by Joseph Murphy, Director of Strategic Partnerships
On Saturday, March 14, Brooklyn Public Library will stay open until 3:14 a.m.—note that number!—for Night in the Library, a free Pi Day program at Central Library.
Inspired by the philosophy of mathematics, the evening—keynoted by Werner Herzog—brings together filmmakers, scholars, and artists for talks, performances, and roaming conversations about proof, knowledge, and the foundations of what we take to be true. Herzog, whose work addresses the very limits of humanity, will reflect on truth and the sublime.
Humanities New York will be an integral part of the evening.
At 11:00 p.m., we’ll host the fourth conversation in Freedom and Its Futures, our Community Conversations series with Brooklyn Public Library. The series invites New Yorkers to sit together and explore civic questions through a simple format: a shared prompt, a room of participants, and time for open conversation.
The goal is reflection—making space to examine the assumptions that shape public life.
By the time this session begins, the library will have been alive with ideas for hours. Visitors will be arriving from other talks and performances. After 11 p.m., the atmosphere shifts. The pace slows. A smaller room gathers around a shared prompt.
In this case, the prompt is the image below.
Most of us have seen it countless times: a phone screen asking for permission.
It’s a routine request, a choice we make quickly. Pause for a moment and a few questions appear: What are we agreeing to? Who set the terms? When does convenience start to look like consent?
Picture a group of New Yorkers sitting together late at night, looking at a familiar image and asking a deceptively simple question:
What does freedom look like in the choices we make every day?
Pull up a chair. The conversation begins at 11:00 p.m.
