free things to do in New York City
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Free Events, Free Things to Do in New York City! Read More
New York attracts world's best minds to its shores: they come here to interact with each other at conferences and seminars, and while they are here they are often invited to give a talk, a lecture, to be a part of a public discussion. We at Club Free Time give you an opportunity to be a part of it: to watch how those best minds in the world work! Don't miss the opportunities that only New York City (NYC) provides!
Join the Club!
The quality and quantity of
free events,
free things to do
that happen in New York City
every day of the year
is truly amazing.
So don't miss the opportunities
that only New York provides:
stop wondering what to do;
start taking advantage of
free events to go to,
free things to do in NYC
today!
The quality and quantity of
free events,
free things to do
that happen in New York City
every day of the year
is truly amazing.
So don't miss the opportunities
that only New York provides:
stop wondering what to do;
start taking advantage of
free events to go to,
free things to do in NYC
today!
109 free talks, lectures, discussions in New York City (NYC) Mon, 01/19/2026 - 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!
Book Discussion | Conservator/Restorer Shares His New Book, Gardens of Venice (+ Signing)
Attend a conversation with Toto Bergamo Rossi, conservator-restorer and author, to celebrate his book, Gardens of Venice, a stunning illustrated look at the vibrant history and botanical details of Venice's gardens. He will be joined in conversation by fashion designer and philanthropist Diane Von Furstenberg, and Rizzoli publisher Charles Miers, followed by a signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jan 19
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Talk | Ask a Mathematician Anything! (Online!)
Join Dr. Arthur Benjamin for a one-hour interactive online session. Bring your questions about math, ideas, or curious concepts, and hear Dr. Benjamin share insights from his work as a mathematician, magician, NYT bestselling author, and TED speaker with over 50 million views.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jan 19
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Explore Poetry about New Beginnings for the New Year
Speak with fellow poetry enthusiasts to unpack the layered meanings of poetry through an informal group discussion. Open the year with innovative poems exploring new beginnings and fresh starts. Please note that contemporary poetry deals frankly with contemporary issues and all works discussed are artistic expressions selected for an adult audience.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 20
2:30 pm
Free
2:30 pm
Free
Book Club | Discuss The Women by Kristin Hannah with Others
Enjoy a book discussion about The Women by Kristin Hannah. Synopsis: When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances "Frankie" McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 20
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Ocean Vuong Talks about His New Book, The Emperor of Gladness (In Person AND Online!)
WNYC’s Alison Stewart and author Ocean Vuong conduct a live conversation about his book The Emperor of Gladness. Ocean Vuong's The Emperor of Gladness is a novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive. Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Ocean Vuong’s writing—formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness—are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 20
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Live Recording: Insight Into Culture and Photography
Join a live recording of The Lo-Down Culture Cast with Traven Rice in conversation with photographers Martha Cooper and Clayton Patterson. The discussion explores their influential work documenting New York’s downtown culture.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 20
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Experts Discuss Hope, Discovery, and Colonization in the United States
The day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a distinguished panel of experts delves into the themes of hope, discovery, and colonization of American lands—ideas that lie at the heart of Thomas Adès’s America (A Prophecy), which the New York Philharmonic commissioned and premiered in 1999. Moderated by renowned ethnomusicologist, historian, and Juilliard faculty member Fredara Hadley, this discussion is scheduled to last one hour and will be followed by an audience Q&A.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 20
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Uncovering a Hidden Family History: A Story of Survival & Identity (Online!)
This talk explores the true story of a woman who learned, at thirty-two, that she had been smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto as an infant and that the parents who raised her were not her biological parents. The conversation traces her daughter’s effort to uncover the full, war-torn history: a rescue in occupied Poland, family secrets kept for decades, and the emotional cost of protecting loved ones from painful truths.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 20
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 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, Jan 21
3:30 pm
Free
3:30 pm
Free
Book Club | Discuss The Employees by Olga Ravn
Enjoy this novella discussion on The Employees by Olga Ravn, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken. The Employees reshuffles a sci-fi voyage into a riotously original existential nightmare. Aboard the interstellar Six Thousand Ship, the human and humanoid crew members complain about their daily tasks in a series of staff reports and memos. The Employees probes into what makes us human, while delivering a hilariously stinging critique of life governed by the logic of productivity.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 21
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 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, Jan 21
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Tracing Moderism Through War & Survival (Online!)
This discussion examines the Nazis’ aggressive campaign against modern art and their vast looting of Jewish-owned collections across Europe. Through the perspective of a writer, art historian, and Holocaust survivor whose own life intersected with these events, the discussion explores how stolen works resurfaced, what survived in American museums, and how exiled artists and scholars helped shift the center of the art world from Europe to the United States.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 21
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Art Photographer Shares His New Book, All a Blur: Photographs from the Infinity Series (+ Signing)
Hear a conversation with fine art photographer Bill Armstrong to celebrate his new book, All a Blur: Photographs from the Infinity Series, a stunning meditation on the granular elements of personal history, spirituality, philosophy, and the medium of photography itself. He will be in conversation, followed by a signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jan 22
5:30 pm
Free
5:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Journalist Discusses Her New Book, Looted: Rescuing Italy’s Stolen Treasures
Italian American journalist Frances Vieta is in conversation with Roundtable member Linda Selman as she offers a rare glimpse into the complexities of the art world’s dark underbelly. Vieta will discuss her new book, Looted: Rescuing Italy’s Stolen Treasures. You will learn of the shadowy network of tomb robbers and the corrupt smugglers and dealers exploiting Italy’s ancient archaeological sites and New York City’s prestigious art galleries and museums. In 1973, the $1 million purchase of the Euphronios Krater by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art persuaded Vieta, a young journalist fresh from college, to join forces with Rodolfo Siviero, Italy’s renowned art recovery expert, and the Carabinieri Art Squad. Their decades-long mission to identify and rescue priceless artifacts involved history, drama, danger, and legal battles. Vieta will sign copies of the book after the presentation.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jan 22
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Lecture | Political Scientist 7 Harvard professor Dr. Claudine Gay Discusses Current Political Climate
Experience a lecture featuring the distinguished political scientist and academic leader, Dr. Claudine Gay. She is the Wilbur A. Cowett Professor of Government and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Gay served as the University’s 30th president. As a leading scholar specializing in race, identity, and political behavior, Dr. Gay embodies the highest levels of academic excellence and institutional leadership. Her scholarship and high-profile role place her at the center of national dialogues concerning race, academic freedom, DEI, and the future of Black leadership, making this a vital conversation in the current climate. Dr. Gay will present a brief lecture, followed by a conversation with Joy Bivins, Director of the Schomburg Center.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jan 22
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Reframing Documentary Photography Through Loss and Repair
Artists and curators Mathilde Walker-Billaud and Ohan Breiding discuss a lens-based exhibition bringing together Farm Security Administration archival images and newly produced works. The conversation examines the “killed negative” as both a technical and a metaphorical device, opening a space for reflection on documentary photography and ecological care. The talk is preceded by a screening of Breiding’s 16mm short film Hide.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jan 22
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Lecture | Historian Discusses Libertinism in 18th-Century Russia & Europe (In Person AND Online!)
