BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Mercantile Library//Events//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Mercantile Library Events X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-61@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230809T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230809T200000 SUMMARY:Mindful Poetry Book Launch DESCRIPTION:Join us to celebrate the launch of our FOURTH Mindful Poetry bo ok featuring poetry from our Mindful Poetry Moments sessions LOCATION:414 Walnut St.\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2023/08/09/mindful-poetry-book-laun ch END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-81@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230815T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230815T200000 SUMMARY:The Journey’s End DESCRIPTION:Join us for an evening with Michael Connelly\, CEO Emeritus of Mercy Health as he discusses his book The Journey’s End: An Investigation of Death and Dying in Modern America. About The Journey's End: Developing death literacy and understanding the US healthcare system are skills essent ial to helping us experience the death we want and not the one too many of us get.\nFree and open to the public. Registration required. To attend onli ne\, register directly via Crowdcast HERE.\nCopies of the book will be avai lable for sale & signing.\nWe’ve lost our “death literacy” -- the ski lls\, traditions and values that our predecessors used to deal with death. Today dying is no longer a familial experience but rather a cold\, clinical \, and medical ordeal.Because we don’t candidly discuss end-of-life care\ , many times\, our loved ones and caregivers really don’t know what we tr uly desire. Worried about making the “wrong” choice\, our families can encourage modern medicine to overreach in its attempts to fend off death.Th ese matters are complex and personal. Every American deserves to die with d ignity and without risking bankruptcy or burdening future generations. So h ow do we make progress in addressing these issues?In the book\, and his tal k\, Connelly will address how we can: understand—and face—our fear of d eath\; prepare for death as seriously as we prepare for a newborn\; acknowl edge that at some point we are old enough to die\, which changes the focus away from prevention\, intervention\, and sophisticated treatments toward o ne of support and comfort\; and become educated on using the healthcare sys tem so we can interpret what it presents to us and make informed choices. A bout the author: Michael D. Connelly served as the CEO of Mercy Health\, on e of the nation's largest health systems\, from 1994 to 2017. Currently\, h e is the CEO Emeritus of Mercy Health (now Bon Secours Mercy Health System) . He has global experience with health systems in Germany\, the United King dom\, Denmark\, Sweden and Spain. He has also visited health facilities and orphanages around the world\, including in Port a Prince\, Haiti\; Mathare Slums in Nairobi\, Kenya\; Kingston\, Jamaica\; Georgetown\, Guyana\, and Panguma\, Sierra Leone. He has extensive governance experience and has chai red the following boards: Catholic Charities USA\, the Urban League of SWO\ , the National Catholic Health Association\, Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) in NYC\, and Premier\, Inc. He also chaired the United Way for Grea ter Cincinnati (the 6th largest in the US) in 2013. He has published 17 art icles in various healthcare journals\, and currently lives on Johns Island\ , South Carolina. LOCATION:414 Walnut St. \, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2023/08/15/the-journeys-end END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-63@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230816T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230816T200000 SUMMARY:Gay Poems for Red States: Willie Carver DESCRIPTION:Join author and 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year Willie Carver as he reads from & discusses his book Gay Poems for Red States. LOCATION:414 Walnut St.\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2023/08/16/gay-poems-for-red-states -willie-carver END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-113@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231114T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231114T200000 SUMMARY:JFK60: James DiEugenio DESCRIPTION:Rarely has an event been more examined the by United States gov ernment AND in popular culture as the assassination of President John F. Ke nnedy.\nNovember 2023 marks the 60th Anniversary of President Kennedy’s s hocking death\, and this fall\, we've been reading some of the books about the tragic subject together.\nOn November 14\, we'll hear from James DiEuge nio\, author of The JFK Assassination: The Evidence Today\, along with Matt Crumpton\, creator and host of the Solving JFK podcast.\nRegistration requ ired via ticketing. To attend online\, register directly via Crowdcast HERE . Free to members/$10 nonmembers6 pm reception/6:30 pm program URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2023/11/14/jfk60-james-dieugenio END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-181@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240326T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240326T200000 SUMMARY:The Beginning Was the End: Devo in Ohio DESCRIPTION:Author David Giffels joins us to read from and discuss his late st book\, The Beginning Was the End: Devo in Ohio.\nCo-written with Jade De llinger\, The Beginning Was the End is the definitive account of Devo’s v ibrant early history. The Beginning Was the End features more than eighty n ever-before-seen images of the band as it tells the unlikely story of a col lection of creative misfits who formed a musical kinship\, drawing material and inspiration from the industrial Midwestern environs of Northeast Ohio. \nWith the May 4\, 1970\, Kent State shootings as a catalyst\, Devo channel ed protopunk energy into a sprawling art project that would pioneer the use of music videos\, innovate technology in pop music\, define the aesthetic of the 1980s New Wave/MTV era\, and maintain an edge of social\, political\ , and cultural criticism that continues their relevance fifty years after t heir formation. \nFree & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopi es of Giffels’ books will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Jos eph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout David Giffels\nDavid Giffels is the acclaimed a uthor of Barnstorming Ohio: To Understand America\; Furnishing Eternity: A Father\, a Son\, a Coffin\, and a Measure of Life\; The Hard Way on Purpose : Essays and Dispatches From the Rust Belt\; All the Way Home\; and the coa uthor\, with Jade Dellinger\, of Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! \;and\, with Steve Love\, Wheels of Fortune: The Story of Rubber in Akron.\nA former Akr on Beacon Journal columnist\, his writing has appeared in The New York Time s Magazine\, the Atlantic.com\, Parade\, The Wall Street Journal\, Esquire. com\, Grantland.com\, The Iowa Review\, and many other publications. He als o wrote for the MTV series Beavis and Butt-Head.\nHis awards include the Cl eveland Arts Prize for literature\, two Ohioana Book Awards\, the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award\, and a General Excellence award from National Society of Newspaper Columnists. He was selected as the Cuyahoga C ounty Public Library Writer in Residence for 2018-2019.\nGiffels is a profe ssor of English at the University of Akron\, where he teaches creative nonf iction in the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Program. This is his fourt h time as a Mercantile Library lecturer. LOCATION:2017 Branch St.