The American Library in Paris

Toddler Time (ages 1–3)
2022-12-22 11:00 - 11:30 (Europe/Paris) | The American Library in Paris
Stories featured during our Toddler Time programs include short picture books and board books, such as Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Kadir Nelson, which will be included in this 22 December event.
Our Toddler Time is for children ages 1–3 and their caregivers, and lasts 30 minutes. This session will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads. 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.

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.

Library Explorers (8–12)
2022-12-18 14:00 - 15:00 | The American Library in Paris
Join Assistant Children’s and Teens’ Services Librarian Jason Hazard for a workshop dedicated to research. We’ll focus on ways to gather accurate information, and find out new and fascinating facts about the Library!
Participants who have a portable computer or electronic tablet are encouraged to bring them along for this workshop. Important information:
This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Please note: masks are strongly encouraged for all Library visitors ages 6 and up, staff, and volunteers. 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.

Saturday Series: Treasure Map-Making (ages 6–12)
2022-12-17 11:00 - 12:00 | The American Library in Paris
Join Assistant Children’s and Teens’ Services Librarian Jason and volunteers in the Children’s Library to learn about treasure seekers and pirates in history, then create your own treasure map to take home.
Each child (aged 6–12) may participate in the 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’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Story Hour: Meals Together (ages 3–5)
2022-12-14 14:30 - 15:30 | The American Library in Paris
For this Story Hour, we’ll read stories about food, family meals, and cooking and baking together, such as Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by KevinNoble Maillard, illustrated by Juana Matinez-Neal.
This Story Hour will be hosted by Assistant Children’s and Teens’ Services Librarian Jason Hazard and Library Volunteer Mary Wessels. They will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Plan to join in, sing along, and 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. 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.

Grace the Giraffe in Paris (ages 3–10)
2022-12-10 11:00 - 12:00 | The American Library in Paris
3–10 year-olds and their grown-ups are invited to join us for a special event with author Oliver Gee and illustrator Lina Nordin Gee as they read their new picture book Grace the Giraffe in Paris. Following the reading, Lina will show participants how to draw a giraffe and then the pair will answer questions about what inspired this fantastical tale, and they’ll share the fun facts they discovered as they created the story.
This live, interactive event will be hosted in the Children’s Library—Early. Library programs are created to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
About Oliver Gee and Lina Nordin Gee: Together, Oliver Gee and Lina Nordin Gee created Kylie the Crocodile in Paris, Roger the Liger in Paris, and Grace the Giraffe in Paris. Oliver Gee is the creator of the award-winning podcast about Paris and France, The Earful Tower. He used to be a full-time journalist in Paris, but switched to podcasting in December 2017. Lina Nordin Gee runs a chic shoe and handbag company, Deuxième Studios, and likes to draw and paint. You can see her illustrations on Instagram @ParisianPostcards. Find out more about The Earful Tower or purchase your own copy of Grace the Giraffe in Paris, their third picture book, here. 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.

Teen Night: Stuck in the Middle (Part 1) (ages 12–18)
2022-12-09 19:00 - 21:00 | The American Library in Paris
You’ve made it to Chapter 7, and suddenly you’re lost. The thrill you felt as you churned out those opening pages is gone. Your characters are annoying you, your plot is putting you to sleep, and the only place the story’s going is nowhere—fast. You’re tempted to throw in the towel. If this sounds all too familiar, then this event is for you!
In this two-part workshop hosted by Noah Weisz, we’ll explore the common reasons why writing projects lose steam in the middle, and we’ll experiment with a variety of techniques to breathe new life into a sagging story. Come prepared with your work-in-progress and the challenges you’re facing, and get ready to roll up your sleeves. By the time the workshop’s over, you might just find yourself with a path to the finish line—and the energy and motivation you need to get there!
Light refreshments will be provided by the Library.
Find out about part 2 in the series (Friday 20 January) here.
About Noah Weisz: Noah Weisz is a fiction writer and dedicated educator with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and over nine years’ experience helping students of all ages unleash the stories they have inside. Noah’s own writing for children and young adults has been widely published in literary magazines and has won the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award, the Katherine Paterson Prize for middle-grade fiction, the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award, and the F(r)iction Short Story Contest. He is also a three-time finalist for the Bath Children’s Novel Award. Originally from Washington, DC and a recent arrival in Paris, he currently teaches creative writing workshops and courses at several venues including the International School of Paris and Collège Sévigné. You can find out more about him here.

