Past Events
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Tuesday, March 7, 2023 - 3:30 PM | The Writing Life | Whitridge Room | for members only | free of charge | registration requiredA critical idea to understand when thinking about plot is the difference between plot and story. This session will underline that difference by discussing participants' solutions to the exercise from the first plot session (January 19). Those who could not attend the first session are welcome, as the beginning of this session will include a recap of the first.
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Thursday, March 2, 2023 - 9:00 AM to Thursday, March 9, 2023 - 5:00 PM | Special Event | Entry hallDonate children's & YA books to New York City public schools March 2-March 9.
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Wednesday, March 1, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Reception | Members' Room | for members and guests | free of charge | registration requiredMembers and guests are cordially invited to celebrate the opening of this delightful new exhibition with light refreshments and a chance to speak with the curator and contributors.
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Monday, February 27, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room and livestream | open to the publicThis powerful portrait of schizophrenia, the most malignant and mysterious mental illness, by renowned psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman, interweaves cultural and scientific history with dramatic patient profiles and clinical experiences to impart a revolutionary message of hope. In this special event, Dr. Lieberman converses with Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree.
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Thursday, February 23, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room | open to the publicAn extraordinary, untold story of the Second World War in the vein of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat, from the author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August.
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Wednesday, February 22, 2023 - 3:30 PM | The Writing Life | Whitridge Room | for members only | free of charge | registration requiredBring your op-ed ideas in a draft, outline, or napkin, and workshop them with New York Times journalist and teacher Liz Robbins.
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Wednesday, February 22, 2023 - 11:00 AM | Reading Group | Whitridge Room | for members only | $50 for the two sessions | registration requiredThough overshadowed by the fame of Middlemarch, George Eliot’s novel The Mill On the Floss is one of her finest works. Join us to read what is still one of the 19th century’s most underrated major novels.
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Thursday, February 16, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room & Livestream | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredAn exquisitely rendered portrait of a unique father-daughter relationship and a moving memoir of family and identity.
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Monday, February 13, 2023 - 12:00 PM | Reading Group | On the Zoom Meetings platform | open to the public | $75 for the four sessions or $20 per session | registration requiredBorn in New Orleans in 1875, Alice Dunbar-Nelson was a pioneering activist, writer, suffragist, and educator. This seminar will focus on three phases of her personal and activist life.
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Monday, February 6, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | Members' Room | for members and guests | free of charge | registration required
Join members, guests, and artists for an art display and light refreshments honoring participants in the Library's inaugural Young Cartoonists Awards.
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Wednesday, February 1, 2023 - 5:00 PM | Children | Whitridge Room | For members and guests | Grades 3-8 | $15 per child | Registration requiredShare poetry and snacks with author, poet, and performer Ellen Hagan.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Livestream | open to the public | $10 per person | registration requiredA groundbreaking and enthralling biography of two pioneering geniuses in historical fiction - the most famous sister novelists before the Brontës, Jane and Anna Maria Porter.
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Thursday, January 26, 2023 - 4:00 PM | Children | Whitridge Room | For Members | Ages 3 and OlderLet's celebrate the snowy season with a flurry of stories.
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Monday, January 23, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room & Livestream | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredA revelatory biography from a Pulitzer Prize-winner about the most essential Founding Father—the one who stood behind the change in thinking that produced the American Revolution.
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Saturday, January 21, 2023 - 3:00 PM | Children | Members’ Room | open to the public | for all ages | free of charge | registration requiredCome sing along while making music and discovering fun folk tales with musician and storyteller Bobaloo.
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Friday, January 20, 2023 - 10:00 AM | Children | Whitridge Room | Ages 2 and Up | For Members Only
Enjoy favorite nursery rhymes, picture books, and songs.
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Thursday, January 19, 2023 - 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM | Reception | Members' Room | for members and guests | free of charge | drop in
Members and guests are cordially invited to join us for an informal opening reception for Grace Notes. Drop in for light refreshments and a first glance at our new short-term exhibition.
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Thursday, January 19, 2023 - 3:30 PM | The Writing Life | Whitridge Room | for members only | free of charge | registration requiredWriters in narrative forms - novelists, short story writers, playwrights, screenwriters, epic poets - find their art requires an element other arts don’t: a plot. We choose to work in these forms, yet many of us find plot a difficult element to wrangle. This talk will explore why that is and what a writer can do about it.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2023 - 11:00 AM | Reading Group | Whitridge Room | for members only | $100 for the six sessions | registration required“Never say you know the last word about any human heart.” That’s one of the great sentences of this great writer, Henry James (1843-1916). In this seminar – which welcomes both experienced readers of James and novices – we’ll discover many more.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2023 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | Members' Room & Livestream | open to the public | $15 per person | registration requiredThe Jays of New York were a preeminent founding family, and users of our Library. In Liberty's Chain, David N. Gellman shows how the family, abolitionists and slaveholders alike, embodied the contradictions of the revolutionary age.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2023 - 10:00 AM | Children | Whitridge Room | For Members | Ages 24 Months and Younger
Join us for songs, stories, and movement for babies and toddlers.
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Thursday, January 12, 2023 - 4:00 PM | Children | Whitridge Room | For Members | Ages 3 and OlderRaise a howl for these stories about happy hounds.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2023 - 4:00 PM | Children | Whitridge Room | For Members | Kindergarten and upLet's make lava lamps for these longer nights.
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Friday, January 6, 2023 - 10:00 AM | Children | Whitridge Room | For Members | Ages 2 and OlderEnjoy favorite nursery rhymes, picture books, and songs.
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Tuesday, January 3, 2023 - 10:00 AM | Children | Whitridge Room | For Members | Ages 24 Months & YoungerJoin us for songs, stories, and movement for babies and toddlers.
