Author Talks
Explore your next great read or dive deeper into the stories you love. Join acclaimed authors as they share insights about their latest books, their writing journeys, and the inspiration behind their work.
The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions with Amanda Bellows
- Wed, Feb 26
Run Time: 75 min.
A fascinating new history of America, told through the stories of a diverse cast of ten extraordinary—and often overlooked—adventurers, from Sacagawea to Matthew Henson to Sally Ride, who pushed the boundaries of discovery and determined our national destiny. Across two centuries and many thousands of miles of terrain, Amanda Bellows offers an ode to our country’s most intrepid adventurers—and reveals the history of America in the process.
John Jay Homestead Lecture Series: The Rising Generation: Gradual Abolition, Black Legal Culture, and the Making of National Freedom, with Sarah Gronningsater
- Tue, Mar 11
Run Time: 90 min.
Under New York’s 1799 Gradual Abolition scheme, a child born to an enslaved mother (as of a certain date) was deemed “free,” but had to continue as the servant of the mother’s owner until the age of 25 (for a girl) or 28 (for a boy). Gronningsater develops a deeply researched picture of the lives, politics, and legal efforts of this generation of Black children of ambiguous status, and how they combined with others to help shape important changes to the U.S. Constitution as well as groundbreaking state and Federal civil rights legislation.
John Jay Homestead Lecture Series: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation, with Brenda Wineapple
- Wed, Apr 9
Run Time: 90 min.
In 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee, John Scopes was charged with breaking the new law that banned the teaching of evolution in public schools. His trial became an international sensation, with brilliant and famous personalities – one, a former presidential candidate – representing the opposing sides during the so-called Roaring Twenties. Keeping the Faith brings to life this trial, its combatants, and the way it exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today, over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, and civil liberties in a democracy.

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House with Special Guest Ileana Douglas
- Sun, Apr 27
Director: H. C. Potter Run Time: 94 min. Rating: Not Rated Release Year: 1948
Starring: Cary Grant, Melvyn Douglas, Myrna Loy, Reginald Denny, Sharyn Moffett
New York adman Jim Blandings is ready to say goodbye to his cramped city apartment and build from the ground up a Connecticut home with room enough for his growing family and dreams. All it will cost him is his time and money ... and perhaps his job, marriage, happiness and what's left of his sanity. Goodbye, Manhattan. Hello, comedy. Following the film, renowned actress and author Illeana Douglas will discuss her book “Connecticut in the Movies: From Dream Houses to Dark Suburbia” and take questions from the audience. A copy of the book is included with each ticket.
John Jay Homestead Lecture Series: Glorious Lessons: John Trumbull, Painter of the American Revolution, with Richard Brookhiser
- Tue, May 6
Run Time: 90 min.
John Trumbull saw the American Revolution firsthand, including being shot at and jailed as a spy. He was seen by his contemporaries as a painter, but he thought of himself as a historian, wanting “to preserve and diffuse the memory of the noblest series of actions which have ever presented themselves in the history of man.” He knew John Jay well, having served as his secretary during the negotiations of the Jay Treaty, and he painted the only portrait in the Homestead’s collection that Jay actually sat for (the rest are copies).