Important information:
Advance registration is required to attend this event, and each teen must have a signed permission slip on file at the Library in order to participate. Participation in teen events is free for Library members and 15€ per person for non-members. Library visitors are expected to familiarize themselves with 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.

Critical Conversations Meeting Two: The Cult of the Image
2022-12-08 19:00 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
“Today,” Susan Sontag writes, “everything exists to end in a photograph.” Are we all image-junkies? Are images mental pollution? What lurks outside the frame of our image-dominated society?
In partnership with Analog Sea, an offline publisher of printed books, we’re delighted to announce the fourth season of Critical Conversations, an expert-led discussion series that allows Library members to ponder the most important issues of our time. This season, we will reflect on how to lead a contemplative, vital, and unmediated life in an ever-faster digital world. We will discuss questions such as: What do we gain from disconnecting, and how can we do it? How can we sharpen our senses and redirect our attention in order to change our thoughts and actions? And most of all, how can we live in contemporary society with nuance and intention?
The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset writes that agitation dazzles, blinds, and compels us to act mechanically, like “frenetic sleepwalkers.” To address the perils of today is, first of all, to name them. Whether distraction, compulsion, and isolation, or noise, bright light, and convenience, during meetings one, two, and three, we will identify and begin to understand the snares of today’s increasingly digital world.
Some details: The 2022–23 series will unfold over nine sessions, from November 2022 to July 2023. Conversations will begin at 19h00 CET and run for ninety minutes, in person, at the Library; technology of all description is happily forbidden. Each participant will receive copies of all four Analog Sea Review volumes published so far. Course reading and discussion will, for the most part, be based on work published in The Analog Sea Review. Jonathan Simons, founding editor of Analog Sea, will begin each meeting with some opening remarks, before guiding a group discussion.
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. Please write to Emilie Biggs at biggs@americanlibraryinparis.org with any questions.
About the Critical Conversations 2022-23 leaders:
Jonathan Simons is the founding editor of offline publishing house Analog Sea and its literary journal, The Analog Sea Review. As a poet and essayist, he has written for publications including The London Magazine, PN Review, El País, subTerrain Magazine, and The Analog Sea Review. His work has been covered by, among others, the Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, the Washington Post and La Vanguardia. He researched Buddhist poetics at Naropa University and McGill University and was formerly a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Humans and Machines, in Berlin.
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.

(In person at the Centre Culturel Irlandais) The Waste Land Centenary
2022-12-07 19:30 - 21:00 | Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5 rue des Irlandais, Paris, Paris, 75005, France
Le Centre Culturel Irlandais, in conjunction with the T.S. Eliot Foundation and the American Library in Paris, will welcome Charlotte Rampling, Lambert Wilson, Amira Casar, Bruno Fontaine and Christophe Dilys for a special celebration of the centenary of T.S. Eliot’s modernist masterpiece, The Waste Land. Rampling and Wilson will revive Hope Mirrlees’s 1919 modernist poem entitled Paris, a 600-line journey through the city where Mirrlees lived before and after the Great War. Virginia and Leonard Woolf published the work which was acclaimed, dismissed and then forgotten. In the twenty-first century it has been rediscovered and reassessed as an early modernist masterpiece, anticipating a poem published by the Woolfs a few years later: The Waste Land.
During the celebration, Bruno Fontaine will perform music that inspired the rhythms of The Waste Land, as well as music of the era and songs admired by Eliot, in a unique improvisation commissioned especially for the evening. France Musique’s Christophe Dilys will present and contextualize the different parts of this one-off performance.
Important information: This event will happen at the Centre Culturel Irlandais at 5, rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris.
Access to this event requires purchase of a ticket through the Centre Culturel Irlandais. Click on the button below to purchase your ticket.

