
Dr. Harvey Weiss, Yale's Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology, Anthropology and the Environment, presents a talk on "Explaining the Abrupt Societal Collapses from Spain to China at the 4.2 Thousand Years Before Present Event."
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
4:15 pm
Free
4:15 pm
Free
Book Club | Discuss Anite Brookner's Making Things Better
At this discussion, the group will analyze and talk about Making Things Better by Anita Brookner. Facing life alone at an advanced age, Julius Herz cannot shake the sense that he should be elsewhere, doing other things. Walking through bustling streets that seem increasingly alien to him, he’s confronted by life’s pressing questions with an urgency he has never known before: what do we owe the people in our lives? How should we fill our days? Feeling fortified despite the growing ache in his heart, Herz finds himself also blessed with a stirring sense of exhilaration. After a lifetime of deferring to others’ stronger wills, he faces a future of possibility, the only constraint the deeply ingrained habits of his mind.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Live Podcast with Emmy-Winning Writer & MSNBC Chief Correpsondent
Experience a live podcast of Person, Place, Thing where writer and humorist Randy Cohen will interview MSNBC Senior Chief Correspondent and award-winning journalist Ali Velshi. Velshi has covered a wide range of breaking news events and global affairs throughout his career, including U.S. presidential elections, ISIL and the Syrian refugee crisis, the Iran nuclear deal from Tehran, the tensions between Russia and NATO from Eastern Europe and the High Arctic, the debt crisis in Greece, the funeral of Nelson Mandela, and the global financial crisis. Randy Cohen is an Emmy award winning writer who has worked with The New Yorker, Harpers, Late Night with David Letterman, The New York Times Magazine and more.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Contemporary Perspectives on Cultural Heritage and Artistic Expression
This artist talk brings together painter Tomokazu Matsuyama and curator Sharon Matt Atkins for a conversation on the intersections of cultural heritage, artistic independence, and everyday humanity. Reflecting on the legacy of sculptor Liu Shiming, the discussion explores how his vision of synthesis and individuality resonates in contemporary art. This event invites audiences to consider how artists across generations and geographies build shared visual languages that speak to both tradition and the present moment.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
5:30 pm
Free
5:30 pm
Free
Lecture | Expert Explores the "New War Regime"
In the context of a new war regime—defined by the erosion of boundaries between war and society—this lecture by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow Cristina Basili calls for a critical rethinking of war beyond the dominant legalistic and strategic paradigms of political theory. This generative stance opens new pathways for envisioning a politics grounded in vulnerability, responsibility, and a radical refusal of domination.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Exploring Labor, Ritual, and Resilience
Rooted in her observations of urban and rural life in South India, Sheela Gowda’s work transforms humble materials—such as cow dung, hair, incense, and tar drums—into poetic reflections on labor, gender, and social resilience. Through her installations, she probes the intersections of ritual, politics, and the human condition.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Learn about Italian Diasporic Identity
At this event, transcendent imagination scholar Donna Chirico (York College) will speak with author Anthony Tamburri about his new book, Expanding Diasporic Identity: A Multi-Directional Path to the New Italian Writer. A limited number of books will be available for give-away at the event.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Mapping Native American Arts in the East Village (Online!)
Explore the sites and stories that have shaped the Native American arts community in New York City. This discussion highlights historic galleries, theaters, and performance spaces in the East Village that played pivotal roles in defining and advancing Native American artistic expression, from groundbreaking exhibitions to influential theater ensembles.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Speak with Leading Literary Agents in the Publishing Industry
Join the CUNY Graduate Center Writers' Institute for a panel with leading literary agents. Ask questions and learn more about the publishing process. This panel offers unique insights into how agents shape literary careers, followed by time for audience questions.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Understanding the Future of Labor with AI
D&S Labor Futures Program Director Aiha Nguyen leads a panel of esteemed researchers in conversation about the value of human labor in increasingly automated workplaces. As management and organizational leaders adopt AI across workplaces, the use of these systems raises questions about how companies are reshaping the quality of work, job security, and the value of human labor. How are workers’ lives impacted when AI is used to monitor performance, surveil output, or make intrusive management decisions? Will AI disrupt industries and business models? How can we make sure technology supports workers, rather than undermining them?
