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.
Center for Brooklyn History
Brooklyn's culture past and present from the Center for Brooklyn History
Upcoming
CBH Talk | Ari Berman and Chris Hayes Discuss “Minority Rule”
As the United States moves steadily towards a majority-minority future, time and time again the white conservative minority has effectively pushed back representative democracy through voter suppression, election subversion, legislative power grabs, immigration restrictions,…
Viet Thanh Nguyen and Matthew Salesses Discuss A Man of Two Faces
Join BPL Presents for a conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen on his memoir, A Man of Two Faces. With insight, humor, formal invention, and lyricism, in A Man of Two Faces Nguyen rewinds the film of his own life. He expands the genre of personal memoir by acknowledging larger…
The People's Ball: STAND OUT/STAND UP!
A Night of Style, Imagination, Freedom and You!
You’re invited to THE PEOPLE’S BALL, Brooklyn Public Library’s free annual celebration of fashion, personal style and inclusivity. THE PEOPLE’S BALL, named Time Out New York’s Best Nightlife Event of 2023,…
Renée Watson on skin & bones, with Jennifer Baker
From the acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a soulful and lyrical novel exploring sisterhood, motherhood, faith, love, and ultimately what gets passed down from one generation to the next.
At 40, Lena Baker is at a steady and stable moment in life—between wine nights with…
CBH Talk | Blackface Minstrelsy and the Racial Foundation of American Musical Culture
In his new book, Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in the United States, musicologist Matthew Morrison unpacks the political legacy of blackface minstrelsy, showing not only how blackness was commodified by white people as popular entertainment during the nineteenth century,…
Frank Rich Delivers the 2024 Kahn Humanities Lecture
BPL Presents invites you to the 2024 Kahn Humanities Lecture with Frank Rich—a journalist, author, and television producer.A writer-at-large for New York magazine, he was previously chief drama critic and an opinion columnist for The New York Times. In this unique talk, he…
Xochitl Gonzalez on Anita de Monte Laughs Last, with Nurys Pimentel
Join New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez and BPL's own Nurys Pimentel as they discuss Anita de Monte Laughs Last.
Gonzalez delivers a mesmerizing novel about a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her…
CBH Talk | Severe Mental Illness: Our Collective Response and Responsibility
Jonathan Rosen’s acclaimed book, The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions, has helped move the needle on our understanding of severe mental illness and the ways that society -- at the governmental, medical, and individual levels -- has failed…
Lisa Ko & Lisa Hsiao Chen in Conversation
In her new novel, Memory Piece, Lisa Ko, the award-winning author of The Leavers, offers a visionary novel of friendship, art, and ambition that asks: What is the value of a meaningful life? Ko will be in conversation with friend and fellow novelist, Lisa Hsiao Chen, author of Activities…
CBH Talk | Natalie Foster and Tressie McMillan Cottom Discuss “The Guarantee”
The Guarantee asks us to imagine an America where housing, health care, a college education, dignified work, family care, an inheritance, and an income floor are not only attainable by all but guaranteed, by our government, for everyone.
But isn’t this pie-in-the-sky…
Colm Tóibín discusses Long Island with Meghan O'Rourke
Join BPL Presents and the beloved, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Colm Tóibín as he returns to Brooklyn Public Library to discuss his spectacularly moving and intense novel of secrecy, misunderstanding, and love, the story of Eilis Lacey, the complex…
CBH Talk | Elizabeth Gloucester, The Most Powerful Black Woman Lost to History
Co-presented by the Center for Brooklyn History and The Brooklyn Heights Association
Elizabeth Gloucester, was born into slavery in 1817 in Richmond, Virginia. When she died in Brooklyn Heights six decades later, the Brooklyn Eagle described her as “the wealthiest colored…
Carnegie Hall Citywide: The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble
Brooklyn Public Library presents in partnership with Carnegie Hall: The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble. This always-evolving ensemble features a handpicked group of musicians from the historic Met Orchestra in concerts of remarkable ambition and variety. Adapting to fit the instrumental needs of…
Maggie Smith & Isaac Fitzgerald on You Could Make This Place Beautiful
In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself. The book begins with one woman’s personal heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional…
CBH Talk | The Brownstone Boys and "For the Love of Renovating"
In 2018, Barry Bordelon and Jordan Slocum bought a 130 year-old Brooklyn brownstone and blogged about the trials and triumphs of renovation under the byline “the Brownstone Boys.” The upshot was a devoted following of fellow renovators, a thriving restoration business, and now – a book!…
Joel Whitney presents Flights: Radicals on the Run
Joel Whitney's genre-defying nonfiction work Flights creates an archetypal hero’s journey from the stories of progressive creators whose struggle for truth, and for freedom from persecution, sent them into literal and metaphorical exile. Whitney portrays a rich array of refugees all forced to…
Just Conversations | Making NYC Home: The Trials and Triumphs of Asylum Seekers and Migrants
About Just ConversationsJust Conversations is a series co-presented by the Center for Brooklyn History and Brooklyn Org that brings into dialogue issues facing our borough, city, and society and gives voice to the change makers who move us towards a more equitable future. Tonight we are joined by…
Francine Prose Discusses 1974: A Personal History
Francine Prose comes to Brooklyn Public Library to discuss her first memoir, 1974: A Personal History, about the close relationship she developed with activist Anthony Russo, one of the men who leaked the Pentagon Papers--and the year when our country changed.
During her twenties,…
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