This talk, based on a forthcoming book about three generations of the Beloselskii family, is a reflection on whether these aristocrats' sexual licentiousness could be seen as a form of libertinism. References to illicit liaisons practiced by the Russian elite, to sexual licentiousness and sexual abuse abound on the pages of eighteenth-century letters and diplomatic dispatches, diaries, and police reports. There was much that was cruel and absurd about these episodes - and occasionally comic, too. The stories of eighteenth-century debauchery were often used for othering Russia vis-a-vis Western Europe, but this was the Libertine Age across all of Europe. Igor Fedyukin is the Associate Professor of History at ShanghaiTech University in Shanghai, China. A historian of early modern Russia and a historian of education, he is the former founding Director of the Center for History of Modern Russia at HSE University (Moscow) and the author of The Enterprisers: The Politics of School in Early Modern Russia, in addition to numerous edited volumes.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jan 23
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Expert Insights: Marriage in Medieval Art
Examine how medieval art depicted marriage, from everyday devotion to mystical visions of divine love. Experts lead small groups through select objects, offering fresh insights, untold stories, and close-up perspectives on the symbolism and context of the works.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jan 23
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Scholar Shares His New Book on Mimetic Theory, How Violence Works (online)
Scholar John Babak Ebrahimian explains how renowned French professor Rene Girard's mimetic theory works, exploring his particular notions of conflict, desire, and the roots of violence. How Violence Works uncovers how violence stems from our desires. It explores why we compete, envy, and sometimes escalate conflicts into war. From wanting material things such as cars or prestigious jobs to seeking power or influence, desire can often lead to violence.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jan 23
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Author & Designer Arlen Schumer Discusses Technology and the Twilight Zone
Step into The Twilight Zone and discover why this legendary anthology series remains so powerfully relevant today. From 1959 to 1964, Rod Serling's groundbreaking program used science fiction, fantasy, and horror not merely to entertain, but to probe humanity's deepest hopes, anxieties, and ethical dilemmas. Among its most compelling themes was the role of modern technology--its dazzling promise and its darker, more unsettling consequences. These stories reflected the postwar boom in science, innovation, and space exploration, yet they also warned of technology's potential to erode empathy, distort identity, and threaten the human spirit. Author and designer Arlen Schumer--creator of Visions from The Twilight Zone and the new book The Five Themes of The Twilight Zone--examines more than a dozen classic episodes that brilliantly anticipated the technological struggles of our own century. Through vivid visuals, thoughtful commentary, and engaging analysis, Schumer reveals how the series' eerily prescient tales continue to challenge and inspire us, reminding audiences that progress and peril often travel hand in hand. Join us for an illuminating journey into The Twilight Zone.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jan 23
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Club | Discuss Your Favorite Romance Books in a Group
Calling all romance book lovers! If you love romance or want to get into it, come to this romance book club! The group will be discussing everyone's favorite romance books, current reads, and more!
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Jan 24
10:15 am
Free
10:15 am
Free
Lecture | Expert Discusses Sokrates & the Athens Agora
In collaboration with the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, lecturer John K. Papadopoulos, Director of Excavations at the Athenian Agora, discusses Sokrates while providing an update on some of the great philosopher's favorite and less favored haunts in the Agora, a commercial and political centre in Athens during the Classical period dating back approximately five thousands years. There are very few ancient individuals with the name recognition of Sokrates. Not bad for a person who never wrote anything! Papadopoulos reviews the life and death of this complex, avuncular character, visiting some of his favorite haunts in the Agora -- the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios, the House of Simon the Cobbler, amongst others -- as well as some of his less favored including the putative "state prison." In so doing, new evidence will be presented and older perspectives reviewed, providing a greater understanding of this fascinating, seminal figure in Western thought.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jan 26
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Unsung Acts of Defiance: Stories of Resistance Across the Nazi Era (Online!)
Explore powerful but often overlooked stories of those who stood up to Nazism, from artists risking their lives to satirize the regime, to individuals who infiltrated Nazi ranks to expose atrocities, to investigators who uncovered former Nazis decades later. The discussion traces how resistance took many forms across generations and what these acts reveal about confronting extremism today. The author, Dr. Luke Berryman, a scholar of Holocaust history and founder of a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening Holocaust education, offers insight into the courage and complexity behind these remarkable efforts.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Jan 26
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Exploring Art and History with Museum Expert
Join museum curator Jennifer Farrell for a deep dive into selected works on view. Discover the stories, contexts, and creative processes behind the art, as Schnitzer shares new insights and invites discussion on the connections between art, history, and cultural identity.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 27
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Transdisciplinary Artist Jeanine Oleson Discusses Her Career & Craft (In Person AND Online!)
Jeanine Oleson is a transdisciplinary artist working with images, materiality and language, which she forms into complex and sometimes humorous objects, images, videos and performances. Oleson has exhibited and performed at venues including: Cubitt Gallery, London (solo, 2018); Hammer Museum, LA (solo exhibition/performance, 2017); New Museum, NY (solo exhibition/performances/residency, 2014); Exit Art, NY (solo exhibition/performance, 2012), and many more. She was awarded a Rome Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (2024), and many more. Oleson has also published two books about performance projects in 2012, What? and The Greater New York Smudge Cleanse and Conduct Matters. Oleson is currently an Associate Professor of Sculpture and the Graduate Director in the Department of Art & Design at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She has also taught at Parsons School of Design, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Maryland Institute College of Art. She is also a lead collaborator since 2013 on a participatory project, “Photo Requests from Solitary” that provides requested images to people held in solitary confinement and supports advocacy efforts to end the practice in US prisons. Participation in the Q&A is limited to MFA Fine Arts students attending the lecture in person.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 27
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Book Club | Discuss A Bird in the Hand by Ann Cleeves
Attend this mystery book club to discuss A Bird in the Hand by Ann Cleeves with others! To miss this would be a crime. Synopsis: In England’s birdwatching paradise, a new breed has been sighted—a murderer… Young Tom French was found dead, lying in a marsh on the Norfolk coast, with his head bashed in and his binoculars still around his neck. One of the best birders in England, Tom had put the village of Rushy on the birdwatching map. Everyone liked him. Or did they?
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 27
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Exploring Emery Roth’s Iconic NYC Buildings (Online!)
