Saturday Series: Crafternoon (ages 6–12)
2024-05-25 11:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris) | The American Library in Paris
Make fun spring-inspired crafts and meet other Library members. All supplies will be provided by the Library.
This event will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services staff with the help of Library volunteers. The activity is entirely in English, and no translation will be provided. All participants must be able to understand and speak English in order to participate in the program. Children ages 6–9 must be accompanied by an adult chaperone for the duration of this event. Children between the ages 10–12 may participate in the programs on their own, while their chaperone remains inside the Library.

Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children and Teens Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Writing Historical Fiction with Amy Plum (ages 12–18)
2024-05-25 14:00 - 16:00
Discover the spectrum of historical fiction, from alternative history to fictional biographies. During this workshop, participants will learn essential tips for researching, world-building, and plotting their own historical fiction.
About Amy Plum: Amy Plum is the author of Die for Me, an international bestselling Young Adult series set in Paris. Her books have been translated into thirteen languages. Her second series is a duology After the End and Until the Beginning, which she describes as “a faux-post-apocalyptic, road trip, adventure, romance, thriller with a bit of magic.” Her third series is the Dreamfall duology: Dreamfall and Neverwake. Amy grew up in Birmingham, Alabama before venturing further afield to Chicago, Paris, London and New York. An art historian by training, she can be found on most days either daydreaming or writing (or both) in a Parisian café. To find out more about Amy, and writing classes in Paris, visit her website. Important information:
This event is free for Library members, and 15€ per teen for non-members. Advance registration is required. All visitors are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons.
Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

(Sold Out) (In-Person Only) Film Screening: Winner of the American Pavilion’s Emerging Filmmaker Showcase
2024-05-28 18:50 - 21:45
Join us at the Library for a celebration of cinema and emerging filmmakers.
The American Pavilion’s Emerging Filmmaker Showcase gives filmmakers an opportunity to share their work with Cannes Festival and Film Market attendees. We will screen the winners of the American Pavilion’s 2024 Showcase, announced in May following the conclusion of the Cannes festival.
Please note that this event will be in-person only.
Program:
EL PAISA
Best LGBTQ+ Showcase Film
Director: Daniel Eduvijes Carrera
UNDER THE BLUE
Best Emerging Filmmaker Showcase
Directors: Linda Ludwig, James Curle
SPEAR. SPATULA. SUBMARINE.
Best Emerging Filmmaker Documentary
Director: Shannon Morrall
OJUE
Best Emerging Filmmaker Student Film
Director: Fernando Alberto Broce
SAR: SEARCH AND RESCUE
Best Emerging Student Documentary
Director: Tristan Owen
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers appearing over Zoom, moderated by Ben Croll.
About the American Pavilion’s Emerging Filmmaker Showcase:
Since 1989, The American Pavilion has offered unparalleled experiences in Cannes to film students and emerging filmmakers from around the world. AmPav’s Emerging Filmmaker Showcase provides an opportunity for filmmakers to have their works seen by Cannes Festival and Film Market attendees.
About the Moderator:
Ben Croll is a Canadian critic and journalist based in Paris. He writes about film, art, and industry for the U.S. trades and covers cinema, theatre and contemporary art as a roving critic in broadcast and print. He is an on-air contributor to France24 and author of The Art of Eric Guillon.
Learn more:
Check out the website for the American Pavilion’s Emerging Filmmaker Showcase, where you will find information about finalists and winners of this award from previous years.
Important information: This event requires advance registration. The discussion will be in person only. Our partners and filmmakers will appear in the Reading Room, and the discussion will not be recorded.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.

Story Hour: Sly Foxes (ages 3–5)
2024-05-29 14:30 - 15:30
For this Story Hour, we’ll read stories both factual and fictional all about foxes, including That is Not a Good Idea! by Mo Willems (pictured here) and How to Find a Fox by Nilah Magruder. We’ll also sing songs and practice rhymes.
This program is entirely in English, and no translation will be provided. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads and Children’s and Teens’ Services Intern Amber Auer will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. Plan to join in, sing along, move around, and model movement and listening for your little one. We ask that all caregivers put away their phones and other electronic devices for the duration of this program. With your help, we hope to inspire children to become lifelong readers!
Browse our nonfiction collection in the Children’s Library to find more books about foxes and other animals.
Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

