All-American: Events, Talks & Films About the U.S.A.

By Troy Segal

July 4th being just around the corner has put us in a patriotic mood. Here are some opportunities in NYC to learn more about aspects of America, all occurring in the summer weeks to come.

Baseball, the “Great American Pastime,” had an especially eventful year in 1976. Pop- culture historian Dan Epstein analyzes the Stars and Strikes (also the title of his new book on that bicentennial season) at the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse on June 26.

See the Civil War, our nation’s bloodiest conflict, through a unique lens — clothing, quilts and other textiles — during a gallery tour of the New-York Historical Society exhibit Homefront & Battlefield on June 28.

Experience a key period in the Civil Rights Movement — the summer of ’64 — viewing Freedom Summer, a documentary about the Mississippi Freedom Riders and fighters; a talk-back follows the screening at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on July 8.

In 1969, the stuff of science fiction became real: The U.S. put a man on the moon! In a lecture on The Apollo Moon Landings and American Culture, history professor Matthew Tribbe captures the period zeitgeist — and its anti-NASA shift, a mere three years later — at the 92nd Street Y on July 15.

Once, every town in America had a public library. Photographer Robert Dawson has spent almost two decades crisscrossing the United States and documenting hundreds of these endangered temples to reading and research; he displays and discusses his images at the 92nd Street Y on August 5.

Detail from the cover of Batman #1 (2011). Art by Greg Capullo.

The comic book — or graphic novel, as it’s often dubbed nowadays — was invented in America. Celebrate one of its oldest heroes, Batman, in this conversation between John Cunningham, the vice-president of marketing of DC Entertainment, and Scott Snyder, author of the first five volumes of Batman: The New 52, under the trees at the Bryant Park Reading Room on August 13.

In 1776, the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence — a statement that was heard ‘round the world. Political philosopher Danielle Allen parses that historic text, and describes the men who wrote it, at the Bryant Park Reading Room on August 20.