1. On June 13, LIVE from the NYPL’s Spring 2013 season closes with a powerful final installment. Liao Yiwu and his translator Wenguang Huang will join Paul Holdengräber for a conversation about poetry, protest and prison in honor of the English-language release of Liao’s memoir, For A Song and A Hundred Songs, which The Daily Beast calls “one of the most important documents of political imprisonment and torture about China ever written.”  Liao Yiwu will also play music on the xiao (Chinese flute) and read his poem “Massacre” - the work that lead to his arrest in China - when he takes the stage next week. Purchase tickets here. 

    On June 13, LIVE from the NYPL’s Spring 2013 season closes with a powerful final installment. Liao Yiwu and his translator Wenguang Huang will join Paul Holdengräber for a conversation about poetry, protest and prison in honor of the English-language release of Liao’s memoir, For A Song and A Hundred Songs, which The Daily Beast calls “one of the most important documents of political imprisonment and torture about China ever written.” 

    Liao Yiwu will also play music on the xiao (Chinese flute) and read his poem “Massacre” - the work that lead to his arrest in China - when he takes the stage next week. Purchase tickets here. 

  2. LIVE from the NYPL will be celebrating Federico García Lorca’s life and legacy on June 4, the day before what would have been the Spanish poet and playwright’s 115th birthday. The program features poetry and performances from a powerhouse lineup of guests, including John Giorno, Will Keen and María Fernández Ache, Philip Levine, Christopher Maurer, Paul Muldoon, Patti Smith, and Tracy K. Smith.  So if you want to see not one, not two, but three Pulitzer Prize-winning poets plus Patti Smith plus other renowned guests all in one night, grab your tickets for Tuesday’s event here.  And be sure to check out NYPL’s exhibition “Back Tomorrow: Federico García Lorca / Poet In New York,” which includes the original Poet In New York manuscript, and other events happening throughout the city as part of Lorca in New York: A Celebration.

    LIVE from the NYPL will be celebrating Federico García Lorca’s life and legacy on June 4, the day before what would have been the Spanish poet and playwright’s 115th birthday. The program features poetry and performances from a powerhouse lineup of guests, including John Giorno, Will Keen and María Fernández Ache, Philip Levine, Christopher Maurer, Paul Muldoon, Patti Smith, and Tracy K. Smith. 

    So if you want to see not one, not two, but three Pulitzer Prize-winning poets plus Patti Smith plus other renowned guests all in one night, grab your tickets for Tuesday’s event here. 

    And be sure to check out NYPL’s exhibition “Back Tomorrow: Federico García Lorca / Poet In New York,” which includes the original Poet In New York manuscript, and other events happening throughout the city as part of Lorca in New York: A Celebration.

  3. Not only does LIVE from the NYPL has some impressive guests coming to the stage soon, but some of these guests have some impressive facial hair, too. Behold the first ever LIVE from the NYPL Guest Battle of the Beards! Pictured above on the left is philosopher Daniel Dennett, coming to LIVE tomorrow night (May 8). On the right is artist Matthew Barney, LIVE’s guest on May 21. We’re thinking this is a tie… Speaking of ties, beards and LIVE guests, congrats to David Chang for winning the title of outstanding chef at last night’s James Beard Foundation awards. He shares the honor with Paul Kahan, becoming only the third pair to tie for the top award in the foundation’s history. Chang comes to LIVE from the NYPL on May 28. 

    Not only does LIVE from the NYPL has some impressive guests coming to the stage soon, but some of these guests have some impressive facial hair, too. Behold the first ever LIVE from the NYPL Guest Battle of the Beards! Pictured above on the left is philosopher Daniel Dennett, coming to LIVE tomorrow night (May 8). On the right is artist Matthew Barney, LIVE’s guest on May 21. We’re thinking this is a tie…

    Speaking of ties, beards and LIVE guests, congrats to David Chang for winning the title of outstanding chef at last night’s James Beard Foundation awards. He shares the honor with Paul Kahan, becoming only the third pair to tie for the top award in the foundation’s history. Chang comes to LIVE from the NYPL on May 28. 

  4. Attention Moist Robots

    Human beings, Mr. Dennett said, quoting a favorite pop philosopher, Dilbert, are “moist robots.”

    “I’m a robot, and you’re a robot, but that doesn’t make us any less dignified or wonderful or lovable or responsible for our actions,” he said. “Why does our dignity depend on our being scientifically inexplicable?”

