The spirit of the 60s never truly left. And this season, it's front and center at the Library—and across the city—with era-inspired programs, special guests, exhibitions, and more.

In collaboration with Carnegie Hall’s citywide festival The 60s, the Library is launching a system-wide exploration of the most influential elements of culture from 1960–74 and how they carry forward into today’s environment of activism and political engagement.

It all began with a counterculture-themed Library After Hours on January 19  honoring the opening of the major exhibition You Say You Want a Revolution. Don’t miss the extended run of the Schomburg Center’s Power in Print showcasing the art of the Black Power movement, Artifacts of Change at the Library for the Performing Arts, and related programs and speakers.

Plus, keep an eye out for programs in branches across the city, as well as a culminating event at the Schwarzman Building in June. 

Exhibitions

You Say You Want A Revolution: Remembering the 60s
Jan 19 through Sep 1
The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

History repeats itself at The New York Public Library.

Timothy Leary's notes on his experiences with psychedelic drugs; Tom Wolfe's notes about Haight-Ashbury for his book The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test; Gloria Steinem's letter to The New York Times' Abe Rosenthal; John Updike's opinion on the Vietnam War: The contemplative and divergent themes of the 1960s can be rediscovered through over 125 artifacts in The New York Public Library's new exhibition, You Say You Want a Revolution: Remembering the 60s.

Featuring material from three of the Library's research centers—the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Library for the Performing Arts—the free exhibition is curated by Isaac Gewirtz of NYPL's Berg Collection of English and American Literature. It opens in Gottesman Exhibition Hall at the Library's renowned 42nd Street Library on January 19, 2018, and will remain open to the public through September 1.

The exhibition has been coordinated in connection with Carnegie Hall's citywide festival, The 60s: The Years that Changed America, created with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Robert A. Caro.

The exhibition will be open Monday: 10 AM to 6 PM; Tuesday & Wednesdays: 10 AM to 7:30 PM; Thursday, Friday & Saturday: 10 AM to 6 PM; and Sunday: 1 to 5 PM.

 Plan your visit.

Share your experience on social media using the hashtag #WantARevolution.

Black Power & Power in Print
Extended through Spring
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

The Schomburg Center has also extended the run of its exhibitions Black Power! and Power in Print, which examines the art of the Black Power movement through posters and artwork.

Artifacts of Change
Jan 19 through Apr 29
The Library for the Performing Arts

The Library for the Performing Arts  will present Artifacts of Change, a series of displays featuring memorabilia from maverick artists of the 1960s—Allen Ginsberg, Jimi Hendrix, Elaine Summers, and others.

Events

The Summer of Law and Disorder: Harlem Riot of 1964
Feb 21, 6:30 PM
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

A panel discussion about the Harlem Riot of 1964 in the aftermath of the police shooting of ninth grader James Powell and the “law-and-order” policies championed by presidential contenders on the campaign trail of '64. 

Other  Events

March 13: LIVE from the NYPL will host athlete John Carlos with Dave Zirin on to revisit the Black Power salute from the 1968 Olympics.

March 20: Film critic Amy Taubin will present her selection of experimental films from the Library's Reserve Film & Video collection.

April 25: Marcia Gallo, the 2017—2018 Martin Duberman Visiting Scholar, will present a lecture on radical feminism and its impact on LGBTQ history.

June 16: The Library will host a one-day event featuring music, readings, conversations, and lectures that will search for fingerprints of '60s counterculture in today's art, literature, and politics.

 Sign up for the Library's biweekly events e-newsletter to be notified when registration opens for these events.

Suggested Reading

Counterculture Reading List

Curator's Reading List for You Say You Want A Revolution

Support for The New York Public Library's Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, and Jonathan Altman.

Additional support is provided by Alyce W. Toonk, Susan Jaffe Tane, the Lola Szladits Memorial Fund, and the Bertha and Isaac Liberman Foundation, Inc., in memory of Ruth and Seymour Klein.