\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45214 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2024/03/26/the-beginning-was-the-en d-devo-in-ohio END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-191@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240329T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240329T210000 SUMMARY:Percival Everett with Yalie Saweda Kamara DESCRIPTION:Joseph-Beth Booksellers and The National Underground Railroad F reedom Center invite you to an evening with Percival Everett as he discusse s he latest book\, James\, with Cincinnati Mercantile Library Poet Laureate Yalie Saweda Kamara. \nFree to Mercantile members and their guests. Limite d tickets available. \nNAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME\, NPR\, THE SEATTLE TIMES\, ELLE\, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION\, AND OPR AH DAILY\nA brilliant\, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Hucklebe rry Finn\, both harrowing and ferociously funny\, told from the enslaved Ji m's point of view • From the “literary icon” (Oprah Daily) and Pulitz er Prize Finalist whose novel Erasure is the basis for Cord Jefferson’s c ritically acclaimed film American Fiction\n"If you liked Demon Copperhead\, by Barbara Kingsolver\, read James\, by Percival Everett" —The Washingto n Post \nWhen the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a m an in New Orleans\, separated from his wife and daughter forever\, he decid es to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhil e\, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father\, recent ly returned to town. As all readers of American literature know\, thus begi ns the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi Rive r toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States an d beyond.\nWhile many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Fin n remain in place (floods and storms\, stumbling across both unexpected dea th and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’ s banks\, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…)\ , Jim’s agency\, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.\nBrimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations t hat have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily)\, and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime\, James is destined to be a major pu blishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literatur e.\nPercival Everett is a Distinguished Professor of English at USC. His mo st recent books include Dr. No (finalist for the NBCC Award for Fiction and winner of the PEN/ Jean Stein Book Award)\, The Trees (finalist for the Bo oker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction)\, Telephone (finalist fo r the Pulitzer Prize)\, So Much Blue\, Erasure\, and I Am Not Sidney Poitie r. He has received the NBCC Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award and The Win dham Campbell Prize from Yale University. American Fiction\, the feature fi lm based on his novel Erasure\, was released in 2023. He lives in Los Angel es with his wife\, the writer Danzy Senna\, and their children.\nYalie Sawe da Kamara is a Sierra Leonean American writer\, educator\, and researcher f rom Oakland\, California. Selected as the 2022-2023 Cincinnati and Mercanti le Library Poet Laureate (2-year term) and a 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow\, she is the editor of the anthology What You Need to Know About Me: Young Writers on Their Experience of Immigration and the author of the chapbooks A Brief Biography of My Name and When the Living Sing. Kam ara earned a PhD in Creative Writing and English Literature from the Univer sity of Cincinnati. She is an assistant professor of English at Xavier Univ ersity and resides in Cincinnati. LOCATION:50 E. Freedom Way\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2024/03/29/percival-everett-with-ya lie-saweda-kamara END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-186@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240406T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240406T210000 SUMMARY:Tilt a World Book Launch DESCRIPTION:Poet\, author\, and very good friend of the Mercantile Library Holly Brians Ragusa launches her latest book of poetry\, Tilt a World--Cert ainty Lacks Imagination at Joseph-Beth Cincinnati\nAs lauded by John Burrou ghs\, the 2022-23 U.S. National Beat Poet Laureate: "Tilt a World is an ast ounding expedition through serial so-called certainties that are ultimately so much more\, like an intense carnival ride\, by turns thrilling and frig htening\, but also a revelation of complexity and possibility\, a matter of life and death\, and a beacon of hope. The speaker in these poems is “an empath taking the side of humanity” in the midst of a world “[h]igh on waging war\,conquering neighbors.” She is “both light and dark / And m ust burn for it.” And in the process\, she draws us toward openness and l ight. This book is essential reading for our times."\nFree & open to the pu blic. Register via Joseph-Beth HERE. LOCATION:2692 Madison Rd\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45208 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2024/04/06/tilt-a-world-book-launch END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-185@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240411T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240411T200000 SUMMARY:Hedged: An Evening with Margot Susca DESCRIPTION:Journalism professor and former newspaper journalist Margot Sus ca joins us to read from & discuss her book\, Hedged: How Private Investmen t Funds Helped Destroy American Newspapers and Undermine Democracy\nHedged tells the untold history of an American catastrophe by examining the last 2 0 years of American chain newspaper ownership and investment and the ultima te neglect of their audiences.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Hedged will be available f or sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Margot Susca\n Margot Susca\, Ph.D. is the inaugural assistant professor of Journalism\, A ccountability and Democracy in the School of Communication at American Univ ersity in Washington\, D.C. Margot blends critical communication scholarshi p with traditional watchdog reporting methods to research media ownership a nd its impacts on democracy. Hedged is her first book.\nHer professional ex periences inform her work as a mentor\, scholar\, and teacher. Before earni ng a doctorate in mass communication from Florida State University in 2012\ , Margot worked as a newspaper reporter in Connecticut and Florida. Margot serves as associate editor at the nonprofit Investigative Reporting Worksho p and as an assessor with the International Fact Check Network. She won in 2022 the Outstanding Teaching Award given annually to a full-time faculty m ember in a tenure line position. She teaches courses in reporting\, mass me dia and society\, and journalism ethics.\nShe has a master's degree in jour nalism from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in journalism a nd political science from UMass Amherst. She lives on Capitol Hill with her 13-year-old daughter. LOCATION:1301 Western Ave. \, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45203 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2024/04/11/hedged-an-evening-with-m argot-susca END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-182@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240426T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240426T203000 SUMMARY:60 Songs That Explain the ’90s DESCRIPTION:Author Rob Harvilla joins us to talk about his book\, 60 SONGS THAT EXPLAIN THE ’90s. Companion to the podcast of the same title\, 60 SO NGS takes readers through the greatest hits that define a weirdly undefinab le decade. Joining Rob in conversation will be Jay Stowe\, journalist\, for mer editor at SPIN\, Cincinnati Magazine\, and good friend of the Mercantil e Library.\nIn 60 SONGS THAT EXPLAIN THE ’90s\, Ringer music critic Rob H arvilla reimagines all the earwormy\, iconic hits Gen Xers pine for with vi vid historical storytelling\, sharp critical analysis\, rampant loopiness\, and wryly personal ruminations on the most bizarre\, joyous\, and inescapa ble songs from a decade we both regret entirely and miss desperately. Named A Best Music Book of 2023 By Pitchfork\, Variety\, And Rolling Stone.\n6 p m doors/6:30 pm programFree & open to the public. Registration required.\nC opies of the book will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-B eth Cincinnati.