Poetry night, with Elizabeth T. Gray Jr, Terrence Arjoon, Farid Matuk, Arianne Ayu Alizio, and Rachel Blau DuPlessis. The title for this new monthly series comes from Herman Melville’s poem “Art”. Poetry, wine, and the sea have always been inextricably intertwined. At this reading, hear poems, drink wine, and enjoy the “pulsed life”.

The Poet­ry Soci­ety of New York (PSNY) invites poet­ry orga­ni­za­tions and col­lec­tives of all shapes and sizes to bring their unique for­mats, aes­thet­ics, and per­son­al­i­ties to beau­ti­ful Gov­er­nors Island for The New York City Poet­ry Fes­ti­val, a free week­end of read­ings, work­shops, open mics, instal­la­tions, per­for­mances, writ­ing activ­i­ties, book­selling, chil­dren’s pro­gram­ming, a beer gar­den, deli­cious […]

Rachel Kushner presents her book Creation Lake, in conversation with Molly Young. Creation Lake is described as a “vital” (The Washington Post) and “wickedly entertaining” (The Guardian) novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France—a propulsive page-turner filled with dark humor.

Book reading and signing by Tom Mead, author of The House at Devil's Neck.

Amid the brutality of the Holocaust, one bright spot shone inside the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz. In the shadows of the smokestacks was a wooden hut where children sang, staged plays, wrote poetry, and learned about the world. Within those four walls, brightly adorned with hand-painted cartoons, the youngest prisoners were kept vermin-free, received […]

Book reading and signing by Gregory Galloway, author of All We Trust.

Poetry meets music outdoors in Battery Park City, with Peter Gizzi, Ariana Reines, and Felukah. Under the sun at the Pavillion in Rockefeller Park, enjoy readings from acclaimed poets Peter Gizzi and Ariana Reines, and dance along to genre-bending, bilingual music by Felukah.

In his new book Designing the American Century, Thomas J. Campanella argues that Gilmore D. Clarke and Michael Rapuano were the foremost spatial designers at work in the mid-20th century. Their vast portfolio of public landscapes propelled the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux into the motor age, touching the lives of millions […]

Book reading and signing by Karen Dukess, author of Welcome to Murder Week.

Barbarian Days chronicles William Finnegan's lifelong obsession with catching the perfect wave, against the backdrop of globalization and a growing surf industry. Today, that same surf industry is contending with the closure of magazines, the explosion of artificial wave pools, and the professionalization of leisure. In conversation with Alexander Sammon, Finnegan will discuss surfing then […]

Book reading and signing by David Gordon, author of Behind Sunset.

Poetry meets music outdoors in Battery Park City. LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs offers a hybrid sound-poetry performance; San Francisco poet laureate and jazz-collaborator Tongo Eisen-Martin reads from Blood on the Fog; and the soulful and psychedelic band 79.5 performs from their discography. Poet and translator Urayoán Noel will be the MC for this event.

Ed Park presents his book of stories, An Oral History of Atlantis, in conversation with Rachel Aviv.

Learn all about queer maritime and polar history in this evening of free talks in this mini-symposium presented by the South Street Seaport Museum and the polar social club, Terror and Erebus Society. Allegra Rosenberg, the founder and director of the Terror Camp virtual polar conference, will kick off the evening with a look into […]

Book reading and signing by Terrence McCauley, author of The Twilight Town

If journalism is based on the mission of telling the truth, what kinds of truths do reporters pursue when they write fiction? Four writers and editors (with Kaitlyn Greenidge, Delia Cai, Cora Lewis, and Kevin Nguyen) across legacy, digital, and independent media discuss the tools and perspectives that they bring to their novels — and […]

Dive into the history and future of New York City’s public pools with the South Street Seaport Museum and + POOL’s Program Director—and proud public pool superfan—Nora Cronin. This lively, interactive presentation will be all about the role of pools in city life. From floating bathhouses to pools of the Works Progress Administration to the […]

I.V. Marie presents Immortal Consequences, in conversation with Amélie Wen Zhao. Six students compete to change their fate at a darkly enchanted boarding school in purgatory where graduation is the only escape—and love can cross the boundaries between life and death.

Grand finale of Summer Nights with m.s. RedCherries, Danez Smith, and Speedy Ortiz, where poetry meets music outdoors in Battery Park City. Under the sun in Wagner Park, dance along to musical performances intertwining Speedy’s indie rock riffs with readings from acclaimed poet Danez Smith and National Book Award finalist m.s. RedCherries—the ultimate catharsis in […]

Saturday Storytime, with a book that help kids discover the interconnectedness of every living thing, led by Sparky, the galaxy-traveling pup. Great for kids 4 to 10, but all ages are welcome.

Spies, espionage, and intelligence operations during the American Revolution have long captured the public's imagination, thanks in part to popular books and television series. While these dramatizations highlight a captivating aspect of the Revolutionary War, they often blur the line between fact and fiction. Join historian Charles Dewey to uncover the real stories of the […]

Tireless chronicler of Manhattan's building history, John Tauranac finds a new angle on the city's past in his new book New York's Scoundrels, Scalawags, and Scrappers: The City in the Last Decade of the Gilded Age. Beginning each chapter with a different building of the era, he delves into the social history on site. As […]

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. In celebration, McNally Jackson is hosting a night of conversation about what makes this book such an unforgettable romp, about the delightfully errant and endearing archetypes (Gus and Call, Janey and Clara), and about why it resonates so much.

Book reading and signing by Eli Cranor, author of Mississippi Blue 42.

How much honesty does an ‘honest’ marriage really permit a wife? And once you’re no longer a wife, can you really start all over again? The anonymous novel of divorce and open marriage that scandalized New York when it was originally published in 1929, Ursula Parrott’s Ex-Wife is both captivating and bleak in its portrayal […]