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UPCOMING EVENTS


Stellene Volandes with Jewels that Made History: 100 Stones, Myths, and Legends
Virtual Event: Thursday, April 8 at 6 p.m. ET
Moderator: Curt DiCamillo, FRSA, Curator of Special Collections at NEHGS
A history of the world told through the iconic jewels that have inspired triumphs and tragedies, created kingdoms and shaken nations
Since ancient times, shiny stones and precious metals have determined empires and inspired expeditions, communicated status and brought about ruin. In Jewels, Stellene Volandes takes us a on surprising and glittering tour of historic turning points and gem-driven drama, delving into the passions and predilections of those who’ve been adorned by or collected jewelry. With NEHGS Curator of Special Collections and jewelry enthusiast Curt DiCamillo, she’ll discuss the prevalence and influence of jewels as part of ancient treasures, the prize of great heists, and star performers on the red carpet and at royal weddings. Don’t miss their illustrated conversation.
Stellene Volandes is an internationally renowned expert in jewelry. In addition to writing about jewelry for Town & Country (where she is also editor in chief), she hosts a series at the 92nd Street Y on jewels and their history. Her first book, Jeweler, was published in 2016, also by Rizzoli.
Curt DiCamillo, FRSA, is the Curator of Special Collections at New England Historic Genealogical Society. Before he came to NEHGS he worked for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the National Trust for Scotland. He is a recognized authority on the British country house.


Tobey Pearl with Terror to the Wicked: America’s First Trial by Jury That Ended a War and Helped to Form a Nation
Virtual Event: Tuesday, April 13 at 6 p.m. ET
Presented in partnership with Boston Public Library and State Library of Massachusetts
A revelatory account of America’s first murder trial, in Plymouth Colony in 1638.
Journey back to a little-known moment in colonial history that changed the course of America’s future. In Terror to the Wicked, author Tobey Pearl provides a riveting account of a brutal killing, an all-out manhunt, and America’s first murder trial, of a white runaway servant who stabbed a Nipmuc tribesman in Plymouth Colony in 1638. Set against the backdrop of the Pequot War between the Pequot tribe and the colonists of Massachusetts Bay, this work of history brings to vivid life those caught up in the drama including Roger Williams, founder of Providence, Rhode Island; Myles Standish; Edward Winslow, a former governor of Plymouth Colony; and John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Ms. Pearl’s revelatory account sheds new light on America’s early history, the end of the two-year war and the peace that allowed the colonies to become a nation.
Tobey Pearl earned degrees in law and international relations from Boston University and studied international law at the University of Hong Kong.


Blake Bailey with Philip Roth: The Biography
Virtual Event: Tuesday, April 27 at 6 p.m. ET
Moderator: Professor Michael Hoberman, Fitchburg State University
Presented in partnership with the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center
The renowned biographer’s definitive portrait of literary titan Philip Roth
Appointed by Philip Roth and granted independence and complete access, biographer Blake Bailey spent years poring over Roth’s personal archive, interviewing his friends, lovers, and colleagues, and engaging Roth himself in breathtakingly candid conversations. The result is an indelible portrait of an American master and of the postwar literary scene. Philip Roth: The Biography has been named one of the Most Anticipated Books of 2021 by Oprah Magazine, Chicago Tribune, the Guardian, and The Times (UK), Financial Times, and others. Don’t miss Blake Bailey’s fascinating presentation and discussion with guest moderator Professor Michael Hoberman.
Blake Bailey is the author of biographies of John Cheever, Richard Yates, and Charles Jackson. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Francis Parkman Prize, and a finalist for the Pulitzer and James Tait Black Prizes. His previous book, The Splendid Things We Planned, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography.
Michael Hoberman teaches American literature at Fitchburg State University. He is a graduate of Reed College and received his PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His books include New Israel/New England: Jews and Puritans in Early America; How Strange it Seems: Jewish Life in Rural New England; and A Hundred Acres of America: The Geography of Jewish American Literary History.