(Hybrid) The Poetics of Loneliness with Catherine Barnett and Maureen McLane
2024-05-29 19:30 - 20:30
Catherine Barnett is celebrated for her exploration of human fragility, loneliness, and connection. In her new collection Solutions for the Problems of Bodies in Space, Barnett probes the complexities of love, loss, and deliberate living.
Maureen McLane’s new book, My Poetics, explores poems as speculative instruments and as ways of registering our very sense of being alive.
Barnett and McLane will read and discuss loneliness as a source of artistic creation and the urgency of poetry in an increasingly isolating world.
Join us as we explore the problems of being human brought into new relief through the contours of poetry.
About the speakers:
Catherine Barnett is the author of four poetry collections, including Solutions for the Problem of Bodies in Space (2024 Graywolf); Human Hours (New York Times “Best Poetry of 2018” selection); The Game of Boxes (James Laughlin Award); and Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced (Beatrice Hawley Award). A Guggenheim fellow, she received a 2022 Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her work has been published in the New Yorker, The NY Review of Books, The Yale Review, The Nation, Harper’s, and elsewhere. She teaches in NYU’s MFA Program and works as an independent editor.
Maureen N. McLane is the author of eight books of poetry, two critical monographs on British romantic poetics, an experimental hybrid of memoir and criticism (My Poets), and numerous essays on romantic-era and contemporary literature and culture. Her most recent books are What You Want: poems (2023) and My Poetics (2024), an adventure in poeticriticism. She is the Henry James Professor of English and American Letters at New York University. Learn more:
Read glowing reviews of Solutions for the Problems of Bodies in Space in the Los Angeles Review of Books and Publishers Weekly.
Discover an interview with Maureen McLane in the Paris Review. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speaker(s) will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

Critical Conversations Meeting Seven: Why Bad Decisions Happen to Good Groups
2024-05-30 19:00 - 20:30
Complex systems science can help us understand how individuals who are each trying to do the right thing can create collective disasters. In this session, we will explore some examples of this— including social dilemmas and local optima traps— as well as some of the often non-intuitive approaches to solving these kinds of collective-action problems.
Readings to prepare:

“What is the Tragedy of the Commons?” (video)
“The Prisoner’s Dilemma” (video)

Some details: Whether in France or America, debate is central to healthy democracy. Critical Conversations encourages both disagreement and agreement through thinking, talking, reading, and actively participating in community. Since the series’ inception in 2020, we have tackled race in America, the climate crisis, migration, and technology. Across seasons, participants have challenged themselves, their peers, and the world in which we live.
Please note, this event and all event in the Critical Conversations series require advance registration and payment. Please register here by filling out the form at the bottom of the page.
Please write to programs@americanlibraryinparis.org with any questions or thoughts.
About Critical Conversations: Whether in France or America, debate is central to healthy democracy. Critical Conversations encourages both disagreement and agreement through thinking, talking, reading, and actively participating in community. Since the series’ inception in 2020, we have tackled race in America, the climate crisis, and migration. Across seasons, participants have challenged themselves, their peers, and the world in which we live.
About the Critical Conversations 2023-24 leaders:
Prof. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence (Morocco) and lectures in advocacy at Sciences Po-Paris. Trained in classics and community organizing, he served as mobilization strategist for the campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and Emmanuel Macron in 2017. He served as legislative counsel in the 111th U.S. Congress (2009-2011), organized on six U.S. presidential campaigns, and has worked to advance democratic innovation at the European Commission and in India, Tunisia, Egypt, Uganda, Senegal, Czech Republic and Ukraine. He is author of Cicero and the People’s Will: Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic, from Cambridge University Press, and is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance.
Prof. Mark Klein is a Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, serves as a professor and Senior Scientific Advisor at the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence, and Chief Scientist at HiveWise Inc, a startup in the collective intelligence space. His research draws from such fields as artificial intelligence, social computing, economics, operations research, and complexity science to develop and evaluate computer technologies that enable greater ‘collective intelligence’ in large groups faced with complex decisions. He has over 180 publications in these areas, and has served on the editorial boards of many prominent journals and conferences related to AI and social computing.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.