\nAbout Rob HarvillaRob Harvilla is the host of the podcast 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s and a senior staff writer at The Ringer\; he’s been a professional rock critic for 20-plus years with stops at the Village Voice\, SPIN\, Deadspin\, and various other alt-weeklies that gener ally no longer exist. (Not his fault.) He lives with his family in Columbus \, Ohio\, by choice. LOCATION:2017 Branch St.\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45214 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2024/04/26/60-songs-that-explain-th e-90s END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-212@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240428T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240428T203000 SUMMARY:Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project DESCRIPTION:Celebrate the culmination of National Poetry Month with an even t co-sponsored by the Mercantile Library and The Hive Cincinnati! Please jo in our screening and discussion of Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Projec t directed by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson (2024\, 102 minutes).\nI n this documentary\, which highlights the life of this legendary and award- winning poet\, educator\, and activist\, “Giovanni reckons with the inevi table passing of time in intimate vérité and revealing archival footage. The film is a collision of memories\, moments in American history\, live re adings\, and visually innovative treatments of her poetry.(rottentomatoes.c om).”\nLight refreshments will be served.\nThe event is FREE. Registratio n requested by April 26 as space is limited.\nFor more information\, please contact:Yalie Saweda Kamara: yalie@mercantilelibrary.comChris La Rue of Th e Hive: chris@cincyhive.org\n*A note on accessibility: While The Hive's cur rent physical location\, a converted early-20th-century home\, which has st eps\, may present some challenges for people with disabilities\, assistance will be available. LOCATION:1628 Hoffner St. \, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45223 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2024/04/28/going-to-mars-the-nikki- giovanni-project END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-236@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240822T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240822T203000 SUMMARY:How Government Built America DESCRIPTION:Join longtime Mercantile member & Dean Emeritus of the Universi ty of Cincinnati College of Law\, Joseph Tomain as he discusses How Governm ent Built America.\nHow Government Built America challenges growing\, anti- government rhetoric by highlighting the role government has played in partn ering with markets to build the United States. Sidney A. Shapiro and Joseph P. Tomain explore how markets can harm and fail the country\, and how the government has addressed these extremes by restoring essential values to be nefit all citizens. Without denying that individualism and small government are part of the national DNA\, the authors demonstrate how democracy and a people pursuing communal interests are equally important. In highly engagi ng prose\, the authors describe how the government\, despite the complexity of markets\, remains engaged in promoting economic prosperity\, protecting people\, and providing an economic safety net. Each chapter focuses on a h istorical figure\, from Lincoln to FDR to Trump\, to illustrate how the gov ernment-market mix has evolved over time. By understanding this history\, r eaders can turn the national conversation back to what combination of gover nment and markets will best serve the country.\nFree & open to the public. Reservations recommended via Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nCopies of the book wi ll be available for sale & signing. LOCATION:2692 Madison Rd.\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45208 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2024/08/22/how-government-built-ame rica END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-244@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240930T173000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240930T183000 SUMMARY:The Case for Cities Book Launch DESCRIPTION:Many members and friends may have participated in the 2021 onli ne series of conversations called The Case for Cities\, sponsored by the UC School of Planning and the Mercantile Library. Those rich conversations fo cused on strategies for the revitalization of historic cities like Cincinna ti and explored the creative tension between the two great values on which the vigor of cities depends: that they should be “Cities of Choice” and “Cities of Justice.” The conversations featured experts from the acade mic\, professional\, and civic sectors who showed how these two values are symbiotic and that promoting both leads to viable\, sustainable urban resur gence.\nJust published is a book\, The Case for Cities\, that brings togeth er the insights of those conversations. The book covers themes like housing \, mobility\, nature\, health\, entrepreneurship\, public space\, culture\, and philanthropy and will be of keen interest to urban advocates and civic leaders\, journalists covering urban affairs\, and to practitioners in urb an planning\, urban design\, real estate\, architecture\, and landscape arc hitecture.\nYou’re invited to participate in a launch event for this impo rtant book on Monday\, September 30\, 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the University Club of Cincinnati\, 401 East Fourth Street.\nRegister HERE LOCATION:401 E. 4th St.\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2024/09/30/the-case-for-cities-book -launch END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-237@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241010T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241010T203000 SUMMARY:Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect DESCRIPTION:Architectural historian Victoria Kastner will speak about her n ew book\, Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect \, which provides the first in-depth look at Morgan’s fascinating private life\, as well as her remarkable career. In 1902\, Julia Morgan became the first woman to graduate from the renowned architecture program at the Éco le des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1904 she became California’s first license d female architect. And in 2014 the American Institute of Architects posthu mously awarded her the Gold Medal\, as its first female recipient. Best kno wn as the designer of William Randolph Hearst’s lavish estate at San Sime on\, on which she worked for nearly thirty years\, Julia Morgan built an as tonishing seven hundred additional projects throughout the west. Kastner wi ll not only share new information about many of these buildings\; she will also reveal her new discoveries about Julia Morgan’s inspiring personal l ife\, which was as exceptional as her distinguished career.\nPresented as p art of The Mercantile Library’s Allgood-McLean: Women You Should Know ser ies by AIA Cincinnati’s CRAN and Women in Architecture.\nAbout the Author : Victoria Kastner was the official historian at Hearst Castle for nearly t hree decades. In addition to her new biography about its talented architect (Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect)\, she has also written three volumes chronicling its fascinating history: Hearst Castle: The Biography of a Country House\; Hearst’s San Simeon: The Garde ns and the Land\; and Hearst Ranch: Family\, Land\, and Legacy. Ms. Kastner has a Master’s degree in Public History with a specialty in architectura l history from the University of California at Santa Barbara\, and a Master ’s degree in Museum Management from George Washington University. She has also published works on the Beverly Hills Hotel\, Bernard Maybeck’s Pala ce of Fine Arts in San Francisco\, and the novels of Charles Dickens. https ://victoriakastner.com/\n6:00 pm reception/6:30 pm program\n$10 Mercantile & AIA Members$20 nonmembers\nCopies of the book will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Booksellers. LOCATION:50 E. Rivercenter Blvd.