The Wisdom Bar - "Melville and Moby-Dick" (Lecture-Based, Convo-Focused)

Expert-led lectures in bars and creative spaces across NYC.

💭 Topic: Melville and Moby-Dick 

🎤 Lecturer: Horst Rosenberg 

📆 Date: Thursday, July 9 @ 6:30 PM 

📍 Location: Tribeca (exact address will be provided in email) 

Why does a dense, obsessive, and wildly chaotic novel about a whale continue to linger across generations? A commercial and critical failure when it was first published in 1851, Moby-Dick has since become one of the strangest and enduring works in American literature. Part adventure story, part philosophical fever dream, and part study of obsession, Moby-Dick has itself become a kind of white whale for literary scholars and casual readers alike. Join us as literary scholar and educator, Horst Rosenberg, unpacks the many layers of Moby-Dick — from Captain Ahab’s all-consuming obsession to Herman Melville’s sprawling reflections on ambition, meaning, madness, nature, and the American psyche. Whether you’ve read the novel cover to cover, only know the whale, or have always meant to finally crack it open, this talk is designed to make one of literature’s most intimidating books feel alive, accessible, and surprisingly relevant. No literature degree is required. Just come curious. Horst Rosenberg is an English educator, literary scholar, and all-around Moby Dick guy – even if that moniker sometimes makes him uncomfortable. He leads a NYC-based Melville walking tour, visiting the spots that fed the curiosity of our most curious novelists. 

We'll explore:

• How Moby-Dick went from commercial failure to the "great American novel"
• Why certain works culturally endure across decades
• Captain Ahab: a study of obsession, ambition, and madness
• The strange, philosophical, and surprisingly funny corners of the book that most overlook.

What's included:

• Craft beer and light bites to settle in with (non-alcoholic options too)
• An intimate room of curious people. No lecture hall, no blaring music.
• Dedicated Q&A, one-on-one time with the speaker, post-lecture discussion with fellow attendees
• Something to take home

Agenda 6:30pm – Doors open. Grab drinks and snacks before settling into a seat (first come first serve!) 

6:50pm – Host welcomes and intros 

7:00pm – Lecture begins 

8:00pm – Q&A plus dedicated 1-on-1 time with the speaker. Grab another drink and chat about your thoughts with other attendees. 

8:30pm – Event concludes