History Tour at the Library
2024-05-31 11:00, 2024-06-07 11:00, 2024-06-14 11:00, 2024-06-21 11:00
The American Library in Paris invites you to register for a History Tour. Come visit us in person at 10 rue du Général Camou and discover:

Our origin story, when our Library warehoused a collection of books donated to the Doughboys fighting alongside Allied troupes in WWI
The establishment of the American Library in Paris as a private library
The famous writers of the Lost Generation (Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, and more) who explored our stacks during their time in Paris
Our Paris Library School, which brought American innovations to French libraries in the 1920s
The true stories of the brave Librarians who kept the Library open during the Occupation of WWII
How the Library has evolved over its 103-year history into the largest English-language lending library on the European continent

All tours are on Fridays at 11h00, last one hour, and take place in person at the American Library in Paris.
Tours are free of charge and open to the public. Pre-registration is required. Please email us if you are reserving for 4 or more people. (Do not reserve through the site.)
Please email tours@americanlibraryinparis.org with any questions.
This initiative is made possible through the generous support of the Florence Gould Foundation and the American Center for Art and Culture.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.

Teen Night: 2-Hour Film School with Clarence Tokley (ages 12–18)
2024-05-31 19:00 - 21:00
Meet and connect with other aspiring filmmakers, and find out how movies are created. During this evening event, we’ll explore all aspects of film-making, including the development and production process, script-writing, camera work, directing, acting, and editing.
Light refreshments will be provided by the Library.
About Clarence Tokley: Clarence Tokley is a Paris-based teacher, filmmaker, and writer. A native of New Jersey, Clarence attended Rutgers University, obtaining a degree in History and Film Studies. Clarence then attended the New York Film Academy in New York City, before packing up everything and moving to Paris—he wanted to get a taste of the European style of storytelling. He fully immersed himself in the film industry and quickly landed his first job in Paris. Some of his credits include Rush Hour 3, Truth in 24, Exes, and the Cherry Orchard. Clarence also does voice-over work in Paris. Along with his duties as theater teacher and acting coach, he is the director of camps in France and provides workshops and private coaching. When he’s not teaching or coaching, Clarence continues to work professionally in film and theater productions in and around Paris. Important information:
This event is free for Library members, and 15€ per teen for non-members. Advance registration is required. All visitors are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. After-hours events for teens, such as Teen Nights, require a signed permission slip, which can be downloaded here. One permission slip is needed per academic year (September–July).
Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Saturday Series: Weave it! (ages 6–12)
2024-06-01 11:00 - 12:00
Learn basic weaving techniques with yarn, then create your woven coaster to take home and keep. Supplies will be provided by the Library.
This event will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Intern Amber Auer with the help of Library volunteers. The activity is entirely in English, and no translation will be provided. All participants must be able to understand and speak English in order to participate in the program. Children between the ages 6–12 may participate in Library programs on their own, while their chaperone remains inside the Library.

Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children and Teens Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

(Online Only) A Personal History of Protest with Jen Silverman
2024-06-04 19:30 - 20:30
In There’s Going to Be Trouble, a young teacher seeking new beginnings arrives in Paris as the Gilet Jaune protests are gaining momentum. Drawn into a love affair and the political turmoil simultaneously, she struggles to distinguish between the overlapping passions of her new life. Accompanying this story is the discovery of a hidden family history of protest nearly fifty years prior, in the late 1960s. As secrets of political alignment and engagement come to light, our narrator discovers that the past and its consequences are nearer than she knew.
Jen Silverman presents a portrait that echoes across history, and a searching investigation into the responsibilities we hold to past, the present, and future generations.
About the speaker:
Jen Silverman (they/them) is a novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. Their books include the debut novel We Play Ourselves (named one of the best books of the year by Buzzfeed; a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award), interlinked story collection The Island Dwellers (finalist for a PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize), and novel There’s Going to be Trouble, newly out from Random House. Their plays include Spain, Witch, Collective Rage: A Play In 5 Betties, and The Roommate, and have been produced off-Broadway, across the US, and internationally in countries including Australia, The Czech Republic, Brazil, and the UK. Silverman wrote The Miranda Obsession as a narrative podcast for Audible, starring Rachel Brosnahan; it debuted at #3 in Fiction on Audible’s weekly best-seller list and won four Signal Awards. Silverman has written on Tales of the City (Netflix) and is a writer-producer on Tokyo Vice Season 2 (Max). Silverman is a three-time MacDowell Fellow, a member of New Dramatists, a Scholar of Note at the American Library in Paris, and the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim.
The Library’s Scholar of Note program is supported by The de Groot Foundation. Learn more:
Silverman recently appeared on The New Yorker Radio Hour. Listen to the interview.
A New York Times review of There’s Going to Be Trouble praises Silverman’s “exceptional talent for dramatic tension.”
Read a conversation between Silverman and their sibling, Chris Silverman, in Bomb. Important information: The discussion will be available online only via Zoom. Please sign up in advance to be emailed a Zoom link.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

