House Of SpeakEasy

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House Of SpeakEasy

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On Stage. In Schools. On the Road. House of SpeakEasy connects authors and audiences in innovative and sustaining ways.

House of SpeakEasy is grounded in the belief that the ability to read and write enables a person to know their rights, to be confident in their identity, and engage boldly and empathetically with the world around them. Founded in 2013 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, SpeakEasy is dedicated to the idea that literature matters, and that the essence of literary culture is the relationship between writers and their readers. To foster that relationship, SpeakEasy seeks to: 1) bring authors out from behind the book into direct contact with audiences; 2) ensure that writers are compensated for their work and time; and 3) stimulate the audiences of tomorrow by exposing them to the best writing of today. SpeakEasy provides literary programming to students and communities in underserved communities and delivers literature to "book deserts," areas deprived of bookstores and without access to libraries, via a mobile book truck.

11/02/2026

What's better than candy? A free book to take home. 🎃📚

On Halloween, the SpeakEasy Bookmobile joined Trick or Streets, Bed-Stuy Gateway BID's candy scavenger hunt at Marcy Plaza. Kids in costume lined up at the truck to choose a book of their own. We saw a Mario, a princess, a pint-sized police officer, and choices that ran from My Teacher Is a Dinosaur to Mockingjay to Carros y Camiones by Richard Scarry.

Thank you to Bed-Stuy Gateway BID for inviting us, and to NYC Small Business Services, NYC DOT, Brooklyn Book Bodega and all our fellow partners. And thank you to every family who stopped by.

The Bookmobile hands out free new books across New York City all year. Sign up for our newsletter to find out where we'll be next: https://www.houseofspeakeasy.org/newsletter-signup/

11/02/2026

“Knowledge is a big subject. Ignorance is bigger … and it is more interesting.” — Stuart Firestein

Meet Stuart Firestein, the final writer in our spotlight series for THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER. 🔍

A neuroscientist, biologist, and author, Firestein’s four-decade career has been based upon a fundamental and unconventional premise: the popular understanding of the scientific method is a huge mistake. His most recent book, “It Could be Otherwise: Science in the Age of Uncertainty,” was published in August 2026 to delve into what “real scientific work” actually looks like.

On November 17, he joins our stage alongside Mikhail Zygar, Amanda Foreman, and Emily Hauser, with hosts Lucas Wittmann and Peter Godwin and quizmaster Elissa D’Elia.

📍 Joe's Pub at The Public Theater
🗓 Tuesday, November 17 | 7 PM
🎟 Tickets: https://bit.ly/3VRM6pu

10/20/2026

“The real interest for me, and I believe for most people, lies where hidden motivations are revealed in public actions. Take that away, and you have a list of facts.” — Amanda Foreman

Meet Amanda Foreman, co-founder and former chair of House of SpeakEasy, and the next writer in our spotlight series for THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER. 🔍

Dr. Foreman is a British-American historian, biographer, and author. Her books include the prize-winning bestsellers “Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire” and “A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided,” which uncover the hidden motivations and untold stories behind public events. A longtime columnist for the Wall Street Journal, the Sunday Times and Smithsonian magazine, Dr. Foreman has also served as a judge on almost every major literary prize, including the Booker Prize and the National Book Award; she is also a trustee of the Whiting Foundation. She is currently working on her next book, “The World Made by Women: A New History of Humanity.”

On November 17, she returns to our stage alongside Stuart Firestein, Emily Hauser, and Mikhail Zygar, with hosts Lucas Wittmann and Peter Godwin and quizmaster Elissa D’Elia.

📍 Joe's Pub at The Public Theater
🗓 Tuesday, November 17 | 7 PM
🎟 Tickets: https://bit.ly/3VRM6pu

10/16/2026

“Fiction, I believe, has a unique power to reclaim voices, alongside history and scholarship.” — Emily Hauser

Meet Emily Hauser, the next writer in our spotlight series for THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER. 🔍

A classicist, ancient historian, and author, Emily Hauser’s work is focused on recovering the stories of women obscured by the literary and historical record of Ancient Greece. She is the author of the acclaimed academic study How Women Became Poets, and the novels of the Golden Apple Trilogy: For the Most Beautiful, For the Winner, and For the Immortal. Her latest book is the Times bestseller, Penelope’s Bones/Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World, through the Women Written Out Of It.