Quiara Alegría Hudes with My Broken Language: A Memoir
Virtual Event: Thursday, April 29 at 6 p.m. ET
Moderator: Maria Hinojosa, author and Emmy Award-winning journalist
Presented in partnership with Boston Public Library, Huntington Theatre Company, Porter Square Books, and GBH Forum Network
An inspired exploration of home, memory, and belonging from a Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright.
In this remarkable memoir, Quiara Alegría Hudes tells her lyrical story of coming of age against the backdrop of an ailing Philadelphia barrio, with her sprawling Puerto Rican family as a collective muse. She was awed by her aunts and uncles and cousins, but haunted by the secrets of the family and the unspoken, untold stories of the barrio—the sea of language around her, written and spoken, English and Spanish. Hudes has since found her language, and in this powerful, heralded work, “her sentences will take your breath away. How lucky we are to have her telling our stories,” said Lin-Manuel Miranda, award-winning creator of Hamilton. Hudes will be joined by journalist Maria Hinojosa, whose work has informed millions about the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad.
Quiara Alegría Hudes is a writer, wife, mother of two, barrio feminist, and native of West Philly, USA. Hailed for their exuberance, intellectual rigor, and rich imagination, her plays and musicals have been performed around the world. They include the Broadway hit In the Heights and the Pulitzer Prize–winning drama Water by the Spoonful. She founded the online gallery Emancipated Stories.
Maria Hinojosa is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and author of Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America. She is also anchor and Executive Producer of the Peabody Award-winning show Latino USA, distributed by PRX and co-host of Futuro Media’s award-winning political podcast In The Thick.
With special Q+A guest Boston educator and actress Melinda Lopez, playwright-in-residence at the Huntington Theatre Company.


Joshua Jelly-Schapiro with Names of New York: Discovering the City's Past, Present, and Future Through Its Place-Names
Virtual Event: Thursday, May 6 at 6 p.m. ET
A fascinating journey into the past, present, and future of New York City through its place-names and the stories they contain
Join us for a journey through New York City and its history, as this celebrated writer, creator, and scholar shares images and stories behind the naming of its places. Joshua Jelly-Schapiro’s latest work reveals the marks left on the city by the native Lenape, Dutch settlers, British invaders, and a successive wave of immigrants. Drawing on his background in cultural geography, he excavates the wealth of tales embedded throughout the five boroughs and illuminates the power of naming to shape experience and our sense of place. Come with questions, submitting your own family’s history as you register, for possible discussion in the extended Q&A time.
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is a geographer and writer whose books include Island People: The Caribbean and the World, and (with Rebecca Solnit) Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas. A regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, his work has also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Harper's magazine, among many other publications. He is a scholar-in-residence at the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University, where he also teaches.


Daniel James Brown with Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II
Virtual Event: Wednesday, May 12 at 6 p.m. ET
Moderator: Roland Nozomu Kelts, author, journalist, editor, and lecturer
Presented in partnership with Boston Public Library, the Japan Society of Boston, and GBH Forum Network
From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Boys in the Boat, a gripping World War II saga of patriotism.
An unforgettable chronicle of war-time America, Facing the Mountain portrays the kaleidoscopic journey of four Japanese-American families and their sons. One demonstrated his courage as a resister. The three others volunteered for 442nd Regimental Combat Team and displayed fierce courage on the battlefields of France, Germany, and Italy, where they were asked to do the near impossible in often suicidal missions. Based on deep archival research and extensive family interviews, Brown also tells the story of these soldiers’ parents, immigrants who were forced to shutter the businesses, surrender their homes, and submit to imprisonment on U.S. soil. Here, as in The Boys in the Boat, he explores the questions of what “home” means, what makes a team work, and who gets to be a “real American.” Don’t miss the author’s presentation and discussion with Roland Kelts about this powerful new work.
Daniel James Brown is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat, which spent over 135 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list; The Indifferent Stars Above; and Under a Flaming Sky. A multi award-winning writer, he lives in Washington State, near Seattle, and has taught writing at San Jose State University and Stanford University.
Roland Nozomu Kelts is a Japanese-American writer, editor, and lecturer; author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the US. He writes for publications in the US, Japan, and Europe, and is a commentator for CNN, the BBC, and National Public Radio. A contributing editor of MONKEY: New Writing from Japan, he was also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He lives in Tokyo.
Produced by GBH Forum Network in partnership with Boston Public Library
PAST EVENTS

