Library Talks

More than 30 years after a fire destroyed 400,000 books at the Los Angeles Public Library's Central Library, journalist Susan Orlean re-examines the tragedy in "The Library Book." Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992; her quest to piece together the events surrounding this little-known tale was fueled by her relentless curiosity, a love of reading, and a profound appreciation for the democratic institution of the library. "Libraries are remembering for a whole culture," she said. "That's what books do for all of us—preserve memory."

Carol Anderson is an historian, educator, and author of "White Rage." Her latest book, "One Person, No Vote," is a timely survey of how voting rights have been rolled back in this country following the 2013 Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder. Dr. Anderson's work exposes racially biased voter suppression methods happening today. Joining Dr. Anderson was Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and former Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

The bestselling English novelist of "The Essex Serpent," Sarah Perry, stopped by the Library to talk about her newest novel,"Melmoth." The books origins lie in an obscure 19th-century Gothic novel of the same name and an illness that upended her life. She discussed how the earlier novel and her personal experiences combined to birth the phantasmagoric nightmare at the heart of Melmoth's plot.

Darnell L. Moore and Charlene Carruthers are two dynamic leaders and organizers committed to intersectional liberation in movements for Black lives. They are also friends and writers. Moore and Carruthers recently spoke at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and read from each other's recent works: Moore's debut memoir "No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free", and Carruthers's "Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, & Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements."

While training for a charity boxing match at Madison Square Garden, writer Thomas Page McBee gained insight into how masculinity operates in the ring and in society— McBee became the first known trans man to box in the historic venue. He stopped by the Library to talk about this experience, the subject of his new book Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man. Amanda Hess, a critic-at-large for the New York Times joined McBee to discuss the meaning of toxic masculinity,violence, and what it means to be a "real man."

In her new book, "Good and Mad" Rebecca Traister uncovers the history of women's anger in American politics—from the suffragettes to #MeToo. She argues that this collective fury is often the hidden force that drives political change, but rarely has it ever been hailed as fundamentally transformative or patriotic. To discuss her book and what it says about our current political state, Traister was joined by Aminatou Sow, co-host of the podcast "Call Your Girlfriend."

When famed fashion and society photographer Bill Cunningham died in 2016, he left behind not only an incredible archive of New York Times columns and photographs, but two identical copies of a secret memoir that he apparently hoped someone would find. His family discovered the book, which Cunningham himself titled Fashion Climbing. The Library celebrated its release with the book's editor, Christopher Richards, and New Yorker critic Hilton Als, who wrote its preface. They were joined by artist and co-founder of Paper, Kim Hastreiter, who was a close acquaintance of the late photographer.

The world's leading philanthropists are constantly working to "make the world a better place," leading passionate campaigns against everything from climate change to poverty that had once been the province of governments. Journalist Anand Giridharadas asks whether those rich and powerful people who have most benefitted from "our highly inequitable status quo" are in fact the best candidates to take on these challenges. When are their solutions democratic and universal, and when do they reflect and support the biases that introduced the inequity in the first place? In conversation with Joy-Ann Reid, political analyst for MSNBC and host of "AM Joy," Giridharadas discussed his new book, "Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World," a call to action—for elite and everyday citizens alike—to build more egalitarian institutions.

Vladimin Nabokov's "Lolita" is one of the most widely-read classics of twentieth century; however, few are familiar with the true story of an eleven-year-old-girl named Sally Horner, whose story bears an eerie resemblance to that of Nabokov's Dolores Hayes. In "The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World," author Sarah Weinman traces the connections between these two girls and their stories. Weinman stopped by NYPL to revisit her research using the Nabokov Papers that question the role of facts within fiction.

Tim Gunn is the Emmy Award-winning former producer of "Project Runway," where for 16 seasons he mentored contestants with charm and care. But when he isn't busy making it work, chances are he has his nose in a book. In a live conversation series presented in collaboration with the National Book Foundation, Gunn spoke about some of the most powerful books in his life, the reads that have stayed with him since his early teens. His conversation partner: fellow avid reader—and best-selling novelist—Min Jin Lee, whose most recent book, Pachinko, was a finalist for the National Book Award.