The Newberry organizes and hosts programs illuminating topics in the humanities through a variety of formats, including lectures, staged readings, music and dance performances, panel discussions, workshops, and more.
Some events are part of ongoing series, such as Conversations at the Newberry, Meet the Author talks, Programs for Genealogists, the weekly Newberry Colloquium, and exhibition-related programming; others are signature annual events, such as the Newberry Book Fair and the Bughouse Square Debates. Additional public programming may be sponsored by the Newberry’s Research Centers.
Most Newberry public programs are free. Seating is limited and obtaining free tickets in advance is required for many events; see the individual listings for details.
Many of our programs are recorded, and you can listen to them on our website.
Upcoming Public Programs
Friday, January 24, 2020 – Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Exhibitions
Update regarding COVID-19: The Newberry is closed to the public through at least April 7. Please check www.newberry.org/covid19 for regular updates about library operations.
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Meet the Author
Meet the Author: Ann Durkin Keating
The Newberry has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are postponing this program. Please visit www.newberry.org/covid19 for more information and for regular updates regarding Newberry operations.
Saturday, April 4, 2020
Programs for Genealogists
The Newberry has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are canceling this program. Please visit www.newberry.org/covid19 for more information and for regular updates regarding Newberry operations.
Saturday, April 4, 2020
Colonial History Lecture: Eric Hinderaker
The Newberry has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are postponing this program. Please visit www.newberry.org/covid19 for more information and for regular updates regarding Newberry operations.
Saturday, April 4, 2020
Center for American Indian Studies Programs
First Nations Film and Video Festival (FNFVF)
The Newberry has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are postponing this program. Please visit www.newberry.org/covid19 for more information and for regular updates regarding Newberry operations.
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Part III: And the Pursuit of Happiness
Jonathan Lear of the University of Chicago delivers the last of three lectures on how our fears of catastrophe—from climate crisis to political collapse—shape the ways we imagine the ends and purposes of human life.
Saturday, April 18, 2020 – Friday, July 3, 2020
Exhibitions
During a time of globalization, colonization, and warfare, Europeans in the Renaissance embraced new technology even as they lamented its disruptive, destructive, and destabilizing consequences.
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
The Newberry has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are postponing this program. Please visit www.newberry.org/covid19 for more information and for regular updates regarding Newberry operations.
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Meet the Author
Meet the Author: Erik S. Gellman
The Newberry has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are postponing this program. Please visit www.newberry.org/covid19 for more information and for regular updates regarding Newberry operations.
Sunday, April 26, 2020
The Newberry has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are postponing this program. Please visit www.newberry.org/covid19 for more information and for regular updates regarding Newberry operations.
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Chicago Studies Programs
Tikia K. Hamilton, Wanda Hendricks, and Kenvi Phillips
The Newberry and the National Women’s History Museum have been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are postponing this program.
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Center for Renaissance Studies Programs
Paula Findlen and Joel Mokyr
The Newberry has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are postponing this program. Please visit www.newberry.org/covid19 for more information and for regular updates regarding Newberry operations.
Saturday, May 2, 2020
Programs for Genealogists
The Newberry has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are canceling this program. Please visit www.newberry.org/covid19 for more information and for regular updates regarding Newberry operations.
Saturday, May 2, 2020
Center for American Indian Studies Programs
First Nations Film and Video Festival (FNFVF)
The Newberry has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are postponing this program. Please visit www.newberry.org/covid19 for more information and for regular updates regarding Newberry operations.
Thursday, May 7, 2020
Meet the Author
Meet the Author: Jake Dorman
The Newberry has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are postponing this program. Please visit www.newberry.org/covid19 for more information and for regular updates regarding Newberry operations.
Saturday, May 9, 2020
Chicago Studies Programs
The Newberry has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are postponing this program. Please visit www.newberry.org/covid19 for more information and for regular updates regarding Newberry operations.
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Conversations at the Newberry
Jacqueline Stewart and Alexandra Zapruder
The Newberry has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19. To enable our community to follow the standards of social distancing mandated by public health officials, we are postponing this program. Please visit www.newberry.org/covid19 for more information and for regular updates regarding Newberry operations.
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Center for Renaissance Studies Programs
Shakespeare Project of Chicago
A quintessential dark comedy, Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure is a genre-bending exploration of justice, mercy, morality, and corruption–and one of the Bard’s best-known “problem plays.” Join us for a theatrical reading of the play by professional actors from The Shakespeare Project of Chicago in a performance directed by Erin Sloan.
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Center for Renaissance Studies Programs
Conversation with Susan Dackerman (Stanford University) and Pedro Raposo (Adler Planetarium)
Free and open to all. Reserve your free tickets starting April 1
During the Renaissance, the development of new scientific tools and their promotion through print media altered navigation, inspired exploration, and enabled European colonialism.
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Center for the History of Cartography Programs
The Chicago Map Society's May Meeting
The Midwest is a region that’s difficult to define, especially to those that reside outside of America’s heartland. What states are included? Does the idea of the Midwest change over time? What does it mean to be Midwestern? Fellow CMS member Amanda Murphyao explores possible definitions of the region in her presentation on carto-caricatures of the Midwest.
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Chicago Studies Programs
Free and open to all. Reserve your free tickets starting April 1
A major figure in Chicago’s Black Renaissance, Katherine Dunham fused ballet and modern dance with ethnographic research she conducted in the Caribbean to create dynamic hybrid forms of black internationalist dance.
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Meet the Author
Meet the Author: Donna Rifkind
Free and open to all. Reserve your free tickets starting April 1
In her new book The Sun and the Stars: Salka Viertel and Hitler’s Exiles in the Golden Age of Hollywood, writer Donna Rifkind tells the little-known story of screenwriter Salka Viertel, whose salons in Hollywood in the 1930s and ‘40s created a refuge for many famous figures who had escaped the horrors of World War ll.
Saturday, June 6, 2020
Free and open to all. Reserve your free tickets starting May 1.
Join us for a medieval-themed children’s program featuring readings and crafts. Newberry staff member and medievalist Sarah Wilson will read selections from the picture books Marguerite Makes a Book, by Bruce Robertson, and The White Cat and the Monk: A Retelling of the Poem “Pangur Ban,” by Jo Ellen Bogart.
Saturday, June 6, 2020
Programs for Genealogists
Free and open to all. No tickets required.
Want to branch out and fill in your family tree? Eager to take your genealogical research to the next level? In this free, hour-long orientation, Newberry staff will introduce you to the Newberry and the huge selection of genealogical resources we offer.
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Center for Renaissance Studies Programs
Conversation with Jonathan Tavares (The Art Institute of Chicago) and Suzanne Karr Schmidt (Newberry Library)
Free and open to all. Reserve your free tickets starting May 1.
The development of gunpowder, stirrups, and new techniques for polishing armor changed the face of war in sixteenth-century Europe.
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Center for the History of Cartography Programs
The Chicago Map Society's June Meeting
In June, we will take our annual field trip to the MacLean Collection in Lake Forest, Illinois. The MacLean Collection is one of the premier map destinations in the United States, with close to 40,000 individual items, and we’re grateful for their generosity in sharing their collection.