Events
DORIS offers programs, tours, and activities related to our holdings. Join our mailing list to be the first to know about exhibition openings, upcoming events, recent blog posts, and much more.
Note: If you require an auxiliary aid or service in order to attend a DORIS event, please contact the Disability Service Facilitator.
Note: To request language interpretation services, please contact the Language Access Coordinator at least three (3) business days before an event.
Lunch & Learn: The Village Voice
Online (Zoom)
Tuesday, January 27 - 1:00-2:00pm
Join the NYC Department of Records & Information Services (DORIS) each month for our virtual Lunch & Learn Series – an intimate conversation with agency staff and special guests focusing on the collections of the Municipal Archives and Library and the history of New York City.
On Tuesday, January 27, Tricia Romano, the author of The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper that Changed American Culture, will discuss the symbiotic relationship between New York City and the alternative weekly - the Village Voice - and how this relationship benefited both entities.
First issued in 1955, the Voice showcased the city as a hub for artists, poets, musicians, politicians, and activists, inspiring people to move here. The alt-weekly covered topics such as the environment, government corruption, housing, hip-hop, the avant-garde art scene, Off-Broadway, and the AIDS epidemic with gravitas, revolutionizing journalism.
Discover how the Village Voice became not just a local, but also a national and global influence, and how this highly acclaimed oral history came to be.
RSVP to join us by clicking here.
Lunch & Learn: A Blacklist Education
Online (Zoom)
Tuesday, February 3 - 1:00-2:00pm
Join the NYC Department of Records & Information Services (DORIS) each month for our virtual Lunch & Learn Series – an intimate conversation with agency staff and special guests focusing on the collections of the Municipal Archives and Library and the history of New York City.
On Tuesday, February 3, Dr. Jane S. Smith will retrace the path that began with a mysterious cache of family records and ultimately led her to the Municipal Archives' Board of Education Collection and the Communist investigation files where she uncovered a McCarthy-era program designed to purge allegedly leftist teachers from the city’s public schools.
A Blacklist Education reveals how Smith discovered that her own father had been one of the targeted teachers, while also exposing the broader anti-communist investigations carried out by the NYC Board of Education and the nationwide campaign against “un-Americanism” that gripped the United States during the 1950s — echoes of which resonate powerfully today.
RSVP to join us by clicking here.
Lunch & Learn: The Swans of Harlem
Online (Zoom)
Tuesday, February 11 - 1:00-2:00pm
Join the NYC Department of Records & Information Services (DORIS) each month for our virtual Lunch & Learn Series – an intimate conversation with agency staff and special guests focusing on the collections of the Municipal Archives and Library and the history of New York City.
On Tuesday, February 11, author Karen Valby and ballerinas, Lydia Abarca Mitchell, Sheila Rohan, Karlya Shelton Benjamin, and Marcia Sells will join us for a conversation about their experiences and the pioneering past explored in Valby’s 2024 book, The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History.
At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lydia Abarca was a Black prima ballerina for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, a major international dance company. She, along with founding members Gayle McKinney-Griffith and Sheila Rohan, and first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells, performed some of ballet’s most iconic works, such as Balanchine’s Serenade and Geoffrey Holder’s Dougla.
The Swans of Harlem performed for nobles and celebrities, with Harlem Renaissance icon Josephine Baker at the White House, and across the globe. But decades later, there was almost no record of their groundbreaking history. Out of a sisterhood that had grown even deeper with the years, the dancers joined forces again to share their story with the world.
Hear firsthand accounts of the historic careers of these extraordinarily accomplished women, the sustaining and grounding power of female friendship, and a glimpse into the rich and complex history of Black ballet.
RSVP to join us by clicking here.