Discover how architect Emery Roth helped define New York City’s vision of “prewar luxury” in this virtual talk with architectural historian Andrew Alpern. Learn about Roth’s landmark apartment houses and hotels, such as the Ritz Tower, the San Remo, and the Beresford, and hear how Alpern’s newly expanded edition of Emery Roth’s New York Apartment Buildings brings together a comprehensive catalogue, new color photography by Kenneth Grant, and a facsimile of the rare monograph Mansions in the Clouds.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 27
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Learn about Literary Innovators with Gayle Feldman & Adam Morgan
Participate in a conversation about early attempts at book banning and the struggle to bring James Joyce's Ulysses to readers--with authors Gayle Feldman, author of Nothing Random: Bennett Cerf and the Publishing House He Built, and Adam Morgan, author of A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls: Margaret C. Anderson, Book Bans, and the Fight to Modernize Literature. Together, Feldman and Morgan will explore two pivotal figures who reshaped American publishing, challenged the boundaries of literary freedom, and fought for readers’ right to read James Joyce’s Ulysses. From Bennett Cerf’s founding of Random House and his championing of bold new voices, to Margaret C. Anderson’s defiance of censorship and her groundbreaking magazine The Little Review, the discussion will illuminate how both helped define what we read and why it matters today.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 27
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Lecture | Photographer Sarah Stacke Shares Explores Her Craft & Career
Hear a talk with Brooklyn-based photographer, writer, and archival researcher, Sarah Stacke. Through projects created in dialogue with communities, Stacke shares stories about relationships to the land and its histories to excavate under-considered pasts and better understand the present. Her work appears in Harper’s Magazine, The Nation, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and National Geographic. Stacke is the author of four photo books.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 27
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Photography, Writing & Archival Research
Sarah K. Stacke shares her approach to image-making through community-based projects that examine land, history, and place. Her work has appeared in major publications across journalism and documentary photography.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 27
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Prize-Winning Author Shares Her New Novel, A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing
Hear Alice Evelyn Yang speak with Sally Wen Mao about her new book, A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing. About the book: A dark, magical realist debut family saga that moves through the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, the Cultural Revolution, and the present day to explore the effects of intergenerational trauma, the legacy of colonialism, and the inescapability of fate. You can pre-purchase this book at the link provided.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Jan 27
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Resistance and Art: The Red Orchestra in Berlin (Online!)
Join director Stefan Roloff for a screening and discussion on the Red Orchestra, a Berlin-based anti-Nazi resistance group active from 1933 to 1942. The conversation highlights the life and art of Rainer Küchenmeister, who began painting while imprisoned as a teenager and later exhibited his work internationally.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 28
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 pm
Free
Talk | Travel Photographer Explores Light and Photography
This presentation by Andy Katz, one of the original Sony Artisans of Imagery, explores light and how it turns a good photograph into a great photograph. Learn how to see, shape, and control light to enhance mood, depth, and storytelling. Through practical examples and guided instruction, you'll discover how mastering light elevates your images from technically correct to visually compelling.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 28
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 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, Jan 28
3:30 pm
Free
3:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Experts Reflect on the "New Enlightenment" of the Anthropocene Era
This ecology conversation event brings together Corine Pelluchon, a French philosopher whose work examines the moral and political underpinnings of our relationship with the environment; Ana Porzecanski, Director of the Center for Biodiversity & Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History; Cyrille Barnerias, Director of International Relations at the French Office for Biodiversity; and Kristina Douglass, an archaeologist and professor at the Columbia Climate School. The conversation will be moderated by Sarah Sax, an award-winning investigative journalist specializing in environmental issues. Together, they will reflect on the idea of a “New Enlightenment” for the Anthropocene era. As we confront the decline of biodiversity, the discussion will explore emerging forms of interdependence among human, animal, and plant life. Organizers will ask: How might the ways earlier societies and ecosystems co-adapted to climate pressures inform us today? Can we imagine a new social contract that would bring forth a more equitable coexistence between human and nonhuman worlds? How might an expanded sense of “the other” and a heightened awareness of contemporary vulnerabilities be translated into public policy? How can public engagement be designed to turn these concepts from ideals to actions?
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 28
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Talk | Learn about the Process of Creating a Graphic Novel, with a Debut Author
Experience a reading and talk about the creative and publishing process behind Jessica Walker’s debut YA graphic novel, The Secret Astronomers. Find out how an illustrated story of friendship, grief, and a secret got woven into the pages of an actual astronomy textbook as the group hears from Jessica and Viking senior editor Kelsea Murphy. The Secret Astronomers is a fascinating, highly illustrated, epistolary novel. When a recent transfer student starts keeping her diary in the oldest textbook at the Green Bank High School library, the last thing she expects is to receive a response. Thus begins a sweeping tale of unlikely friendship and long-buried secrets between two secret pen pals at a rural West Virginia high school.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 28
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Music Executive Shares His New Photo Book, Hitting the Head (+ Signing)
Experience a conversation with music executive Andre Howard celebrating his captivating photography and art book, Hitting the Head, inviting readers to explore the iconic dive bar scene of New York City. He will be in conversation with Karlita Sutela, followed by a signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 28
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, Jan 28
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Russian Journalist Shares His new Book, The Dark Side of Earth
Enjoy a book talk by Mikhail Zygar about his new book, The Dark Side of the Earth: Russia's Short-Lived Victory over Totalitarianism. Victoria Nuland will serve as the discussant of this session, which will be moderated by Elise Giuliano. From "one of Russia's smartest and best-sourced" (The New York Times) reporters comes a gripping and urgent exploration of why the Soviet Union's collapse was incomplete and the Cold War was never over--revealing the resurgence of imperialism in Russia and its current implications for the war in Ukraine. Russian-born journalist Mikhail Zygar offers a timely and compelling new approach on Russian history--one that rewrites everything we thought we knew about the fall of the Soviet Union--and argues that its ending is yet to come. Starting with the historic launch of the first human into space in April 1961, Zygar unravels a dramatic story of resistance, resilience, and resurgence that led to the Soviet Union's dissolution--and the echoes of its legacy today. A must-read for anyone looking to understand the origins of modern Russian fascism, The Dark Side of the Eart" explores how imperial and nationalist ideas developed during the Soviet era and eventually gave rise to the current Putinist ideology. Zygar's work is uniquely powerful--fueled by his personal ties to the Soviet era, access to historical archives, and interviews that crack open hidden truths, including several with individuals who had never before spoken on the record.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 28
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Molly Jong-Fast Shares Her New Book, How To Lose Your Mother
Hear Molly Jong-Fast speak about her new book, How To Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir, in conversation with Susan Shapiro. Mother-daughter relationships are complicated enough without being the daughter of Erica Jong, who famously invented the term “Zipless F*&%$” in her groundbreaking feminist novel Fear of Flying. With incredible honesty, Molly Jong-Fast, an accomplished writer in her own right, bravely navigates the confusion and grief of losing her mother to dementia in the same year she must deal with her husband’s cancer diagnosis. Anne Lamott writes, “Molly Jong-Fast’s memoir is mesmerizing, intimate, wise, unputdownable, crazily honest, heartbreaking, funny, illuminating—beautiful and painful at the same time, just like real life.” Jong-Fast will appear in conversation with Susan Shapiro, author and co-author of eighteen books, including the memoir Five Men Who Broke My Heart, recently optioned for a movie.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 28
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Experts Discuss the New Book, The Routledge History of Antisemitism (+ Signing)
As concern over antisemitism has grown in recent years, so too have debates over how to understand and combat it. The Routledge History of Antisemitism, now in paperback, offers fresh perspectives into what has been called the oldest hatred. It explores antisemitism’s history and manifestations, ranging from its origins to the internet. Experience this critically important and illuminating discussion about the book’s insights into antisemitism, featuring co-editor Mark Weitzman (World Jewish Restitution Organization) and contributors Susannah Heschel (Dartmouth) and Maurice Samuels (Yale). Samuel Freedman (Columbia) will moderate. A reception will follow the program. The book will be available for purchase and signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jan 28
7:00 pm
pay-what-you-wish, tickets required
7:00 pm
pay-what-you-wish, tickets required
Book Club | Talk about An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Participate in a group to discuss An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jan 29
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Holocaust Remembrance Day in the 21st Century Panel (In Person AND Online!)
