Kids Stuff: Six Events About, Involving, or of Interest to Children & Teens

By Troy Segal

Young people take center stage in a variety of upcoming NYC talks, activities, and performances — sometimes as subjects, sometimes as performers. Whichever, these child- and teen-themed events are bound to interest adults, too.

The whole concept of childhood — and definitions of childish identity, interests, and activities — greatly expanded throughout the 1800s. Understand how these ideas were realized in this lunchtime lecture (bring your own munchies; drinks are provided), Toys & Childhood in the 19th Century on Aug. 8, at the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden.

Few adults, let alone children, have the courage of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who fought, and nearly died, for the right to an education. On Aug. 19, she talks about her struggle on behalf of other girls with a New York Times correspondent, at the French Institute Alliance Française.

What’s for dinner? Food historian Mark Kurlansky (Cod) and his eighth-grade daughter Talia had a unique way of deciding: She’d pick a spot on a spinning globe, and that would dictate the type of cuisine they’d cook up. The two discuss their Friday International Night tradition at the 92nd Street Y, Aug. 19.

She was the movies’ first moppet superstar. Dolls and drinks (non-alcoholic, naturally) were named after her. But, unlike other kid actors, Shirley Temple had a life after she grew up, too, and this talk traces her path From Child Star to Diplomat, at the 92nd Street Y, Sept. 12.

Pseudonymous Bosch, author of the bestselling The Secret Series, is about to do that voodoo that he does so well with a new book, Bad Magic. He’ll discuss it at this Symphony Space reading on Sept. 21; just remember, he’s the most unreliable of narrators….

Degas’ famous sculpture of a Little Dancer Aged Fourteen was based on a real-life apprentice ballerina in 1870s Paris named Marie Van Goethem. Some Broadway heavyweights (director Susan Stroman, the writing team Ahrens & Flaherty) are doing a musical about her, and they’ll discuss it and show excerpts from the show, Oct. 5 at the Guggenheim.