With our shows at Joe’s Pub and in-school student matinees temporarily on hold this spring, we are excited to bring audio and video storytelling segments by writers slated to appear on stage this spring via Crowdcast, Facebook Live, The SpeakEasy Podcast, and other channels. Scroll down to watch and listen to recent features from our virtual shows.
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Our May edition of “Seriously Entertaining” was live-streamed on May 27th at 7 pm on Crowdcast and Facebook Live, featuring the storytelling talents of author and chef Bill Buford, New Yorker copy editor and “Comma Queen” Mary Norris, executive director of the Art Students League of New York Michael Rips, and New York Times reporter Jennifer Steinhauer.
Watch a replay of it here: “All in Due Time.”
Seriously Entertaining, May edition:
“All in Due Time”
powered by CrowdcastOur May edition of “Seriously Entertaining” was livestreamed on May 27th at 7 pm on Crowdcast and Facebook Live, featuring the storytelling talents of author and chef Bill Buford, New Yorker copy editor and “Comma Queen” Mary Norris, executive director of the Art Students League of New York Michael Rips, and New York Times reporter Jennifer Steinhauer.
Seriously Entertaining, April edition:
“Going the Distance”
powered by CrowdcastApril’s edition of “Seriously Entertaining” featured our very first livestream, which broadcast live to audiences in the comfort and safety of their own homes. Featured authors included novelist and memoirist Paul Lisicky, writer and maternal-fetal medicine physician Chavi Eve Karkowsky, MD, and journalist and author Jeff Sharlet, who shared stories tied to the theme “Going the Distance.”
In lieu of our live “Seriously Entertaining” show at Joe’s Pub in March, we recorded stories by our scheduled writers to share via The SpeakEasy Podcast tied to the theme “As Good as Gold. This episode features Anne Nelson, journalist and author of the new book Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right examining the 2016 election, how it went unpredictably wrong, and what religious radio shows in the Midwest had to do with it; artist, activist, and author of the new book Stop Telling Women to Smile: Stories of Street Harassment and How We’re Taking Back Our Power, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh sharing how her art expresses who she is as a woman…a woman who isn’t always polite; and Philip Kennicott,Washington Post art and architecture critic and author of Counterpoint: A Memoir of Bach and Mourning talking about finding Nathan, the greatest dog in the world…except for Nathan’s one significant flaw. This episode features songs “The Royal Telephone” and “City of Gold,” plus a brief portion of “The Goldberg Variations.”
This week features international bestselling author Kate Mosse, author of The Languedoc Series, and most recently, The Burning Chambers. In this story, Mosse describes how her father and the captivated French city of Carcassonne inspired her novels. Visit the author’s website here.
On stage. In Schools. On the Road. House of SpeakEasy celebrates six years of connecting writers and audiences. From our Seriously Entertaining shows at Joe’s Pub to our in-school matinees throughout New York City to our bookmobile outings to book deserts across the country, we’ve been busy! Catch up on all our efforts with this highlights video.
Watch a short video about the impact our work is having in schools and after-school programs across the city. Working with teens and educators in College Readiness programs and beyond, our goal is simple: to expand access to books and their authors, and to share the transformative power of storytelling with the next generation of writers and readers.
Last summer, The SpeakEasy Bookmobile embarked on a 4,000-mile cross-country odyssey, from Brooklyn to New Orleans and back again to address the problem of “book deserts.” The “Poetry to the People” tour, in partnership with Narrative4, offered workshops and readings on the way down. On the return trip, Speakeasy produced its signature Seriously Entertaining shows and SpeakTogether educational programs. We hit the road to bring books & poetry to over 14 states. Click through to see the full itinerary.
Over a two-week period, we visited 18 cities and towns, including Floyd County, Kentucky, Salisbury, Maryland, and Arnaudville, Louisiana. We distributed over 5,000 books to schools, youth centers, and communities in need, including the International Rescue Committee and the Boys and Girls Club in Jackson, Mississippi, making hundreds of new friends along the way. Check out highlights from the trip in the slideshow above.