Hear a panel explore how societies remember and reinterpret the Holocaust in the 21st century, and what meaning International Holocaust Remembrance Day holds today. Inspired by the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS) exhibition, Between Life and Death: Stories of Rescue during the Holocaust, on view at the United Nations from January 15 to February 20 as part of remembrance and education outreach organized by the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, the discussion will focus on acts of rescue, individual moral choices, and the legacy of human solidarity during one of the darkest periods in history.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jan 29
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Interdisciplinary Panel on Trees & Plants and Their Relationship to Humanity
An interdisciplinary conversation with scholars and makers of literature, philosophy, art, and science, rethinking our relationship to trees and plants and their intersection with temporality, history, physical space, and materiality. Trees bring forth a commonality in research and artistic output, and, in doing so, allow people to imagine new implications for being and existing in the world. Featuring Patricia Dailey, English and Comparative Literature; Nicole Davi, Tree Ring Lab, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory; Associate Professor of Professional Practice Miya Masaoka, Visual Arts + Sound Art; Rachel Grace Newman, African American and African Diaspora Studies; and visual artist and MFA student darylina powderface. Panelists will be presenting their recent research and work along these topics
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jan 29
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Street Photographer Duscusses His New Book, Street Scenes
Enjoy a talk with street photographer Phil Penman. In his new book Street Scenes, Penman pays homage to the world's vibrant metropolises—from the shimmering lights of New York to the enchanted alleyways of Paris and the dynamic streets of Tokyo. Each of his images is a window into the emotional moments and impressive facets of urban life, masterfully captured through his lens. Penman's work is an invitation to see the complexity and beauty of urban landscapes with new eyes. The photographer shows us dynamic scenes that capture vibrant life, as well as quiet moments that inspire pause and reflect the soul of cities. A Q&A will follow, as well as a book signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jan 29
7:30 pm
Free
7:30 pm
Free
Symposium | Dance Research with Scholars & Artists, Focusing on Bill T. Jones (In Person AND Online!)
This symposium is the culmination of work undertaken during a six-month fellowship where dance scholars and artists are invited to research a specific area of dance. This year, Dance Research Fellows have researched Bill T. Jones and his work in the archive, which is preserved by the Dance Division. Robert Coe, McClain Groff, Raja Feather Kelly, Alicia "Jubilee" Moore, Carlo Antonio Villanueva, and uwazi zamani present their research on Jones and his archive. Schedule: 10:00 AM - McClain Groff 11:00 AM - Alicia "Jubilee" Moore 12:00 PM - Carlo Antonio Villanueva break 2:00 PM - uwazi zamani 3:00 PM - Robert Coe 4:00 PM - Raja Feather Kelly
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jan 30
10:00 am
Free
10:00 am
Free
Gallery Talk | Expert Insights: Marriage in Medieval Art
Examine how medieval art depicted marriage, from everyday devotion to mystical visions of divine love. Experts lead small groups through select objects, offering fresh insights, untold stories, and close-up perspectives on the symbolism and context of the works.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jan 30
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Fashion Journalist & Author Shares His New Book, Mirrorball: Reflections of Dance & Fashion
Attend an event with J. Joseph Pastrana, author of Mirrorball: Reflections of Dance & Fashion, for a spin through the ages with the iconic designers, dancers, choreographers, music stars, and DJs who shaped history on stage, film, television, and clubs. From Nureyev to Graham, Saint Laurent to Halston, the Ballets Russes to Les Ballets Trocadero de Monte Carlo, from A Chorus Line to Saturday Night Fever, Studio 54 to Roxy, from Strauss to Madonna, Pastrana will take us behind the scenes of Broadway triumphs, Hollywood bombs, and haute couture’s finest moments. Hear the revealing stories of people who lived and suffered for their art in New York lofts, Manchester warehouses, South Beach hotels, Australian suburbs, German forests, and the avenidas of Argentina. J. Joseph Pastrana is a New York-based author, fashion journalist, and public relations consultant. In his role as fashion director of a trade publication he covered seasonal Fashion Weeks in New York, Paris, and Milan, profiling designers including Calvin Klein, Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, and Louis Vuitton. Books will be available for purchase. Dance Style is highly encouraged!
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jan 30
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Activists & Experts Discuss Immigration Detention & Mass Incarceration
This event will bring together faculty, students, and advocates in both immigration detention and justice-impacted communities, from Arizona, California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Texas. They will share first-hand stories of crackdowns on immigrant communities in each of their communities, and their connection to experiences of incarceration. They will also reflect on the narratives that have divided the movements against immigration detention and mass incarceration, and envision what stories, scholarship, and pedagogies can help bring them together The systems of immigration detention and mass incarceration are intertwined: immigrants and citizens accused of crimes are often detained in the same buildings, controlled by the same personnel, managed by the same corporations. Expansions of prisons have fueled the expansion of immigration detention, and vice versa. Yet they are often understood — and contested — separately.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Feb 2
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Literary Scholar Discusses Her New Book, Forgotten Friendships: Yugoslavia and the Anticolonial Francophone World
In her book Forgotten Friendships: Yugoslavia and the Anticolonial Francophone World, Serbian literary scholar Alexandra Perišić examines transnational friendships and alliances between intellectuals from Yugoslavia and the Francophone African and Caribbean world during the mid-twentieth century. Forgotten Friendships emphasizes the ways in which writers, intellectuals, and activists envisioned alternative futures rooted in collaboration across peripheries. Personal bonds of friendship were not mere footnotes to the anti-colonial struggle, but vital political tools for rethinking global solidarity.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Feb 2
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Chef Shares Her New Cookbook, Gursha: Timeless Recipes for Modern Kitchens
Chef and uptown restaurateur Beejhy Barhany sits down to discuss her new cookbook Gursha: Timeless Recipes for Modern Kitchens, from Ethiopia, Israel, Harlem, and Beyond with food writer and editor Gabriella Gershenson.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Feb 2
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Talk | Musican Discusses His Music Education Initiatives in Peru
Hear Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez discuss his organization, Sinfonía por el Perú, which has been providing music education to children and young people for over a decade. 15 years ago, Flórez founded Sinfonía por el Perú, which has transformed the lives of more than 35,000 children and young people growing up in contexts of high risk and vulnerability. Through free music education, they gain access to a safe space that promotes emotional well-being, the development of personal and social skills, and the construction of positive and sustainable life projects. Above all, they learn to believe in themselves and to dream of a better future.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Feb 2
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Human and Nonhuman Histories in European Painting
Museum experts offer an in-depth look at selected works from a recent rotation of European paintings focused on ecological relationships. Through close looking and behind-the-scenes insights, the talk explores how artists have depicted intertwined human and nonhuman histories, inviting new ways of understanding landscape, environment, and artmaking. Note: Space is limited; first-come, first-served.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Feb 3
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Political Science Scholar Shares Her New Book, Maidan: Ukarine's Democratic Revolution (In Person AND Online!)