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | ExpertsSpeak on Reading & Writing in the Age of AI
Hear a conversation about how artificial intelligence is reshaping both the tools of writing and the conditions of reading. Writers today face a shifting landscape: people no longer approach text as something fixed or authoritative, but as something responsive—tailored to individual queries, habits, and desires. How can this new, personalized media ecosystem be engineered in a way that still honors the truth of the archive? What opportunities and risks emerge as AI systems learn to speak in tones designed to earn our trust? Featuring Cliff Kuang and Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, two thinkers who bring backgrounds in critical and journalistic writing to their work in the tech industry, the panel will examine how voice, design, and interaction shape our relationship to language in an age of intelligent systems. Reception to follow.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Myth, Memory, and the Human Condition: A Conversation with the Artist
Join a special conversation exploring a new body of work that examines themes of myth, memory, technology, and the tension between nature and civilization. The program highlights expansive paintings, drawings, etchings, and sculptures that balance chaos and composure, drawing from autobiography, sonic memory, mythology, and world history to create turbulent, dreamlike realms.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Lecture | The San Remo, the Beresford, and Beyond: Emery Roth and the Making of Manhattan Elegance
Architectural historian and author Andrew Alpern explores the remarkable career of Emery Roth, the architect behind some of New York City's most iconic apartment buildings, including the San Remo, the Beresford, and the Ritz Tower. Spanning from Beaux-Arts grandeur to Art Deco elegance, Roth's work helped define urban luxury living in the early 20th century. This illustrated talk highlights both his celebrated landmarks and lesser-known projects, demolished or unrealized, that continue to shape the city's architectural identity. Note: RSVP does not guarantee entry; coat check is limited.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Nov 20
7:30 pm
Free
7:30 pm
Free
Lecture | NYT Artist & Designer Explores His Craft & Career (In Person AND Online!)
Spanish designer and artist Pablo Delcan shares his insights into leading an artistic career. Delcan is the creator of Prompt-Brush 1.0, a project and forthcoming book exploring the first non-AI generative image model. He has designed many book covers for major publishers and authors and is a visual contributor to The New York Times, where he creates images for the Opinion section and The New York Times Magazine. His work has also appeared in Le Monde, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Forbes included him in its “30 Under 30 in Art and Style,” and he joined the Alliance Graphique Internationale in 2019.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Nov 21
8:30 am
Free
8:30 am
Free
Talk | Alphabet Artist Discusses Their Work & Career
Hear alphabet artist and writer Nat Pyper discuss their career and art. Their practice of fonts, wearables, video, and performance extends from ongoing research on queer publishing histories. They’ve performed at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago, Cooper Cole in Toronto, and PAGEANT in Brooklyn; exhibited at Typojanchi Typography Biennale in Seoul, the Museum für Gestaltung in Zürich, and Printed Matter in New York City; and published with Are.na, Draw Down Books, GenderFail, Source Type, and the Walker Art Center. Their book, A Queer Year of Love Letters: Alphabets Against Erasure, was published in 2025.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Nov 21
9:00 am
Free
9:00 am
Free
Colloquium | Explore the Intersection of Democracy & Psychiatry (In Person AND Online!)
In what ways can the critics of psychiatry and psychiatric institutions teach us new ways of thinking about democracy today? This colloquium will attempt to answer this question by reflecting on both historical and contemporary approaches to the psychiatric institution. Speakers will discuss in particular the figure of Franco Basaglia, the prominent Italian psychiatrist who sought to revolutionize his own discipline and practice, and who inspired the so-called Legge Basaglia (1978), which ultimately led to the closure of psychiatric hospitals in Italy, long regarded as sites of socio-economic oppression. Basaglia also founded an association of psychiatrists— Psichiatria Democratica (Democratic Psychiatry)—whose very name signals the deep interconnection he envisioned between psychiatry and democracy. The colloquium will approach these complex issues from both inside and outside psychiatry: the parentheses around “(Anti)” in the title are meant to suggest precisely this ambiguity. Speakers: Mario Colucci, Psychiatrist - Dipartimento di salute mentale di Udine - Pierangelo Di Vittorio, Philosopher and writer - Fabian Freyenhagen, University of Essex - Silvia Lippi, Psychoanalyst - François Noudelmann, NYU Professor of French Literature, Thought, and Culture
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Nov 21
10:00 am
Free
10:00 am
Free
Lecture | Communications Tech Expert Talks about Environmental Impact of Media
For this talk, Small File Media Festival founder Laura U. Marks will explain some of the reasons for information and communication technologies' environmental impact. Further, she’ll argue that the large files of streaming established the infrastructure of data centers, networks, and devices that machine learning applications later came to exploit. Marks founded the Small File Media Festival to draw attention to the alarming and quickly growing environmental impact of information and communication technologies (ICT). The festival invites makers to submit works of a tiny bitrate of max. 1.44 megabytes per minute, demonstrating that moving-image medium can be absorbing and provocative without a high carbon footprint. Marks argues that he solution to this disastrous environmental impact can only be degrowth. Small files contribute to the graceful decline in which humans begin to make do with sparser infrastructure, on the model of countries in the global South.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Nov 21
