BPL Presents is BPL’s curated cultural program, with arts and culture offerings including author talks, live performances, music, film and visual art exhibitions that explore the critical issues of our time in Brooklyn and beyond.
University Open Air
Free courses from global scholars
***September 26 classes are taking place in the Boathouse***
Center for Brooklyn History
Brooklyn's culture past and present from the Center for Brooklyn History
Upcoming
Two Authors in Four Scenes: Selva Almada and Dolores Reyes in conversation
Besides being two of the most prominent authors in Latin America, Selva Almada and Dolores Reyes are great friends. With the trust and keen way of reading each other that comes with the years, the talk—coordinated by Ana Laura Pérez, literary director of Penguin Random House and editor of both—…
CBH Talk | The Meaning of Everyday Places
Much of the work of being human happens in everyday places.~ Dr. Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani
Sometimes the places we take most for granted are the heart and soul of our communities. For two decades Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani has studied the…
Songs of the Living Community Choir
BPL Presents invites you to join Toshi Reagon for a community choir rehearsal in Brooklyn at the Central Library’s Dweck Auditorium.
Following your rehearsal in Brooklyn, you might then be invited to sing with Toshi Reagon in her upcoming concert…
LitFilm 2024: Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page
Documentary, dir. by Mary McDonagh Murphy
U.S., 2020, 83 min
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page presents an unvarnished look at the unlikely author whose autobiographical fiction helped shape American ideas of the frontier and self-reliance. A Midwestern farm woman who published…
LitFilm 2024: N. Scott Momaday: Words From a Bear Screening & Talkback
Documentary, dir. by Jeffrey Palmer
U.S., 2019, 85 min
American Masters examines the enigmatic life and mind of National Medal of Arts-winner Navarro Scott Momaday, the Kiowa novelist, short-story writer, essayist and poet. His Pulitzer Prize-winning novel House Made of Dawn led to…
LitFilm 2024: Baldwin’s N*gger
Documentary, dir. by Horace Ové
U.S., 1968, 45 min
In this riveting short documentary by pioneering Trinidadian-British filmmaker Horace Ové, James Baldwin and comedian-activist Dick Gregory speak to a group of radical West Indian students in London about everything from the state of…
CBH Talk | Indigenous Languages at the Brink
The violent history of erasing First Nations language and culture, and decades of assimilation, threaten to end once and for all the rich linguistic heritage of Native Americans. Language is critical to keeping Indigenous cultural heritage alive. Language is inseparable from cultural…
LitFilm 2024: Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Documentary, dir. by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson
U.S., 2024, 102 min
This award-winning documentary travels through time and space to reveal the enduring influence of Nikki Giovanni, one of America’s greatest living artists and social commentators. Going to Mars: The Nikki…
LitFilm 2024: What Was Virginia Woolf Really Afraid Of?
Documentary, dir. by Vance Goodwin and Adrian Munsey
U.S., 2024, 50 min
Exploring the life of writer Virginia Woolf, What Was Virginia Woolf Really Afraid Of? starts with her suicide. Her husband Leonard Woolf eventually realizes what has happened, though her body was not found until…
CBH Talk | Uncrusted! A David and Goliath Story of Patents, Pizza, and the Invention of Stuffed Crusts
What better way to pay tribute to October's Pizza Month than by spending an evening with Anthony “The Big Cheese” Mongiello, whose David and Goliath fight with Pizza Hut over who owns the idea for Stuffed Crust Pizza played out three decades ago, and continues to be an…
LitFilm 2024: Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word is Power
Documentary, dir. by Nancy Lang and Peter Raymont
U.S., 2019, 93 min
The film explores Atwood’s “backstory,” her early days in the Canadian wilderness and as a poet. Atwood’s novels are explored, including her latest, The Testaments, the highly anticipated sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale…
LitFilm 2024: Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women
Documentary, dir. by Nancy Porter
U.S., 2009, 83 min
Louisa May Alcott’s reputation as a morally upstanding New England spinster, reflecting the conventional propriety of mid-19th century Concord, Massachusetts, is firmly established. Raised among reformers, iconoclasts and…
LitFilm 2024: The Pigeon Tunnel
