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February, 2015, New York, NY This spring, the Lower East Side Tenement Museums Tenement Talks series returns with an exciting new lineup of events and conversations featuring a wide range of todays most exciting thinkers and writers. Tenement Talks connect past and present while both examining contemporary ideas and discussing the Citys vibrant immigrant history. Programs are held at the Museums Visitor Center at 103 Orchard Street (corner of Delancey). Tenement Talks are free of charge and open to the public. Further information is available online here. Roads Taken Wednesday, March 4 at 6:30 PM; Free Nearly one third of the worlds Jewish population immigrated to new lands between the late 1700s and the 1920s. Whether leaving Europe, North Africa or the Ottoman Empire, and arriving in the United States, Great Britain, South Africa or Latin America, what bound them together was their experience as peddlers. NYU historian Hasia Diner relays their story, and Nancy Foner, CUNY Graduate Center sociologist, explores connections to immigration today. Worn Stories Wednesday, March 11 at 6:30 PM; Free Emily Spivacks Worn Stories showcases clothing-inspired narratives from cultural figures and talented storytellers, revealing the clothes that protect us, serve as a uniform, assert our identity, or bring back the past. Brain Pickings Maria Popova, who celebrated the book as a 2014-favorite, interviews Spivack. Artist Andrew Kuo and other book contributors share their stories. The Whites Wednesday, March 18 at 6:30 PM; Free Cops, criminals, and NYCaward-winning author Richard Price returns to these themes in his new book, The Whites. Its a gripping thriller thats been called a great American novel. Price, author of Lush Life and Clockers, discusses his new detective story with Henry Chang, author of an acclaimed series of Chinatown-based crime novels. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Wednesday, March 25 at 6:30 PM; Free Historian Lara Vapnek introduces her biography of Elizabeth Gurley Flynnthe woman who became the most important female leader of the Industrial Workers of the World and of the American Communist Party. Vapnek weaves together Flynns personal and political life, making connections between feminism, socialism, free love, and free speech. Vapnek explores these ideas with the pre-eminent U.S. womens historian Alice Kessler-Harris. The Search for General Tso Wednesday, April 1 at 6:30 PM; Free Given that Chinese restaurants in the U.S. outnumber McDonalds, Burger King and Wendys combined, writer Jennifer 8. Lee makes that case that Chinese food is American food. But as she journeyed to China to find the origins of popular dishes, she discovered just how wide the gulf is between food eaten in China and American Chinese food.

Documented in her book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles and now her film, The Search for General Tso, Lee shares her fascinating quest with New York Times editor Sewell Chan.

Why Not Say What Happened Wednesday, April 15 at 6:30 PM; Free Morris Dickstein, the renowned cultural historian who has shed light on significant moments in America from the Great Depression to the 1960s, started off on the Lower East Side. His memoir traces a life from the LES to Columbia University, Yale, and Cambridge and reflects on his path in becoming a public intellectual. The book has been called at once a coming-of-age story, an intellectual autobiography, and vivid cultural history. Poet and literary critic Adam Kirsch joins Dickstein in conversation. The 1965 Immigration Act 50 Years Later Tuesday, April 21 at 6:30 PM; Free We take a look back at the landmark immigration law of 1965 which opened the nations doors to a much larger part of the world than ever before and dramatically transformed the citys landscape. NYC Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs, Nisha Agarwal, Council Member Carlos Menchaca, sociologist Nancy Foner, and city demographers Peter Lobo and Joe Salvo discuss how the law has impacted New York City and look to the future. Part of the Mayors Office of Immigration commemoration of Immigrant Heritage Week and co-sponsored by Henry Street Settlement The Stories of Ruins Wednesday, April 29 at 6:30 PM; Free The chipping paint, peeling wallpaper and threadbare linoleum floors of 97 Orchard are more than relics of long ago. They are evocative of life lived and illuminate the stories and events of the past. In an appreciation of ruins Andrew Dolkart, director of Columbias historic preservation program, Katherine Malone-France, of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Christopher Payne, photographer of North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City, and Marisa Scheinfeld, who documented abandoned resorts of the Borsht Belt in the Catskills, gather to discuss the significance of these spaces.

About the Lower East Side Tenement Museum The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, founded in 1988, is located in a landmarked tenement building at 97 Orchard Street. The building was home to more than 7,000 immigrants from more than 20 nations between 1863 and 1935. Anchored in a neighborhood that has long been home to thousands of poor and working class people, the Tenement Museum is dedicated to using the history of its site as a tool for addressing issues that are still relevant today, including immigration. In 2008 the Museum was honored with the Preserve America Presidential Award and the National Medal for Museum Service.

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