2:00 pm
Free
2:00 pm
Free
Lecture | The Art of Tailoring: Inside the World of Paul Stuart
Participate in an evening celebrating the evolution, style, and craftsmanship of Paul Stuart. Known for its fusion of Savile Row precision, Old Hollywood glamour, and classic New York sophistication, this brand has defined timeless American elegance for generations. With over three decades in menswear, including a decade at Ralph Lauren, the Creative Director will share insights into the creative process behind Paul Stuart's tailored clothing, sportswear, footwear, and the Phineas Cole collection. Paul Stuart style is encouraged. Note: RSVP does not guarantee entry; coat check is limited.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Nov 21
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Japanese Literary Translator Talks about Her Career & Craft
Enjoy a special creator event featuring Yuki Tejima, the literary translator of Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window: The Sequel — the long-awaited follow-up to Japan's wildly successful bestseller Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window. She will be in attendance to talk to educators & librarians about the process of translating, as well as her acclaimed career.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Nov 22
11:30 am
Free
11:30 am
Free
Talk | Experts Discuss International Relations 10 Years after the Charlie Hebdo Shooting (In Person AND Online!)
At a time when the West is grappling with Islamism and the Middle East is undergoing a major transformation, two prominent Middle East experts, Prof. Bernard Haykel of Princeton and Dr. Hugo Micheron from Sciences Po Paris will share their expertise on important geopolitical issues and security questions. Ten years ago, the terrorists who killed twelve members of the satirical newspaper Charle Hebdo and four customers at a kosher supermarket declared their allegiance to Al-Qaeda. The attackers were part of a global jihadist movement consisting of a network of extremist organizations advocating violent attacks against the West and Jews. How has this movement evolved since 2015? What is its relationship to more mainstream Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood? Has the strategy of Islamists shifted towards infiltrating Western countries through religious schools, mosques, activist imams, growing participation in elective positions and effective internet propaganda?
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Nov 24
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Levain Bakery Founders Share Their New Book, Levain Bakery: A Story of Friendship, Community, and Cookies
Enjoy a conversation with best friends and founders of Levain Bakery, Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald, to celebrate the release of their new book, a collection of stories and personal accounts of how Levain Bakery became the success that it is today--Levain Bakery: A Story of Friendship, Community, and Cookies. They will be in conversation with celebrity chef Amanda Freitag, followed by a signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Nov 24
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Author & Theater Producer Talk about New Book, Champions for the Arts
Voza Rivers, executive producer and founding member of the New Heritage Theatre Group, joins author Donna Walker-Kuhne for a conversation based on her latest book, Champions for the Arts: Successful Strategies for Engaging Dynamic Communities in conjunction with the Library for the Performing Arts' new exhibition, Syncopated Stages: Black Disruptions to the Great White Way. Rivers and Walker-Kuhne discuss the importance of archival work and exhibitions like Syncopated Stages, their distinguished career histories, and community-engaged theater-making practices to celebrate the publication of Champions for the Arts.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Nov 24
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Talk | The Photo League: Jewish Photographers, Social Documentary, and Suppression (Online!)
Explore the legacy of the Photo League, founded in 1936 by idealistic Jewish photographers in New York, whose work spanned modernist photography, social documentary, and race relations, until it was suppressed by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Nov 24
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Talk | A Former UN Diplomat on Sri Lanka and the Southern Maritime Silk Route (Online!)
Dr. Palitha Kohona, a former Sri Lankan Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Ambassador to China, examines Sri Lanka’s pivotal role in the Chinese Silk Road. Positioned at the southern tip of India, where monsoon winds and ocean currents converge, Sri Lanka has long attracted sailors from both friendly and marauding naval powers. Archaeological evidence suggests that hundreds, possibly thousands, of Chinese ships visited the island, making it a central hub in the Southern Maritime Silk Route and a key link in regional trade networks.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 25
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Exploring Music in Edo-Period Japanese Paintings
Join museum experts for an insider’s look at Edo-period Japanese paintings that reveal the musical dimensions of Japan’s visual culture. Curators, conservators, and scholars share new insights and untold stories, allowing visitors to examine the works closely and ask questions.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 25
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Expert Discusses Future of NYC's Urban Development (In Person AND Online!)
