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

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LitFilm

A film festival about writers

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Cinema Ephemera

A visual playlist of inspiring art, music and history

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Center for Brooklyn History

Brooklyn's culture past and present from the Center for Brooklyn History

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Upcoming

Nikhil Goyal discusses Live to See the Day with Michelle Goldberg

Tue, Sep 26   7:00 pm to 8:30 pm   Central Library, Dweck Center

author talks BPL Presents

Nikhil Goyal, a sociologist and recent senior policy adviser for Senator Bernie Sanders, offers an examination of the school dropout crisis and failings of the social safety net.

“An incisive,...

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Plaza Performance: DJ Max Glazer

Wed, Sep 27   7:00 pm to 9:00 pm   Central Library, Plaza

BPL Presents live music plaza performances

Max Glazer has represented New York City touring the world DJing parties for superstars like Naomi Campbell, Puff Daddy, Missy Elliott, 50 Cent, Branford Marsalis, and Jay Z, to name just a...

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CBH Talk | Remembering Barbara Ehrenreich

Thu, Sep 28   7:00 pm to 9:00 pm   Center for Brooklyn History

BPL Presents Center for Brooklyn History conversations

In-person attendance for this program is at capacity! Please join the livestream on the Center for Brooklyn History Public Programs YouTube Channel. To watch the broadcast live, click...

University Open Air: Lectura Mapa Sonoro de la Música Salsa en Nueva York. En Español

Sat, Sep 30   1:00 pm to 6:00 pm   Virtual

BPL Outdoors BPL Presents humanities and art music

La lectura se realizará en español como un homenaje a todxs lxs inmigrantes afrocaribeñxs que llegaron a Nueva York en los años cuarenta y que, con su cultura y nostalgia por su tierra, crearon la...

University Open Air branded COE listing with headshot of Marcelo Arroyave

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror: Memoirs by Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Safiya Sinclair, and Phillip Lopate

Sun, Oct 1   5:00 pm to 6:00 pm   Brooklyn Book Festival

author talks BPL Presents brooklyn book festival

Co-Presented by the Brooklyn Book Festival and BPL Presents, three authors discuss their memoirs.

Interweaving family stories more enchanting than those in any novel, Ingrid Rojas Contreras...

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CBH Talk | A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy

Wed, Oct 4   7:00 pm to 8:30 pm   Center for Brooklyn History

BPL Presents Center for Brooklyn History conversations

In Nathan Thrall’s A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, the struggle over Israel/Palestine is given a profoundly human face through the heart-wrenching story of a tragic accident that...

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CBH Talk | Prison Imperialism: Indigenous and Black Histories of Subjugation and Global Freedom Dreams

Fri, Oct 6   5:30 pm to 7:00 pm   Center for Brooklyn History

BPL Presents Center for Brooklyn History conversations

In his explosive new book, historian Benjamin Weber reveals how the story of American prisons is inextricably linked to the expansion of American power around the globe. Join him in conversation...

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Nannies' Fairy Tales Writing Workshops

Sat, Oct 7   10:00 am to 12:00 pm   Central Library, Trustees Room

BPL Presents creative writing Nannies Fairy Tales Writing Workshops writing workshop

Brooklyn Public Library invites nannies to participate in a dynamic eight-week FREE writing workshop where you can learn about some traditional forms of storytelling, from origin myths to fairy...

CBH Talk | College Behind Bars

Thu, Oct 12   6:30 pm to 8:00 pm   Center for Brooklyn History

BPL Presents Center for Brooklyn History conversations

There are more than two million people living behind bars in the United States—in state and federal prisons, local jails, and immigration detention facilities. Many live in dire conditions despite...

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Nannies' Fairy Tales Writing Workshops

Sat, Oct 14   10:00 am to 12:00 pm   Central Library, Trustees Room

BPL Presents creative writing Nannies Fairy Tales Writing Workshops writing workshop

Brooklyn Public Library invites nannies to participate in a dynamic eight-week FREE writing workshop where you can learn about some traditional forms of storytelling, from origin myths to fairy...

Classical Interludes: Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner and Eleni Katz

Sun, Oct 15   4:00 pm to 5:30 pm   Central Library, Dweck Center

BPL Presents classical interludes live music

In this program, featuring a double-bill of 2022 CAG Winners Eleni Katz (bassoon) and Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner (piano), the artists traverse the world with us in an international program featuring...

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CBH Talk | Michael Waldman and Jesse Wegman on the Supreme Court

Mon, Oct 16   6:30 pm to 8:00 pm   Center for Brooklyn History

BPL Presents Center for Brooklyn History conversations

What happens when the highest court in the land no longer represents the country at large? Among the experts sounding the alarm over the Supreme Court’s hard swerve to the right is Michael Waldman...

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Pandora’s BoxX Project: Celebrating Womxn Artists & Visionaries

Tue, Oct 17   6:30 pm to 8:00 pm   Central Library, Dweck Center

artist talks BPL Presents photography

Pandora’s BoxX Project is a photographic portrait series that documents and celebrates the impact of womxn creators and art workers (including trans, non-binary, gender queer, and female) who...

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Teju Cole Discusses Tremor with Emily Raboteau

Thu, Oct 19   7:00 pm to 8:30 pm   Central Library, Dweck Center

author talks BPL Presents

Co-presented with Greenlight Bookstore, BPL Presents features a powerful, intimate novel that masterfully explores what constitutes a meaningful life in a violent world—from the award-winning...
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Nannies' Fairy Tales Writing Workshops

Sat, Oct 21   10:00 am to 12:00 pm   Central Library, Trustees Room

BPL Presents creative writing Nannies Fairy Tales Writing Workshops writing workshop

Brooklyn Public Library invites nannies to participate in a dynamic eight-week FREE writing workshop where you can learn about some traditional forms of storytelling, from origin myths to fairy...

