The Associates of the Boston Public Library is pleased to invite you to the 29th Annual Literary Lights awards dinner.
Join the BPL on Sunday, April 23, 2017, at the Boston Park Plaza for a spectacular black tie (optional) evening honoring distinguished authors from the Northeast for their contributions to literature and the written word. The evening begins with a reception at 6:00 PM, followed by dinner and the awards program at 7:00 PM.
The Associates of the Boston Public Library are honored to recognize the following authors as their 2017 Literary Lights:
Presented by: Hentry Louis Gates, Jr.
Appiah is a philosopher, novelist, professor and cultural theorist. He grew up in Ghana and earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy at Cambridge University in London. Professor Appiah has lectured around the world and taught at Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Duke and Harvard Universities before moving to New York University where he now teaches in the Department of Philosophy. In 2009 Forbes Magazine named him one of the world’s most powerful thinkers, in 2010 he was on the list of Foreign Policy Magazine’s top global thinkers, and he was awarded the National Humanitarian Medal at a White House ceremony in 2012. Appiah, the author of numerous books and articles, has traveled around the world giving lectures on multiculturalism, global citizenship, courage, identity, and religion. One of his early books, In My Father’s House, which explores the role of African American intellectuals in shaping contemporary African life, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and the Herskovits Award for the most important scholarly work on African studies published in English. Appiah is well known for his columns and podcasts as the Ethicist for the New York Times.
Presented by: Christopher Lydon
Faludi is a journalist and author who has written extensively on gender issues. In 1991 she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for a piece on the leverage buyout of Safeway Stores, focusing on the “human cost of high finance.” After graduating from Harvard University, where she wrote for The Harvard Crimson, she was a contributor to the New Yorker, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Nation, as well as many other publications. In the 1980s Faludi wrote several pieces on the feminist movement and the resistance to it, resulting in her 1991 book, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, for which she won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. She went on to write Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, The Terror Dream, and, most recently, The Darkroom, which was inspired by her father’s transsexuality. She was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies in the 2008-2009 academic year and a 2013-2014 Tallman Scholar in the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at Bowdoin College.
Presented by: Andre Dubus III
Lamb is the best-selling author of She’s Come Undone, I know This Much is True, The Hour I First Believed, and Wishin’ and Hopin’. His first two books were selected for Oprah’s Book Club, were New York Times best-sellers, New York Times Notable Books of the Year and, between them, have been translated into 18 languages. His latest novel is We Are Water. Lamb has also edited two volumes of essays: Couldn’t Keep it to Myself and I’ll Fly Away, written by students in his writing workshops at a women’s prison in Connecticut. He has taught creative writing in the English department at the University of Connecticut, was founder and director of the Writing Center at Norwich Free Academy, has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Connecticut Commission for the Arts, and was honored with the Connecticut Center for the Book’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Presented by: Gregory Maguire
Selznick graduated from RISD where he studied illustration and, while there, took classes in set design at Brown University. After graduation, he worked at a children’s book store in New York City while writing his debut book, The Houdini Box. In 2008 he won the Caldecott Medal from the American Library Association, for The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the first such award for a book this long; 533 pages with 284 illustrations. The book was adapted into a 2011 film, Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese. He has also been awarded a 2002 Caldecott Honor for his illustrations of Barbara Kerley’s The Dinosaurs of Waterhorse Hawkins. In addition, Mr. Selznick has received the Texas Bluebonnet Award, the Rhode Island Children’s Book Award and the Christopher Award, given to media which “affirm the highest values of the human spirit.”
Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall (Keynote Speaker)
Presented by: David Leonard
Marshall was born in South Africa where, as a student, she led the National Union of South African Students, working to end oppressive minority rule and achieve equality for all South Africans. Marshall first came to the US as a high school exchange student in Wilmington, DL in 1962, as the civil rights battles were beginning to boil over, and later returned to the US for graduate school, where she became involved with the anti-war and the women’s movements. After Yale Law School, she entered private practice, became President of the Boston Bar Association, Vice President & General Counsel for Harvard University, and then went on to the State’s Supreme Court, where she became the first female Chief Justice of the oldest continuously serving appellate court in the Western Hemisphere. Though she has had many accomplishments, Justice Marshall is most renowned for her 2003 opinion which led Massachusetts to become the first state in the nation to outlaw the ban on same-sex marriage. Although she loved her time on the bench, Justice Marshall stepped down in 2010. She now mentors young lawyers at her former law firm, Choate Hall & Stewart, and teaches at Harvard University.
In addition to celebrating the accomplishments of these outstanding writers, proceeds from Literary Lights support the David McCullough Conservation Fund, William O. Taylor Art Preservation Fund, Associates Endowment Fund, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library’s operations. The Associates created the McCullough Fund in 2001 to provide a consistent source of funding for the conservation and preservation of books, manuscripts, works of art and historic documents in the BPL’s Special Collections.