Editor Mariana Mogilevich provides a talk about Urban Omnibus’ reporting from a New York City that doesn’t exist yet, and the Cross Bronx Expressway as a front in the fight for a just and joyful urban realm. How do the stories we tell about the city we live in determine the city we can imagine in the future? Mariana Mogilevich is editor in chief of Urban Omnibus, The Architectural League of New York's publication dedicated to observing, understanding, and shaping the city. Over almost a decade at Urban Omnibus, she has commissioned and edited hundreds of editorial features from artists, designers, scholars, writers for an interdisciplinary, multivocal portrait of the making of New York City's built environment. The lecture will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Helena Uceda.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Nov 25
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Learn How a Historic Mansion Turned into a Museum
Join a museum educator for a brief gallery talk tracing how a Gilded Age mansion was transformed into a world-class art museum.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 26
3:30 pm
Free
3:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | A Closer Look at Rembrandt’s Polish Rider
Join a museum educator for a short gallery talk exploring Rembrandt’s enigmatic Polish Rider, a rare full-length portrait that blends portraiture and historical narrative. Discover the mysteries surrounding the rider’s identity and the painting’s place within Rembrandt’s late career.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Nov 26
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Talk | Documentary Photographer Discusses How He Conceptualizes & Realizes His Projects
From the arrangement and science linked to how we process various harmonies, documentary photographer Chris CHu will discuss his workflow, from conceptualizing projects to crafting printed collections and landing clients with his unique approach to the art. Photography is about a feeling and, although a visual medium, inspiration can many times come from our other senses. For Chris, music is the driving force behind his creative vision.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 1
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Acclaimed Photographer Shares His New Book of David Bowie Photos, Collaboration
Enjoy a conversation with portrait photographer Frank Ockenfels 3 to celebrate this new collection of photographs, Collaboration, some never before published. These images tell not only the story of David Bowie's transformation, but the story of a friendship between photographer and legendary artist. He will be in conversation with editor Joe Levy, followed by a signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 1
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Art Expert Reflects on Black Women's Cultural Legacy between 1800-2000
Art historian and curator Dr. Kellie Jones delivers a lecture in which she reflects on the theoretical legacy and cultural production of Black women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, raising questions of intellectual lineage and material knowledge. Historically, women's thought has been overlooked. Yet it often does come into view later, often as organic intelligence or ascribed to others. Referencing scholars such as Julia Bryan-Wilson, Lisa Farrington, Linda Nochlin, and Deborah Willis, Jones asks: What would the long arc of art history look like through the lens of women's lives? In this light, how does what we know now and how we know it differ today? In what ways does that take into our future?
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 1
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Lecture | Learn about the "Red Orchestra" & How Artists Resisted the Third Reich
Hear a lecture by painter and filmmaker Stefan Roloff, exploring the visual art and resistance of three members of the "Red Orchestra" underground anti-Nazi group. The so-called “Red Orchestra” fought against the Third Reich within Germany from 1933 to 1942. The Gestapo labeled them as Communists and traitors, a theory that was upheld by Allied Secret Services until recently. Historians now officially recognize their work as that of the largest and most diverse civil anti-Nazi resistance group. The participants held a variety of political and religious beliefs while representing the gamut of German society. Many artists were among them and forty percent were women. Putting an end to Hitler was their common goal. In 1942, more than 50 members were betrayed and murdered. Stefan Roloff will talk about them through the stories of three young painters whose work reflects their exposure to death, atrocity, and resistance in a totalitarian empire: Katja Meirowsky, Mietje Bontjes van Beek, and Rainer Küchenmeister.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 1
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Learn about Hirschfield's Sondheim & Hear Live Sondheim Works (+ Signing)
Author and curator David Leopold will be in conversation with book critic Bill Goldstein. Leopold, who serves as archivist of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, has compiled the best of Hirschfeld in a new book of detachable posters, Hirschfeld’s Sondheim, that includes an introduction by Broadway star Bernadette Peters. Come hear Leopold as he talks about Hirschfeld’s passion and process for drawing scenes and characters from Sondheim’s many works. Tonight’s event also includes a performance of Sondheim songs by the cabaret couple, Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano, who will pair Sondheim’s Broadway compositions with Hirschfeld’s illustrations. A book signing follows the performance.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 1
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Lecture | Bold Visions in Color and Commerce