Enjoy a book talk by Sophia Wilson about her new book, Maidan: Ukraine's Democratic Revolution. Dr. Sophia Wilson is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and the President of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies. Maidan is a carefully researched account of the underbelly of the Ukrainian revolutionary process in the winter of 2013-14. The book investigates how participants self-organized to create the resistance, why the peaceful movement eventually turned to violence, and how the revolutionary process changed those who came to change the country. The Ukrainian state used violence and violations of due process to suppress the resistance, thereby declaring new boundaries in rights relations. Wilson’s book shows how the people pushed back in multiple arenas – the protest square, courtrooms, hospitals, churches, and media – to successfully challenge the constitutionality of the state’s actions.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Feb 3
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Curator & Researcher Shares Her New Book, Second Skin (+ Signing)
Attend a conversation with Anastasiia Fedorova to celebrate her new book, Second Skin, a personal and cultural meditation on the radical, vibrant world of sexual fetishists and what it means to come to terms with one's own sexuality. The discussion will be followed by a signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Feb 3
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Archeology Expert Shares New Research on Rome's Parthenon of Marcus Agrippa
Professor C. Brian Rose of the University of Pennsylvania and former President of the Archaeological Institute of America discusses one of antiquity’s foremost buildings in Rome, dating back two thousand years. New research on the Pantheon of Marcus Agrippa — dedicated in 25 BCE, destroyed by fire, only to be subsequently rebuilt — reveals that the building’s original pediment featured three scenes from the life of Romulus, which was intended to highlight the central Campus Martius as the site of Romulus’ apotheosis. The decoration also established a link between Romulus and Agrippa’s father-in-law the Emperor Augustus, whose own Mausoleum was axially aligned with the Pantheon.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Feb 3
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Historian Celebrates His New Book on MLK, King of the North (In Person AND Online!)
Historian and professor Jeanne Theoharis discusses her latest book, King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life of Struggle Outside the South, with organizer and educator Mariame Kaba. The Martin Luther King Jr. of popular memory vanquished Jim Crow in the South. But in this myth-shattering book, award-winning and New York Times bestselling historian Jeanne Theoharis argues that King’s time in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago—outside Dixie—was at the heart of his campaign for racial justice.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Feb 3
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Yi-Ling Liu Launches Her New Book, The Wall Dancers
The Wall Dancers author Yi-Ling Liu will be in conversation with senior writer at WIRED, Zeyi Yang. Synopsis: An indelible, deeply reported human narrative of contemporary China in which the country's carefully regulated internet offers a lens into the broader national tension between freedom and control. Yi-Ling Liu is a writer and editor covering Chinese society and technology. Her work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, WIRED, and The New Yorker.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Feb 3
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 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, Feb 4
3:30 pm
Free
3:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Award-Winning Writer Shares His New Bob Dylan Book: After the Flood
Enjoy a reading and conversation with author and Professor of Writing at The New School, Robert Polito, as he sits down with John Reed to talk about Polito's new work, After the Flood. Synopsis: Blending biography and archival history, After the Flood asks of Bob Dylan, “If your dreams are fulfilled at twenty, what do you do with the rest of your life?” A familiar narrative goes: Bob Dylan, the voice of sixties counterculture, disappeared in the 1970s, then released arguably the worst music of his career in the 1980s—only to be resurrected in 2016, when he was controversially awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Dylan’s concerts once began with an announcer intoning a deadpan version of just such a narrative. That is not this story. Here, instead, is Dylan’s second thirty years. Across an abecedarium of chapters surveying his albums, performances, films, and books since 1991—since that rainy February night in New York City when Dylan, then forty-nine, accepted a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, signaling in effect that his extraordinary vocation as a vital and indispensable creative force had ended, was over—After the Flood reveals Dylan’s creative output during the last three decades as his most ambitious and accomplished yet.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 4
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Filmmaker Benoît Cohen Shares His New Memoir, Wonderful
Enjoy a conversation with fillmaker Benoît Cohen to celebrate his new book, Wonderful, a stirring and thoughtful exploration of life, loss, and grief within a family. The conversation will be followed by a signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 4
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, Feb 4
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Talk | Air Quality and Environmental Inequality in the NYC Subway System
This talk examines air quality in New York City’s subway system and how exposure to pollution varies across communities. Drawing on system-wide air quality measurements and commuter data, the program explores how factors such as train friction, ventilation, race, income, and neighborhood shape who is most affected by poor underground air conditions. For ages 21+ only.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 4
7:00 pm
pay-what-you-wish for New...
7:00 pm
pay-what-you-wish for New...
Discussion | Panel Talk on Color in Architecture (Aesthetics, Mood, & Environment"
Attend a timely panel discussion, ‘The Importance of Color In Architecture’, moderated by Elley Cheng, former President of Pantone. The distinguished panel — Tannese Williams (Pantone Fashion + Home Interiors), Hannah Yeo (Benjamin Moore & Co.), and Nélida Quintero, PhD, MArch, MFA (Environmental Psychologist / Architect) — will explore how color shapes not just aesthetics, but mood, memory, well-being, and our sense of place. Discover why certain hues recur over decades — and what the “color of now” reveals about our evolving social and cultural environment.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 4
7:30 pm
Free
7:30 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Love, Desire, and Gender in Medieval Art
Discover how love, sex, and gender were represented in medieval art through a focused gallery talk. Experts guide small groups through select objects, sharing new insights, untold stories, and close-up perspectives on the works' craftsmanship, symbolism, and social context. Attendees can also ask questions and engage directly with the discussion.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Feb 5
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Writer Sophie Lewis Discusses Feminity & Feminism
Writer and academic Sophie Lewis, in conversation with scholar Emma Heaney, discusses "femmephilia" and the place of "artifical femininity" in feminism. The Anglophone word “femme” carries a freight borne of many decades of anti-ontological proletarian sex-pleasure. It refers, specifically, to self-consciously artificial femininity, in other words, the collective arts of "girl stuff" deployed against cisness. This is why all revolutionary feminism must be femmephilic, or so it is here argued—because our fight as feminists is not with femininity at all, but with femininity’s abuse. Let us at last confront the false antithesis between the feminine and the feminist, which has dogged cisnormative gender-emancipatory thought for two centuries.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Feb 5
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Conversations in Black Freedom Studies on Police Violence & Activism Suppression (In Person AND Online!)
