Monday, February 1, 2016

Dislocated Memories: Jews, Music, and Postwar German Culture with Tina Frühauf, Ph.D., a musicologist, writer, and a professional organist, who serves on the faculty of Columbia University and is Editor at Repertoire International de Littérature Musicale.

This illustrated lecture spotlights music in the Jewish communities of Germany after 1945. It draws together Jewish music, German culture and the legacy of the Holocaust and makes powerful arguments about the impact of the Holocaust and its aftermath in changing contexts of musical performance and composition.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Falafel Nation: Cuisine and the Making of National Identity in Israel with Yael Raviv, the Director of Umami Food and Art Festival in New York City.

When people discuss food in Israel, their debates ask politically charged questions: Who has the right to falafel? Whose hummus is better? This illustrated lecture aims to move beyond the simply territorial to divulge the role food plays in the Jewish nation.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

The Con Men Hustling in New York City with Terry Williams, a professor of sociology at the New School for Social Research and Trevor B. Milton, an assistant professor in social sciences at Queensborough Community College, CUNY.

This illustrated lecture spotlights hustling in New York City and explores the sociological reasons why con artists play their game and the psychological tricks they use to win.

Monday, February 8, 2016

The Beast Side: Living (and Dying) While Black in America with D. Watkins, an award-winning writer, educator, speaker, and columnist for Salon.

This illustrated lecture is a socio-cultural history and an urgent call to action following the author's experience and that of his community as Trayvon Martin was killed, as Ferguson was torn apart, and as Baltimore itself exploded after the death of Freddie Gray.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Folk City: New York and the American Folk Music Revival with Stephen Petrus, an Andrew W. Mellon Research Fellow at the New-York Historical Society.

This illustrated lecture explores New York's central role in fueling the nationwide craze for folk music in post-war America. It shows that the city’s artistic, political, and commercial assets helped to shape a breeding ground for the folk music revival, one of the great cultural phenomena of the twentieth century.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Woody: The Biography with David Evanier, a former Senior Editor of The Paris Review and the author of ten books.

This lecture features key movies, plays and prose and his personal life and tackles the themes that Allen has spent a lifetime sorting through in art: morality, sexuality, Judaism, the eternal struggle of head and heart.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Word Nerd: Dispatches from the Games, Grammar and Geek Underground with John D Williams Jr., former Executive Director of the National SCRABBLE Association and the co-author of the best-selling Everything SCRABBLE®.

This illustrated lecture explores anagrams, palindromes, the highest-scoring SCRABBLE plays of all time, the birth of the World SCRABBLE Championship, as well as many of the more colorful figures that inhabit this subculture.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America's Soldiers with Joseph Hickman, a former US Marine and Army sergeant.

This lecture chronicles the experiences of many young men and women who signed up to serve their country in the wake of 9/11, only to return home permanently damaged, the victims of their own armed forces' criminal negligence.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Exploring Gramercy Park and Union Square with Alfred Pommer, a licensed New York City Guide and Joyce Pommer, a former art gallery owner in New York City.

This illustrated lecture features the stories and history of two of Manhattan’s most desirable neighborhoods for more than 150 years.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

The Rooftop Growing Guide: How to Transform Your Roof into a Garden or Farm with Annie Novak, the Co-founder and head farmer of the nation's first commercial green roof row farm, Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn.

This illustrated roof showcases how to make an edible rooftop garden thrive.

Monday, February 22, 2016

A Light Shines in Harlem: New York’s First Charter School and the Movement It Led with the author, Mary C. Bounds, an award-winning journalist, in conversation with Dawn M. Hill, a Co-founder of the Sisulu-Walker Charter School of Harlem.

This lecture and dialogue tells the fascinating story of the Sisulu-Walker Charter School of Harlem, the first charter school in New York, and of the charter movement.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Passage to Cuba: An Up-Close Look at the World's Most Colorful Culture with author and photographer, Cynthia Carris Alonso.