Now at the Jefferson Market Library

By CORINNE NEARY

MARKET NIGHT. Image by James Falciano.

With the arrival of summer have come quite a few well-timed developments at Jefferson Market Library. Let’s get to them!

First, and just in time for the heat of the season, comes the revival of our movie screenings. We’ve recently completed an audio-visual renovation in our first floor Willa Cather room, giving us a vastly improved setup for our regular Monday night movies, as well as some summertime matinees. Please check our event listings and flyers for the upcoming showings. Of course, you can count on us for some of your Old Hollywood favorites and maybe a few things which will be new to you.

Next up, we are seeking artists and makers for our Late Summer Soiree and Art Market on Friday, September 8 from 5-7 p.m. As always, we’ll have live music, a book swap, refreshments and six local artists sharing and selling their work. It will be a fun night to have a drink with friends after your summer travels, pick up a few free books and support the local arts community!  To participate, please reach out to corinneneary@nypl.org.

And finally, some information about our next Jefferson Market University class: Religion and Literature in Dialogue, led by Ernie Rubinstein of NYU’s School of Professional Studies. This five-session course will be held on Tuesday, August 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29 from 1 to 2:30p.m. in the third floor Mae West Room. Because this is a small, seminar style course, registration is required and begins Wednesday, July 5.  Visit nypl.org to register.

Through readings and discussions in class, participants will explore religion as a multi-faceted phenomenon that includes doctrines, stories, rituals and communal practices. What happens when a poet or novelist appropriates a story from the Bible, a teaching or liturgical practice from Christianity or Judaism and reshapes it according to her or his own imagination?  How do writers exercise poetic license with religion, affirming some parts of it while pushing back on others?

The course will look at five themes of perennial interest to Christianity and Judaism—love, death, evil, suffering and forgiveness. These themes have also intrigued poets, novelists, essayists and short-story writers. We’ll read excerpted passages from the Bible, the liturgy and theology in comparison with creative writing from John Donne, Emily Dickinson and Mary Gordon, among many others. Each class will turn on texts from the worlds of religion and literature arranged to invite comparison, contrast and dialogue.

Professor Ernie Rubinstein holds a Ph.D. in comparative religion from Northwestern University.  He is author of the book, “Religion and the Muse: The Vexed Relation Between Religion and Western Literature.”  He has taught in NYU’s School of Professional Studies since 1995.