This Black History Month, attend an event on Policing Blackness: Resisting Repression, Police Violence, and Surveillance. Brittany Friedman will present on a critical new text Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons. Aaron G. Fountain will discuss High School Students Unite! Teen Activism, Education Reform, and FBI Surveillance in Postwar America, connecting struggles over policing and education. Joshua Clark Davis will share research from Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back, expanding our understanding of repression beyond COINTELPRO. Finally, LaShawn Harris will teach about the life of Eleanor Bumpurs, which she powerfully illuminates in Tell Her Story: Eleanor Bumpurs & the Police Killing That Galvanized New York City.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Feb 5
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Writer John Sayles Discusses His New Book, Crucible
This event features filmmaker and author John Sayles discussing his new novel, Crucible, with Professor Jerry Carlson. Sayles has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and once for the National Book Award. John Sayles’ Crucible is a complex and vast historical novel about Henry Ford — the Elon Musk of his day, in more ways than one — and his attempt to rule not only an automotive empire but the rambunctious city of Detroit. It is an epic tale ranging from the 1920s through the second World War, featuring violent labor disputes, misbegotten jungle expeditions, a tragic race riot, and the Gestapo tactics of Ford’s private army.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Feb 6
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, Feb 6
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Club | Discuss Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
At this meeting, the group will be discussing Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, in preparation for the upcoming movie adaptation. Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, is forced to seek shelter from a hazardous snow storm at Wuthering Heights. During his stay, he is informed of the area's passionate past and the eventual betrayal that affects the next generation’s heirs to this day. Bronte's tragic novel is a timeless, dark love story that revolves around the themes of revenge, social class, and race. The group plans to discuss the book for an hour and a half. While your hosts will come with some talking points and questions to kick off discussion, please don’t be afraid to share your thoughts and ask questions openly. All opinions are valid!
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Feb 6
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Learn More about the Artwork of Lotty Rosenfeld
Gain new insights about the work of Lotty Rosenfeld from this conversation with the artist Cristóbal Lehyt and exhibition co-curator Julia Bryan-Wilson. Together they will consider Rosenfeld’s enduring impact and influence on contemporary Chilean visual artists.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Feb 7
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion |
Exploring Immigrant Life and Feminist Vision in Hester Street
Exploring Immigrant Life and Feminist Vision in Hester Street (Online!)
Dr. Julia Wagner discusses her new book, Hester Street, the first to focus exclusively on Joan Micklin Silver’s groundbreaking 1975 film. Marking the film’s 50th anniversary, the talk explores its portrayal of Jewish immigrant life, feminist storytelling, and Yiddish culture, offering fresh insights into a landmark of American cinema.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Sun, Feb 8
2:00 pm
pay-what-you-wish, registration required...
2:00 pm
pay-what-you-wish, registration required...
Lecture | Political Experts Discuss Central Asia in Global Politics
Hear the lecture “Backlash: How Central Asia is Reshaping China’s Rise” featuring Bradley Jardine, Managing Director of the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, and Edward Lemon, President of the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs. As global power dynamics continue to fragment, Central Asia stands at the crossroads of strategic opportunity and geopolitical constraint. Long cast as a peripheral zone of great power competition within the spheres of influence of Russia and China, the region is increasingly asserting itself as an autonomous actor balancing relationships with Russia, China, the United States, the European Union, Turkey, India, and the Gulf states through multivector diplomacy. This lecture explores how Central Asian governments and publics are leveraging shifting global alignments, critical mineral wealth, and emerging transit corridors to gain leverage and resist dependency. In an era defined by contested global orders and technological competition, Central Asia has the potential to be not just a bridge between East and West, but a key set of actors asserting themselves in a multipolar world.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Feb 9
5:30 pm
Free
5:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Experts Dicuss Structural Violence & Policing, Sharing the New Book, Engineered Conflict
Scholar David Omotoso Stovall discusses his book Engineered Conflict: Structural Violence and the Future of Black Life in Chicago with policing expert and CUNY professor Alex Vitale and NYPL's Senior Director of Reading and Engagement Brian Jones. With a novel approach to the question of how state-sanctioned violence and abandonment impacts low-income communities, Engineered Conflict uses examples from Chicago’s recent history to shed light on the politics of disposability through housing instability, criminalization, and school closures.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Feb 9
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Musicologist Shares his New Book, Sounds of Survival
Hear about the new nonfiction book, Sounds of Survival, which explores the central role played by Jews in creating classical music in Poland. It examines an integrated Polish and Polish Jewish musical community as its members contended with antisemitism in the 1930s, attempted to survive the Nazi occupation, and established a renewed musical culture amid the ashes of World War II and the Holocaust. Reconstructing these musicians' lives from the 1920s into the 1950s, Mackenzie Pierce argues that despite nearly unimaginable violence, many Polish musicians treated the war as a time of reinvention and cultural preservation. Their faith that music was a source of cultural continuity, however, also marginalized experiences of wartime loss, especially those of Jewish victims and survivors of the Holocaust.'
New York City, NY; NYC
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Mon, Feb 9
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Afghan Artists on Creativity and Survival Under Repression (Online!)
Artists from Afghanistan and the diaspora come together for a discussion on creating art under censorship, displacement, and political repression. Drawing on lived experiences both inside and outside the country, the conversation examines how artistic practice becomes a form of resistance, testimony, and survival, emphasizing the resilience and urgency of Afghan artistic voices today.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Feb 10
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Book Club | Discuss Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Participate in a group book discussion of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Heathcliff comes to the brooding mansion of Wuthering Heights as an orphan child. Cathy is the daughter of the wealthy family that takes him in. They are drawn together from the moment they meet, their love consuming, destructive, and full of desire. They cannot be together, and yet they cannot stay apart. The consequences will haunt generations. From the moment of his adoption by the Earnshaws, the foundling boy Heathcliff devotes himself to their young daughter Catherine. Growing up together, the two share a love that blossoms into romance, until Catherine's hurtful betrayal. But Heathcliff's emotions know no bounds and acknowledge no limits—not even death. Determined to secure the family estate of Wuthering Heights as his own, the tyrannical Heathcliff vents his bitterness on his and Catherine's heirs, manipulating lives and shaping destinies under the influence of a passion that has curdled into obsession.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Feb 10
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Authors DIscuss Literary Figure Bennett Cerf (In Person AND Online!)
Biographer Gayle Feldman speaks bout publishing giant Bennett Cerf with author Jonathan Galassi. Bennett Cerf co-founded Random House in the 1920s; by the 1960s, it was the greatest literary publisher in the U.S. There was nothing random about this American original who changed our culture by straddling books, Broadway, Hollywood, and TV.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Feb 10
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Shaping Cities Through Spatial Economic Planning (Online!)
