James S. Shapiro, Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future

Shapiro chooses eight moments in American history when Americans claimed (or conscripted) Shakespeare as an authority in the political and culture struggles of the time, ranging from race, to immigration, to international politics, to class warfare, to assassination and sex.  Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia, member of the board of directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Scholar-in-Residence at the Public Theater in New York, he was consultant to the 2017 Public Theater production of Julius Caesar in Central Park, and the 2020 Free Shakespeare on the Radio podcast of Richard II.  Shakespeare in a Divided America was just named one of the New York Times Ten Best Fiction and Non-fiction Titles of 2020.

Part of the 2021 Lecture Series for John Jay Homestead, Seats of Power.

This series will be in webinar format on Zoom beginning promptly at 7:00pm.

Registration is free but required. A Zoom link will be sent to registered attendees the day before the lecture.

To join the Lecture Committee, click here.

Brenda Wineapple,The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation 

Pro-Union Democrat and the only senator from a Confederate state not to resign at his state’s secession, Lincoln’s running mate on the National Union ticket and an “accidental President” after Lincoln’s assassination, impeached but not convicted, Andrew Johnson became a vivid example of a defiant, erratic and highly unpopular President deeply at odds with his Congress through a period of disruptive social and political change.  Wineapple is an award-winning essayist, academic and critic, currently  teaching at Columbia University and the New School in New York City. Author also of biographies of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Janet Flanner, and Gertrude and Leo Stein, she was previously the Director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at The Graduate School, CUNY, and its Writer-in-Residence.

Part of the 2021 Lecture Series for John Jay Homestead, Seats of Power.

This series will be in webinar format on Zoom beginning promptly at 7:00pm.

Registration is free but required. A Zoom link will be sent to registered attendees the day before the lecture.

To join the Lecture Committee, click here.