Michael Eric Dyson + Shaun King + Harry Belafonte Monday, June 4 at The New School, 7 pm to 8 pm.
Michael Eric Dyson joins The New School and The Strand to unveil his book What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America. The book follows his New York Times bestseller Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America. Acclaimed singer and advocate Harry Belafonte, along with activist and The Intercept columnist Shaun King, join Dr. Dyson in conversation about his important and timely book. More →
If you’ve seen the 2013 documentary The Punk Singer, you know Kathleen Hannawas stuck out at sea for a long time when she was creatively paralyzed and overwhelmed by the day-to-day challenges of Lyme disease. One of the harshest consequences of her illness was profound fatigue, something that severely limited her capacity to write or perform music. At times, she found it difficult to even speak.
Lucky for us– oh, and for Hanna too– she’s doing much better these days, so much so that even though her band The Julie Ruin, like, just released their new album, Hanna is making an appearance this week at a speaker store in Soho, of all places, called Sonos.
Dave Isay presents Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work May 4 at 7:30 p.m. at Greenlight Bookstore, 686 Fulton Street.
Feeling unmotivated at work lately? Find some inspiration in Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work, the new book out byStorycorps founder Dave Isay. Born 13 years ago, the oral-history project’s intimate interviews have grown to be a mainstay of American public life and podcasting. The new book draws upon audio interviews of average Americans toiling in the trenches of the nation’s workforce (public defenders, salmon slicers, science teachers and more) to try to understand what motivates people in their work every day and how they got there. Some of the storytellers themselves will speak at the event.
Bonnie McFarlane + Jim Gaffigan Feb. 23 at 7:00 p.m at The Strand, 828 Broadway
Bonnie McFarlane has made a career out of opening her mouth when she probably should have kept it shut, making people cringe in places like Last Comic Standing and The Jim Gaffigan Show. Her new book, You’re Better Than Me, follows in the footsteps of the popular genre of female comedian tell-alls (Mindy Kaling etc). With biting and hilarious prose it lays bare “the good, the bad and the ugly” of her life, with chapters covering everything from McFarlane’s childhood as a fish out of water on a Canadian farm, to finding “her people” in comedy. She will be joined by fellow comedian Jim Gaffigan.
The Narrow Door with Paul Lisicky, Fiona McCrae and Meghan Daum Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, 126 Crosby Street
Paul Lisicky was 23 when he met the writer Denise Gess in the early 1980s. Even as their paths diverged, their friendship would become a center point his life rotated around until Denise’s death in 2009. This intimate and heartrending memoir of their relationship pays tribute to her life, while also exploring the powerful effects of friendship on our lives even in the face of extreme loss.
Yep, this is actually a thing (Photo: Nicole Disser)
Last weekend marked a victory for goths, Tarot freaks, and magic nerds everywhere as the second annual Occult Humanities Conference convened at NYU for a sold-out marathon of lectures with names like “Blues Magic,” “Bohemian Occult Subculture in Britain’s 1890s,” and “The Cut in Ritual Psychoanalysis and Art.” And while, yes, in many ways this was an academic-ish conference, organized by Pam Grossman (founder of the esoterica blog Phantasmaphile) and Jesse Bransford (Chair of the Art & Art Professions Department at NYU), the convening of occultists and occult obsessives still managed to keep it real.
The Confidence Game Tuesday, January 19 at 7:00 p.m. at The Strand, 828 Broadway New Yorker columnist Maria Konnikova is in her element with a deep dive into the psychology behind the art of the scam. From literature to Bernie Madoff, she examines how charming tricksters manage to so easily weasel through our best defenses and earn our trust — and more importantly, why we almost always fall for their cons. Might come in handy next time you’re trying to figure out if that Tinder date is for real.
Argos Books Five Year Anniversary Celebration Friday Nov. 20th, 7 pm at Wendy’s Subway, 722 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg
Yassss to readings with a cause for celebration. And, like, the word “celebration” is even right there in the title, so it’s gotta be good. You know for sure there’s gonna be drinks and it’s gonna get loose. Hell, there’s even a lineup of three DJs for dance inspiration. You might even consider leaving your flask at home for this one. Maybe. But for real, Argos Books, the lil Brooklyn-based indie press that could, deserves a congrats-grad affair in proving that it’s not small presses that we have to worry about, it’s the mega-publishing houses that are floundering.
Kristin Henderson reads a story with her son Griffin at a previous Brooklyn Book Fest (Photo: Meghan White)
Great news! Brooklyn Book Fest has now updated its website to include a comprehensive event calendar for the imminent 2014 fest, which means we at B+B are able to supplement our recent rundown of upcoming literary shindigs. More →
Who says girls can’t be crime writers? Well, no one actually, because that’s clearly not a valid argument. But just in case some loser out there is preparing his talking points, let me present a succinct rebuttal: Megan Abbott and Chelsea Cain. Abbot is author of recently released The Fever(“a chilling story about guilt, family secrets, and the lethal power of desire” set in a small town whose female teenage inhabitant are in the throes of a mysterious plague), while Cain has produced numerous best-selling books. Her latest, One Kick, is the first in a new series featuring protagonist Kick Lannigan—famously kidnapped as a child, and now called upon to help solve a new missing child case. These ladies are clearly queens of suspense: The Guardian called One Kick “a dark, dangerous journey into evil to find the vanished children, and entirely hide-away-until-you-finish-it gripping,” while the New York Timesfound The Fever “a gripping and unsettling novel.” See the terrible two in conversation at The Strand.
Dave Isay presents Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work