\, Covington\, KY\, 41011 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2024/10/10/julia-morgan-an-intimate -biography-of-the-trailblazing-architect END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-305@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250211T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250211T193000 SUMMARY:A Forty Year Kiss: An Evening with Nickolas Butler DESCRIPTION:"A story that captures the hope\, grace\, and joy of new love but also the mistakes\, scar tissue\, and regret of past love. It's a wond er to behold\, a novel capable of such breadth. This is the kind of book th at makes me a better human." ―Nathan Hill\, New York Times bestselling au thor of The Nix and Wellness\nFrom the critically acclaimed author of Shotg un Lovesongs comes an exquisitely written\, small-town story about one coup le's hard-won second chance at love\, forty years after their divorce.\nCha rlie and Vivian parted ways after just four years of marriage. Too many pro blems\, too many struggles\, even though the love didn't quite die. When Ch arlie returns to Wisconsin forty years later\, he's not sure what he'll fin d. He is sure of one thing -- he must try to reconnect with Vivian to pick up the broken pieces of their past. But forty years is a long time. It's fo rty years of other relationships\, forty years of building new lives\, and forty years of long-held regrets\, mistakes\, and painful secrets.\nA brave and triumphant exploration of redemption and sunset triumph\, A Forty Year Kiss is a once-in-a-lifetime love story\, written with dazzling lyricism a nd remarkable clarity of spirit\, from a celebrated author at the top of hi s game. It's a literary valentine that promises to be a love story for the ages.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registrati on required.\nCopies of A Forty Year Kiss will be available for sale & sign ing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Nickolas Butler\nNickolas Bu tler was born in Allentown\, Pennsylvania\, raised in Eau Claire\, Wisconsi n and educated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. He is the author of the internationally bestsellin g novel Shotgun Lovesongs and an acclaimed collection of short stories enti tled\, Beneath the Bonfire as well as three other novels. He lives on sixte en acres of land in rural Wisconsin adjacent to a buffalo farm. He is marri ed and has two children. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/02/11/a-forty-year-kiss-an-eve ning-with-nickolas-butler END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-325@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250218T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250218T193000 SUMMARY:Black History Month Poetry Reading and Conversation with Ajanaé Da wkins\, Jamie-Lee Elizabeth\, Brittany Rogers\, and Yalie Saweda Kamara DESCRIPTION:Please join us for a star-studded evening of poetry and convers ation featuring Ajanaé Dawkins\, Jamie-Lee Elizabeth\, Brittany Rogers\, a nd hosted by Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate Yalie Saweda K amara!\nTuesday\, February 18\, 20256:00 PM reception6:30 PM reading and co nversation\nFree and open to the public\nAjanaé Dawkins is a poet\, concep tual artist and theologian. She works through poetry\, visualart\, performa nce\, and audio to explore the politics of faith\, grief\, and intimate rel ationshipsbetween Black women. Her work has appeared in the Academy of Amer ican Poets’ Poem-a-Day\,The Rumpus\, Prairie Schooner\, the Indiana Revie w\, Frontier Poetry\, The BreakBeat Poets BlackGirl Magic Anthology and mor e. Her solo-exhibition\, No One Teaches Us How To BeDaughters\, debuted at Urban Arts Space in 2024. Her chapbook\, BLOOD-FLEX\, won the NewDelta Revi ew’s Chapbook prize and is forthcoming in Spring 2025.\nJamie-Lee Elizabe th is a writer\, poet and spoken word artist. Born and raised by Jamaican p arents inCincinnati\, Jamie-Lee always loved reading and writing. She gradu ated from The Ohio State Universitywith a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and has a wealth of experience and leadership in youthdevelopment and comm unity engagement in nonprofit organizations.\nJamie-Lee has performed her o wn original poetry at many locations such as the Cincinnati Art Museumand N ostalgia Wine & Jazz Lounge. In 2023\, she was the Vibrancy Fellow at Kenne dy Heights ArtsCenter and the Artist in Residence at the Contemporary Arts Center hosting writing workshops exploringvarious themes. In spring of 2024 \, she became a co-founder of the Maroon Collective Artist WellnessHouse in Walnut Hills providing co-living & co-working for black artists who in tur n provide wellnessprogramming to surrounding Black communities. She continu es to focus on expanding her skills andencouraging vulnerability through pe n and paper.\nBrittany Rogers is a poet\, visual artist\, educator\, and li fe-long Detroiter. She has work publishedor forthcoming in Lit Hub\, The Ho pkins Review\, Scalawag\, The Poet Lore\, Indiana Review\,Four Way Review\, Underbelly\, Mississippi Review\, Lambda Literary\, and Oprah Daily. Britt anyis a fellow of VONA\, The Watering Hole\, Poetry Incubator\, and Pink Do or Writing Retreat.Brittany is Editor-in-Chief of Muzzle Magazine and co-ho st of VS Podcast. She is the author ofthe poetry collection Good Dress\, a Michigan Notable Book for 2025\, and finalist for theNAACP Image Award. (Ti n House\, 2024).\nModerator: Yalie Saweda Kamara is a Sierra Leonean-Americ an writer\, educator\, and researcher from Oakland\, California. Kamara is the current Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate (2-year term) a nd a 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. She is the author of t he debut full-length collection Besaydoo (Milkweed Editions\, 2024)\, winne r of the 2022-2023 Jake Adam York Prize. Kamara earned a PhD in Creative Wr iting and English Literature from the University of Cincinnati. She is an a ssistant professor of English at Xavier University and resides in Cincinnat i. For more\, please visit: www.yaylala.com LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/02/18/black-history-month-poet ry-reading-and-conversation-with-ajana-dawkins-jamie-lee-elizabeth-brittany -rogers-and-yalie-saweda-kamara END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-274@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250220T183000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250220T073000 SUMMARY:Picturing Black History: An Evening with Paul McAllister & Steven C onn DESCRIPTION:A groundbreaking collection of photographs and essays that shed new light on the history of Black America\, from the Picturing Black Histo ry project.\n“Stunning . . . Provides fresh perspective on historical pho tographs and snapshots of Black life.” —NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW\n“ An astonishing work." —Henry Louis Gates\, Jr.\nPicturing Black History u ncovers untold stories and rarely seen images of the Black experience\, pro viding new context around culturally significant moments. This beautiful co llectible volume makes a thoughtful gift and is full of rousing\, vibrant e ssays paired with rarely seen photographs that expand our understanding of Black history.\nThe book is a collaborative effort between Getty Images\, O rigins: Current Events in Historical Perspective\, and the History departme nts at The Ohio State and Miami Universities. It informs\, educates\, and i nspires our current moment by exploring the past\, blending the breadth and depth of Getty Images’s archives with the renowned expertise of Origins contributors and The Ohio State’s and Miami’s History departments\, inc luding Daniela Edmeier\, Damarius Johnson\, Nicholas Breyfogle\, and Steve Conn.\nCreated by a growing collective of professional historians\, art his torians\, Black Studies scholars\, and photographers and showcasing Getty I mages’s unmatched collection of photographs\, Picturing Black History emb races the power of visual storytelling to relay little-known stories of opp ression and resistance\, perseverance and resilience\, freedom\, dreams\, i magination\, and joy within the United States and around the world.