Past Events

Monday, December 9

6pm

Eleanor Foa Dienstag in conversation with Meryl Gordon

In post-World War II America, who ever heard of an Italian Jew? No one. Journalist and author Eleanor Foa, born in Italy, raised in America, daughter of a brilliant father whose Italian-Jewish roots trace back to 16th-century printers, was proud of her exotic roots, yet knew little about her lineage. In 2006, accompanied by her American born sister, she retraces the footsteps of their ancestors through northern Italy (Soragna, Cortemaggiore, Sabbioneta, Parma) and reconnects with living relatives in Turin, Naples, and Rome. It’s both a physical and psychological journey during which the past illuminates the present. Retrospectively, the author’s close relationship with her Italian-born father, and her younger sisters’ with their German-born mother highlight complex family dynamics, hinting at what was talked about and what remained unsaid. 

Mixed Messages is both a universal tale of exile, family, and generational conflict and the history of one specific and remarkable family whose successes and tragedies mirror the flowering of Italian Jewish life from the mid-fourteen hundreds to its dispersal, destruction and partial resurrection, during and after the rise of Fascism.

A beautifully written multilayered story, the book offers surprises and discoveries at every turn. Part road trip and part family history, the book ultimately addresses the process of activating memory through the resonance of places, people and personal entanglements.

 Eleanor Foa is an author, journalist, photojournalist and corporate writer. Her articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and websites, ranging from The New York Times, Harper’s, Ms., and The New Republic to Woman Around Town and Women’s Voices For Change. She is the author of Whither Thou Goest: The Story of An Uprooted Wife (E.P. Dutton, 1976), which is both a feminist memoir and business story, and In Good Company (Warner Books, 1994), a history of the H.J. Heinz Company. She  the president of Eleanor Foa Associates, past president of the American Society of Authors and Journalists (ASJA), and received literary residencies at Yaddo and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA).

Meryl Gordon is the author of the New York Times bestselling Mrs. Astor Regrets and Phantom of Fifth Avenue, a Wall Street Journal bestseller. She is an award-winning journalist and a regular contributor to Vanity Fair. She is on the graduate journalism faculty at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She is considered an expert on “elder abuse” and has appeared on NPR, CNN and other outlets whenever there is a high-profile case.

A special celebration with Enchanted Lion Books to launch Layla's Happiness by author Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, illustrated by Ashleigh Corrin. A conversation between author and illustrator will be followed by a reception and book signing. 

Wednesday, December 4^th

6pm

 Join authors Ophira and Tali Edut as they reveal what’s in the stars for the next decade.  Discover what’s in store for your zodiac sign, celebrate the launch of their new book, The Astrotwins 2020 Horoscope, and enjoy an astrological q&a.

Thursday, November 21

6pm

Translated by Hope Campbell Gustafson, Islands—New Islands presents Italian author Marco Lodoli's descriptions of Rome alongside archival photography.

Marco Lodoli is a Roman writer, journalist, and teacher. He collaborated with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica to publish a column of his ‘isole’, the short impressions of Rome that can be found in the pages of Islands—New Islands. In addition, he has published more than thirty books of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

Hope Campbell Gustafson has an MFA from the Literary Translation Workshop at the University of Iowa and a BA from Wesleyan University. Her translations can be found in Asymptote, The Brooklyn Rail, EuropeNow, Nashville Review, and Banthology: Stories from Unwanted Nations (Comma Press/Deep Vellum). Hope was a 2018 resident at the Art Omi Translation Lab, and she received a 2019 Pen/Heim Grant.

Monday, November 18th

6pm

Amy Astley, editor-in-chief of Architectural Digest, will be joined by a panel of special guest designers to discuss Architectural Digest at 100: A Century of Style.  This rich visual history, published for the magazine's 100th anniversary, celebrates the best from the pages of the international design authority.

Wedneday, November 13th

6pm

Curator Nora Burnett Abrams will be in conversation with Drew Sawyer about their new book Francesca Woodman: Portrait of a Reputation which considers how the artist came into her creative voice and her singular approach to photography at a notably young age. Ranging from portraits in her studio/apartment in college to self-portraits in the bucolic Colorado landscape in which she was raised, these works capture Woodman's hallmark approach to art making: enigmatic, rigorous, and poignant. 

Tuesday, November 5th

Tuesday, October 29

6pm

Author Pamela Fiori will be conversation with Dorothy Kalins to celebrate the launch of Holiday: The Best Travel Magazine that Ever Was.  This is the first book on magazine sensation Holiday, which between 1946 and 1977 was one of the most exciting publications in the world. Renowned for its bold layouts, literary credibility, and ambitious choice of photographers and artists, Holiday portrayed the romance of travel like no other periodical

The New York Landmarks Conservancy cordially invites you to Bricks and Brownstone: The New York Row House, a book talk with author Patrick W.Ciccone.  

The classic book Bricks & Brownstone, the first and still the only volume to examine in depth the changing form and varied architectural styles of the much-loved New York City row house, or brownstone, was first published in 1972. That edition helped pave the way for a brownstone revival that has transformed New York's historic neighborhoods over the past half-century.

This revised and expanded edition, published by Rizzoli, revisits the classic comprehensively, with updated text and additional chapters, and an abundance of specially commissioned color photography.