Story Hour: All About Bears (ages 3–5)
2024-06-05 14:30 - 15:30
For this Story Hour, we’ll read stories both factual and fictional all about bears, including There Are No Bears in This Bakery by Julia Sarcone-Roach (pictured here). We’ll also sing songs and practice rhymes.
This program is entirely in English, and no translation will be provided. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads and Library volunteer Amber Auer will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. Plan to join in, sing along, move around, and model movement and listening for your little one. We ask that all caregivers put away their phones and other electronic devices for the duration of this program. With your help, we hope to inspire children to become lifelong readers!
Browse our nonfiction collection in the Children’s Library to find more books about bears.
Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Toddler Time (ages 1–3)
2024-06-06 11:00 - 11:30
Our Toddler Time is for children ages 1–3 and their caregivers, and features 30 minutes of stories, songs, and rhymes. Stories featured during our Toddler Time programs include short picture books and board books, such as Digger Man by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemsha which will be included in this 6 June event. This session will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads.
The program is entirely in English, as are all of our events for children and teens. No translation will be provided. Each child must be accompanied by an adult chaperone, and chaperones are required to remain with their children for the duration of the program. Parents and caregivers are expected to sit with their children beside them, or in their laps, and participate in the program. We ask that all caregivers put away their phones and other electronic devices for the duration of this program. With your help, we hope to inspire children to become lifelong readers! Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children and Teens Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Teen Night: Laughs and Rom-Coms (ages 12–18)
2024-06-07 19:00 - 21:00
Vote on the humorous film or rom-com you’d like to watch when you register for this event. Participate in movie trivia and a game at the start of the evening, then settle in with popcorn and enjoy a screening in the Library’s comfortable reading room. We’ll discuss the film as a group at the end of the night. This event will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads, Children and Teens Services Intern Amber Auer.
Drinks and light snacks will be provided, as well as lots of popcorn. Important information:
This event is free for Library members, and 15€ per teen for non-members. Advance registration is required. All visitors are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. After-hours events for teens, such as Teen Nights, require a signed permission slip, which can be downloaded here. One permission slip is needed per academic year (September–July).
Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Saturday Series: Creating Comic Strips (ages 6–12)
2024-06-08 11:00 - 12:00
Join Children’s and Teens’ Services Intern Zara Lees and Library volunteers for a morning dedicated to comics. Read a few comic strips together, and learn the language of comics before creating your own. All supplies will be provided by the Library.
This event will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Intern Zara Lees with the help of Library volunteers. The activity is entirely in English, and no translation will be provided. All participants must be able to understand and speak English in order to participate in the program. Children between the ages 6–12 may participate in Library programs on their own, while their chaperone remains inside the Library.

Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children and Teens Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Annual General Meeting
2024-06-11 19:00 - 19:30
The Library Director, Chairman of the Board, and Board Trustees will report on activities in 2023.
Tuesday 11 June 2024 at 19h00
In person in the Florence Gould Reading Room
Open to Library members; no RSVP required.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.