Documentary, dir. by Errol Morris
U.S., 2023, 93 min
The Pigeon Tunnel spans six decades as le Carré gives his final and most personal interview, interrupted with rare archival footage and dramatic anecdotes. It is set against the stormy Cold War backdrop that extends into the present…
LitFilm 2024: Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined
Documentary, dir. by Adriana Bosch
U.S., 2024, 118 min
Filmed in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic, Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined features extensive interviews with Alvarez, her family, and her literary contemporaries. Her semi-autobiographical novel, How the…
LitFilm 2024: Kafka (episode 1)
TV Series, dir. by David Schalko
Germany and Austria, 2024, 42 min
In the first episode of this German-Austrian mini-series, Franz Kafka’s friend Max Brod is a well-connected writer and editor who saves his close friend’s work from oblivion by breaking his promise to burn all…
LitFilm 2024: Untameable
Documentary, dir. by Alex Verner
Ireland, 2024, 50 min
Written by novelist Colm Tóibín, the film explores the Nobel Prize winning “bog poems” of Seamus Heaney and the wild Irish bog landscape. Untameable features poem readings by Michelle Fairley and is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor…
LitFilm 2024: Umberto Eco: A Library of the World
Documentary, dir. by Davide Ferrario
Italy, 2022, 80 min
The Italian journalist, critic, philosopher, professor of semiotics, medievalist, bibliophile, and best-selling novelist, Umberto Eco (1932-2016) takes us on a journey through his Milanese library of 50,000 volumes, and, more…
LitFilm 2024: Joan Baez: I Am a Noise
Documentary, dir. by Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky, and Maeve O’Boyle
U.S., 2023, 113 min
Neither a conventional biopic nor a traditional concert film, Joan Baez: I Am a Noise is a raw and intimate portrait of the legendary folk singer and activist that shifts back and forth through time…
LitFilm 2024: Frank Miller: American Genius
Documentary, dir. by Silenn Thomas
U.S., 2024, 109 min
Frank Miller: American Genius documents the unique journey of an unparalleled American artist. The film explores the near half-century career of the legendary comic book artist and writer. Made for his fans following a…
LitFilm 2024: Gonzo: The Life & Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Documentary, dir. by Alex Gibney
U.S., 2008, 118 min
A probing look into the uncanny life of national treasure and gonzo journalism inventor Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side). Narrated by Johnny Depp and featuring interviews…
LitFilm 2024: How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer Screening & Talkback
Documentary, dir. by Jeff Zimbalist
U.S., 2023, 102 min
How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer explores the rollercoaster life of America’s most controversial and bestselling author of the 20th Century, Norman Mailer. Propelled by his tremendous ego and contrarian spirit, Mailer’s…
LitFilm 2024: We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks
Documentary, dir. by Alex Gibney
U.S., 2013, 130 min
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks follows the rise and fall of Julian Assange, the creator of WikiLeaks. Through the infamous website, Assange helped whistle-blowers to broadcast embarrassing government secrets to the…
LitFilm 2024: Write Down, I am an Arab
Documentary, dir. by Ibtisam Maraana
U.S., 2014, 72 min
“Write Down, I am an Arab” tells the story of Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian national poet and one of the most influential writers of the Arab world. His writing shaped Palestinian identity and helped galvanize generations of…
LitFilm 2024: Gabo: The Creation of Gabriel García Márquez
Documentary, dir. by Justin Webber
U.S., 2015, 90 min
How did a boy from a tiny town on the Caribbean coast become a writer who won the hearts of millions? The answer lies in the incredible story of Gabriel García Márquez, the 1982 Nobel Prize winner in Literature. A law-school dropout…
LitFilm 2024: Radical Wolfe
Documentary, dir. by Richard Dewey
U.S., 2023, 75 min
From a beat reporter at The Washington Post to an overnight sensation as the leader of the New Journalism movement, Tom Wolfe was at the forefront of reshaping how American stories are told. Recognizing the importance of overlooked…
CBH Talk | Mourning and Adorning: Woven Hair Jewelry and Victorian Mourning Traditions
Mourning jewelry – jewelry created to remember deceased loved ones – dates back to the Middle Ages, but its popularity in Western Europe reached a peak with Queen Victoria whose mourning customs following Prince Albert’s death were imitated throughout Britain and beyond. In addition…