Story Hour: Ships, Ahoy! (ages 3–5)
2022-12-07 14:30 - 15:30 | The American Library in Paris
For this Story Hour, we’ll read stories about ships and boats of all sizes, such as Rescue Squade No. 9 by Mike Austin.
This Story Hour will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads and Library Volunteer Mary Wessels. They will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Plan to join in, sing along, and 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. 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) Joanna Walsh on My Life as a Godard Movie
2022-12-06 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
“It is rare to find a writer who can take such candid pleasure in beauty—the beauty of faces, figures, clothing, and cities—while also querying its injustices. To watch Godard’s films through Joanna Walsh’s eyes is to see envy and appreciation, longing and disavowal, walking hand in hand. This book is a gorgeous complex gesture of criticism.”—Merve Emre, writer and critic. Join Joanna Walsh, author of Girl Online, Break.up and Vertigo, to discuss her new book, My Life as a Godard Movie, a meditation on beauty, fashion, desire, politics, youth, art, and Paris, via the 1960s films of Jean-Luc Godard. Walsh will be in conversation with Summer Brennan.
About the speaker:
Joanna Walsh is a multidisciplinary writer for print, digital and performance. The author of eleven books (several co-written with AI), her publishers include Semiotext(e), Bloomsbury and Verso. She also works as an editor and university teacher. She is a Markievicz Awardee in the Republic of Ireland and a UK Arts Foundation fellow. She founded and ran the Twitter campaign @read_women (2014-18), described by the New York Times as ‘a rallying cry for equal treatment for women writers’. She currently runs @noentry_arts. Her latest book is My Life as a Godard Movie, published by Transit books.
Summer Brennan is a Paris-based writer. An award-winning journalist, Brennan is an Orion Book Award Finalist, and author of The Oyster War, High Heel, and the forthcoming The Parisian Sphinx, A True Tale of Art and Obsession.
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Walsh and Brennan 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.
This event requires advance registration.
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.

(In Person at mk2 Bibliothèque) Femme. Vie. Liberté avec Azar Nafisi
2022-12-03 11:00 - 12:00 | mk2 Bibliotheque, 128 - 162 Av. de France, Paris, 75013, France
A conversation at the mk2 Bibliothèque with Azar Nafisi. Writer and professor of literature, author of best-seller Lire Lolita à Téhéran, Azar Nafisi is one of the biggest intellectual figures engaged in the fight for Iranian women’s rights. Expelled from the University of Tehran in 1981 for refusing to wear a veil, forced to work in hiding, and finally self-exiled to the United States in 1997, Azar Nafisi has worked incessantly in the fight against any form of political or religious authoritarianism. Nafisi will be in conversation with essayist and journalist Caroline Fourest. All proceeds from this event will go toward the human rights agency Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
The American Library in Paris will be co-sponsoring this event.
Important information: This event will take place in person at the mk2 Bibliothèque at 128 – 162 Av. de France, 75013 Paris.
This conversation will be in French.
Access to this event requires purchase of a ticket through mk2. Click on the button below to purchase your ticket.

The Story Box with Anjali Morard (ages 6–12)
2022-12-03 11:00 - 12:00 | The American Library in Paris
For this event, Anjali Morard will read her picture book Fortnum’s Night Out, then participants will discuss the elements that make up a story. Each participating child will then create their own story with guidance and tips from Anjali.

Children between the ages 6–8 must have a chaperone with them to assist with the written portion of the event. Children ages 9–12 may participate in Library programs on their own, while their chaperone remains inside the Library.
All caregivers are welcome to join in this activity with their children.
About Anjali Morard: Anjali is a scientist who recently published her first children’s book. She has a PhD in psychology and was a research fellow for several years in child development. She loves writing, and her goal is to spark curiosity in the mind of the reader. Fortnum’s Night Out is her first picture book. A hardcover is available for sale (to be picked-up directly from the author) via Anjali Morard’s website.The softcover version of the book is available on Amazon.

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.