(Hybrid) Roundtable: Women and Art in Interwar France
2024-06-11 19:30 - 20:30
The newly published anthology, Impressions from Paris: Women Creatives in Interwar Years France, studies contributions of various women artists and writers who lived in Paris from 1920 through 1940. As scholar Sylvie Blum-Reid writes in her introduction, these women helped to define the cultural and artistic practices of their era, and in doing so, they “left behind traces that still reverberate today.”
The book revisits the subjects’ experiences through various lenses that include art history, gender, fashion, literary analysis, psychology, philosophy, film, and food. The Library welcomes six contributors to this anthology for a roundtable discussion on the enduring legacies of these women.
About the speakers:
Sylvie Blum-Reid is professor of French and film at the University of Florida. Her research interests include women and fashion, travel narratives, photography, cinema, culture and expatriate female artists in the interwar period. She has written Traveling in French Cinema and East-West Encounters: Franco- Asian Cinema and Literature.
Sherry Ann Buckberrough is professor (emerita) of Art History. She was Chair of the department of Art History at University of Hartford. She also chaired the Women’s Studies Program. Her published writing includes New Britain Museum of American Art, Robert Delaunay: The Discovery of Simultaneity, and she has contributed to many exhibition catalogs.
Dantzel Cenatiempo is a researcher and lecturer in French Studies at the University of Washington, with an emphasis in Gender Studies. Her research interests center on clothing and fashion but are interdisciplinary in scope, and include 19th- and 20th-century feminisms, critical race theory, and female biography. Her forthcoming article on Josephine Baker’s use of whiteface will be published in French Historical Studies.
Clara Oropeza is Professor of English Composition and Literature at Santa Barbara City College. Her research brings comparative mythology to literary studies and cultural theory. She is the author of several essays, most recent “The (Mal)Creation of Food the Monsanto Way: Returning a Mythic Sensitivity to Food Production.” She received her PhD in Comparative Mythology and Literature from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her work has been published in Minerva Rising and SageWoman. She published her first book, titledAnais Nin: A Myth of Her Own, in 2018.
Catherine Portuges is founding director of the Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies, professor emerita of Comparative Literature and Film Studies, and founding curator of the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her books include Cinemas in Transition in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989; Gendered Subjects; and Screen Memories: the Hungarian Cinema of Márta Mészáros, and she has written chapters in multiple anthologies.
Samia Spencer is a Professor Emerita of French at Auburn University in Alabama, and the recipient of many professional honors and academic distinctions, Spencer has focused her interdisciplinary research and extensive publications on the French Enlightenment, women and politics in France and Canada, la francophonie, and contemporary women, society and institutions in France and Quebec. In recognition of her work on behalf of the French language and culture, she was appointed Honorary Consul of France in Alabama by the Republic of France, and awarded the titles of Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques and Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite. She was also inducted in Quebec’s exclusive Ordre des Francophones d’Amérique. Recently, she turned her attention to the Egyptian feminist movement of the early twentieth century. Her latest anthology, Daughters of the Nile: Egyptian Women Changing their World (2016) enjoyed worldwide acclaim and was recently translated into Arabic. Learn more:
You can find a preview of Impressions from Paris on Google Books. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speakers will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

Story Hour: Fairy Tales and Fables (ages 3–5)
2024-06-12 14:30 - 15:30
For this Story Hour, we’ll read fairy tales, folk tales, and fables including The Little Mermaid by Jerry Pinkney (pictured here). We’ll also sing songs and practice rhymes.
This program is entirely in English, and no translation will be provided. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads, Children’s and Teens’ Services Intern Zara Lees, and Library volunteer Amber Auer will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. Plan to join in, sing along, move around, and model movement and listening for your little one. We ask that all caregivers put away their phones and other electronic devices for the duration of this program. With your help, we hope to inspire children to become lifelong readers!
Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

(Hybrid) The Shakespeare Industry with Elizabeth Winkler
2024-06-12 19:30 - 20:30
Shakespeare’s personal biography has mystified academics, armchair fans, and experts for centuries. So what happens when a scholar, an actor, or any authority, suggests that perhaps those immortal plays weren’t all written by Shakespeare? Was the author an anonymous aristocrat? Or a spy? Perhaps a woman?
Shakespeare Was A Woman and Other Heresies by Elizabeth Winkler is an “extraordinarily brilliant” and “pleasurably naughty” (André Aciman) investigation into the Shakespeare authorship question. Winkler explores with humor, fun, and hell-bent detection, all sorts of possibilities. But that’s only part of it. Winkler does much more than suggest alternatives; she delves into why doubters have been castigated, and thrown to the literary curb. No matter what side you’re on, Shakespeare Was A Woman And Other Heresies is more than a detective book for fans of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets—it’s a fascinating and truly entertaining analysis of literary and cultural history.
“No, Elizabeth Winkler doesn’t reveal the true identity of the writer Ruth Bader Ginsburg termed “the literary genius known by the name William Shakespeare.” But she does explain how we’ve wound up with, among an army of others, a republican Shakespeare and a monarchist Shakespeare, a Shakespeare who hated his wife and one who loved his, a Shakespeare who wrote all the plays and a Shakespeare who could not write at all. Along her intrepid way, Winkler charts, with refreshing clarity, the much-contested ground underfoot, studded with flinty convictions, gnarled fictions, and a surprising number of land mines.”
—Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Revolutionary and American Library in Paris Writer-in-Residence
About the speaker:
Elizabeth Winkler is a journalist and critic whose work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, the New Republic, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Economist, among other publications. She received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and her master’s in English literature from Stanford University. She lives in Washington, DC. Learn more:
Read excerpts from Winkler’s book on Martin Droeshout’s portrait of Shakespeare published in the New Statesman and Shakespeare’s reputed birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon, published in the New York Times. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speaker will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes. Read along with the Library! If you want to prepare ahead of this event, copies of Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies will be on sale one week in advance, as well as after the event. Stop by Member Services to purchase your copy. Books are generously provided by Smith&Son.
Attendees will have the opportunity to have their copy signed following the conversation.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