Dive into a world of striking imagery where creativity meets commerce. This talk highlights how visual artists turn advertising into art through inventive use of color, form, and emotion.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 2
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Talk | Commercial & Advertising Photographer for Major Clients (Google, Apple, The New Yorker, & More) Discusses Her Craft
Enjoy a talk with commercial and advertising photographer Jessica Pettway. Pettway's over-the-top, colorful, and lighthearted food, still life, and beauty images engage her audiences from the first big, beautiful bite. Tactile and hands-on, her process is 3D and multi-layered—constructed in both the real world and post-production. Ever the curious, discerning artist, Pettway can tell a complete short story in a movie minute, in a single photograph, and in a rhythmic compendium of stills, utilizing her own eclectic voice in the service of clients that include major American retailers, global brands, and esteemed editorial outlets. Clients run the gamut from Google, Apple, Chase, Facebook, Target, Jose Cuervo, Nespresso, and Uber, to Bon Appétit, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Wired, and The New York Times Magazine.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 2
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Creative Experts Discuss NYC's Contribution to American Cultural Voice
As New York City celebrates its 400th birthday, a panel of creators, performers, and scholars explores the city’s contribution to the American cultural voice in the performing arts and in literature. The springboards for the conversation are three iconic instrumental works created in New York that have left an indelible mark on the U.S. musical landscape: a symphonic suite from the shore-leave musical On the Town by former NY Phil Music Director Leonard Bernstein; Gershwin’s Concerto in F, which the NY Phil commissioned in 1925; and Dvořák’s omnipresent New World Symphony, unveiled by the NY Phil in 1893. The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A. There are two ways to access this event: 1. General Admission, first-come first-served. Just show up! 2. Fast Track opening the Monday before the event at noon.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 2
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Talk | High-Impact Portrait Photographer Discusses His Creative Process & Its Nuances
Photographer and director Ben Franke discusses his creative process and the nuance of approaching photography at different speeds. In a world where photography has become so popular it can be a challenge to standout from the crowd, some photographers push through the sea of redundancy with a signature style that's as refreshing and authentic as it is engaging and unique. Franke is one such photographer. As comfortable capturing the excitement of parkour as he is crafting intimate portraiture, Ben's work is full of energy and passion.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 3
5:00 pm
Free
5:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Whitney Museum-Featured Photographer/Artist Discusses Her Career & Craft
Artist and photographer Zoe Leonard gives an artist talk about her work. Zoe Leonard’s exhibition Al río / To the river was recently on view at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa from 2024-2025 after traveling to the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; MUDAM, Luxembourg; and Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris in 2022 and 2023. A survey of Leonard’s work was held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2018. Other solo exhibitions have occurred at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna; Dia: Beacon, New York; Villa Arson, Nice; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus; Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Renaissance Society, Chicago and other museums. Her work was included in Documenta IX in 1992 and Documenta XII in 2007 and in the Whitney Biennial in 1993, 1997 and 2014 for which she won the Bucksbaum Award. Leonard was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2020 and received an Anonymous was a Woman Award in 2005.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 3
5:30 pm
Free
5:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Quiet Reading Meet Up
Bring a book or check one out of the library to read to yourself for one hour. After that, spend an hour socializing with those around you!
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 3
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Urban Green Spaces: Insights from NYC’s Garden Leaders (Online!)
Join celebrated garden writer and New York Times columnist Margaret Roach for a panel with NYC’s green space visionaries. Explore innovative strategies for cultivating urban parks as thriving ecosystems, and discover how to inspire public engagement with nature and vital green infrastructure.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 3
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Actor/Activist Michael Ansara Shares His New Memoir on Activism, The Hard Work of Hope
Celebrate the release of actor and activist Michael Ansara's memoir The Hard Work of Hope, with a panel discussion with fellow activists Deepak Bhargava, Cristina Jimenez, and Amanda Litman. Moderated by Heather C. McGhee. The Hard Work of Hope takes you into the heady days of 1960s and 1970s activism, chronicling the hopes and strategies of the young people who created the movements that rocked the country. Michael Ansara was on the front lines. In this fascinating memoir, he traces an arc of discovery: from the hope and moral clarity of the Civil Rights Movement to the ten-year struggle to end the war in Vietnam, with its sit-ins, marches, confrontations, and antiwar riots.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 3
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Art History Experts DIscusses Baroque Spanish Fashion & Its Impact (In Person AND Online!)
