From the last weekend in March through mid-May, the New York Public Library is proud to offer a series of events focused on Slavic and East European content, including readings, lectures, and film. See below for details, and join us at NYPL. 

Literary Readings

Saturday, March 30, 2019, 2 PM
Tompkins Square Library, Basement
Fully accessible to wheelchairs

 The StoSvet Literary Project and Russian American Cultural Center presents the Sixth Oleg Woolf Memorial Readings, Saying good-bye to the Storony Sveta Literary Journal and the launch of the 18th, final issue. Hosted by  Grigory Starikovsky, curator of the Russian Reading Series at Tompkins Square Library, and Irina Mashinski, the editor-in-chief of the StoSvet Project.

Poetry Reading: Gennady Rusakov

Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 6 PM
Roosevelt Island Library
Partially accessible to wheelchairs; ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org.

Gennady Rusakov is a Russian poet whose authored many books of poetry, and is the winner of the 2014 Russian "Poet" prize. He has also witnessed many historic moments during his years as an interpreter at the United Nations. Rusakov will read his work and share stories from his time at the UN. 

This reading is organized by the Pushkin Society in America. 

Pushkin Festival

Saturday, April 6, 2019, 11 AM-3 PM
53rd Street Library, Community Room
Fully accessible to wheelchairs

This event is dedicated to the 220th anniversary of Alexander Pushkin’s birthday. Russian children will present a theatrical show based on one of Pushkin’s fairy tales, recite poems, and sing songs.

 

Oscar Wilde Lecture (Russian/English)

Thursday, April 18, 2019, 6 PM
Grand Central Library
Fully accessible to wheelchairs

Join Nina Rumiantseva for a discussion about the biography of Oscar Wilde and related archival materials housed at the Lodyjensky Immigration Archive Center of Russian and Ukrainian Culture. The program will include a staged reading of Wilde's The Nightingale and the Rose.

 The talk will be presented in both Russian and English.

Генрих Голин: «Ядерная сага: герои и антигерои» (Genrikh Golin: The Nuclear Saga: Heroes and Antiheroes)

Monday, April 29, 2019, 5 PM
Yorkville Library, Meeting Room
This event will be conducted exclusively in Russian.

ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org.

Хотя большая часть литературы посвящена открытию и использованию ядерной энергии, Генрих Голин в своей новой книге различает баланс между научной стороной создания атомного оружия и историческими, политическими аспектами, а также участием людей в атомном проекте. Период создания атомной бомбы совпадает и, возможно, является результатом идеологического антагонизма между нацистской Германией, СССР и США, а также с эпохой войн и наибольшим всплеском национализма и особенно антисемитизма.

Автор расскажет об исторических аспектах создания атомного и термоядерного оружия в Соединенных Штатах и Советском Союзе, о жизни и работе многих ученых, создавших это наиболее разрушительное оружие, и об их взаимодействии с политиками и государственными деятелямиб об эволюции из взглядов, и, в конечном счете, их стремлении противостоять использованию научных достижений в военных целях. Книга также охватывает антигероев - шпионов и их покровителей, в том числе предателей-добровольцев, которые верили в идею коммунистического общества, которая во время эпидемии национализма и нацизма, стала довольно привлекательной. Обсуждение всех этих аспектов делает разговор особенно привлекательным для широкой публики.

16mm Film Nights: 16mm Film Screening: Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania

Monday, May 6, 2019, 6:30 PM-8 PM
Seward Park Library, Community Room
ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org.

In honor of the late Jonas Mekas, who passed away this year, the Seward Park Library invites the public to a special screening of Mekas' masterpiece, Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania. 

The film is in three parts: Part 1 is footage during Mekas' early years in America, 1950-1953, and includes miscellaneous footage of immigrants in Brooklyn; Part 2 was shot in August 1971 in Lithuania, in the village in which Mekas was born. Part 3 is footage of a suburb of Hamburg, where Mekas spent a year in forced labor during the war. The film concludes with the burning of the Vienna fruit market, August 1971.

16mm print courtesy of the Library for Performing Arts’ Reserve Film and Video Collection.

From Russian with Love: A Sly Bang Book Party

Monday, May 13, 2019, 5 PM
Yorkville Library, Meeting Room
ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org.

Please join us for a literary celebration of poet and novelist Larissa Shmailo's latest work, Sly Bang. Shmailo will be joined by several of her peers including Anna Halberstadt, Elizabeth L. Hodges, Regina Khidekel, Irina Mashinski, Alexander Veytsman, Anton Yakovlev, and Andrey Gritsman, who will read from and respond to her new novel.