March 23, 2021
John Matteson
A Worse Place Than Hell: How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation
In partnership with Porter Square Books and GBH Forum Network
February 23, 2021
Anna Malaika Tubbs
The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation
In partnership with Boston Public Library, State Library of Massachusetts, and the Museum of African American History
February 18, 2021
Richard Thompson Ford
Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History
In partnership with the Peabody Essex Museum
February 4, 2021
Janice P. Nimura
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women—and Women to Medicine
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum Network
January 13, 2021
Eric Jay Dolin
A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes
In partnership with the State Library of Massachusetts
December 7, 2020
Nicholas Basbanes
Cross of Snow: The Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In partnership with the State Library of Massachusetts and GBH Forum Network
December 3, 2020
David S. Reynolds
Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times
In partnership with Porter Square Books
November 12, 2020
Nathaniel Philbrick
Baxter Lecture on Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War
In partnership with Boston Public Library, the State Library of Massachusetts, and GBH Forum
November 5, 2020
Tamara Payne
The Dead are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
October 20, 2020
Claire Messud
Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
October 8, 2020
David Michaelis
Eleanor
In partnership with the State Library of Massachusetts and Porter Square Books
October 1, 2020
David Hill
The Vapors: A Southern Family, the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Springs, America’s Forgotten Capital of Vice

September 10, 2020
Pam Fessler
Carville’s Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice
In partnership with Boston Public Library, State Library of Massachusetts, and GBH Forum
August 25, 2020
E. Dolores Johnson
Say I’m Dead : A Family Memory of Race, Secrets and Love
In partnership with Boston Public Library, Museum of African American History, State Library of Massachusetts, and GBH Forum Network
August 20, 2020
Susan Eisenhower
How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decision
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
August 11, 2020
Gretchen Sorin
Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights
In partnership with Boston Public Library, Museum of African American History, and GBH Forum Network
July 23, 2020
Larry Tye
Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
June 24, 2020
Rick Beyer
Rivals Unto Death: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
June 8, 2020
Honor Moore
Our Revolution: A Mother and Daughter at Mid-Century
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
May 20, 2020
Libby Copeland
The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
May 14, 2020
Stephen Puleo
Voyage of Mercy: The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America's First Humanitarian Mission
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
April 28, 2020
Phuc Tran
Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
March 6, 2020
Adam Hochschild
Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes
In partnership with Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center, the Jewish Women’s Archive, and GBH Forum
February 26, 2020
Kristen Richardson
The Season: A Social History of the Debutante
No video available
February 11, 2020
Marcia Chatelain
Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
In partnership with GBH Forum
February 11, 2020
Marcia Chatelain
Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
In conversation with GBH News Reporter Callie Crossley at the BPL Studio
January 30, 2020
Scott Simon
Honoring The Career Of NPR Broadcaster Scott Simon
In partnership with GBH Forum
January 30, 2020
Scott Simon
Sunnyside Plaza
In conversation with WGBH News Reporter Craig Lemoult at the BPL Studio
January 14, 2020
William Martin
Bound For Gold: A Novel of the California Gold Rush
No video available
December 10, 2019
Holly George-Warren
Janis: Her Life and Music
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
November 21, 2019
George Howe Colt
The Game: Harvard, Yale, and America in 1968
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
November 12, 2019
Donald L. Miller
Vicksburg: Grant’s Campaign that Broke the Confederacy
No video available
October 18, 2019
Gail Collins
No Stopping Us Now: The Adventures of Older Women in American History
In partnership with GBH Forum
October 18, 2019
Gail Collins
No Stopping Us Now: The Adventures of Older Women in American History
With Boston Public Radio at the BPL Studio
September 26, 2019
Brian Jay Jones
Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination
No video available
September 17, 2019
Susan Ronald
Condé Nast: The Man and His Empire
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or call 617-226-1215 or 888-296-3447.