This virtual book launch introduces Tools for Spatial Economic Planning, a practical guide to analyzing and shaping the economic and spatial structures of rapidly urbanizing regions. The authors present key frameworks and case studies, followed by perspectives from global development organizations on how these tools are applied in real-world planning and policy contexts.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 11
11:00 am
Free
11:00 am
Free
Book Discussion | Uncovering Forgotten Histories in the Early US Modern Art Market (Online!)
Independent scholar Julia May Boddewyn presents her new book, The Valentine Gallery, tracing the overlooked story of Valentine Dudensing, Matisse, Picasso, and the U.S. market for modern art (1926–1947). The talk highlights Boddewyn’s research methods and key findings, followed by an audience Q&A.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 11
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 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
Join the Club!
Wed, Feb 11
3:30 pm
Free
3:30 pm
Free
Book Club | Read & Discuss Poetry by Antonia Pozzi
In this poetry discussion group, attendees will talk about ten poems by Antonia Pozzi, translated from the Italian by Amy Newman. You can find a PDF copy attached to the linked page. Please bring your printed copy to the discussion; the group will be doing close readings and analysis of the poems.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 11
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Lecture | Motherhood and Rituals in Ancient Israel (Online!)
Professor Emerita Susan Ackerman explores pregnancy and childbirth practices in ancient Israel, tracing rituals from conception to delivery. Drawing on comparisons with Hatti, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, the talk examines protective amulets, incantations, anointing oils, and other practices that illuminate the spiritual and cultural life of mothers-to-be in the ancient world.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 11
6:00 pm
pay-what-you-wish, reservation required
6:00 pm
pay-what-you-wish, reservation required
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, Feb 11
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Two Authors Celebrate the Launch of Their New Books
Celebrate two new books by New School Faculty, Lana Lin and Radhika Subramaniam. Situated between memoir, social criticism, and conceptual art, Lin’s The Autobiography of H. Lan Thao Lam narrates a 25-year queer love story through the literary form of ventriloquism that Gertrude Stein invented in her 1933 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, and responds to the modernist classic by raising the Asian understory to the surface. Subramaniam’s Footprint: Four Itineraries probes the long history of the footprint’s manifestation in the human imagination—signifying mobility and occupation, inquiry and imperialism, absence and presence, trace, and impact—to ask if it is yet possible to tread lightly on our world. The event will feature a conversation between the two writers and invite questions and discussion, followed by a celebratory reception.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 11
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Talk | Photographers Discuss Their Craft & New Book of Photography, West West: Twin Perspectives Of The American West
Experience the captivating vision of photographers Maryam Eisler and Alexei Riboud in West, West, a dual exploration of the American West’s enduring allure. Moderated by curator Carrie Scott, the discussion will examine how both artists interpret the landscapes, light, and legends that have inspired generations of creators. From past filmmakers, photographers, and painters in the NAC’s permanent collection to contemporary voices, this program celebrates the timeless pilgrimage westward. Discover how West, West captures the mythic frontier as a space for imagination, reflection, and creative renewal. The limited-edition book will be available for purchase.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 11
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Lecture | Expert Discusses Works by Edgar Degas & Impressionism
This talk by Eleanor Sypher will dive into the life of Edgar Degas (1834-1917). Degas kept somewhat aloof from the Impressionists, although he was in sympathy with their aim of breaking away from the academic style of art, nor did he paint outside. He was a superb draftsman in his modeling of the human form. Showing the interplay of light, shade, and movement; more than half of his works depict the ballet dancer. He represented figures in Parisian life and experimented in color and form with racehorses and nude women bathing; cultivating ideas from Japanese prints — off-center compositions and scenes of everyday life.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Feb 12
6:00 pm
$5, tickets required
6:00 pm
$5, tickets required
Discussion | Hear from Young African American Creators
This event unites young African-American creators at the convergence of art, technology, science, and the humanities. This revolutionary panel explores XR immersion; AR integration; VR design and development; and AI collaboration in storytelling, visual design, and music creation. Through discussion and interactive demonstrations, creators reveal how emerging technologies bridge music and art, sound and visuals, imagination and innovation, blurring time and space. This transformative convergence expands understanding, nurtures creativity, and inspires growth, offering audiences fresh perspectives on the limitless possibilities of artistic expression. Panelists:
Akeem
Akil Cooper
Julian Houston
Kambaba
King Willonius
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, Feb 12
7:30 pm
Free
7:30 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, Feb 14
3:30 pm
Free
3:30 pm
Free
Book Club | Discussion of Beloved by Toni Morrison
Discuss the classic novel Beloved by Toni Morrison. Synopsis: Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Feb 17
4:00 pm
Free
4:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Author & Journalist Svetlana Satchkova Shares Her New Novel, The Undead
Experience a book talk by Svetlana Satchkova about her new novel, The Undead: A Novel of Modern Russia. Svetlana Satchkova is a Russian-born journalist and novelist who immigrated to the United States in 2016. She covers culture and politics, with bylines in the Rumpus, Newsweek, LARB, the Independent, and others. In this darkly funny and emotionally resonant novel of contemporary Russia, a young filmmaker unexpectedly finds herself targeted by an authoritarian regime—despite her best efforts to stay out of politics. The Undead is a layered and sharply observant portrait of an artist caught in the machinery of state power, and the choices one faces in a system where even indifference can be dangerous. When Maya, a young Russian filmmaker, makes a low-budget horror movie, it seems like a promising start to her indie film career. But her jokey lo-fi picture soon attracts the attention of the autocratic state, and Maya is swept into a nightmarish system where logic breaks down, and no one is safe.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Feb 17
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 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, Feb 18
3:30 pm
Free
3:30 pm
Free
Discussion | Experts Explore Political Expression in Academia
Professor Philip Swan of Hunter College will be joined by Laura Beltz, Director of Policy Reform and Ryne Weiss, Director of Research, at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) as well as Manhattan Institute Fellows John Ketcham and Renu Mukherjee in a discussion exploring ways academia can represent the diverse political views of our larger society while also honoring the academic freedom of faculty and students. The speakers from FIRE will provide information on recent free speech challenges, will discuss where Hunter ranks on the issue of free speech, and suggest policies that can help us navigate this volatile environment with our principles of fairness intact. The speakers from the Manhattan Institute and City Journal will share insights from the new City Journal College Rankings, a project that provides students and families with information on how different universities value free speech, ideological diversity, classroom experience, and other factors often excluded from traditional college ranking systems, such as U.S. News & World Report.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 18
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, Feb 18
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Discussion | Food Studies Expert Marion Nestle Shares Her New Book, What To Eat Now
Author Marion Nestle is the co-founder of NYU's pioneering food studies program, as well as the author of important nutrition bestsellers such as Food Politics and Safe Food. In What to Eat Now, she takes the reader--aisle by aisle--through the American supermarket. Using wit and common sense, she establishes the basics of good nutrition, food safety, and ethical and sustainable eating, and gives readers a close-up look at the web of interests that food has to navigate before it gets to your shopping basket. Chef Jose Andres calls Nestle "an inspiration", while Nik Sharma (The Flavor Equation) says this latest book "should be required reading for anyone who eats."