(Online) Simon Critchley on Questioning Everything
2022-11-30 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
The New York Times’s philosophy series, the Stone, provides a platform for voices in different fields to speak on timeless philosophical questions. From democracy and ethics to human nature and the meaning of life, Times editors invite authors, artists, politicians, and more to contribute perspectives informed by their crafts. In Question Everything, editors Simon Critchley and Peter Catapano compile essays published in the Stone which, rather than providing definitive answers, call to attention the value of questioning itself. Presenting a diverse array of stances and demanding self-reflection, the work is a celebration of critical thought. Critchley will speak on the project of the Stone, the many directions of contemporary philosophy, and the art and importance of questioning in the current day.
About the speaker:
Simon Critchley is the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. He is the author of more than thirty works of philosophy in diverse topics such as humor, democracy, suicide, and David Bowie. Critchley is moderator of the Stone.
Important information: This event requires advance registration.
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: Friends, Near and Far (ages 3–5)
2022-11-30 14:30 - 15:30 | The American Library in Paris
For this Story Hour, we’ll read stories about friends near, and friends far away, as well as how to keep in touch with those we love, such as Evelyn Del Rey is Moving Away by Meg Medina, illustrated by Sonia Sánchez.
This Story Hour will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads and Library Volunteer Mary Wessels. They will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Plan to join in, sing along, and move around, and model movement and listening for your little one. We ask that caregivers put away their phones and other devices for the duration of this program.

Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. A valid Library membership card must be presented for each person attending the program. 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.

Entre Nous: Thinking Translation with Gayatri Spivak and Emily Apter
2022-11-29 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
What is translatable? How is meaning transferred across languages, and which pockets of signification slip away? What is the nature of this slippage? In her new work Living Translation, renowned theorist Gayatri Spivak approaches the comparative humanities as a site of translation, and reflects upon her long career in the field. Moving deftly between postcolonial, psychoanalytic, critical, and linguistic markers, Spivak operates at the borders of thought, illuminating translation as a theory of borders. Spivak will converse with philosopher and Living Translation editor Emily Apter about thinking, writing, and living in translation.
About the speakers:
Gayatri Spivak is a University Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She is a founding member of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. She is globally renowned for her work studying British, French, and German literature during the long 19th century as well as cultural, feminist, Marxist, Derrida, and globalist studies.
Emily Apter is the Silver Professor of French and Comparative Literature at New York University. Throughout her long and illustrative career, she has explored questions in language, political theory, translation, and French philosophy. She was the president of the American Comparative Literature Association from 2017–2018 and editor of the book series Translation/Transnation. She has been awarded Guggenheim, Mellon, ACLS, NEH, and Rockefeller fellowships.
The Entre Nous series is co-organized by Columbia Global Centers | Paris, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, and the American Library in Paris.
Important information: Spivak and Apter will not be appearing in person. While the conversation will happen online (Spivak and Apter will appear on Zoom), the Library will stream the conversation in the Reading Room for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
This event requires advance registration.
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.

Paris Explorers (ages 8–12)
2022-11-27 14:00 - 15:00 | The American Library in Paris
Join Assistant Children’s and Teens’ Services Librarian Jason Hazard for a workshop dedicated to discovering the city of Paris. We’ll focus on ways to gather accurate information, and find out new and fascinating facts about the city!
Participants who have a portable computer or electronic tablet are encouraged to bring them along for this workshop. Devices will be provided if required. Important information: This event is for Library members and each child attending must have a valid membership card. 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) Marc Selverstone on The Kennedy Withdrawal
2022-11-23 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
The Kennedy administration’s support for withdrawing from Vietnam, abandoned in the aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination, is an ambiguous and heavily-debated moment in American political history. Did Kennedy himself author this plan? What did he stand to gain politically from such a maneuver, and what was his personal stance on the matter? After careful study of secret White House tapes, historian Marc Selverstone offers a new perspective on the matter in his new work, The Kennedy Withdrawal. Combining skilled analysis with historical insight, Selverstone reveals hidden depths to the Kennedy administration’s strategies and cabinet dynamics. Selverstone will be in conversation with journalist Charles Trueheart.
About the speakers:
Marc Selverstone is an American historian. He leads the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, where he is Associate Professor of Presidential Studies. Selverstone’s 2009 work Constructing the Monolith: The United States, Great Britain, and International Communism, 1945-1950 was awarded the Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.
Charles Trueheart is a contributing editor at the American Scholar. He is a former Washington Post correspondent and director of the American Library in Paris. His book about Vietnam in the early 1960s, Two Gentlemen in Saigon, will appear next year.
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Selverstone and Trueheart 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.
This event requires advance registration.
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: Thanksgiving (ages 3–5)
2022-11-23 14:30 - 15:30 | The American Library in Paris
For this Story Hour, we’ll read stories all about Thanksgiving, and fall feasts, including Feast for 10 by Cathryn Falwell.
This Story Hour will be hosted by Assistant Children’s and Teens’ Services Librarian Jason Hazard. He will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Plan to join in, sing along, and move around, and model movement and listening for your little one. We ask that caregivers put away their phones and other devices for the duration of this program.