Learn about the designer who gave Baroque Spanish fashion its distinctive and influential look. Extraordinary dresses are front and center in Diego Velázquez’s most famous portraits of the Spanish royal family. Those dresses were created by a court tailor named Mateo Aguado, whose instantly recognizable style gives Baroque Spanish fashion its distinctive look and continues to influence designers today. Aguado’s long-lost creations are brought to life in Amanda Wunder’s award-winning book, Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velázquez. Wunder, professor of History at Lehman College and of Art History and History at the CUNY Graduate Center, discusses her research and contemporary echoes of Aguado’s aesthetic in conversation with Jonquil O’Reilly, head of sale for Old Master Paintings at Christie’s.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 3
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Editors Share Their New Book, The Sage Encyclopedia of Education and Gender (In Person AND Online!)
Watch a panel discussion detailing the editors', Sherry Deckman and Elizabeth Blair, new book: The Sage Encyclopedia of Education and Gender. There will be a Q&A, plus a reception afterwards. Book Synopsis: Gender is a prominent and often-contested issue in educational settings across the globe. While understandings of gender and academic and professional potential, roles and expectations, and opportunities and abilities have greatly expanded over the past century in various contexts, schools remain sites of intense conflict around definitions of gender and gendered access and expression.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 3
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Talk | Painter & Art Professor Discusses Her Craft & Career
Artist Sophie Grant discusses her practice, which incorporates drawing and painting, observation and abstraction. Concerned with language acquisition and memory, the paintings operate as daily landscapes invoking the blurred and mutable fluidity of free-form imagery. The paintings are a synthesis of formal interruptions which include staining methods from Color Field painting, stencil manipulations picked up from printmaking, and mark-making inspired by naturalist field studies. Grant is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at Pace University and Baruch College. She recently mounted a solo show at Astor Weeks in NYC.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 3
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Talk | Film Professor Breaks Down Psychoanalysis in Storytelling
Mark Voelpel, Associate Professor of Screenwriting and Film Production at Brooklyn College, explores how psychoanalysis informs storytelling--and how filmmakers use it to spark emotional breakthroughs on screen and within their audiences.. Through stories we process trauma, desire, conflict, and identity-much like in therapy. A powerful film allows us to step into the protagonist's world and face our own emotions within its imagined space. Far from mere entertainment, films can serve as psychological tools for healing, insight, and transformation-stories as the talking cure.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 3
7:30 pm
Free
7:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Artists Talk about Collective History & Media Representations of Black Life
Enjoy a conversation between artists J. Yolande Daniels NA and Alexandra Bell, moderated by Gee Wesley, on public memory, collective history, and the archival imaginaries of Black life. In this discussion, Daniels and Bell will explain how their projects craft counternarratives of Black life informed by journalism, sociological data, or historical documents. Together, the artists will discuss how they engage with and challenge these archival records to expose biases and bear witness to the past. In Bell’s “Counternarratives” series, the artist inserts corrections and redactions into the "official record” of reports from The New York Times, highlighting how news media can influence the way Black life is commemorated, misrepresented, or entirely erased. Similarly, J. Yolande Daniels’s work Calle Block employs architectural research and sociological data to uncover racial discrimination in Western spatial designs, institutions, and laws, and to illustrate how African Americans have created freedom and community by shaping their surrounding spaces.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 4
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | National Book Award Winner Susan Choi Celebrates Her New Book, Flashlight (+ musical performance)
WNYC’s Alison Stewart and author Susan Choi partake in a live conversation about Choi's newest book, Flashlight, followed by a special musical performance from Sarah Kinsley. Synopsis: One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. She is ten years old. Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, is Korean, but was born and raised in Japan; he lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to North Korea. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her Midwestern family after a reckless adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences. But now it is just Anne and Louisa, Louisa and Anne, adrift and facing the challenges of ordinary life in the wake of great loss. United, separated, and also repelled by their mutual grief, they attempt to move on. But they cannot escape the echoes of that night. What really happened to Louisa’s father?
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 4
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Prize-Winning Authors Discuss the Nature of Biography & Memoir (In Person AND Online!)