On November 17, she joins us on stage alongside Stuart Firestein, Amanda Foreman, and Mikhail Zygar, with hosts Lucas Wittmann and Peter Godwin and quizmaster Elissa D’Elia.

📍 Joe's Pub at The Public Theater
🗓 Tuesday, November 17 | 7 PM
🎟 Tickets a> https://publictheater.org/reserve/reserve?performanceNumber=55346
📸 Faye Thomas Photography

10/16/2026

"[N]o dictatorship lasts forever, [and] the future always offers us a chance to change something." — Mikhail Zygar

Meet Mikhail Zygar, the first writer in our spotlight series for THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER. 🔍

A former war correspondent and founding editor-in-chief of TV Rain, Russia's first independent news channel, Zygar has spent his career investigating who writes history and why. The U.K. edition of his latest book, The Dark Side of the Earth, was named a History Book of the Year by The Times of London.

On November 17, he returns to our stage alongside Stuart Firestein, Amanda Foreman, and Emily Hauser, with hosts Lucas Wittmann and Peter Godwin and quizmaster Elissa D’Elia.

📍 Joe's Pub at The Public Theater
🗓 Tuesday, November 17 | 7 PM
🎟 Tickets > https://publictheater.org/reserve/reserve?performanceNumber=55346

10/09/2026

We had a wonderful time Seriously Celebrating The New Yorker Cover to Cover at Joe's Pub Tuesday, October 6, with Barry Blitt, Anita Kunz, Grace Lynne Haynes, Ricardo Siri, James Yang, Francoise Mouly, Amanda Foreman. Thank you Joan Chiverton, The Public, The New Yorker, our outstanding executive producer, Lyric Bowditch, and a stellar audience.

Thank you Joan Chiverton & The Public Theater for these wonderful caricatures!

10/06/2026

Seriously Celebrating the publication of The New Yorker: From Cover to Cover.

TONIGHT at 7:00 p.m., House of SpeakEasy and The New Yorker return to The Public Theater for another Seriously Entertaining collaboration, an evening honoring the definitive presentation of the world’s most popular and evocative magazine covers.

Featuring Barry Blitt, Grace Lynne Haynes, Anita Kunz, and Ricardo Siri, and co-hosted by House of SpeakEasy co-founder Amanda Foreman and Françoise Mouly art editor of The New Yorker and author of The New Yorker: From Cover to Cover.

Tune in tonight at 7:00 p.m. for the livestream: https://youtube.com/live/gbU54FdUj9k?feature=share

10/06/2026

Seriously Celebrating the publication of The New Yorker: From Cover to Cover.

TONIGHT at 7:00 p.m., House of SpeakEasy and The New Yorker return to Joe's Pub, The Public Theater for another Seriously Entertaining collaboration, an evening honoring the definitive presentation of the world’s most popular and evocative magazine covers.

Featuring Barry Blitt, Grace Lynne Haynes, Anita Kunz, and Ricardo Siri, and co-hosted by House of SpeakEasy co-founder Amanda Foreman and Françoise Mouly art editor of The New Yorker and author of The New Yorker: From Cover to Cover.

Tune in tonight at 7:00 p.m. for the livestream: https://bit.ly/4ys0qDv.

09/25/2026

Meet author Nathalie Alonso and illustrator John Parra of Viva Venezuala! for a book giveaway, reading, and art activities. October 3rd, 1:00pm, 31st Avenue Open Streets.

In collaboration with Astoria Bookshop and Tiffany Caban's District 22 office, House of SpeakEasy's Bookmobile will host a literacy event to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at 31st Ave Open Street. The event will include a book giveaway, reading, and related literacy and art-making activities for the book Viva Valenzuela! with author Nathalie Alonso and illustrator John Parra. House of SpeakEasy's Bookmobile will also be there to distribute new free books to the community!

Join us! Registration at EventBrite.

Address

110 East 25th Street
New York, NY
10010

Website

https://www.houseofspeakeasy.org/

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