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 Story of African Émigrés in Harlem with Boukary Sawadogo
2022-11-22 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Africans are not the face of immigration debates in the United States as has traditionally been the case of other migrant and diasporic groups. Yet, Sub-Saharan African émigrés are growing in many places, doubling their number every ten years since the 1980s to reach two million in 2019. Nowhere is this more vibrant than in the historically Black neighborhood of Harlem in New York City. Join scholar and author Boukary Sawadogo not only to discuss the story of African immigrants in Harlem’s most recent renaissance, but also to interrogate the multifaceted historical connections and exchanges between Africa and Black America through Harlem.
About the speaker:
Dr. Boukary Sawadogo is an Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and Black Studies at the City University of New York’s City College and CUNY Graduate Center. Beyond African film and media industries, Sawadogo’s work is widening in scope and depth to include study of African immigration in the 20th- and 21st-century America amidst national demographic shifts. He has recently authored the book Africans in Harlem: An Untold New York Story (2022).
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Sawadogo 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.
This event requires advance registration.
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.

History of Paris Scavenger Hunt (ages 12–18)
2022-11-20 14:00 - 16:00 | The American Library in Paris
Join Assistant Children’s and Teens’ Services Librarian Jason Hazard for a scavenger hunt in the Library and outdoors. We’ll focus on ways to gather accurate information, and discover new facts about the city of light.

Important information: This event is free for Library members, and 15€ per person for non-members, and advance registration is required. All Library users are expected to familiarize themselves with 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.

Teen Night: Scary Movie Night (ages 12–18)
2022-11-18 19:00 - 21:30 | The American Library in Paris
Join us for a scary movie night! Vote on the horror film to you’d like to watch when you register for this event. Participate in scary movie trivia 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. Drinks and light snacks will be provided. Important information: Advance registration is required to attend this event, and each teen must have a signed permission slip on file at the Library in order to participate. Participation in teen events is free for Library members and 15€ per person for non-members. Library visitors are expected to familiarize themselves with 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.