Critical Conversations Meeting Eight: Strategies for Fixing a Complex System
2024-06-13 19:00 - 20:30
It’s not enough to design a better political system: how do we get there from here? In this final session we will assemble all the lessons of the series— from history, from complex systems science, and from the toolkit of community organizing— to figure out how we could bring the dream of democracy to life.
Readings to prepare:

Donella Meadows, “Leverage Points to Intervene in a System” (article)
David Ehrlichman, “Identifying Leverage Points in a System” (article)
Marshall Ganz, “Fighting for Social Change” (video)

Some details: Whether in France or America, debate is central to healthy democracy. Critical Conversations encourages both disagreement and agreement through thinking, talking, reading, and actively participating in community. Since the series’ inception in 2020, we have tackled race in America, the climate crisis, migration, and technology. Across seasons, participants have challenged themselves, their peers, and the world in which we live.
Please note, this event and all event in the Critical Conversations series require advance registration and payment. Please register here by filling out the form at the bottom of the page.
Please write to programs@americanlibraryinparis.org with any questions or thoughts.
About Critical Conversations: Whether in France or America, debate is central to healthy democracy. Critical Conversations encourages both disagreement and agreement through thinking, talking, reading, and actively participating in community. Since the series’ inception in 2020, we have tackled race in America, the climate crisis, and migration. Across seasons, participants have challenged themselves, their peers, and the world in which we live.
About the Critical Conversations 2023-24 leaders:
Prof. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence (Morocco) and lectures in advocacy at Sciences Po-Paris. Trained in classics and community organizing, he served as mobilization strategist for the campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and Emmanuel Macron in 2017. He served as legislative counsel in the 111th U.S. Congress (2009-2011), organized on six U.S. presidential campaigns, and has worked to advance democratic innovation at the European Commission and in India, Tunisia, Egypt, Uganda, Senegal, Czech Republic and Ukraine. He is author of Cicero and the People’s Will: Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic, from Cambridge University Press, and is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance.
Prof. Mark Klein is a Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, serves as a professor and Senior Scientific Advisor at the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence, and Chief Scientist at HiveWise Inc, a startup in the collective intelligence space. His research draws from such fields as artificial intelligence, social computing, economics, operations research, and complexity science to develop and evaluate computer technologies that enable greater ‘collective intelligence’ in large groups faced with complex decisions. He has over 180 publications in these areas, and has served on the editorial boards of many prominent journals and conferences related to AI and social computing.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.

Summer Reading Kick-Off Party (ages 0–18)
2024-06-15 14:00 - 15:00
Open to all Library members ages 0–18!
Register for the Summer Reading Challenge, meet other readers, play games, and celebrate the beginning of the Library’s Summer Reading Challenge during this special afternoon celebration! Participants will leave with a list of recommended reading for the summer, and new tools for finding great reads!

Children between the ages 6–12 may participate in Library programs on their own, while their chaperone remains inside the Library. Children ages 0–6 must be accompanied by an adult caregiver at all times when inside the Library. Caregivers are encouraged to participate in this event with their children.
Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children and Teens Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Master Shot Film Club Meeting (ages 12–18) (Closed)
2024-06-15 17:00 - 18:30
Led by Paris-based filmmaker and writer Clarence Tokley, the purpose of this club is to allow budding filmmakers the opportunity to produce high quality short films.