Listen to a discussion on biography with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Megan Marshall, author of After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart, and Martha Hodes, Professor of History at New York University, and author of My Hijacking: A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 4
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Discussion | World-Building Imagineers on Storytelling, Digital Narratives, & Implementation
Art, technology, science, and the humanities converge in Nona Hendryx's installation, where she hosts an expert panel of world-building imagineers including Amy Jupiter from Walt Disney; XR immersive strategist Kathleen Cohen; and Jalina Stewart, a visionary in the XR landscape. The panelists will share invaluable insight into the creative process of immersive world-building by discussing real-world applications for traditional storytelling, digital narratives, and implementation. There are two ways to access this event: 1. General Admission, first-come first-served. Just show up! 2. Fast Track opening the Monday before the event at noon.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 4
7:30 pm
Free
7:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Learn about the Legacy of NYC's Famous Restaurant: Delmonico's
Max Tucci, author of The Delmonico Way and a third-generation partner, joins Carl Raymond of The Gilded Gentleman podcast to share stories of holiday feasts and the legacy of America's first great restaurant: Delmonico's. Welcome to Delmonico's--the legendary New York restaurant that once hosted presidents, celebrities, and the city's elite, including the Astors, Schermerhorns, and van Rensselaers. Known for its opulent "Patriarch Balls" and cuisine hailed by Harper's Weekly as "an agency of civilization," Delmonico's set the standard for fine dining. Make a reservation in the dining room to sample special Delmonico-themed dishes and cocktails.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Dec 5
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Symposium | Exploring the Legacy of Theater Innovator Ping Chong: Archival Works
Join a full-day symposium celebrating the artistic legacy and archival work of pioneering theater artist Ping Chong. Featuring conversations, panels, artistic activations, and screenings of Chong’s work, the event explores his groundbreaking interdisciplinary practice, pedagogical influence, and ongoing impact on performance and community-centered art.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Dec 6
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Discussion | NYTimes Best-Selling Author Clint Smith on Immigration and American History (Online!)
Join Clint Smith for a discussion on immigration, Black history, and the contested meaning of being American. Through personal stories and historical insight, the conversation will explore how immigrant, migrant, refugee, and Black communities have shaped the nation's identity. Smith's books will be available at a special price.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 8
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto: Five Young Women Who Led the Resistance (Online!)
Holocaust historian Elizabeth R. Hyman tells the untold story of five courageous young women who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, sabotaging Nazis, aiding Jews in hiding, and leading the resistance. Known as “the girls” by fellow fighters and “bandits” by the Nazis, they were central to the Jewish resistance as fighters, commanders, couriers, and smugglers.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 8
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Forum | Harvard Economist Insights on Fixing What’s Broken in Personal Finance (Online!)
Economist John Campbell discusses his new book Fixed: Why Personal Finance Is Broken and How to Make It Work for Everyone. Drawing on decades of research, Campbell reveals how today’s personal finance system favors the wealthy and well-educated while steering ordinary consumers toward costly mistakes. From student loans and mortgages to retirement savings and insurance, he explores how these inequities shape people’s lives and offers evidence-based solutions to restore fairness and trust in the financial system. This program includes a discussion and audience Q&A. The first 100 registrants will receive a complimentary electronic copy of the book.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 9
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Maus and Mark Podwal’s Illustrated Book of Lamentations: Holocaust Memory in Graphic and Visual Art (Online!)
Explore two groundbreaking works of Holocaust testimony with artist and author Richard McBee. Art Spiegelman’s Maus presents survivor narratives through the lens of a second-generation adult child in a pioneering graphic novel format. Mark Podwal’s Illustrated Book of Lamentations (1974) pairs a complete English translation with 28 spare black-and-white reflections, blending illustration and spiritual reflection.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Dec 9
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Read & Analyze the Poetry of Paul Celan with a Group
For this meeting, the group will read selections from Paul Celan's 1952 poetry collection, Poppy and Memory, translated from the German by Michael Hamburger and Christopher Middleton. Celan is regarded as one of the most important figures in German-language literature of the post-World War II era and a poet whose verse has gained an immortal place in the literary pantheon. Celan’s poetry, with its many radical poetic and linguistic innovations, is characterized by a complicated and cryptic style that deviates from poetic conventions. You can find a copy of the reading attached to the linked page. Please bring your printed copy to the discussion! the group will be reading aloud and interpreting the poems as a group.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 10
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Celebrate the World Monuments Fund's 60th Anniversary & New Book
Celebrate the World Monuments Fund's 60th anniversary publication, Irreplaceable: 60 of Humanity's Most Treasured Places, a call to safeguard some of the most important monuments of our shared cultural heritage. Enjoy a conversation with president and chief executive officer of World Monuments Fund ,Bénédicte de Montlaur, New York Times best-selling author André Aciman, and Director of the Robert Capa and Cornell Capa Archive at the International Center for Photography, Cynthia Young, to celebrate this new book.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 10
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Quiet Reading Meet Up
Bring a book or check one out of the library to read to yourself for one hour. After that, spend an hour socializing with those around you!