Critical Conversations Meeting One: Overstimulated in a Hyperstimulated World
2022-11-17 19:00 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
“We have to accept that technological products are not neutral,” Pope Francis writes in Laudato si’. How did we get here? And what have we lost along the way?
In partnership with Analog Sea, an offline publisher of printed books, we’re delighted to announce the fourth season of Critical Conversations, an expert-led discussion series that allows Library members to ponder the most important issues of our time. This season, we will reflect on how to lead a contemplative, vital, and unmediated life in an ever-faster digital world. We will discuss questions such as: What do we gain from disconnecting, and how can we do it? How can we sharpen our senses and redirect our attention in order to change our thoughts and actions? And most of all, how can we live in contemporary society with nuance and intention?
The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset writes that agitation dazzles, blinds, and compels us to act mechanically, like “frenetic sleepwalkers.” To address the perils of today is, first of all, to name them. Whether distraction, compulsion, and isolation, or noise, bright light, and convenience, during meetings one, two, and three, we will identify and begin to understand the snares of today’s increasingly digital world.
Some details: The 2022–23 series will unfold over nine sessions, from November 2022 to July 2023. Conversations will begin at 19h00 CET and run for ninety minutes, in person, at the Library; technology of all description is happily forbidden. Each participant will receive copies of all four Analog Sea Review volumes published so far. Course reading and discussion will, for the most part, be based on work published in The Analog Sea Review. Jonathan Simons, founding editor of Analog Sea, will begin each meeting with some opening remarks, before guiding a group discussion.
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. Please write to Emilie Biggs at biggs@americanlibraryinparis.org with any questions.
About the Critical Conversations 2022-23 leader:
Jonathan Simons is the founding editor of offline publishing house Analog Sea and its literary journal, The Analog Sea Review. As a poet and essayist, he has written for publications including The London Magazine, PN Review, El País, subTerrain Magazine, and The Analog Sea Review. His work has been covered by, among others, the Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, the Washington Post and La Vanguardia. He researched Buddhist poetics at Naropa University and McGill University and was formerly a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Humans and Machines, in Berlin.
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) Lauren Bastide on Feminist Futures
2022-11-16 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
What would a truly feminist society look like? In new work Futur.es, author Lauren Bastide asks what would happen if feminist principles were pushed beyond gender relations and applied to all aspects of public and private life. The result, she argues, would be a total transformation of our most basic beliefs and practices. From education and prison reform, to love and work, feminist theory could be capable of revolutionizing the modern world and confronting the most pressing issues of the contemporary age. The tools to build the future we want, claims Bastide, are already at our disposal: it is now our responsibility to use them. Bastide will be speaking with journalist Madeleine Schwartz at the American Library on the state of the present and the multiple possibilities of a feminist future.
About the speakers:
Lauren Bastide is a journalist and writer. She is the creator of the podcast La Poudre, on which she hosts artists, writers, scientists, and activists to speak on feminist issues. Futur.es follows Bastide’s work Presentes (2020), which documents women’s experiences and contemporary feminist struggles.
Madeleine Schwartz is a journalist and editor based in Paris whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The London Review of Books and The New York Review of Books
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Bastide 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.
This event requires advance registration.
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: Bears All Around (ages 3–5)
2022-11-16 14:30 - 15:30 | The American Library in Paris
For this Story Hour, we’ll read stories both factual and fictional all about bears, including There Are No Bears in This Bakery Julia Sarcone-Roach.
This Story Hour will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads and Library Volunteer Mary Wessels. They will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Plan to join in, sing along, and move around, and model movement and listening for your little one. We ask that caregivers put away their phones and other devices for the duration of this program.

Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. A valid Library membership card must be presented for each person attending the program. 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) Christopher Prendergast on Living and Dying with Marcel Proust
2022-11-15 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
From recent features at the Musée Carnavalet and the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme to uncountable commentaries and historical studies, Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time remains an object of public fascination and adoration one hundred years after its publication. No one is more qualified to speak on the depths of Proustianism than Christopher Prendergast, general editor of Penguin’s English reissues of Proust’s magnum opus. In new work Living and Dying with Marcel Proust, Prendergast maps out the life, mind, and Recherche of Proust, revealing the genius of the author and the enduring importance of the text. Join him at the American Library in celebrating life, literature, love, time, memory, and Marcel Proust.
About the speaker:
Christopher Prendergast is a fellow of Cambridge University and the British Academy. A writer for the London Review of Books and New Left Review, he is an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Officier dans l‘Ordre des Palmes académiques. Living and Dying with Marcel Proust was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Publishers’ Weekly Most Anticipated Work of 2022.
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Prendergast 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.
This event requires advance registration.
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.

