ON STAGE: Experience SpeakEasy’s programs via YouTube, livestream & podcast. Sign up for updates about future shows here.
IN SCHOOLS: If you are an educator or know someone who works with teens, please invite them to join our Teacher Network here.
ON THE STREETS: Our Bookmobile delivers free books to “book deserts” in New York City and beyond. Want to partner? Get in touch!
SERIOUSLY ENTERTAINING: “Being and Becoming,” June 7, 7pm ET — Buy Tickets
Our June edition of Seriously Entertaining will be live on stage at Joe’s Pub, at The Public Theater in New York City.
On June 7, Pulitzer-Prize and Tony Award-nominated playwright and writer Sarah Ruhl, author and essayist Zakiya Dalila Harris, writer and creative director Jen Winston, and debut novelist David Santos Donaldson will share engaging and entertaining stories tied to the evening’s theme “Being and Becoming.”
We hope those of you in the area can join us.
Purchase copies of the performers’ books through our storefront on Bookshop.org. (A portion of proceeds from book sales goes to support our work in schools and communities.)
Thank you to our partners, supporters & donors
Watch a short video from the co-founders of House of SpeakEasy, Amanda Foreman & Lucas Wittmann, about our efforts during the pandemic. As House of SpeakEasy enters its ninth year, we are so grateful for the support of our donors and partners. With your help, we overcame hurdles and made an even deeper impact in the communities we serve.
We count on your support. Please continue to help by making a tax-deductible donation today.
SpeakTogether in the Schools
“Kids need to know how much you care before they care about how much you know.” Middle grade teacher and longtime friend of SpeakEasy Torrey Maldonado is the author of the YA novels Tight and What Lane? Torrey performed on stage at Joe’s Pub in the fall of 2019 as well as outdoor readings with the Bookmobile in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. In 2019-2020, he led multiple after-school workshops for teens at Union Settlement’s College Readiness program in East Harlem, part of House of SpeakEasy’s “SpeakTogether in the Schools” initiative.
Watch a short video with Torrey about the magic of storytelling.
Student Matinees
Inspired by our Seriously Entertaining cabaret shows at Joe’s Pub in the East Village, our Student Matinees use the same storytelling model to bring dynamic speakers into schools and classrooms across New York City to inspire teens to imagine how they can be the authors of their own stories. Since 2017, House of SpeakEasy has been featuring acclaimed writers speaking on a range of themes that are relevant to students’ experience, from “The Road Less Travelled” to “You Only Live Once” to “Being and Becoming.”
Watch a short video about what this means for writers who perform in our programs.
SERIOUSLY ENTERTAINING: Through the Years
We look forward to our upcoming edition of Seriously Entertaining, “Come Together,” on January 27 via livestream (register here). Our monthly cabaret series features authors taking the stage and screen to riff and ruminate informally, dinner-theater-style, on the evening’s theme. We invite you to watch highlights from past editions of our flagship program, which The New York Times calls “a literary mixtape [with] perfect flow and variety.”
Watch Seriously Entertaining programs on our YouTube channel, via livestream, and through our podcast. Sign up for updates about upcoming shows here.
The SpeakEasy Storefront on Bookshop.org
House is SpeakEasy is proud to participate in the #BlackoutBestsellerList & #BlackPublishingPower campaigns by highlighting books by Black writers, poets, and illustrators, many of whom have participated in our programs. Read more about the campaign here.
Visit our storefront on Bookshop.org to view the list of titles by past and upcoming SpeakEasy performers.
The SpeakEasy Bookmobile has delivered over 15,000 free, book bags, and school supplies to communities across New York City in partnership with NYC Department of Housing and the Department of Transportation. Our regular visits to Fordham Plaza in The Bronx, Corona Plaza in Queens, and Myrtle-Wykoff in Brooklyn and beyond have allowed us to help families to build their own home libraries.
Check out some of the most popular titles on Bookshop.org and purchase your own copies to help support our work in the streets!