New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Wed, Dec 10
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Photo Collectors Discuss Thier New Book, Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s –1950s
Attend a conversation with collectors Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell, a couple of 34 years, for their second installment of Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s –1950s. This book is a collection of photographs that convey the unadulterated joy of being in love, starting from the earliest years of photography.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 11
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Street Noise Books Anniversary Celebration Roundtable
Comic book publisher Street Noise Books as celebrates their 5 year anniversary with a panel featuring their top creators! Dissidence and activism are core foundations of Street Noise Book's graphic novel publishing program. Dedicated to raising up the stories and voices of BIPOC, queer, neurodivergent, and disabled people, the publisher celebrates its fifth anniversary this year. This roundtable with Street Noise publisher and authors Makee (Call Me Emma), Jesse Mechanic (The Last Time We Spoke), Bishakh Som (Spellbound), and Tracy White (Unaccompanied) will feature discussion on what it means to be an activist publisher and author today — and how they all work to change the world for the better on local and global fronts.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Dec 12
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Art in Focus: Slow Observance and Conversation
Take a moment to slow down and connect with a single work of art through guided observation and group discussion. No background in art is needed--just curiosity and openness. This relaxed, welcoming program invites all adult learners to engage deeply with one piece at a time. Note: Space is limited; first-come, first-served. Stickers are distributed 15 minutes before the program starts.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Dec 12
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Death Cafe Discussion Group
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 13
3:30 pm
Free
3:30 pm
Free
Talk | DJ Pete Rock Speaks about His Craft & Performs a DJ Set
Experience a visit from one of the true living legends of the art, Soul Brother #1, DJ Pete Rock. After his sudden rise to fame in the early 1990s, Pete Rock has gone on to produce hit tracks for the biggest names in Hip-Hop, including Jay-Z, Nas, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mac Miller, and Common. Pete Rock will be in conversation with curator Xavier “X” Jernigan as they get to the living heart of Pete’s most iconic beats. Following this spirited conversation, stick around for an hour-long DJ set by the legend himself. There are two ways to access this event: 1. General Admission, first-come first-served. Just show up! 2. Fast Track opening the Monday before the event at noon.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Dec 13
7:30 pm
Free
7:30 pm
Free
Talk | Internationally-Acclaimed Photographer Discusses His Craft & Shares His Photos
Long-time Greenwich Village resident and internationally-acclaimed photographer Edward Hillel takes attendees on a visual journey of his projects in New York City and beyond. Delving into his wide-ranging practice comprising documentary, conceptual, and public participation, Hillel activates the built environment as both backdrop and protagonist, to explore larger questions that confront our shared pasts and common futures.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sun, Dec 14
2:00 pm
Free
2:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Cartoonist Katie Fricas Discusses Her New Book, Checked Out
Cartoonist Katie Fricas sits down with NYPL Librarian Rachel Crook to discuss her book, Checked Out. A graphic novel set against a perfectly cartoony NYC backdrop—complete with landmark haunts, street fashion, and quintessential characters of the city—Checked Out is at once a valentine to libraries and New York, and the story of an artist working to make her dreams come true. Drawn in a delightfully vivacious style, Checked Out buzzes with Katie Fricas’s vibrant energy, quick wit, and storytelling aplomb.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Dec 15
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Quiet Reading Meet Up
Bring a book or check one out of the library to read to yourself for one hour. After that, spend an hour socializing with those around you!
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Dec 17
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Club | Discuss The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford with Other Book Lovers
Enjoy a group discussion of The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford. This classic novel is the first in a trilogy about an upper-class English family in the interwar period focusing on the romantic life of Linda Radlett, as narrated by her cousin, Fanny Logan. Although a comedy, the story has tragic overtones.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 18
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Join the Club!
Complimentary Tickets
to shows, concerts ... (CFT Deals!)
Play | Highly-Regarded Actor in a Critically Acclaimed Drama
Regular Price: $99CFT Member Price: $0.00
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