If you would prefer to receive a mailed invitation or for more information about sponsorship opportunities, please contact the Associates office at associates@bpl.org or (617) 536-3886. Thank you.
On Thursday nights this fall, The Library at Boston Park Plaza will offer live music, featuring some of the area’s top local talent from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. To complement the live entertainment, a special small plates menu will be offered as well as a cocktail and wine menu.
September 7 – The Desmond Scaife Duo
September 14 – The Desmond Scaife Duo
September 21 – The Desmond Scaife Duo
September 28 – Nacim Ortiz
There is no cover charge.
On Thursday nights this fall, The Library at Boston Park Plaza will offer live music, featuring some of the area’s top local talent from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. To complement the live entertainment, a special small plates menu will be offered as well as a cocktail and wine menu.
September 7 – The Desmond Scaife Duo
September 14 – The Desmond Scaife Duo
September 21 – The Desmond Scaife Duo
September 28 – Nacim Ortiz
There is no cover charge.
On Thursday nights this fall, The Library at Boston Park Plaza will offer live music, featuring some of the area’s top local talent from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. To complement the live entertainment, a special small plates menu will be offered as well as a cocktail and wine menu.
September 7 – The Desmond Scaife Duo
September 14 – The Desmond Scaife Duo
September 21 – The Desmond Scaife Duo
September 28 – Nacim Ortiz
There is no cover charge.
On Thursday nights this fall, The Library at Boston Park Plaza will offer live music, featuring some of the area’s top local talent from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. To complement the live entertainment, a special small plates menu will be offered as well as a cocktail and wine menu.
September 7 – The Desmond Scaife Duo
September 14 – The Desmond Scaife Duo
September 21 – The Desmond Scaife Duo
September 28 – Nacim Ortiz
There is no cover charge.
Join the Boston Park Plaza as the Garden Suite Terrace is transformed into a lush Tuscan patio for a family style dinner featuring variety of Italian wines from Banville Wine Merchants.
Lia Tolaini Banville will guide guests through the tasting which will include a number of varietals, including Brunello and Borolo, as well as the blend from her family’s vineyard in Tuscany, Tolaini Valdisanti.
As a complement to the wines, the culinary team at Boston Park Plaza will present a family style five course dinner served al fresco on the Terrace.
Availability is extremely limited.
Join the experts from Don Julio for an intimate tequila tasting in Boston’s Park Plaza’s Library.
Learn about the history of this storied brand and Don Julio, the man behind the tequila industry we know today. Sip and sample cocktails and taste each tequila neat, including the most exclusive Don Julio 1942 blend.
Chef Peter Eco has created a menu – featuring flavors from across Mexico – that complements the cocktails and tequila.
Price is inclusive of tax and gratuity.
Somerville’s popular Bow Market comes to Precinct’s patio for one day only!
Precinct Kitchen + Bar invites you to join them on their patio for a one-day Bow Market pop-up. Vendors include:
- Adelante, custom shoes, handmade by craftsman in Guatemala
- Blue Bandana Relics, a curated collection of vintage Americana and quality American brands.
- Buenas, all sorts of South American goodness you can eat on the spot or take home to use in your own recipes. Think: take-n-bake empanadas, pastry dough to make your own empanadas (and other stuff), and sauces you can use for everything from roasting chicken and salmon, to topping oysters.
- In Season Food Shop, made-to-order meals and drinks, local food products, and a curated selection of grocery essentials
- Maca, chic and cheeky, regular and character macarons that range in flavors from vanilla to blueberry basil cheesecake.
- Peston, unique accessories, fleeky home goods and apparel.
- Happy Cactus, succulents, cacti, air plants, exotic plants, ethically sourced butterflies, crystals, gems, fossils and pretty much anything extraordinary Mother Nature creates.
- Additionally, guests will also enjoy soaps and creams from the Sentas Family Farm and much, more!
Precinct will be serving their regular breakfast, brunch and lunch menus all day long, so reserve your table and head over!
Join Bright Horizons Back Bay for a pizza dinner in the park!
Bright Horizons at Back Bay invites you and your family to join us at the Frieda Garcia Park for Pizza in the Park. Meet and socialize with other Back Bay families — and enjoy some sheet painting fun with your little ones!
Come see what Bright Horizons® at Back Bay has in store for your child this year!
Are you trying to find the perfect fit for your child’s early education? Attend Bright Horizons’ Curriculum Night to find out how Bright Horizons® works with each age group to build on individual strengths and talents. Come see for yourself how small ideas turn into big projects at Bright Horizons®.
- Learn about World at Their Fingertips® and how it works with each age group to build on individual strengths and talents.
- Meet and talk with our engaging educators and see just how passionate they are about teaching.
- Explore activities your children will get to participate in on-site.
- See our emergent curriculum and how it uses your child’s own interests to inspire learning.
- Childcare and dinner will be provided!
