Jefferson Market Library Events

By Corinne Neary, Senior Adult Librarian

Picture it: you’re tired from walking on a hot day, you come across a lovely church and decide to rest your feet for a few minutes while checking out the architecture. However, what you find inside is not just shade and quiet but a missing piece of art worth much more than anyone seems to realize. This is what happened to Thomas Ruggio, Iona University Professor of Fine Art and Art History, who we are excited to welcome to the Jefferson Market Library on Wednesday, June 5 at 6:30 pm. He will talk about his new book, Finding Dandini: The Rediscovery of a Painting and a 17th-Century Artist. Ruggio’s book focuses on the work of Cesare Dandini, an artist who rose to prominence in the early 1630s amid one of the darkest periods in the history of Florence. More specifically, his scholarship investigates the rediscovery of the previously missing work Holy Family with the Infant Saint John.

Finding Dandini will soon be available for checkout from the NY Public Library but in the meantime, you can hear about this wild occurrence from the author himself, and there will be time for audience questions. We hope you will join us!

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Additionally, on Saturday, June 22 at 3 pm, we are excited to celebrate the theater artist and queer icon, Eva Le Gallienne. In 1926, at the age of 27, the Broadway star left the commercial theater behind to establish the Civic Repertory Theatre on West 14th Street. With the aim of producing high-quality plays at the lowest possible prices, she served as the Civic Rep’s lead actor, director, and producer for seven years. Behind the scenes, she was openly gay at a time when many queer people still lived in the shadows. In bringing to life the remarkable story of this pioneering woman, writer-performer Barrie Kreinik has created a riveting audio drama that reveals as much about our present-day culture as it does about the challenges this powerful artist faced. Join us for a live reading by the actors who recorded the audio drama, The Queen of Fourteenth Street, written by Kreinik.The reading will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Helen Sheehy, the author of the New York Times Notable book, Eva Le Gallienne: A Biography.

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Finally, we have a fabulous lineup of movies for June, shown on Monday and Thursday nights. As always, 6 pm is our usual screen time but we sometimes have a 5 pm start for those extra-long films so please check our flyers or website. One extra fun upcoming title is Athena, the colorful 1954 MGM musical starring Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds. Similarly, on Thursday, June 6, we’re showing Girl with Green Eyes (1964) based on Edna O’Brien’s book, The Lonely Girl. In this black and white film, a young woman leaves behind her sheltered existence in the Irish countryside and moves to Dublin. These aren’t movies you’ll find playing at your typical theater so please come by and bring a date!

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Proust-Czapski Spring Festival, with Monika Zaleska

Join us for Monika Zaleska’s talk on Swann in Love, the crucial section of Swann’s Way that “initiates” the reader into Proust’s visionary writing on love and jealousy.

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Tuesday, June 11 — 6:00-7:30 pm
The Proust Center at Jefferson Market Library
All events are free and open to the public. As space is limited, registration is required.