A New Series:
CULTURAL OBITUARIES
The Death of Black Nationalist Culture?
Making Sense of Black Nationalism in the Obama Era
Thursday, April 9
The Death of Boom Culture?
Fiction in the Age of Inequality
Tuesday, April 14
The New York Public Library
Fifth Avenue & 42nd Street
New York, NY
Tickets on sale NOW!
April 9 @ 7 pmThe Death of Black Nationalist Culture? Making Sense of Black Nationalism in the
Obama Era
VICTOR LAVALLE with TA-NEHISI COATES, BAZ DREISINGER & PENIEL E. JOSEPH
Trustees Room
The New York Public Library
(Fifth Avenue & 42nd Street / Entrance on Fifth Avenue)
BUY TICKETS NOW
Call SmartTix: 212.868.4444 or www.smarttix.com
DISCOUNT CODE: BKSTU
With an African-American president in the White House—and the first black chairman voted to head the Republican National Committee—has black nationalism become irrelevant? Novelist Victor LaValle explores the personal and political valences of the nationalist idea and makes a case for embracing a more ecumenical view of black experience—including the freedom to move beyond traditional conceptions of blackness. Baz Dreisinger, author of Near Black: White to Black Passing in American Culture; Peniel E. Joseph, author of Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America; and Atlantic Monthly contributing editor Ta-Nehisi Coates respond.
April 14 @ 7 pm
The Death of Boom Culture? Fiction in the Age of Inequality
WALTER BENN MICHAELS with DAVID SIMON, SUSAN STRAIGHT & DALE PECK
South Court Auditorium
The New York Public Library
(Fifth Avenue & 42nd Street / Entrance on Fifth Avenue)
BUY TICKETS NOW
Call SmartTix: 212.868.4444 or www.smarttix.com
DISCOUNT CODE: BKSTU
Now that markets have proven a flawed index of our economic well-being, our cultural life needs to look beyond the pat certainties of laissez-faire ideology. Among the ills afflicting the American novel at the height of boom culture, Walter Benn Michaels argues, was a curatorial obsession with past oppressions—from slavery to the Holocaust to memoir-style accounts of family abuse. Writers should now be asking less about what it meant to oppose the Holocaust, he contends, and more about what it means to support free trade. David Simon, creator of The Wire, Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon, and novelist-critic Dale Peck join Michaels to discuss the social vision of contemporary storytelling.
Become a FRIEND of the Library
Made possible with generous support from Celeste Bartos and the Margaret and Herman Sokol Public Education Endowment Fund.