    - Daniel Dennett speaking with The New York Times 

    Attention moist robots: Daniel Dennett will be at LIVE from the NYPL next week with fellow philosopher Jim Holt talking about how we answer life’s most fundamental questions. 

    And, according to today’s Times (quoted above), Dennett isn’t just a fascinating philosopher, he also knows his way around a boat, too. 

  5. If you are prepared to take a hard punch in your gut, and like brave, acute, elated, naked, brutal, tender, humane, and beautiful prose, then you’ve come to the right place.

    — 

    Nicole Krauss, author of The History of Love, reviewing André Aciman’s Harvard Square
    (via livefromthenypl)

    On April 22 at NYPL, the two authors will discuss the themes that haunt them both: identity, exile, fiction, and memory

  6. Can’t join us in person? Tune in online!

    Can’t make it to the Library for the Performing Arts tonight for “Platinum Punk,” Debbie Harry and Chris Stein’s conversation with Will Hermes? Didn’t snag tickets to tomorrow’s sold-out installment of LIVE from the NYPL with Sandra Day O’Connor, Madeleine Albright and moderator Anne-Marie Slaughter? If you can’t join us in person, you can still join us online. We’ll be live-streaming both events!

    Click here to watch tonight’s program - part of the Rhapsodic City: Music of New York series - with Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, and Will Hermes, starting at 6pm EDT. 

    And tune in here tomorrow night at 7pm EDT, to watch Sandra Day O’Connor and Madeleine Albright in conversation with Anne-Marie Slaughter.

  7. We’re remembering pianist Van Cliburn, who died this morning at the age of 78. We were honored to have him here at LIVE from the NYPL last May. 

  8. Almost everything I love about New York is typified in this curator of public curiosity…Holdengräber crafts unreasonably interesting conversations in front of live audiences to satisfy a public curiosity that we sometimes don’t even realize we collectively have. He likes to talk to the best people in their respective fields, and in the course of conversation to ‘see what falls out of their pockets.’ With Holdengräber acting as a sort of cultural Robin Hood, we’re the lucky beneficiaries of his intellectual pickpocketing.

    — 

    Head on over to Full Stop to check out Tyler Malone’s great interview with our very own Paul Holdengräber, director of LIVE from the NYPL.

    And visit the Library on February 25, when Adam Phillips takes the stage with Paul for the next installment of LIVE. Adam talked about “what falls out of your pockets once you start to speak” when he appeared at LIVE from the NYPL back in 2007. Listen to a recording of the conversation here.

  9. It’s become a LIVE from the NYPL tradition for Paul Holdengräber to begin each event by reading a seven-word bio written for the occasion by the evening’s guest. Last night, Paul welcomed John Irving to the stage for opening night of LIVE’s Spring 2013 season, and the audience soon found out that the acclaimed author had been inspired to write a few others, too. Oh, and that he’s a big fan of the semi-colon. John Irving’s seven-word bio for himself: “Imagined missing father; wrestled, wrote, fathered children.”  …for his dog, Dickens: “Best dog ever — she had a family.”  …for Charles Dickens: “Had many kids; wrote about unhappy childhoods.”   …for Herman Melville: “More than a postal worker; knew whales, too.” LIVE’s Spring season continues on Monday with Carlo Ginzburg. Check out the full schedule here.  Photo credit: Sarah Stacke

    It’s become a LIVE from the NYPL tradition for Paul Holdengräber to begin each event by reading a seven-word bio written for the occasion by the evening’s guest. Last night, Paul welcomed John Irving to the stage for opening night of LIVE’s Spring 2013 season, and the audience soon found out that the acclaimed author had been inspired to write a few others, too. Oh, and that he’s a big fan of the semi-colon.

    John Irving’s seven-word bio for himself: “Imagined missing father; wrestled, wrote, fathered children.” 

    …for his dog, Dickens: “Best dog ever — she had a family.” 

    …for Charles Dickens: “Had many kids; wrote about unhappy childhoods.”  

    …for Herman Melville: “More than a postal worker; knew whales, too.”

    LIVE’s Spring season continues on Monday with Carlo Ginzburg. Check out the full schedule here. 

    Photo credit: Sarah Stacke

  10. livefromthenypl: Do what the man says. The John Irving Meme is officially a thing. (Or we just made it one, anyway.)  LIVE from the NYPL’s Spring 2013 season begins tonight with John Irving! Get tickets here.

    livefromthenypl:

    Do what the man says.

    The John Irving Meme is officially a thing. (Or we just made it one, anyway.) 

    LIVE from the NYPL’s Spring 2013 season begins tonight with John Irving! Get tickets here.