Spinning Poetry: The Spoken Word
2024-10-23 18:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | The Institute LIbrary, 847 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT, 06510
We now delve further into the Caedmon catalog for another major modernist poet reading her work, Marianne Moore, and then feature work of John Ashbery (who admired Moore’s work) reading his sometimes moving, sometimes funny, and often challenging poems that benefit from his upstate New York voice and from his droll, understated delivery.
Rounding out the evening are selections from Caedmon’s own “big hits” disc, its Treasury of Modern Poets, including Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Frost, and many other possibilities. We’ll start a little later this time to help people get to the Institute Library’s music listening room from work or other daily responsibilities.

Listen Here: Short Stories Read Aloud
2025-01-21 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-02-18 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-03-11 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-04-15 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-05-20 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-17 19:00 - 21:00 | The Institute LIbrary, 847 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT, 06510
Storytelling for grownups! Captivating short stories read aloud by actors from the New Haven Theater Company with a talk-back session to follow. Tea and cookies served.
Free and open to the public!

This Ain’t No Book Club
2025-03-20 17:30 - 19:30 | The Institute LIbrary, 847 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT, 06510
A free, open to the public opportunity for readers who can’t seem to find time to just sit and read. It’s a book club minus the assigned reading, minus the literary peacocking, minus the interpersonal drama. Come sit in one of our chairs, and focus on whatever book you choose — either Bring Your Own Book or pluck one off our shelves! This program is free and open to the public; we do want to remind people who’ve never been here before that the Institute Library can only be reached by walking up a flight of stairs, and the Library is not ADA-compliant. Feel like you need a cup of tea? That can be arranged. Questions: Email the Operations Manager: Eva@InstituteLibrary.org

The Charter Oak Pen Club Meets The Institute Library
2025-03-29 13:00 - 15:00 | CT
None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try.” — Mark Twain.
Join us on Saturday March 29th, from 1 to 3 pm, for a gathering of New England fountain pen lovers. Jonathan Weinberg, artist and curator of the Maurice Sendak Foundation, will lead a discussion and demonstration of the wonders of fountain pens for writing and drawing. Some of his fellow members of the Charter Oak Pen Club will talk about collecting vintage pens and the differences between old and new pens. If you share the fountain pen addiction, you are welcome to bring some of your own favorites. For those new to the world of pen collecting, there will be plenty of advice on how to get started and the opportunity to try out new and old pens. Everyone is welcome!

Outwitted and Outplayed? Inside the 2024 election: A Talk with Chris Whipple, author of Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History
2025-07-15 19:00 - 20:30 | CT
A relaxed conversation with Chris Whipple

Chris Whipple’s new book, “Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History” exposes how ambition, conviction, corruption, and luck drove the most consequential election in modern history. Hear Chris relate never-told-before stories from inside both the Trump and Harris campaigns by way of political heavyweights such as Paul Manafort, Jared and Ivanka Kushner, Kellyanne Conway, Leon Panetta, and Biden chiefs-of-staff Ron Klain and Jeffrey Zients. Chris Whipple is a New York Times bestselling author and widely acclaimed documentary filmmaker, speaker, and Peabody and Emmy Award-winning journalist. A former producer at 60 Minutes, he now contributes to The New York Times and The Washington Post, and has written for Vanity Fair, Politico, and the Daily Beast, among other outlets. He is the author of numerous groundbreaking political books, including “The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency” and “The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House.”
Free for those who are currently members of the Institute Library; non-members $10 (suggested contribution).
Limited Seating, please click here to RSVP or use the QR code below.

Listen Here!
2025-11-18 18:30 - 21:00 | The Institute LIbrary, 847 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT, 06510
Short stories read by members of the New Haven Theater Company, with talkback afterwards led by Bennett Lovett-Graff. Tea and cookies available for those who need caloric sustenance and warmth; stories and dialogue takes care of warming heart and soul. This event is free and open to the public; donations to the Institute Library are, however, welcomed.

The Institute Library Goes to Kansas?: A Special Event at the Institute Library
2026-04-09 19:00 - 21:00 | The Institute LIbrary, 847 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT, 06510
A free, open to the public talk about one of the most unlikely-sounding chapters in the history of The Institute Library: the chapter in which a group of members of this place (which was then known as The Young Mens’ Institute Library) decamped for Kansas to do their part to support the abolitionist movement in the developing American Midwest.
A man named Baldwin deeded land in Wabaunsee, Kansas, to the Library. No, really. And then a bunch of Library members went out to settle the land and… yeah. History happened.
Come to the Library on Thursday, April 9th and hear volunteers Frank Cochran and MT Taylor deliver a talk on their findings, which are the result of astonishing research efforts on their part. Scouring archives here in New Haven and in Kansas, Frank and MT made some astounding discoveries.

Listen Here! -- April 21
2026-04-21 19:00 - 21:00 | The Institute LIbrary, 847 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT, 06510

Listen Here! -- May 19, 2026
2026-05-19 19:00 - 21:00 | The Institute LIbrary, 847 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT, 06510

Listen Here! -- June 16, 2026
2026-06-16 19:00 - 21:00 | The Institute LIbrary, 847 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT, 06510
