SPRING 2009 SEASON
LIVE from the NYPL
LIVE is Ripe, Rigorous
Real Debates & Performance
LIVE is Salty Conversations
LIVE is Cognitive Theater
The New York Public Library
Fifth Avenue & 42nd Street
New York NY
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WWW.NYPL.ORG/LIVE
Thursday, February 26
OPENING EVENT! LIVE from the NYPL & WIRED present
LAWRENCE LESSIG + SHEPARD FAIREY + STEVEN JOHNSON
Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy
What is the future for art and ideas in an age when practically anything can be copied, pasted, downloaded, sampled, and re-imagined? Our guides are Lawrence Lessig, author of Remix; street artist Shepard Fairey, whose iconic Obama “HOPE” poster is at the National Portrait Gallery; and cultural historian Steven Johnson, whose book on remix culture is The Invention of Air.
Celeste Bartos Forum
Father Patrick Desbois, secretary to the French Conference of Bishops for relations with Judaism and advisor to the Vatican on the Jewish Religion, investigates the murder of Ukrainian Jews by Nazis during World War II. Father Desbois will discuss with Paul LeClerc, President of NYPL, the first mass killings of the Holocaust that most people know nothing about.
Celeste Bartos Forum
Thursday, March 19
A Tribute to JOHN UPDIKE
David Remnick, Sonny Mehta, Charles McGrath, Judith Jones, Roger Angell, Lorrie Moore, Adam Gopnik, Deborah Garrison, and Ann Goldstein will honor John Updike’s life with remembrances and readings from his work.
This event is co-presented by Alfred A. Knopf and The New Yorker
Celeste Bartos Forum
Monday, March 23
THOMAS FRIEDMAN in conversation with NANDAN NILEKANI*
Imagining India
In his book, Imaging India, Indian entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani traces the central ideas that shaped the country’s past and present. Thomas Friedman says, “Seattle has Bill. Bangalore has Nandan … It was his insight … that inspired me to write the book The World Is Flat.”
This event is sponsored by Sutherland.
Celeste Bartos Forum
Thursday, April 9
LIVE from the NYPL & BOOKFORUM present
A New Series: CULTURAL OBITUARIES
The Death of Black Nationalist Culture?
DEBRA DICKERSON, TA-NEHISI COATES & VICTOR LAVALLE
With an African-American president and the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee has black nationalism become irrelevant? Novelist Victor Lavalle makes a case for embracing a more ecumenical view of black experience. Debra Dickerson, author of the End of Blackness, and Atlantic Monthly contributing editor Ta-Nehisi Coates respond.
Co-presented by BOOKFORUM
South Court Auditorium
Monday, April 13
ANDREI CODRESCU, HENRY ALFORD & MARK TWAIN Interview Each Other!
How To Live DADA
An evening of gentlemen bearing questions and channeling the great books that will answer them! Andrei Codrescu‘s The Posthuman Dada Guide, will be his chief oracle in this orgy of bibliomania. Henry Alford, author of How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People, will ask “Is old age a form of Dada expression?” Paul Holdengräber will make a cameo appearance as Mark Twain.
Celeste Bartos Forum
Tuesday, April 14
LIVE from the NYPL & BOOKFORUM present
A New Series: CULTURAL OBITUARIES
The Death of Boom Culture?
WALTER BENN MICHAELS with DAVID SIMON, RICHARD PRICE & DALE PECK
Among the ills afflicting the American novel at the height of boom culture, Walter Benn Michaels argues, was a curatorial obsession with past oppressions such as the Holocaust and slavery. Writers should now be asking more about what it means to support free trade. David Simon, creator of The Wire, and Richard Price, author of Lush Life, join Michaels and novelist-critic Dale Peck to discuss the social vision of contemporary storytelling.
Co-presented by BOOKFORUM
South Court Auditorium
Wednesday, April 22
REZA ASLAN: A Conversation
How To Win A Cosmic War
In How To Win A Cosmic War, Reza Aslan calls for an end to the so-called “War on Terror,” which the U.S. has transformed into what he calls a cosmic war that can’t be won. A cosmic war is a religious war not between armies or nations, but between the forces of good and evil. How do you win a cosmic war? By refusing to fight in one.
Celeste Bartos Forum
Monday, May 11
ESA-PEKKA SALONEN in conversation with Alex Ross
Once in a while an orchestra is lucky enough to form a partnership with a brilliant conductor who becomes a shaping force in music history. Finnish conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen has made the Los Angeles Philharmonic the most interesting orchestra in America. Salonen talks to New Yorker critic Alex Ross about his own music and the future of the art.
7:00pm Alex Ross; 8:30pm Esa-Pekka Salonen & Alex Ross
Celeste Bartos Forum
Wednesday, May 20
ADAM GOPNIK in conversation with Steven Pinker
Angels and Ages: A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life
On February 12, 1809, two men were born an ocean apart: Abraham Lincoln in a one-room Kentucky log cabin; Charles Darwin on an English country estate. In Angels and Ages, Adam Gopnik presents how these two giants, Lincoln and Darwin altered the very nature of earthly existence. Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, provides commentary.
Berger Forum
Monday, June 8
ALAIN DE BOTTON in conversation with Paul Holdengräber
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
London-based author Alain de Botton explores the joys and perils of the modern workplace in The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work. In a discussion with Paul Holdengraber, de Botton investigates work activity as central to a good life as love but which we often find remarkably hard to reflect on properly.
South Court Auditorium
Programs begin at 7 pm unless otherwise indicated
Made possible with generous support from Celeste Bartos and the Margaret and Herman Sokol Public Education Endowment Fund.
* This event is sponsored by