The Master Shot Film Club provides a space for teens to explore all aspects of film-making, including the development and production process, script-writing, camera work, directing, acting, editing and much more, not to mention that you’ll get to know other young filmmakers in the community! This club is open to teens ages 12–18 in the Paris area who are fluent in English, by application. Applications were open through the end of August 2023 and are closed for the 2023–2024 film club. Applications for the 2023–2024 club will be open through 31 July. Apply to here for the 2024–2025 Master Shot Film Club.
About Clarence Tokley:Clarence Tokley is a Paris-based teacher, filmmaker, and writer. A native of New Jersey, Clarence attended Rutgers University, obtaining a degree in History and Film Studies. Clarence then attended the New York Film Academy in New York City, before packing up everything and moving to Paris—he wanted to get a taste of the European style of storytelling. He fully immersed himself in the film industry and quickly landed his first job in Paris. Some of his credits include Rush Hour 3, Truth in 24, Exes, and the Cherry Orchard. Clarence also does voice-over work in Paris. Along with his duties as teacher of the BAW Teen and Youth Acting courses, he is the director of camps in France and provides workshops and private coaching. When he’s not teaching or coaching, Clarence continues to work professionally in film and theater productions in and around Paris.

Important information:
This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. All visitors are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons.
Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

(Hybrid) On Reading with Joanna Biggs and Lauren Oyler
2024-06-18 19:30 - 20:30
In A Life of One’s Own: None Women Writers Begin Again, author Joanna Biggs’s divorce catalyzes a fascination with women across history whose artistic innovations emerged out of conflict with gender expectations. Considering the likes of Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, and Zora Neale Huston, Biggs discovers the strength and resolution that emerge when one is faced with the task of reconfiguring one’s life.
Biggs will appear in conversation with critic and novelist Lauren Oyler, who similarly engages with literary history in her project of shaping and critiquing the literary present. They will discuss the constraints and liberties of writing as women in the contemporary world, creative heritage, and their sense of responsibility toward the future.
About the speakers:
Joanna Biggs is an editor at Harper’s Magazine. A Life of One’s Own: Nine Women Writers Begin Again was a New York Times spring pick and was shortlisted for the Marfield Prize / National Award for Arts Writing. The book also earned Biggs a grant from the Robert B. Silvers Foundation. Her writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. While she now lives in New York, where she is at work on a novel, she lived in the 12ème arrondissement in 2003, when a demi-baguette cost 20 cents.
Lauren Oyler‘s essays on books and culture appear regularly in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Harper’s, the London Review of Books, and many other publications. She is the author of the novel Fake Accounts and an essay collection, No Judgment, which was published this year. She lives in Berlin. Learn more:
Be sure to check out the New Yorker’s review of Joanna Biggs’s recent book, A Life of One’s Own: Nine Women Writers Begin Again.
Lauren Oyler was a Scholar of Note at the Library last fall. In case you missed it, you can watch a recording of her program on our YouTube channel. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speakers will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes. Read along with the Library! If you want to prepare ahead of this event, copies of A Life of One’s Own will be on sale one week in advance, as well as after the event. Stop by Member Services to purchase your copy. Books are generously provided by Smith&Son.
Attendees will have the opportunity to have their copy signed following the conversation.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

Story Hour: True Stories (ages 3–5)
2024-06-19 14:30 - 15:30
For this Story Hour, we’ll picture book biographies, and true stories including Ada’s Ideas: The Story of Ada Lovelace, the World’s First Computer Programmer by Fiona Robinson (pictured here). We’ll also sing songs and practice rhymes.
This program is entirely in English, and no translation will be provided. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads, Children’s and Teens’ Services Intern Zara Lees, and Library volunteer Amber Auer will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. Plan to join in, sing along, move around, and model movement and listening for your little one. We ask that all caregivers put away their phones and other electronic devices for the duration of this program. With your help, we hope to inspire children to become lifelong readers!
Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

