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
Stacey Abrams Discusses Coded Justice with Glory Edim
BPL Presents welcomes nationally renowned author and leader Stacey Abrams, who discusses her latest thriller. Coded Justice follows the returning protagonist Avery down a dark rabbit hole into the breathtaking—and dangerously evolving—world of AI in the medical industry. Abrams will be in…
Sips & Scholars: Hannah Leffingwell on "What is Gender?"
Join us for the first session of Sips & Scholars, a free lecture series in partnership with Brooklyn Institue of Social Research set in bars and restaurants all over Brooklyn. This session, entitled “What is Gender? Theorizing Sexual Difference from Simone de Beauvoir to Judith Butler” will…
Summer Screenings | Gowanus Current
Join us for a screening of the documentary film Gowanus Current followed by a talkback with the filmmakers Jamie Courville and Chris Reynolds.
A century and a half of industrial waste and raw sewage has turned Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal into one of the nation’s…
Plaza Concert Series: Brasil Summerfest with Regional Samaúma
Regional Samaúma performs the nineteenth century Choro of composers such as Ernesto Narazeth, Chiquinha Gonzaga, and Mário Alves, twentieth-century music of Pixinguinha, Jacob do Bandolim, Altamiro Carrilho, Radamés Gnattali, and contemporary compositions by composers such as Luciana…
Emily Witt Discusses Health and Safety
BPL Presents welcomes journalist and author Emily Witt to discuss her latest book, Health and Safety, a lament for a broken relationship, for a changed nightlife scene, and for New York City just before the fall.
In the summer of 2016, a divisive presidential election was underway, and a…
Summer Screenings | Slumlord Millionaire
Join us for a screening of Slumlord Millionaire, a powerful documentary that exposes the David-and-Goliath struggles for housing justice in New York City. The film shines a light on the ordinary Brooklyn residents whose courageous fights against powerful landlords and developers…
Sips & Scholars: Robbie Howton on "Who Was Socrates?"
Sips & Scholars is a free lecture series in partnership with Brooklyn Institue of Social Research set in bars and restaurants all over Brooklyn. This session, entitled: “Who was Socrates?” will be led by Professor Robbie Howton.
The story of philosophy begins in tragedy,…
Public Song Project Concert
The Public Song Project from WNYC invites anyone to create new music by drawing from the public domain. Working musicians and hobbyists alike contribute song covers and musical adaptations of books, poetry, films, and more, showcasing the creative potential of the public domain and offering an…
Oysters & the Archive: The Legacy of Black Foodways and Entrepreneurship in Brooklyn
For centuries, New York Harbor—including the waters around Brooklyn—was home to some of the world's most abundant oyster beds, making the city synonymous with oyster culture. Before the 20th century, when people thought of New York, they thought of oysters. This industry provided…
Plaza Concert Series: Swingtime Big Band
In case of rain, this concert will relocate to the Dweck Center, located on the lower level of Central Library.
Dedicated to the performance of America's greatest popular standards, SWINGTIME BIG BAND is a 20-piece authentic swing band comprised of master interpreters of music from the…
Sips & Scholars: Robyn Marasco on "The Authoritarian Personality Today"
Sips & Scholars is a free lecture series in partnership with Brooklyn Institue of Social Research set in bars and restaurants all over Brooklyn. This session, entitled: The Authoritarian Personality Today: Psychology, Politics, and the New Right-Wing Resurgence will be led by…
Sips & Scholars: Alfred Lee on "Quantum Physics at 100"
Sips & Scholars is a free lecture series in partnership with Brooklyn Institue of Social Research set in bars and restaurants all over Brooklyn. This session, entitled: "Quantum Physics at 100" will be led by Professor Alfred Lee.
When Werner Heisenberg sketched the first…
CBH Talk | Renewing Rikers: From Punishment to Possibility
The future of Rikers Island is one of New York City’s most urgent and complex political challenges. Once home to a Civil War-era military training ground, the island was purchased by the city in 1884 for $180,000 to serve as a garbage dump. In 1932, construction began on what would…
Sips & Scholars: Lauren K. Wolfe on "What is Translation?"
Sips & Scholars is a free lecture series in partnership with Brooklyn Institue of Social Research set in bars and restaurants all over Brooklyn. This session, entitled: "What is Translation? A Brief History of the Translator’s Task" will be led by Professor Lauren K. Wolfe.
What…
Sips & Scholars: Nara Roberta Silva on "Revolution and Underdevelopment"
Sips & Scholars is a free lecture series in partnership with Brooklyn Institue of Social Research set in bars and restaurants all over Brooklyn. This session, entitled: “Revolution and Underdevelopment: Walter Rodney’s African Perspective" will be led by Professor Nara Robert Silva. …
Sips & Scholars: Ruth Averbach on "Too Many Wives: Polygamist Nightmares in Gogol’s Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt"
Sips & Scholars is a free lecture series in partnership with Brooklyn Institue of Social Research set in bars and restaurants all over Brooklyn. This session, entitled: "Too Many Wives: Polygamist Nightmares in Gogol’s Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt" will be led by Professor Ruth…
Sandy Hudson Discusses Defund: Black Lives, Policing, and Safety for All
BPL Presents welcomes Sandy Hudson author, activist, and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Canada to discuss her new book Defund: Black Lives, Policing, and Safety for All. A fiercely-argued, deeply-informed examination of why defunding the police is the only way to support a model of…
Miriam Toews Discusses A Truce That is Not Peace, with Rumaan Alam
BPL Presents welcomes internationally bestselling author Miriam Toews, whose memoir of the will to write is a work of disobedient memory, humor, and exquisite craft set against a content-hungry, prose-stuffed society.
“Why do you write?” the organizer of a literary event in Mexico City…
Peter Guralnick and Elvis Costello Discuss The Colonel & The King
BPL Presents welcomes celebrated music historian Peter Guralnick, returning with his new biography The Colonel and the King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley, and the Partnership that Rocked the World. He’ll be joined in-conversation by Elvis Costello—a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and…
Art Spiegelman Discusses MetaMaus
BPL Presents is delighted to welcome Pulitzer-Prize winner Art Spiegelman to discuss the MetaMaus paperback.
In the pages of MetaMaus, Spiegelman re-enters Maus, the the Pulitzer Prize–winning modern classic that has altered how we see literature, comics, and the Holocaust ever since…
Tour of Tove Jansson & The Moomins
Join us for a guided tour of our newest exhibition, Tove Jansson and the Moomins: The Door Is Always Open, that explores the queer Finnish author’s impact on children’s literature and social-emotional learning through her beloved Moomin characters, bold political cartoons and reflective adult…
Lance Richardson Discusses True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen
BPL Presents welcomes Lance Richardson and this first biography of Peter Matthiessen, the novelist, naturalist, and Zen roshi, whose trailblazing work championed Native American rights and helped usher in the modern environmental movement.
Peter Matthiessen (1927-2014), a towering figure…
Arts & Culture Newsletter
Be the first to know about our finest literary and cultural programming. Sign up today!
Get Social with BPL Presents