\nIn col lecting these new photographic essays\, this book furthers an ongoing dialo gue on the significance of Black history and Black life\, sharing new persp ectives on the current status of prejudice and discrimination bias with a w ider audience. Picturing Black History uses the latest academic learning an d scholarship to recontextualize and dispel prejudices\, while uncovering\, digitizing\, and preserving new archival materials to amplify a more inclu sive visual landscape.\n6:30 pm programFree & open to the public. Registrat ion required.\nCopies of Picturing Black History books will be available fo r sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati. LOCATION:414 Walnut St #1100\, Cincinnati\, Ohio\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/02/20/picturing-black-history- an-evening-with-paul-mcallister-steven-conn END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-334@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250226T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250226T200000 SUMMARY:RUDI: Responsible Use of Digital Intelligence DESCRIPTION:Explores the transformative power of artificial intelligence (A I) LOCATION:414 Walnut Street 11th Floor\, Cincinnat\, Ohio\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/02/26/rudi-responsible-use-of- digital-intelligence END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-271@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250228T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250228T193000 SUMMARY:Show Don't Tell: An Evening with Curtis Sittenfeld DESCRIPTION:A funny\, fiercely intelligent\, and moving collection explorin g marriage\, friendship\, fame\, and artistic ambition—including a story that revisits the main character from Curtis Sittenfeld’s iconic novel Pr ep—from the New York Times bestselling author of Eligible and Romantic Co medy.\n“[Sittenfeld’s] perfectly contained stories are a joy.”—Book list\, starred review\nIn her second story collection\, Sittenfeld shows wh y she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In the se dazzling stories\, she conjures up characters so real that they seem lik e old friends\, laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are ov erturned.\nIn “The Patron Saints of Middle Age\,” a woman visits two fr iends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone\,” a married artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mi ke Pence Rule\, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten \,” Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora\, decades later\, when Lee attends an alum ni reunion at her boarding school.\nHilarious\, thought-provoking\, and ful l of tenderness for her characters\, Sittenfeld’s stories peel back layer after layer of our inner lives\, keeping us riveted to the page with her u tterly distinctive voice.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm programFree & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Curtis’s books will be availab le for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Curtis Sit tenfeld\nCurtis Sittenfeld is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels including Rodham\, Eligible\, Prep\, American Wife\, and Sisterland\ , as well as the collection You Think It\, I’ll Say It. Her novels have b een translated into thirty languages. In addition\, her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker\, The Washington Post Magazine\, Esquire\, and T he Best American Short Stories\, for which she has also been the guest edit or. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times\, The Atlantic\, Time \, and Vanity Fair\, and on public radio’s This American Life. LOCATION:414 Walnut St #1100\, Cincinnati\, Ohio\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/02/28/show-dont-tell-an-evenin g-with-curtis-sittenfeld END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-296@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250312T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250312T193000 SUMMARY:Why Nothing Works: An Evening with Marc J. Dunkelman DESCRIPTION:A provocative exploration about the architecture of power\, the forces that stifle us from getting things done\, and how we can restore co nfidence in democratically elected government.\nAmerica was once a country that did big things—we built the world’s greatest rail network\, a vast electrical grid\, interstate highways\, abundant housing\, the Social Secu rity system\, the Tennessee Valley Authority\, and more. But today\, even w hile facing a host of pressing challenges—a housing shortage\, a climate crisis\, a dilapidated infrastructure—we feel stuck\, unable to move the needle. Why?\nAmerica is today the victim of a vetocracy that allows nearly anyone to stifle progress. While conservatives deserve some blame\, progre ssives have overlooked an unlikely culprit: their own fears of “The Estab lishment.” A half-century ago\, progressivism’s designs on getting stuf f done were eclipsed by a desire to box in government. Reformers put speaki ng truth to power ahead of exercising that power for good. The ensuing grid lock has pummeled faith in public institutions of all sorts\, stifled the m ovement’s ability to deliver on its promises\, and\, most perversely\, op ened the door for MAGA-style populism.\nA century ago\, Americans were simi larly frustrated—and progressivism pointed the way out. The same can happ en again. Marc J. Dunkelman vividly illustrates what progressives must do i f they are going to break through today’s paralysis and restore\, once ag ain\, confidence in democratically elected government. To get there\, refor mers will need to acknowledge where they’ve gone wrong. Progressivism’s success moving forward hinges on the movement’s willingness to rediscove r its roots.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm programFree & open to the public. Regi stration required.\nCopies of Why Nothing Works will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Marc J. Dunkelman\nMar c J. Dunkelman is a fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for Int ernational and Public Affairs and a former fellow at NYU’s Marron Institu te of Urban Management. During more than a decade working in politics\, he worked for Democratic members of both the Senate and the House of Represent atives and as a senior fellow at the Clinton Foundation. The author of The Vanishing Neighbor\, Dunkelman’s work has also appeared in the New York T imes\, Washington Post\, Wall Street Journal\, Atlantic\, and Politico. He lives in Providence\, Rhode Island. LOCATION:414 Walnut St #1100\, Cincinnati\, Ohio\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/03/12/why-nothing-works-an-eve ning-with-marc-j-dunkelman END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-350@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250313T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250313T200000 SUMMARY:Cocktail Class with Molly Wellmann DESCRIPTION:Bored with your bar? Learn to make some new cocktails (one gin\ , one bourbon\, & one tequila) and hear the stories behind them with Molly Wellmann.\nRegistration required. Space is limited.\n$35 members/$45 nonmem bers\nIncludes recipes\, cocktails\, and more!Historian and seventh generat ion Cincinnatian Molly Wellmann is the kind of girl who needs to know where everything comes from. Anytime she was curious about anything\, her mom wo uld reply\, “find out for yourself”…so she did\, and still does. She continually studies (often at The Mercantile Library) the history and prope r preparation of classic cocktails—as well as the histories of the people who made them. Wellmann is one of the co-founders of Stand-Up History\, th e author of the book Handcrafted Cocktails\, and is currently at work on an other about Cincinnati and our drinking history. LOCATION:414 Walnut St.