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Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture
Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture
About the Dweck
Conveniently located at BPL's Central Library on Grand Army Plaza, the auditorium seats 189 people - nearly twice the capacity of the Second Floor Meeting Room, the Library's next largest space - and is fully accessible. The Dweck features an elevated stage (25 feet wide and 10 feet deep) and wood and perforated acoustic wall and ceiling panels that make the space particularly well suited to musical performances. Other essential modern amenities include a control room, adjustable stage lighting, a movable "smart" podium equipped with a control panel, removable seating to accommodate wheelchairs, and an assistive listening system to improve auditory access.
The Dweck Center's inaugural year was a great success, with the presentation of an ambitious roster of 200 educational and cultural programs, including literary series, scholarly lectures, film screenings and discussions, and musical performances. The new space enables BPL to better accommodate our expanding audience for public programs, which had enjoyed steady growth over the past several years and swelled as a result of the Dweck. FY08 saw a 116% increase in attendance at PED programs conducted at Central Library, the majority of which were held in the auditorium. Attendance at Dweck programs alone totaled 17,000.
Contact library for reservations and policy. Central Administration Office: 718.230.2198.
All events are free unless stated otherwise.
Highlights from the Dweck
Somi, "African Lady"
Musette Explosion
Will Holshouser, accordion; Matt Munisteri, guitar; Marcus Rojas, tuba
Shields reads from Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, a work that explores literary license, quotation, and appropriation in television, film, performance art, rap and graffiti, in lyric essays, prose poems and collage novels. He is the author of nine previous books including The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead and Black Planet which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award.
Two bumbling gardeners do their best to turn a vacant lot into a flowering park for a picnic lunch. But there's a great deal of comic juggling, tumbling and slapstick to get the job done, as the two must learn to work together. There's also magic, amazing stilt dancing and audience participation throughout this high-energy and wholly original show.
Latynina is, a journalist, writer and radio host, known for her independent political stance and journalistic courage. In 2008, her investigative reports earned her the Freedom Defenders Award by the US Department of State. This program is in Russian. PLEASE NOTE: Registration is closed.
Nancy Rubin Stuart discusses Warren, the first female historian of the American Revolution. A "Founding Mother" Warren wrote about the Revolution from her own recollections and those of her patriotic friends John and Abigail Adams, Sam Adams, Martha and George Washington, Henry Knox and Elbridge Gerry. She was also our nation's first female playwright and ardent advocate for a Bill of Rights.
Harumi Rhodes, violin, Priscilla Lee, cello, and Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano, are Trio Cavatina, winner of the 2009 Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. The prize includes a Carnegie Hall debut concert in Weill Hall in May of 2010 as well as a composition to be written for the Trio by Richard Danielpour.
(Some of ) The World's Best Movies: The Cranes Are Flying
Veronica and Boris are a young couple in the blush of love, until the eruption of World War II tears them apart. Veronica suffers on the home front with no word from her lover, and tries to avoid the advances of Boris's draft-dodging cousin. Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, the film is a superbly crafted drama, bolstered by stunning cinematography and impassioned performances.
Rediscovering the Work that Built America: a talk with Jessica DuLong
Author/Fireboat Engineer Jessica DuLong, a U.S. Coast Guard-licensed merchant marine officer, is one of the world's only female fireboat engineers. Her passion for the Hudson River took shape at her post in the diesel exhaust-filled engine room of retired New York City fireboat John. J. Harvey. She and her crewmates pumped water to firefighters at Ground Zero following the September eleventh attacks. She reads from My River Chronicles: Rediscovering America on the Hudson.
Cosmopolis: Immigrant Writers in NYC: Andre Aciman
Egyptian-born Aciman reads from his new novel Eight White Nights, a story about the fears, longings and tensions that accompany new romance. Aciman is the author of the novel Call Me by Your Name, of the memoir Out of Egypt and of False Papers: Essays on Exile and Memory. He has co-authored and edited The Proust Project and Letters of Transit. WNYC's Leonard Lopate hosts.
Jones is the author of The Untelling, a novel about personal history and individual and familial myth-making, and Leaving Atlanta, a coming of age story set during the city's infamous child murders of 1979-81.
This chamber-rock ensemble, founded by composer/pianist Mazzoli, is a stirring blend of winds, strings, keyboards and lo-fi electronics. An all-female quintet, Victoire performs Mazzoli's distinct blend of dreamy post rock, quirky minimalism and rich romanticism.
(Some of) The World's Best Movies: Picnic at Hanging Rock
This early Peter Weir film (Gallipoli, Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show) is regarded as the first international film success from Australia, Three students and a school teacher disappear on an excursion to Hanging Rock, in Victoria, Australia on Valentine's Day, 1900. The reason for their disappearance, whether by human, natural or supernatural agency, is never discovered, but their disappearance has a profound effect upon everybody in their community.
DISRUPTED LIVES: A Reading Group led by scholar Morris Dickstein
Between the 1930s and the 1970s, many American writers shifted their focus from the large dilemmas of the whole society to the private troubles of the individual. This reading group will take up five short works - four novels and one influential memoir - that deal with lives disrupted by inner and outer challenges, ranging from the brutal effects of the Depression or the Holocaust to the problems that complicate ordinary human needs, hopes, and relationships. This group will read:
March 3: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
March 24: Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathaniel West
April 14: Seize the Day by Saul Bellow
May 5: Night by Elie Wiesel
May 26: The Ghost Writer. By Philip Roth
This group will meet in the Reverend Elsie Smith Room, located next to the Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture.
The Tenth National Black Writers' Conference at Medgar Evers College presents an afternoon of performance poetry, featuring Staceyann Chin. In addition to performing in and co-writing the Tony-nominated Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, Chin has appeared in Off-Broadway one-woman shows at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.
Author Vera Pavlova gives a bilingual poetry reading in both English and Russian.
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Acknowledgments
Brooklyn Public Library gratefully acknowledges the many donors who have provided generous support for public programs at the Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture, including:
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Circle Apartments LLC, Con Edison, The Fund for Brooklyn History, Herman Goldman Foundation, Cheryl and George Haywood Endowment for Cultural Diversity, The Hearst Foundation, Inc., The Kahn Endowment for Humanities Programs, The Miriam Katowitz and Arthur Radin Fund, Mapleton Endowment, National Endowment for the Arts, New York Council for the Humanities, New York State Council on the Arts, Martin L. and Rona Schneider, Sandra and Peter Schubert Endowment Fund, The Shen Family Foundation and the Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust.
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