Commonplace.NYC
Making New Yorkers Better Readers, One Book Club at a Time
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Event Calendar
A If on a winter's night a traveler focused book club. We will meet at the Drama Book Shop.
- Book Club Discussion at the Drama Book Shop: Thursday, Sep 17 · 4:00 PM–6:00 PM EDT
A decision-theory salon at CUNY Graduate Center with Columbia philosopher Melissa Fusco — tackling Newcomb's dilemma and the Sleeping Beauty paradox after our fifth session spectacularly failed to settle free will. We're moving on anyway, assuming we're free agents who can choose between options. But how? Are there laws of rationality that yield best answers, at least sometimes — or is rational choice a pipe dream? Paired with Jonny Thomson's Mini Philosophy as a companion: 2500 years of big ideas on scary movies, betting on God, pleasure vs. pain, and when a duck isn't a duck. RSVP required.
- The Analytic Salon: Decision Theory: Thursday, Sep 17 · 6:00 PM–7:30 PM EDT
An album-release show for World Enough and Time, the second record from Brooklyn electronic art-rock duo Vuzz, joined by cinematic industrial artist Metamyther and Maxx Klaxon at The Sultan Room Rooftop in Bushwick — paired with Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life, chronicling the American indie underground from 1981–1991.
- Vuzz: World Enough and Time Album Release: Thursday, Sep 17 · 7:00 PM–10:00 PM EDT
A The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family focused book club. We will visit the Jewish Museum — housed in the historic Felix M. Warburg House on the Upper East Side — to explore the Warburg family legacy and Jewish culture in New York City.
- Visit to the Jewish Museum: Friday, Sep 18 · 1:00 PM–3:00 PM EDT
An official Commonplace.NYC meeting at McCarren Park — come to New York's only book club that creates new book clubs!
- Official Commonplace.NYC Meeting: Friday, Sep 25 · 6:00 PM–7:00 PM EDT
A Orality and Literacy focused book club. We will take a look at modern verbal storytelling as it exists in spoken word poetry.
- Nyuorican Bowery Slam: Monday, Sep 28 · 6:00 PM–9:00 PM EDT
A Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World focused book club. We will meet at Brooklyn Museum's Art of Manga Exhibit and will also watch (some of) the first season of One Piece together (meeting biweekly on Zoom).
- One Piece Watch Party on Zoom: Every other Monday, Oct 5–Nov 20 · 7:00 PM–9:00 PM EDT
- Brooklyn Museum: Art of Manga Exhibit: Thursday, Nov 5 · 12:00 PM–3:00 PM EST
A free public presentation and group discussion at Brooklyn Central Library on treating reading as a system — learning to read more widely and deeply without relying on motivation alone, reducing phone distractions, juggling multiple books, building a commonplace book, and balancing print, ebooks, and audiobooks. Paired with Mortimer J. Adler's How to Read a Book, the 1972 classic (co-authored with Charles Van Doren) on critically reading great books across genres, from poetry and history to science and fiction. Event details.
- Reading is a System: Monday, Oct 19 · 5:30 PM–7:30 PM EDT
Past Events (11)
Are Prisons Obsolete? focused book club. We will attend Attica is All of Us at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture — a commemoration of the 55th anniversary of the Attica Prison Uprising and Massacre.
- Attica is All of Us at Schomburg Center: Saturday, Sep 12 · 5:30 PM–8:30 PM EDT
An I Robot focused book club. Asimov attended Columbia University for graduate studies. We will walk through the Columbia campus and discuss the book and its impact on science fiction.
- Walking at Columbia University to Discuss I, Robot: Thursday, Sep 10 · 6:15 PM–8:00 PM EDT
An Anti-Oedipus-themed book club on gender abolitionism, anchored by Grace Lavery's discussion of Personal Demons at BISR Central — exploring possession narratives, neoliberal personhood, and queer emancipation beyond the body-versus-consciousness binary.
- Personal Demons: A Conversation with Grace Lavery: Wednesday, Sep 9 · 7:00 PM–8:30 PM EDT
A Reading Together focused book club. We will attend a Quiet Reading event at the McCarren Park in Brooklyn for a communal reading session.
- Quiet Reading at McCarren Park: Monday, Sep 7 · 6:00 PM–7:30 PM EDT
A River of the Gods themed book club disguised as a pulp adventure expedition through Central Park — because what better way to discuss 19th-century European scrambles for the Nile's headwaters than by scrambling through the park yourself, fedora in hand, dodging betrayal and cryptic clues in search of a lost artifact? Colonialism meets cosplay meets literary analysis.
- Raiders of the Local Adventure: Saturday, Sep 5 · 2:00 PM–3:30 PM EDT
An Open themed book club visiting the US Open Player Tunnel and Champions' Photo Experience at Hudson Yards — walk through a recreation of the iconic entrance players make before stepping onto Arthur Ashe Stadium, and strike a pose like a US Open champion!
- US Open Player Tunnel and Champions' Photo Experience at Hudson Yards: Saturday, Sep 5 · 12:00 PM–1:00 PM EDT
A Mythical Man-Month focused book club. We will visit the original Bell Laboratories Building to see a historical technological marvel in New York City.
- Visit to Bell Labs Building: Friday, Sep 4 · 2:00 PM–3:00 PM EDT
An Anti-Oedipus themed book club meeting at The Fifth Place — an invitation-only space described as "nightclub meets absurdist behavior lab, dramaturgical glitch swarm, interpersonal derangement LARP." A 90-minute collider that twists instincts and suspends everyday habits through engineered rules of communication and behavior.
- The Fifth Place: A Room With New Rules: Thursday, Sep 3 · 8:00 PM–9:30 PM EDT
An Anti-Oedipus focused book club. We will attend a screening of Dead Man at Anthology Film Archives — a surreal Western in a space dedicated to surrealist cinema.
- Dead Man Screening at Anthology Film Archives: Sunday, Aug 30 · 8:30 PM–10:30 PM EDT
An Orality and Literacy focused book club featuring a walking tour meets street theater exploring New York language and slang in the Lower East Side, with special guest performers from PMT House of Dance.
- The City Speaks: Languages and Slang of NYC (with Special Guest Performers): Sunday, Aug 30 · 3:00 PM–5:00 PM EDT
A No-Nonsense Spirituality focused book club. We will go to The New York Society for Ethical Culture to join in one of their Humanist Happy Hours.
- Humanist Happy Hour at The New York Society for Ethical Culture: Friday, Aug 28 · 7:00 PM–9:00 PM EDT