Library Talks The New York Public Library

The new novel by award-winning author Luis Alberto Urrea, Good Night, Irene, tells an overlooked story of women’s heroism in World War II, inspired by the experiences of his own mother. Urrea speaks about his “moving and graceful tribute to heroic women” that asks whether a friendship forged on the front lines of war defines a life forever.

Sasha Velour is an iconic queen. Turns out she’s also a historian! In this episode of Library Talks, Velour sits down with drag historian Joe E. Jeffreys to discuss her new book, The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag, a treasure trove of revelations about radical queer expressions throughout time.
The revered entertainer and winner of RuPaul's Drag Race weaves together gender theory, politics, and memoir to tell the story of drag. Velour redefines drag for a new generation while uncovering the history of queer life that made it all possible.

Welcome back!
The Library presents conversations with an incredible array of authors, performers, activists, and thinkers, and our Library Talks podcast brings some of those conversations to you. Today we are relaunching the show with Sherrilyn Iffill delivering the annual Robert B. Silvers Lecture, titled How America Ends and Begins Again.
Within this dangerous period of accelerated democratic unraveling, Sherrilyn Ifill argues that our country has a unique opportunity. Can we use this moment to build at long last a healthy, multiracial democracy anchored in the values of equality and justice?

The Stonewall Riots were a flash point in LGBTQ history. After the riots that took place at the Stonewall Inn in June 1969, the LGBTQ civil rights movement went from handfuls of pioneering activists to a national movement mobilizing thousands.
On this special episode we’ll hear what happened over the nights of the riots through archival audio of iconic transgender rights activists Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. NYPL's Jason Baumann returns for an interview with pioneering photojournalist and gay rights activist Kay Tobin Lahusen. Plus stories from Eric Marcus' podcast Making Gay History, and the story of Stormé DeLarverie from the archives at The Schomburg Center. 
Also mentioned:
'The Stonewall Reader' The exhibit 'Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50' Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Photographs and Papers NYC Trans Oral History Project, including Miss Major's full length interview For more, listen to our previous episode “Before Stonewall” including an interview with writer and curator Hugh Ryan about his new book "When Brooklyn was Queer." 
 
 
 
 

Aidan Flax-Clark welcomes co-host Jason Baumann, Assistant Director for Collection Development and Coordinator of Humanities and the Library’s LGBTQ Initiative, for a special episode about queer life before the Stonewall Riots. 
Frank Collerius, Manager of the Jefferson Market branch at NYPL, interviews writer and curator Hugh Ryan about his new book 'when brooklyn was queer.' We also hear a reading of 'The How and Why of Virginia,' the personal story of Virginia Prince, the founder and editor of the magazine 'Transvestia,' read by actor LeLand Gantt.
Next week we'll hear what happened during those few days at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 from iconic transgender rights activists Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and Miss Major. Jason Baumann returns for an interview with pioneering photojournalist and gay rights activist Kay Tobin Lahusen. Plus stories from Eric Marcus' podcast 'Making Gay History' and a story from the archives at The Schomburg Center.
Also mentioned:
-'The Stonewall Reader'
-The exhibit 'Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50'
Special Thanks to: The Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada for use of Virginia Prince's story.

Marlon James is a Jamaican novelist and winner of the Man Booker Prize. His recent book Black Leopard, Red Wolf is the first in a epic trilogy that blends myth, fantasy, and history—what James has described as "African Game of Thrones." He spoke with fellow fantasy and comic book fan, Kevin Young, who is a poet and the Director for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. They talked about James' two years of research for the series, map making, Afrofuturism, and books they love, while unleashing their inner nerd.