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.
All BPL Presents programs at the Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Cultural Center at Central Library are free of charge (unless otherwise noted) and reservations are required for most adult programs. Patrons with reservations will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis. Unclaimed reservations will be released fifteen minutes before the start of an event; we recommend arriving early. Patrons without reservations will be seated as capacity allows.
Reservations can be made 24 hrs. a day, 7 days a week on our website by visiting the program’s calendar entry at bklynlibrary.org/bplpresents or by phone at 718.230.2200 (please see our phone reservation policy for hours and additional details). Reservations can be made up to approximately one hour before the scheduled program start time. The maximum number of seats that can be reserved per event is 3.
The Dweck Center is an accessible venue. To request additional information regarding accessibility or accommodations at the event, please contact Margie Cook: [email protected].
Reservations for adult programs can be made with a BPL representative Monday-Friday from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. For weekend events, reservations must be made by 4 pm on the Friday before the event takes place. Any reservations received after 4pm will not be processed. If leaving a message, please slowly and clearly state your first and last name, your phone number, the name and date of the program you would like to attend, and the number of seats you are requesting (maximum of 3).
Upcoming
JENNIFER KEENEY SENDROW: ENCOUNTERS
Art & Society Census Working GroupNEW DATE & TIME
April 16, 23, 30 + May 7// Fridays at NoonWorking groups are free, facilitated courses, meeting once per week online for the...
Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder & Ginsberg’s Karma
A double feature on Ferlinghetti and Ginsberg. Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder & Ginsberg’s Karma. Director Christopher Felver has crafted an incisive, sharply wrought portrait of American...
Art in the Garden: Nannies' Fairy Tales and Music
Over the past four years, Brooklyn Public Library offered writing workshops with over 70 nannies and other childcare providers in a series of Nannies' Fairy Tale Writing Workshops, a model...
A Litany For Survival: Life & Work of Audre Lorde, Browne, Holiday, Johnson
This screening will be followed by a Second Read panel (see below). An epic portrait of the eloquent, award-winning Black, lesbian, poet, mother, teacher, and activist, Audre Lorde, whose...
Classical Interludes: Rolf Schulte and Joseph Liccardo
Stravinsky Suite italienne Beethoven Sonata op.96German-born Rolf Schulte, whom The New Yorker has called “one of the most distinguished violinists of our day,” started playing the violin at...
CBH Talks: Jewish Brooklyn: Growing Up
Join us for the final program in our series exploring the history and lived experience of Jews in Brooklyn. This time we look at growing up.Three incomparable, born-and-bred Brooklynites come...
World as Family: A Journey of Multi-Rooted Belongings with Vishakha N. Desai and Mona Eltahawy
A Vedic phrase asks us to “treat the world as family.” In our age of global crises—pandemics, climate crisis, crippling inequality—this sentiment is more necessary than ever. Solutions to these...
Five Boroughs Music Festival Presents Terra Nova
Five Boroughs Music Festival presents Terra Nova, a new concert-length song cycle created by the members of composer-collective Oracle Hysterical and performed in collaboration...
CBH Talks: Mutualism in Action
In biology the term “mutualism” describes the coming together of two organisms in ways that benefit both, like the classic example of flowers and bees. Sara Horowitz, MacArthur “genius” and...
Granta’s Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists II, with Anderson Tepper
Anderson Tepper hosts a Zoom roundtable with writers from Granta’s The Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists II issue.In 2010, Granta’s The Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists introduced...
CBH Talks: Brooklyn Resists, Act Three: Black Lives Matter
Protests erupted across America and around the world during the summer of 2020 in response to the brutal police killing of George Floyd and the many notorious killings of Black people that...
Climate Reads: Lauren Groff’s Florida, hosted by Sarah Gerard
Co-presented this month with Orion Magazine, and with Writers Rebel NYC, Climate Reads returns in May to discuss Florida, by Lauren Groff. This Climate Reads will be moderated by Sarah Gerard....
Making and Teaching Graphic Novels Part 1
Join creators Breena Bard (The Trespassers), Jarod Roselló (Red Panda and Moon Bear), and Jarrett Lerner (Give This Book A Cover) in a lively discussion about their wonderful books as they ...
Making and Teaching Graphic Novels Part 2
Join creators Isabel Roxas (The Adventures of Team Pom: Squid Happens), Mika Song (Apple of My Pie), and Remy Lai (Pawcasso), in a lively discussion about their wonderful books as they share their...
Classical Interludes: SYBARITE5
Equal parts passion, grit, and musical ecstasy, SYBARITE5 is an intoxicating cocktail of post-genre musical goodness expressed through the virtuosity of Sami Merdinian and Sarah Whitney, violins;...
The Review Panel
Leading art critics join moderator David Cohen in lively debate about current exhibitions around the five boroughs. Presented in association with artcritical.com.
Please register for this...
Classical Interludes: Portraits of Josephine
Brooklyn Public Library presents with Orchestra of St. Luke’s to tell the story of Josephine Baker through the music of composer Valerie Coleman and the dramatic lens of playwright and actor...
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Events for Youth and Families
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Contact Us
BPL Presents
Brooklyn Public Library
10 Grand Army Plaza
Brooklyn, NY 11238
[email protected]
718.230.2200
Past Events
Theater of War: Hercules in Brooklyn, November 2016
Oliver Stone and Ben Wizner, September 2016
Edwidge Danticat and Jacqueline Woodson, April 2016
Alash, January 2016
Slavoj Žižek and Hari Kunzru, November 2016
The Night of the Cookers, February 2016
Viet Thanh Nguyen and Vu Tran, April 2016
Night of Philosophy. January 2017
Salman Rushdie with Joel Whitney, October 2015
John Irving, November 2015
SYBARITE5, February 2016
Yaa Gyasi, June 2016
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, The Kahn Endowment for Humanities Programs, The Miriam Katowitz and Arthur Radin Fund, Los Blancos, Mapleton Endowment, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Sandra and Peter Schubert Endowment Fund, The Morris & Alma Schapiro Fund, WarnerMedia, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation’s Innovation Fund, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, the Estate of Pearl S. Reuillard in memory of her parents Yetta and Louis Schwartz, the Brooklyn Eagles—a group of young and engaged supporters of Brooklyn Public Library and many other generous supporters.
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.
