Exhibitions

Peace, Love, and Revolution at the Library

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. 

Walter Bredel, Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, Bethel, NY, 1969. NYPL, Music Division. Courtesy of Walter Bredel.

 

Exhibitions

Inside the exhibition " You Say You Want A Revolution"

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.

 

 

 

Power In PrintBlack PowerPower 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.

 

Comments

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Typo on this page

There is a typo at the top of this page. "The spirit of the 60s never truely left."

Fixed

Thank you, Norat!

Application for Bronx Book Fair May 5, 2018

Greetings, I was born and reared in So Bronx until I finished college. I now live in Brooklyn. I would like to participate in the book fair on May 5, 2018. I have written two children's books: one about my relationship with my blind grandmother and the other about my first time seeing Jackie Robinson play baseball at Ebbets Field. Please send information about registering for the fair. Thanks, Selma Jackson

East Harlem picture books.

I am the author of three East Harlem books. The first two books- images of America East Harlem and East Harlem Revisited. were published by arcadia books. www.arcadiapublishing.com - East Harlem and East Harlem revisited. I would like to participate in the Bronx Book Fair on May 5, 2018. The other book is called East Harlem Remembered -www.mcfarlandpub.com Sincerely Christopher Bell East Harlem Historian

You say you want a revolution

Excellent.... totally excellent exhibit. I was there. Left The Bronx / Evander Childs HS for Columbia U. In 1966. (come to think of it, don’t recall seeing much on the student riots there.) Anyway, really a fantastic show! Would love to access a playlist of the fantastic songs of the revolution. I spent literally an hour and a half listening to almost every song you had. Also, you missed two great: Laura Nyro and Buffy Sainte Marie… Her Universal Soldier in that gritty voice of hers brings me close to tears every time I hear it. Why is it not played now!?