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 18
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Art Writer Celebrates a New Edition Cookbook by Her Grandmother, Renowned Hostess Dolly Chow, Chow!
Enjoy a conversation with Carolyn Hsu-Balcer to celebrate the newest edition of Chow!, a timeless and tasteful exploration into traditional Chinese recipes and eating customs. She will be in conversation with Lin Tan, followed by a signing.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Feb 19
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Club | Discuss Colored Television by Danzy Senna
Speak about Colored Television by Danzy Senna with a group! A brilliant take on love and ambition, failure and reinvention, and the racial-identity-industrial complex from the bestselling author of Caucasia.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Feb 24
1:00 pm
Free
1:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Photographer David Katzenstein Shares His New Book, Distant Journeys
Steeped in documentary and reportage photography tradition, David Katzenstein imbues his work with immediacy, emotional engagement, and a deep respect for his subjects. Distant Journeys is a chronicle of humanity throughout the world developed over a forty-nine-year career. His photographs allow his first-hand experience of cultures and peoples to be shared with the audience as though they were present at the scene. David will present a visual presentation of some of the work and recount some of his experiences travelling the world in search of cultures and peoples. The book will be available for purchase.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Tue, Feb 24
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Writing Under Confinement in the Nazi Ghettos (Online!)
Author and scholar Sven-Erik Rose discusses literature written by Jewish authors imprisoned in the Warsaw, Łódź, and Vilna ghettos. Drawing from poetry and prose created under extreme repression, the talk examines how writers processed trauma, survival, and witness through literary form. This virtual program reflects on literature as both resistance and record.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 25
12:00 pm
Free
12:00 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, Feb 25
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Award-Winning Author Shares Her New Essay Collection, We're Alone
National Book Award Finalist Edwidge Danticat talks with literature professor Brent Hayes Edwards about We’re Alone, her recent book of essays that trace a loose arc from her childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti, and include personal narrative, reportage, and tributes to mentors and heroes such as Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Gabriel García Márquez, and James Baldwin. The essays explore several abiding themes: environmental catastrophe, the traumas of colonialism, motherhood, and the complexities of resilience, moving from the personal to the global and back again. We’re Alone is a book that asks us to think through some of the world’s intractable problems while deepening our understanding of one of the most significant novelists at work today. We’re Alone has garnered high critical praise and was a Finalist for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle for Nonfiction, and named by NPR.org, Publishers Weekly, and Electric Literature Best Book of 2024.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 25
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, Feb 25
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Art Scholar Cat Dawson Shares Their New Book, Monumental
Professor and author Cat Dawson explores the shifting role of monuments in our culture, from those that have been recently toppled, to novel investigations of the form by a new generation of artists interested in how symbolic structures can be made and what stories they can tell. For centuries, monuments have telegraphed the values and origin myths of dominant culture in public space and on massive scale. They have signaled both who is part of a culture and who is not, often overlooking histories that complicate the stories they tell. Yet in the last 50 years in the United States, the role of monuments has changed significantly. Numerous historical monuments have been removed or toppled, bringing to the fore a long-repressed conversation about the relationship between the monumental landscape and national identity. In Monumental, Cat Dawson takes up the social, political, and art historical causes and ramifications of this important shift.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 25
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Discussion | National Book Award-Winner Susan Choi Speaks about Her Craft & Career
The acclaimed novelist, Susan Choi, will be in conversation about her writing. Susan Choiis the author of Trust Exercise, which received the National Book Award for fiction, as well as the novels The Foreign Student, American Woman, A Person of Interest, and My Education, and her latest, Flashlight, published last June. She is a recipient of the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction, the PEN/W. G. Sebald Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and lives in Brooklyn. Reception to follow.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Feb 25
6:30 pm
Free
6:30 pm
Free
Book Club | Talk about What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
Discuss What We Can Know by Ian McEwan with likeminded bookworms! The novel is set almost a century in the future, in 2119, in a UK partially submerged by rising seas, and is centred on Tom Metcalfe, an academic at the fictional University of the South Downs,[3] who is investigating a lost poem, read aloud at a party in 2014.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Feb 26
4:30 pm
Free
4:30 pm
Free
Book Discussion | CNN Anchor Shares Her New Book, A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power
CNN anchor and author Abby Phillip will discuss her new book, A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power, which explores Jesse Jackson’s 1980s presidential campaigns and their lasting impact on Black political power.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Feb 26
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion | Leading German Author Disccusses Her Book, Sanderling, & DIscusses It with Its Translator (+ Signing)
Enjoy a reading by Anne Weber from her book Sanderling (translated by Neil Blackadder), followed by a conversation between her and the book's translator Neil Blackadder, which will be moderated by the author and literary translator Tess Lewis. The conversation will focus on Anne Weber’s deeply personal reckoning with what it means to be German, how the past continues to manifest in the present, how this “Zeitreisetagebuch” (Diary of Time Travel) came to be, and finally, how the translation from German to English was facilitated by the author and translator. How do you live with a history you can’t escape? What did it mean to be German one hundred years ago? And what is it like today? These are the questions at the heart of Sanderling, a classic work of literary inquiry by Anne Weber, one of Germany’s leading contemporary authors. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and there will be a book signing following the program.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Feb 26
6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free
Book Discussion |
Designer & Author Jeffrey Banks Celebrates His New Book, Storyteller: Tales from a Fashion Insider
Enjoy an evening celebrating author Jeffrey Banks' more than five decades shaping American fashion. Jeffrey Banks, author of Storyteller: Tales from a Fashion Insider celebrates his more than five decades shaping American fashion. A graduate of Parsons School of Design, Banks earned Coty Awards for men’s furs with Alixandre, as well as for his signature menswear collection and an “Earnie” for his signature boyswear. In addition to designing his signature menswear line, he has had a long-standing menswear license in Japan. Banks is a member of the Emeritus Board of Directors of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and was a senior Board Member of the Fashion Institute of Technology. Additionally, he has authored numerous fashion titles including: Tartan: Romancing the Plaid, Preppy: Cultivating Ivy Style, Perry Ellis: An American Original, Patricia Underwood: The Way You Wear Your Hat, and Norell: Master of American Fashion. Books will be available for purchase.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Feb 27
7:00 pm
Free
7:00 pm
Free
Gallery Talk | Love, Desire, and Gender in Medieval Art
Discover how love, sex, and gender were represented in medieval art through a focused gallery talk. Experts guide small groups through select objects, sharing new insights, untold stories, and close-up perspectives on the works' craftsmanship, symbolism, and social context. Attendees can also ask questions and engage directly with the discussion.
New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Mar 5
3:00 pm
Free
3:00 pm
Free
Join the Club!
Complimentary Tickets
to shows, concerts ... (CFT Deals!)
Concert | Grammy-Winning Singer and Acclaimed Musicians: Genre Fusion
Regular Price: $45CFT Member Price: $0.00
Classical Music | Schubert, Mendelssohn and More at a Landmark Venue
Regular Price: $45CFT Member Price: $0.00
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