CBH Talk | Jocelyn Simonson and James Forman Jr. Discuss “Radical Acts of Justice”

Mon, Oct 23   6:30 pm to 8:00 pm   Center for Brooklyn History

BPL Presents Center for Brooklyn History conversations

Across the country, ordinary people are challenging the ideas that prosecutions and prisons make us safer; that public officials charged with maintaining “law and order” are carrying out the will...

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Tanisha C. Ford on Our Secret Society, with Kaitlyn Greenidge

Thu, Oct 26   6:00 pm to 7:30 pm   Brooklyn Heights Library, Multipurpose Room

author talks book discussion BPL Presents

Join Tanisha C. Ford at Brooklyn Heights Library as she discusses her new book Our Secret Society with Kaitlyn Greenidge. Books will be available for purchase from The Center...
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BPL Book Prize Shortlist Panel Event

Thu, Oct 26   7:00 pm to 8:30 pm   Central Library, Dweck Center

author talks BPL Book Prize BPL Presents

Join Brooklyn Public Library & the Brooklyn Eagles to celebrate the 2023 Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize Shortlist Finalists.

This BPL Book Prize event will feature two panels featuring...

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BPL Book Prize 2023 Treatment

Nannies' Fairy Tales Writing Workshops

Sat, Oct 28   10:00 am to 12:00 pm   Central Library, Trustees Room

BPL Presents creative writing Nannies Fairy Tales Writing Workshops writing workshop

Brooklyn Public Library invites nannies to participate in a dynamic eight-week FREE writing workshop where you can learn about some traditional forms of storytelling, from origin myths to fairy...

Classical Interludes: Sofya Melikian

Sun, Oct 29   4:00 pm to 5:30 pm   Central Library, Dweck Center

BPL Presents classical interludes live music

Pianist Sofya Melikyan is praised for being a “a highly sensitive performer, who always subordinates technical aspects to the rhetoric” (Remy Franck, Pizzicato) and “a...

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Nannies' Fairy Tales Writing Workshops

Sat, Nov 4   10:00 am to 12:00 pm   Central Library, Trustees Room

BPL Presents creative writing Nannies Fairy Tales Writing Workshops writing workshop

Brooklyn Public Library invites nannies to participate in a dynamic eight-week FREE writing workshop where you can learn about some traditional forms of storytelling, from origin myths to fairy...

Classical Interludes: Ensemble Pi presents Banned Books

Sun, Nov 5   4:00 pm to 6:00 pm   Central Library, Dweck Center

BPL Presents classical interludes live music

Banned Books is an evening-length performance of six premieres commissioned by Ensemble Pi in response to recent U.S. bills, which ban books or curtail the discussion of critical race theory,...

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CBH Talk | Joe Sexton and Errol Louis discuss "The Lost Sons of Omaha"

Tue, Nov 14   6:30 pm to 8:00 pm   Center for Brooklyn History

BPL Presents Center for Brooklyn History conversations

Veteran journalist Joe Sexton’s new book, The Lost Sons of Omaha: Two Young Men in an American Tragedy, unpacks two linked and tragic deaths stemming from the 2020 George Floyd protests. It tells...

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Nannies' Fairy Tales Writing Workshops

Sat, Nov 18   10:00 am to 12:00 pm   Central Library, Trustees Room

BPL Presents creative writing Nannies Fairy Tales Writing Workshops writing workshop

Brooklyn Public Library invites nannies to participate in a dynamic eight-week FREE writing workshop where you can learn about some traditional forms of storytelling, from origin myths to fairy...

Nannies' Fairy Tales Writing Workshops

Sat, Dec 2   10:00 am to 12:00 pm   Central Library, Trustees Room

BPL Presents creative writing Nannies Fairy Tales Writing Workshops writing workshop

Brooklyn Public Library invites nannies to participate in a dynamic eight-week FREE writing workshop where you can learn about some traditional forms of storytelling, from origin myths to fairy...

Nannies' Fairy Tales Writing Workshops

Sat, Dec 9   10:00 am to 12:00 pm   Central Library, Trustees Room

BPL Presents creative writing Nannies Fairy Tales Writing Workshops writing workshop

Brooklyn Public Library invites nannies to participate in a dynamic eight-week FREE writing workshop where you can learn about some traditional forms of storytelling, from origin myths to fairy...

Classical Interludes: Carnegie Hall Citywide: Sullivan Fortner Trio

Sun, Dec 10   4:00 pm to 5:30 pm   Central Library, Dweck Center

BPL Presents classical interludes live music

Sullivan Fortner Trio

- Sullivan Fortner, Piano

- Tyrone Allen, Bass

- Kayvon Gordon, Drums

 

Hear one of today’s most exciting jazz pianists lead his...

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Past Events


Brooklyn Public Library gratefully acknowledges the many donors who have provided generous support for BPL Presents programs, including: Cheryl and George Haywood Endowment for Cultural Diversity, Dr. Beverly S. Jacobs, The Kahn Endowment for Humanities Programs, The Miriam Katowitz and Arthur Radin Fund, Mapleton Endowment, Humanities New York, New York State Council on the Arts, Sandra and Peter Schubert Endowment Fund, The Morris & Alma Schapiro Fund and the Estate of Pearl S. Reuillard in memory of her parents Yetta and Louis Schwartz.

Programs are also supported by Brooklyn Public Library’s Fund for the Humanities which was established through the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Hearst Foundation, Inc., Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Starr Foundation, the Leon and Muriel Gilbert Charitable Trust, Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, Inc. and a gift in memory of Samuel and Pauline Wine.