Exhibition Opening with Nikole Hannah-Jones
Grand Lobby, Central Library
Join Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and exhibition curator Nikole Hannah Jones as she unveils the exhibition and book The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience, sharing original artworks from the art book, published by The New York Times and Penguin Random House…
Colloquy on Retranslating the Canon with Mary Jo Bang, Yasmine Seale & Kimi Traube
Please join World Poetry Books and the Brooklyn Public Library’s BPL Presents for the latest installment of Colloquy: Translators in Conversation, featuring retranslations of canonical texts, with readings and discussion from Mary Jo Bang, Yasmine Seale and Kimi Traube. Bang will read from her…
Mosab Abu Toha Discusses Forest of Noise with Isabella Hammad
Billed as "a powerful, capacious, and profound" (Ocean Vuong), the award-winning poet Mosab Abu Toha discusses his new book, Forest of Noise—with novelist Isabella Hammad. At thirty years old, Mosab Abu Toha was a well-known poet when he and his family fled the conflict unleashed on October 7,…
CBH Workshop | Exploring the Archives with Historian Prithi Kanakamedala
How do historians approach the vitally important work of conducting research in an archive? Where do they start? What is the process? And for those researching under-documented peoples and topics, how do they solve for the silences in the archives?
Join historian…
Jonathan Lethem Discusses Cellophane Bricks & Brooklyn Crime Novel
Many know Jonathan Lethem as one of our most celebrated and eclectic writers, whose iconic novels—Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude, Chronic City, among many others—play with genres and storytelling modes like a DJ mixing music. But Lethem grew up in his father’s studio, went to art…
Sarah Lewis Discusses The Unseen Truth with Jacqueline Woodson
The award-winning art historian and founder of Vision & Justice uncovers a pivotal era in the story of race in the United States when Americans came to ignore the truth about the false foundations of the nation’s racial regime.
In a masterpiece of historical detective work, Sarah Lewis…
Classical Interludes: Layale Chaker and ETHEL
Deemed a “Rising Star” by BBC Music Magazine, violinist and composer Layale Chaker was raised on the verge of several musical streams since her childhood. She began her musical training at the National Higher Conservatory of Beirut in her native Lebanon, and at the Paris Conservatoire and London…
The Salon at CBH, Curated by Nikole Hannah-Jones
Join us for CBH’s fall Salon, a curated party of conversation, lightening lectures, poetry, music and more, hosted by Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and MacArthur “Genius” grant-winner Nikole Hannah-Jones, and inspired by The 1619 Project.
Spend the evening with Nikole…
Ian Williams on What I Mean to Say, with Vinson Cunningham
Join acclaimed author Ian Williams as he discusses What I Mean to Say with novelist and New Yorker staff writer Vinson Cunningham.Ian Williams will give the lauded 2024 Massey Lectures about the art of, and need for, conversation, which will be published as What I Mean to Say: Remaking…
Teaching Lenape History & Presence in New York City Schools
The Brooklyn Public Library, in collaboration with the Lenape Center, presents a talk to introduce and discuss a new Lenape curriculum developed for PK-12 students.
This curriculum aims to bring Indigenous history to life and address the often overlooked narrative of the Lenape people in…
Dinaw Mengestu Discusses Someone Like Us
The son of Ethiopian immigrants seeks to understand a hidden family history and uncovers a past colored by unexpected loss, addiction, and the enduring emotional pull toward home.
After abandoning his once-promising career as a journalist in search of a new life in Paris, Mamush meets…
Carnegie Hall Citywide: Invoke
Described as “...not anything but everything: Classical, Folk, Bluegrass, Americana and a sound yet to be termed seamlessly merged into a perfect one” (David Srebnik, SiriusXM Classical Producer), Invoke strives to successfully dodge even the most valiant attempts at genre classification. The…
Classical Interludes: Calidore Quartet
The Calidore String Quartet performs the thrilling last set of Beethoven’s earliest quartets. A wide-ranging emotional journey performed by one of today’s most exciting ensembles.
Quartet in A major for Strings,Op. 18, No. 5Quartet in C minor for Strings, Op. 18, No. 4 Quartet in B-flat…
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