\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/03/13/cocktail-class-with-moll y-wellmann END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-255@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250408T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250408T193000 SUMMARY:The Business of Being a Writer: An Evening with Jane Friedman DESCRIPTION:Even though the book publishing industry is often considered sl ow moving and not as susceptible to technological change as other creative industries\, it’s a transformative and challenging time for the business of books. From the rise of self-publishing to the growing influence of tech giants like Amazon\, Audible\, and Google\, the landscape for authors\, pu blishers\, and booksellers is shifting in ways that affect what stories get told—and how they reach readers.At the same time\, artificial intelligen ce tools are being introduced into creative processes\, sparking debates ab out intellectual property\, artistic authenticity\, and the future of human authorship. Social media platforms\, once hailed as democratizing forces f or reaching audiences\, are now unpredictable\, monetized ecosystems that l eave both authors and publishers looking for new strategies. Meanwhile\, th e climate for traditional publishers has grown more complex\, as consolidat ion continues to reshape the industry and books compete with other forms of media for attention in an increasingly distracted world.How do these trend s impact not just the business of books but also the art of writing? What d o they mean for readers who value books as cultural artifacts and sources o f intellectual enrichment? And where do independent bookstores and literary communities fit into this evolving equation?This event is for anyone curio us about the intersection of technology\, culture\, and the written word\, and what it means for the future of publishing.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm p rogramFree & open to the public. Registration required.\n\nCopies of The Bu siness of Being a Writer will be available for sale & signing courtesy of J oseph-Beth Cincinnati.\n\nAbout Jane Friedman\nJane Friedman has spent near ly 25 years working in publishing\, with a focus on innovation and trend re porting in the book publishing industry. Her book\, The Business of Being a Writer (The University of Chicago Press)\, received a starred review from Library Journal and is used as a classroom text by many writing and publish ing degree programs.\nIn addition to serving as guest faculty at creative w riting programs nationwide\, she’s delivered keynotes and workshops in pa rtnership with hundreds of writing and publishing events\, such as NYU's Ad vanced Publishing Institute\, The Authors Guild\, Frankfurt Book Fair\, Dig ital Book World\, and the Writer's Digest annual conference. Her expertise on publishing has been featured across media outlets such as The New York T imes\, The Atlantic\, CNN\, Wired\, BBC\, The Guardian\, The Washington Pos t\, Fox News\, The Today Show\, and NPR.\nJane has served on grant and awar d panels for the National Endowment for the Arts\, the Whiting Award\, and the Creative Work Fund\, and also sits on the advisory board for The Chicag o Manual of Style. For a while she flirted with academia\, teaching writing and publishing at the University of Cincinnati and University of Virginia. She resides in Cincinnati. Learn more at JaneFriedman.com.\n\nAbout Jana R eiss\nJana Riess has four jobs: she is an author\, a freelance book editor\ , a research scholar\,and an Airbnb host. She has worked in and around the publishing industry since 1999\,with particular expertise in the religion b ook market. She holds degrees in religion fromWellesley College and Princet on Theological Seminary\, and a PhD in Americanreligious history from Colum bia University. She has been interviewed by the AP\, Time\,Newsweek\, Peopl e\, the Boston Globe\, USA Today\, and the Los Angeles Times\, amongother p rint publications\, as well as “Voice of America\,” the Today show\, MS NBC\, andNPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Talk of the Nation.”\ nShe is the author\, co-author\, or editor of many books. Her favorites are FlunkingSainthood (chosen as one of Publishers Weekly’s top 10 religion books for 2011) andThe Twible: All the Chapters of the Bible in 140 Charact ers or Less . . . Now with 68%More Humor!\, which won the nonfiction catego ry in a Writers Digest self-publishingcontest. Other books include What Wou ld Buffy Do?\; Mormonism for Dummies\; TheWriter’s Market Guide to Gettin g Published\; and The Prayer Wheel. Her most recentbook\, The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church\, waspublished by Oxford Unive rsity Press in 2019. She and her research partner\, BenjaminKnoll\, are cur rently at work on a follow-up scholarly book called Leaving Mormonism:How a nd Why People Exit the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints\, which willalso be published by Oxford. She’s been writing a good deal of that b ook in the newlyrenovated space upstairs here in the Mercantile Library.\nS he is a senior columnist for Religion News Service\, where she has worked s ince 2012.Because she writes primarily about Mormons\, she gets some super interesting hatemail. LOCATION:414 Walnut St #1100\, Cincinnati\, Ohio\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/04/08/the-business-of-being-a- writer-an-evening-with-jane-friedman END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-354@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250409T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250409T190000 SUMMARY:Infant Mortality and Other Wicked Problems DESCRIPTION:In partnership with bi3 and Cradle Cincinnati join us to celebr ate the publication of Infant Mortality and Other Wicked Problems by Jill H aubner Miller and Dr. Meredith C. Smith. \nIn Infant Mortality and Other Wi cked Problems\, Jill Haubner Miller and Dr. Meredith C. Smith provide a pra ctical framework that can be used for tackling complex problems. The book t ells the extraordinary story of how the Cincinnati community brought togeth er healthcare providers\, community leaders and residents\, nonprofit organ izations\, and funders to create a radical model of care and support that f inally moved the needle on its (tragic and persistent) wicked problem: infa nt mortality. \n5 pm: reception & networking\n5:45 pm: program\nFree & open to the public. Registration required.Copies of Infant Mortality and Other Wicked Problems will be available for sale & signing LOCATION:414 Walnut St.\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/04/09/infant-mortality-and-oth er-wicked-problems END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-353@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250410T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250410T190000 SUMMARY:Walking With Birds: An Evening with Buck Niehoff DESCRIPTION:In New Zealand\, the only indigenous creatures are birds and a few lizards. No mammals or snakes existed in that isolated part of the worl d. Without predators to avoid\, some species\, such as the famous Kiwi\, be came flightless. Following the arrival of humans—first the ancestors of t he Mãori in about 1300 A.D.\, then Europeans a couple hundred years later invasive rats\, pigs\, dogs\, cats\, possums and others have decimated th e endemic species. At least fifty-one types of birds have become extinct. I n recent decades the people of New Zealand have begun fighting this trend. They have adopted conservation policies to save native species by protectin g natural habitats and eliminating invasive predators. With guidance from N ew Zealander Jeanie Russell\, the author and his companions visited bird pr eserves in beautiful natural areas. Along the way\, they learned to admire the eco-friendly spirit in this magnificent country.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Wa lking with Birds will be available for sale & signing\n\nAbout Buck Niehoff \nBuck Niehoff is a retired attorney who specialized in municipal bond law. Many people consider that profession to be a bit dry. However\, he thought it was very interesting. He has served as the Chair of the Board of Truste es of the University of Cincinnati and was co-chair of the “Proudly Cinci nnati” capital campaign which raised nearly $1.1 billion\; Chair of the H amilton County Republican Party\; Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Cin cinnati Museum Center\; President of The Mercantile Library\; and founding President of The Corporation for Findlay Market. He and his wife Patti live in Cincinnati’s Hyde Park neighborhood where his family has resided sinc e 1870. His son Peter lives with his wife Betsy and their son Oliver in the Cincinnati suburb of Indian Hill. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/04/10/walking-with-birds-an-ev ening-with-buck-niehoff END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-301@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250415T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250415T200000 SUMMARY:Interstitial Archaeology: An Evening with Felicia Zamora\, Yalie Sa weda Kamara & Chandra Frank DESCRIPTION:Water permeates this stunning collection—ocean\, lake\, saliv a\, tears\, sweat\, blood—and the deeper Felicia Zamora excavates the pur er it becomes. Revisiting her childhood as a Latina living in poverty in th e United States\, Zamora explores racial trauma\, estrangement from inherit ed culture and language\, and the instinct to retreat into the body as a sp ace of understanding. Grounded in the specificity of her history\, her body \, and her life\, these poems find the universal threads that connect hummi ngbirds to whales\, Galapagos tortoises to Matt Groening cartoons\, family photographs to joy and heartache.\nZamora scavenges her past and America’ s present for the hidden meanings at the borders of the social and environm ental\, linguistic and physical\, familial and personal. Along the way she enters into conversations with other poets\, activists\, and scholars\, see king wisdom\, tracing wounds\, and amplifying the voices of the marginalize d\, ultimately creating a space to constellate radical imagination.\n6 pm r eception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\ nCopies of Interstitial Archaeology will be available for sale & signing co urtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\n\n\nFelicia Zamora is the author of eigh t books of poetry including\, Murmuration Archives\, Akrílica Series\, Noe mi Press (2026)\, Interstitial Archaeology\, Wisconsin Poetry Series (2025) \, I Always Carry My Bones\, winner of the 2020 Iowa Poetry Prize (2021) an d the 2022 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry\, Body of Render\, Benjamin Saltman Award winner (2020)\, and Of Form & Gather\, Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize winner (2017). She’s won the Loraine Williams Poetry Prize\, C.P. Cavafy Prize\, Wabash Prize\, Tomaž Šalamun Prize\, and two Ohio Arts Council In dividual Excellence Awards (2024 & 2022). She has been supported by a Tin H ouse Next Book Residency\, Ragdale Fellowship\, and CantoMundo Fellowship. Her writing appears in Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day\, Alaska Quarte rly Review\, The American Poetry Review\, Best American Poetry 2022\, Bosto n Review\, Brevity\, Ecotone\, The Georgia Review\, Gulf Coast\, The Iowa R eview\, The Kenyon Review\, Lit Hub\, The Missouri Review\, Orion\, Poetry Magazine\, The Nation\, and others. She is a poetry editor for Colorado Rev iew\, a contributing editor for West Branch\, and an associate professor of poetry at the University of Cincinnati where she is a 2025-2026 Taft Resea rch Center Fellow.\nYalie Saweda Kamara is a Sierra Leonean American writer \, educator\, and researcher from Oakland\, California. She is the current Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate and a 2023 Academy of Ameri can Poets Laureate Fellow. Kamara is the author of the poetry collection Be saydoo (Milkweed Editions\, 2024)\, winner of the 2022-2023 Jake Adam York Prize. Kamara earned a PhD in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Cincinnati. She is an assistant professor of English at X avier University. For more\, please visit: www.yaylala.com\nChandra Frank i s an independent curator\, and Assistant Professor of Women’s\, Gender\, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She is the 2024-2027 Taft Professor of the Public Humanities and works on collaborative and mul ti-modal methodologies related to art\, ecology\, walking and public histor ies. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on feminist and queer of moveme nt work\, possibilities of dissent\, and the ways in which race and the env ironment work as terrains of power. She is completing her first monograph\, Tidal Politics: Feminist Queer Diaspora & Refusal in the Netherlands\, and is working on a creative non-fiction project on tides as feminist and quee r relation. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/04/15/interstitial-archaeology -an-evening-with-felicia-zamora-yalie-saweda-kamara-chandra-frank END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-352@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250426T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250426T150000 SUMMARY:Writing Future Worlds: An Afternoon with adrienne maree brown & Dan i McClain DESCRIPTION:The Weston Art Gallery and the Mercantile Library are pleased t o host New York Times-bestselling author adrienne maree brown on Saturday\, April 26th at 2p for “Writing Future Worlds.” This exploration of visi onary storytelling will feature brown in conversation with local journalist and author Dani McClain. The longtime collaborators will come together on the tenth anniversary of the publication of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fict ion Stories from Social Justice Movements\, an anthology co-edited by brown that includes McClain’s short story “Homing Instinct.”\nBrown is amo ng those committed to ensuring that celebrated speculative fiction author O ctavia Butler’s legacy endures well beyond her 2006 death. Brown cohosted with musician Toshi Reagon the podcast Octavia’s Parables\, which interr ogates Butler’s classic texts and finds lessons that apply to our contemp orary tumultuous times. Along with her sister Autumn Brown\, she cohosts th e podcast How to Survive the End of the World\, inspired by Butler’s mode l of preparing ourselves for apocalyptic changes. She is also the author of the Grievers speculative fiction trilogy set in Detroit. Book three\, Ance stors\, publishes in June of this year. American Book Award winner Tananari ve Due has called brown “one of our most important voices in Afrofuturism and true-life worldbuilding.” \nBrown’s Cincinnati visit coincides wit h the opening of Homing Instinct: Letting Go of the Shore at the Weston Art Gallery (April 25 - June 8). Filmmaker Lydia Dean Pilcher's multi-screen c inematic installation was inspired by McClain’s Octavia’s Brood story.\ n2 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Adrienne & Dani’s books will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Downbound Books.\nAbout adrienne maree brown & Dani McClain\nadrienne maree brown (she/they) is growing a garden of healing ideas. Informed by decades of movement facilitation\, somatics\, science fiction scholarship and doul a work\, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy\, Pleasure Activism\, Radi cal Imagination and Loving Correction as ideas and practices for transforma tion. adrienne is the NYT-bestselling author/editor of several published te xts\, a ritual singer-songwriter\, co-generator of the Lineages of Change T arot Deck\, and co-creator/host of How to Survive the End of the World podc ast with Autumn Brown. adrienne’s latest book Loving Corrections is now a vailable from AK Press.\nDani McClain is a Spencer Journalism Fellow report ing on education and mental health. She has written about play therapy and Black families’ experiences of the pandemic for The New York Times\, the complicated legacy of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger for Harper ’s BAZAAR\, and how to talk to kids about racism and policing for The Atl antic. McClain is a contributing writer at The Nation and was a staff repor ter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She received a James Aronson Award f or her coverage of the maternal health crisis. Her book We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood was published in 2019 by Bold Type Books and was shortlisted in 2020 for a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. McCla in was the Cincinnati public library's Writer-in-Residence in 2020 and 2021 . LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/04/26/writing-future-worlds-an -afternoon-with-adrienne-maree-brown-dani-mcclain END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-367@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250429T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250429T200000 SUMMARY:An Evening with The Opus 76 Quartet DESCRIPTION:Please join us for an evening of music at The Mercantile Librar y with The Opus 76 Quartet!