(Hybrid) Art and Diaspora: Christian Campbell and Cornelius Tulloch in Conversation
2024-06-19 19:30 - 20:30
Join us for a multidisciplinary discussion featuring artist Cornelius Tulloch and 2023–24 Visiting Fellow and poet Christian Campbell. Tulloch will present his exhibition “Elements of Being,” which debuted at the 2024 Venice Biennale. This innovative piece blends evocative soundscape compositions, recordings from the Everglades, and dance interpretation to advocate for environmental equality. Many of Tulloch’s projects have been grounded in his upbringing and communities in Miami, as well as inspired by his Jamaican and African- American heritage. His work expresses the ways in which bodies exist between cultures and borders, exploring the importance of cultural identity within built environments and how space shapes culture.
Campbell will pay tribute to the artist John Beadle by taking up questions of form, aesthetics, ecology and elegy, as well as the problem of nation in the Venice Biennale. Born in Nassau to a Jamaican father and Bahamian mother, John Beadle (1964-2024) was a leading Bahamian artist working across multiple forms. Beadle received a BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and an MFA in Painting at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, in addition to training in Rome, Italy. His work has been exhibited globally, including the Caribbean, the United States, Europe, Brazil, Japan and New Zealand.
This event is in partnership with The Californien Agency.
About the speakers:
Christian Campbell is the author of the acclaimed poetry collection Running the Dusk (2010), which won the UK’s Aldeburgh Prize, among other awards. Campbell studied at Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and his work has been featured and reviewed in the New York Times, the Guardian, Small Axe, the Financial Times and elsewhere. He has received awards and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, Arvon Foundation, Ford Foundation, Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and elsewhere, and delivered the annual Derek Walcott Lecture for the Nobel Laureate Festival in St. Lucia. He has contributed to books on visual artists for major exhibits on both sides of the Atlantic and won the Art Writing Award from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries for his work on Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Cornelius Tulloch is a Miami-based interdisciplinary artist and architect. His work transcends the boundaries of photography, fine art, and architecture. Tulloch’s work has been shown in institutions such as the Kennedy Center, Washington D.C.; NYU Center for Black Visual Culture, New York; CUE Art Foundation, New York; Locust Projects, Miami; Faena Art Project Room, Miami; and the MAXXI, Rome. He was a 2016 Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and his work is presented as part of the permanent collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Tulloch has won numerous prizes and residencies; he was named an Emerging Visionary Grantee by Instagram and the Brooklyn Museum’s Black Visionaries Program in 2022, is a two-time Oolite Ellies Award recipient, and received the 2023 YoungArts Jorge M. Perez Award.
The Visiting Fellowship is supported by The de Groot Foundation. Learn more:
Discover “Elements of Being” and watch Tulloch speak on the project here.
In an interview for the Center for African American Poetry & Poetics, Campbell states that “I don’t give voice to anyone. In fact, many give voices to me.” Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speaker(s) will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

Toddler Time (ages 1–3)
2024-06-20 11:00 - 11:30
Our Toddler Time is for children ages 1–3 and their caregivers, and features 30 minutes of stories, songs, and rhymes. Stories featured during our Toddler Time programs include short picture books and board books, such as Still This Love Goes On by Buffy Sainte-Marie and Julie Flett, which will be included in this 20 June event. This session will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads.
The program is entirely in English, as are all of our events for children and teens. No translation will be provided. Each child must be accompanied by an adult chaperone, and chaperones are required to remain with their children for the duration of the program. Parents and caregivers are expected to sit with their children beside them, or in their laps, and participate in the program. We ask that all caregivers put away their phones and other electronic devices for the duration of this program. With your help, we hope to inspire children to become lifelong readers! Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children and Teens Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Teen Night: Soundtracks (ages 12–18)
2024-06-21 19:00 - 21:00
Learn what songs inspired some of your favorite books, and what books inspired your favorite songs, then make a soundtrack for your favorite read. Together, we’ll discuss what makes a good soundtrack and how to match music to plot points and characters, then we’ll create soundtracks in groups and individually.
We’ll create a display for the Library’s Teen Mezzanine during this evening mashup of music and literature!
Light refreshments will be provided by the Library. Important information:
This event is free for Library members, and 15€ per teen for non-members. Advance registration is required. All visitors are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. After-hours events for teens, such as Teen Nights, require a signed permission slip, which can be downloaded here. One permission slip is needed per academic year (September–July).
Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children and Teens Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Electric Circuits: a Workshop (ages 8–12)
2024-06-22 11:00 - 12:00
In this workshop we’ll discuss currents, conductors, and voltage. Then, participants will experiment with simple conductive materials and electronics components to make a working circuit.
This event will be hosted by Children and Teens Services Manager Celeste Rhoads with the help of Library volunteers. This activity is entirely in English, and no translation will be provided. All participants must be able to understand and speak English in order to participate in the program.

Children between the ages 8–12 may participate in this Library program on their own, while their chaperone remains inside the Library.
Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children and Teens Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.
