The Rockefeller Foundation Jane Jacobs Medal 2008 Awards Ceremony
Pioneering urbanist Jane Jacobs’ research led to the 1961 publication of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, now considered a seminal work in the field of urban planning. The book was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, which established the Jane Jacobs Medal in 2007. The 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal winners—Peggy Shepard and Alexie [...]
Michael Bérubé: Academic Freedom and its Discontents
Michael Bérubé explores conservative complaints about liberal “bias” at America’s universities and the fate of the liberal-arts education. Michael Bérubé is the Paterno Professor in English Literature and Science, Technology, and Society at Pennsylvania State University; his most recent books are What’s Liberal About the Liberal Arts?: Classroom Politics and “Bias” in Higher Education and [...]
The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day (1897-1980), founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and now a candidate for sainthood, has been called the “radical conscience” of the American Catholic Church. Day’s diaries offer a unique window into her life, her religion, and her efforts to respond to the great issues of her day. Father James Martin, S.J., Associate Editor [...]
Scenes from the City: Filmmaking in New York
From King Kong climbing the Empire State Building to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man lumbering through Columbus Circle, New York has been the setting for some of the most recognizable moments on film. Join filmmaker and author James Sanders for an illustrated lecture about the nexus between New York City filmmaking and New York City [...]
Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis
When George Bush took office in 2001, North Korea’s nuclear program was frozen. Kim Jong-Il had signaled to the outgoing Clinton administration he was ready to negotiate an end to his missile program. Today, North Korea has become a full-fledged nuclear power, with enough fissile material to stage an underground test in 2006 and manufacture [...]
Latinos and the Future of Catholicism
The face of Catholic New York is being rapidly transformed by Spanish-speaking immigrants from Central and South America and the Caribbean, but many Latino Catholics are also turning away from Catholicism to evangelical Protestantism. Rafael Pi Roman, the host and senior editor of WNET/Thirteen’s Emmy award-winning program “New York Voices,” leads a distinguished panel in [...]
Home Delivery: The Cases of Japan and Scandinavia
The Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, surveys the past, present and future of the prefabricated home. This panel focuses on two quintessential prefab hubs, Japan and the Nordic countries. Ken Tadashi Oshima, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Washington, speaks on the potentials of prefab in Japan, [...]
Frank O’Hara: Selected Poems at Lunchtime
Frank O’Hara worked at The Museum of Modern Art on and off for fifteen years—first selling postcards, then curating exhibitions and writing catalogue copy—all the while composing poems during his lunch hour. Join poets Lee Ann Brown, Dan Chiasson, Hettie Jones, Vincent Katz, Philip Schultz, and Frank’s sister, Maureen O’Hara, as they commemorate his legacy [...]
The Economist Covers China: Earthquakes, Demonstrations and the Beijing Olympics
James Miles, Beijing Bureau Chief for The Economist, joins Orville Schell, Director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society, to discuss his experience covering China for 15 years beginning in 1986. Most recently, Miles was the only Western journalist in Lhasa during the March 2008 protests. He describes the changes he sees [...]
The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It
The Hubble Space Telescope has produced the most stunning images of the cosmos humanity has ever seen. It has transformed our understanding of the universe, about its age and evolution, the life cycle of stars, and the very existence of black holes. The Hubble was designed after World War II, when astronomer Lyman Spitzer and [...]
