Emmy award winning local author Janus Adams sits in conversation with leading American historian Nell Irvin Painter and PEN nominated author Aaron Robertson, to reflect on the experimental spaces and imaginitive ways Black Americans have dreamed of better worlds. Robertson’s non-fiction debut The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America, is forthcoming in October 2024, whilst Nell Irvin Painter’s latest publication I Just Keep Talking: A Life in Essays was released this spring.

Artwork: Self Portrait by Nell Irvin Painter

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Can storytellers inspire meaningful change? That question is at the center of We Loved It All, a profoundly evocative ode to life in all its imperiled forms, and the first non-fiction book by the prolific novelist Lydia Millet. The author of A Children’s Bible, a finalist for the National Book Award, and Dinosaurs, Millet now compels us to confront the tangible consequences of our careless stewardship of the planet, drawing insights from her work as a staff member at the ​​Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson. Lydia will be joined by award-winning author Hafizah Augustus Geter for a conversation on the role of storytellers in creating new and galvanizing narratives to help us recover our place in the natural world. 

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Why Do Actors Train? (Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama) is a new book by local theatre artist and scholar, Brad Krumholz. Focusing on recent developments in neuroscience, philosophy, and related fields, the author develops a new theory of embodiment to investigate the actor’s craft. 

Join the author in a lively conversation with Jason Tougaw to catch a glimpse of how all of us, not just actors, encounter the material world and the invisible forces at play within it. The session will include a short, non-compulsory workshop element. All are welcome to listen and/or participate.

Presented in collaboration with North American Cultural Laboratory (NACL) in Highland Lake, Sullivan County, NY.