What to Catch at the New York Public Library This Spring

By Alison Durkee

The New York Public Library’s free public programs have something for everyone, with a dense spring slate that includes fresh insights into William Shakespeare, the wild success of the fast food industry and an insider’s look at the raising of One World Trade Center. Our picks for the best of spring talks at the New York Public Library follow.

The Mid-Manhattan Library has a full run of fascinating events this spring. On March 17, culinary writer Andrew F. Smith will be on hand for Fast Food: The Good, The Bad, and the Hungry, a talk centered on the fast food industry and the often unethical reasons for its wild success. Of course, persuasion and deception in our society goes far beyond fast food marketing. This psychology behind this art of swindling forms the basis of another library talk on April 19, with Maria Konnikova, a contributor to The New Yorker and author of The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It…Every Time. Also examining our modern culture is a March 15 conversation with Justin Peters about his book The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet. The discussion will focus on the creative commons and the larger effects it’s had on society, along with the life and tragic suicide of founding Reddit developer Aaron Swartz. To discover free culture of a different kind, check out Molly Guptill Manning’s illustrated lecture on When Books Went to War (March 14), which tells the story of the government program during World War II that distributed 120 million free paperbacks to deployed troops. On April 7, join New York City Parks Department staffer Sergey Kadinsky for a talk on the Hidden Waters of New York City, which looks at sources both past and present. Of course, historical discussions of the past always get filtered through the lens of the present. This interplay between the historic and the contemporary will be discussed on March 21 in Shadowboxing with History, a moderated discussion on the relationship between history and art in fiction and non-fiction and how the past gets altered in its telling.

The Schomburg Center will continue this relationship between past and present in their discussions and lectures this spring. On March 16, the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery will present Reclaiming Our Ancestors, a discussion with several descendants of notable freed slaves, including Solomon Northup, the author of Twelve Years a Slave, and Dred Scott, whose very freedom was prosecuted. The focus will turn to women on March 22 for the talk Social Justice = Black Women and Girls, a discussion about the historical and social landscape of advancing justice for black females, which will also contextualize the importance of black women within larger struggles for social justice. The Schomburg Center will also continue its Conversations in Black Freedom Studies Series this spring, with conversations centered on The Church and the Struggle (April 7) and Educational Injustice and Organizing (May 5).

The intersection of history and performance is at the heart of the upcoming events at the Library of Performing Arts. In conjunction with its exhibition Shakespeare’s Star Turn in America, the library will be hosting a score of events focused on the Bard, including film screenings, a performance of Romeo & Juliet by the Public Theater’s Mobile Shakespeare Unit (March 23), and an interactive group reading of As You Like It (April 19). In collaboration with Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the library will also host two events centered on both Mozart and Shakespeare. On April 11, famed director Julie Taymor, whose past work includes Mozart’s The Magic Flute and the recent film adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, among other Shakespearean credits, will spend an evening at the library discussing her work. But the real crossover event will take place on April 1 with Shakespeare vs. Mozart: A Library Debate, an intense battle where only one genius can come out on top.

The Library of Performing Arts will also host a special trans-Atlantic conversation between Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of the Public Theater, and National Theatre of Scotland Executive Producer Neil Murray on April 4, which will span such topics as theatre, culture, and community-focused arts presentation. On March 24, the focus turns to dance with an evening focused on George Balanchine’s first original ballet in America, “Serenade,” featuring rare films, photographs and commentary from dance scholars and journalists.

At the NYPL’s flagship Stephen A. Schwarzman building, upcoming events include spotlights on life both past and present. On May 2, actor John Lithgow and Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro will discuss Shapiro’s book The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606, which looks at a tumultuous year in English history and its influence on the three classic tragedies—Macbeth, King Lear, and Antony and Cleopatra—Shakespeare wrote that year. For a discussion of history on this side of the pond, the Library will host a conversation with writers Claudia Roth Pierpont and Jonathan Galassi on May 17 on Pierpont’s upcoming book American Rhapsody. The book and conversation will focus on “American problems and American genius,” discussing the artists and innovators who have shaped America in the modern age and delving into topics ranging from our racial history to the inspiration behind the Chrysler building’s famed Art Deco crown.

For a look at another icon of the New York City skyline, join architects, structural engineers and others on May 25 for a special look at One World Trade Center. The event will give a behind-the-scenes glimpse from figures involved in its creation, discussing how the skyscraper was planned, designed, built and funded. Of course, every building in New York City has a special history of its own, and visitors can find out the history of the ones they call home through a special seminar, Researching the History of Your New York City Home, on April 6. Using the resources of the Milstein Division, one of the largest free  history and genealogy collections in the country, this seminar will show New Yorkers how to use archival materials to construct narrative histories of their own home.

All of these events at the New York Public Library are free, but some may require advance registration. For more information, visit nypl.org.

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