(Online) Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim on Ecology and Religion
2022-11-09 19:30 - 20:30 | https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84828708997
What can world religions teach us about the earth? How does religion express our relationship to nature, and how can we use religious philosophy to mitigate nature’s destruction? Yale historians of religion Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim will speak on their work, Ecology and Religion. Posing the question, “what is religious ecology?”, the book shows how global religions and environmental practices intersect in ways both obvious and surprising. Ultimately, Tucker and Grim propose that religion can contribute an ethical and spiritual dimension to ecology, motivating the fight for climate justice. Join them at the Library to discuss ways of thinking about the natural world, ways of engaging with it, and ways of changing it for the better.
About the speakers:
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim are Senior Lecturers and Research Scholars at the Yale School of the Environment, Yale Divinity School, and Religious Studies Department. Together, they direct the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, and are Executive Producers of the Emmy-award winning film, Journey of the Universe. Ecology and Religion was published in 2014.
Important information: This event requires advance registration.
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: Look Up, Look Around (ages 3–5)
2022-11-09 14:30 - 15:30 | The American Library in Paris
For this Story Hour, we’ll read stories all about noticing the details in the world around us, including How to Find a Fox by Nilah Magruder.
This Story Hour will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads and Library Volunteer Mary Wessels. They will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Plan to join in, sing along, and move around, and model movement and listening for your little one. We ask that caregivers put away their phones and other devices for the duration of this program.

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.

Entre Nous: Three Archives in Conversation with Lynnette Widder, João Pina, and Mila Turajlić
2022-11-08 19:00 - 20:00 | Reid Hall, 4 Rue de Chevreuse, Paris, Paris, 75006, France
Archives are imagined to be well-ordered places of safe-keeping; but most discoveries are made in unsuspected and unordered repositories of the past. Lynnette Widder, João Pina, and Mila Turajlić will talk about their experiences with archives as a catalyst for their work – archives neglected by history, maintained by families, sequestered in institutions, left behind in unculled bequests.
The conversation is in celebration of Widder’s architecture book Year Zero to Economic Miracle: Hans Schwippert and Sep Ruf in Postwar West German Building Culture and Turajlić’s documentary film Ciné-guerrillas: The Scenes From the Labudović Reels, and in anticipation of Pina’s forthcoming book on the discovery of family photographs of the Tarrafal concentration camp in Cape Verde.
The Entre Nous series is co-organized by Columbia Global Centers | Paris, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, and the American Library in Paris.
Important information: This event will take place in person at Reid Hall | Columbia Global Centers at 4 rue de Chevreuse.
Access to this event requires registration through Columbia Global Centers | Paris. Click on the button below to reserve your place.

(Hybrid) Justin Smith on The Internet is Not What You Think It Is
2022-11-02 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
The internet was born out of a desire to improve human life. By increasing access to information and facilitating communication, it would bring human beings closer, united in their quest for enlightened living. This utopian dream, argues historian Justin Smith in new work The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is, is the product of centuries of work aimed at making knowledge distributable. Unfortunately, Smith contends, this dream is officially, definitively dead. Considering social media, information algorithms, and smartphone dependency, Smith shows how the internet was transformed from social tool to social problem. Equal parts intellectual history, philosophical treatise, and manifesto, the book sounds the alarm for our future. Smith will be in conversation with Analog Sea founding editor Jonathan Simons and American Library Programs Manager Alice McCrum.
About the speaker:
Justin Smith is a historian and philosopher of science. A professor at the University of Paris, Smith is the author of Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason (2019), The Philosopher: A History in Six Types (2016), and Divine Machines: Leibniz and the Sciences of Life (2011).
Jonathan Simons is the founding editor of offline publishing house Analog Sea and its literary journal, The Analog Sea Review. As a poet and essayist, he has written for publications including the London Magazine, PN Review, El País, subTerrain Magazine, and the Analog Sea Review.
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Smith 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.
US viewers, please note French daylight savings time. This event will happen at 2:30 pm EDT.
This event requires advance registration.
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: Wheels Go Round (ages 3–5)
2022-11-02 14:30 - 15:30 | The American Library in Paris
For this Story Hour, we’ll read stories all about vehicles, including Wheels by Sally Sutton and Brian Lovelock.
This Story Hour will be hosted by Assistant Children’s and Teens’ Services Librarian Jason Hazard and Library Volunteer Mary Wessels. They will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Plan to join in, sing along, and move around, and model movement and listening for your little one. We ask that caregivers put away their phones and other devices for the duration of this program.

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.