\nThe Programme: J. Brahms - Quartet no.1 in C m inor J. Haydn - op.76 no.4: II. Adagio L. van Beethoven - op.132: I. Assai sostenuto\, Allegro - IV. Alla Marcia\, Assai Vivace - V. Allegro Apassiona to\nCirca. 50 mins run time\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nAbout The Opus 76 Quartet\nThe Opus 76 Quartet\, established in 2017\, has swiftly emerged as a leading force in t he classical music world\, earning acclaim in prestigious international mus ic journals such as Bachtrack\, Gramophone\, and The Strad for their except ional performances\, innovative programming\, and deep commitment to educat ion and community outreach. They have appeared in a wide variety of venues including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall\, Cincinnati Music Hall\, Kau fman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City\, the Midwest Trust Cent er and at the OK Mozart Festival in Oklahoma\, with highly anticipated perf ormances on the horizon at The Grand Tetons Music Festival and at St John's Smith Square and King’s Place in London.\nHailed as “Kansas City’s G em of a Quartet” by the Kansas City Star\, the ensemble consists of prize winning musicians Keith Stanfield\, Zsolt Eder\, Ashley Stanfield\, and Da niel Ketter. Their recent debut at Carnegie Hall was described by Gramophon e as “a fine reflection of their five-year journey from regional emergenc e to national recognition\,” underscoring their rapid rise and significan t impact on the classical music scene. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/04/29/an-evening-with-the-opus -76-quartet END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-333@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250501T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250501T193000 SUMMARY:Words & Music Lecture: Fred Hersch DESCRIPTION:Jazz could not contain Fred Hersch.\nHersch’s prodigious tale nt as a sideman—a pianist who played with the giants of the twentieth cen tury in the autumn of their careers\, including Art Farmer and Joe Henderso n—blossomed further in the eighties and beyond into a compositional geniu s that defied the boundaries of bop\, sweeping in elements of pop\, classic al\, and folk to create a wholly new music.\nGood Things Happen Slowly is h is memoir. It’s the story of the first openly gay\, HIV-positive jazz pla yer\; a deep look into the cloistered jazz culture that made such a status both transgressive and groundbreaking\; and a profound exploration of how H ersch’s two-month-long coma in 2007 led to his creating some of the fines t\, most direct\, and most emotionally compelling music of his career.\nRem arkable\, and at times lyrical\, Good Things Happen Slowly is an evocation of the twilight of Post-Stonewall New York\, and a powerfully brave narrati ve of illness\, recovery\, music\, creativity\, and the glorious reward of finally becoming oneself.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program $25 for Members\, $50 for Non-Members. Registration required.\nCopies of Good Things Happen Slowly will be available for sale.\nAbout Fred Hersch\nJazz pianist\, compo ser\, activist\, and educator Fred Hersch is a ten-time Grammy nominee and the recipient of a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition. He was named a 2016 Doris Duke Artist and has twice been awarded Jazz Pianist of the Yea r by the Jazz Journalists Association. He concertizes worldwide as a solo a rtist\, as a collaborator\, and with the Fred Hersch Trio. He was a longtim e member of the Jazz Studies faculty of the New England Conservatory and no w teaches at Rutgers University. He is the subject of the feature documenta ry The Ballad of Fred Hersch. He lives in New York City and Pennsylvania wi th his partner\, Scott Morgan. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/05/01/words-music-lecture-fred -hersch END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-375@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250510T153000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250510T180000 SUMMARY:HART & CRU: Benvenusa SOLD OUT DESCRIPTION:HART & CRU X THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY bring you an Evening of Win e & Storytelling from Northeastern Italy\nJoin us for a one-of-a-kind event of wine\, conversation\, and culture as our good friends at Hart & Cru par tner with James Beard Award-Winning Chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson\, and Winemaker Tommaso Zanuttini to celebrate the heritage and soul of Northeast ern Italy-and beyond.\nDOORS 3:30\, PANEL 4:00\, TASTING TO FOLLOW\nWHAT: 1 4 WINES POURED BY HART & CRU\; 3 BITES FROM LACHLAN'S FRIULI COOKBOOK\nTick ets (Required): MEMBERS $65/NON-MEMBERS - $75The event is brought to you by SOTTO\, Stelvio Selections\, and BenvenusaPANEL: KEVIN HARTHart & Cru foun der\, Kevin Hart\, is an experienced sommelier\, a dedicated student of the vine and long-time friend of Mercantile Library.LACHLAN MACKINNON-PATTERSO NLachlan travels to Ohio with a culinary pedigree shaped by time at The Fre nch Laundry and as co-owner of Colorado's acclaimed restaurants Frasca Food and Wine and Tavernetta.TOMMASO ZANUTTINIJoining all the way from the Adri atic Sea is winemaker at Ronc Platat in the Colli Orientali del Friuli-Vene zia Giulia -one of the most respected estates in the region.For more inform ation visit Hart & Cru. LOCATION:414 Walnut St.\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/05/10/hart-cru-benvenusa-sold- out END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-321@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250514T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250514T200000 SUMMARY:Run For The Hills: An Evening with Kevin Wilson DESCRIPTION:An unexpected road trip across America brings a family together \, in this raucous and moving new novel from the bestselling author of Noth ing to See Here.\nEver since her dad left them twenty years ago\, it’s ju st been Madeline Hill and her mom on their farm in Coalfield\, Tennessee. W hile she sometimes admits it’s a bit lonely and a less exciting life than she imagined for herself\, it’s mostly OK. Mostly.\nThen one day Reuben Hill pulls up in a PT Cruiser and informs Madeline that he believes she’s his half sister. Reuben—left behind by their dad thirty years ago—has hired a detective to track down their father and a string of other half sib lings. And he wants Mad to leave her home and join him for the craziest kin d of road trip imaginable to find them all.\nAs Mad and Rube—and eventual ly the others—share stories of their father\, who behaved so differently in each life he created\, they begin to question what he was looking for wi th each new incarnation. Who are they to one another? What kind of man will they find? And how will these new relationships change Mad’s previously solitary life on the farm?\nInfused with deadpan wit\, zany hijinks\, and e normous heart\, Run for the Hills is a sibling story like no other—a nove l about a family forged under the most unlikely circumstances and united by hope in an unknown future.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open t o the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Run for the Hills will be a vailable for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\n\nAbout Ke vin Wilson\nKevin Wilson is the author of two collections\, Tunneling to th e Center of the Earth (Ecco/Harper Perennial\, 2009)\, which received an Al ex Award from the American Library Association and the Shirley Jackson Awar d\, and Baby You’re Gonna Be Mine (Ecco\, 2018)\, and five novels\, The F amily Fang (Ecco\, 2011)\, Perfect Little World (Ecco\, 2017)\, Nothing to See Here (Ecco\, 2019)\, a New York Times bestseller and a Read with Jenna book club selection\, Now is Not the Time to Panic (Ecco\, 2022) and Run fo r the Hills (Ecco\, 2025). His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares\, South ern Review\, One Story\, A Public Space\, and elsewhere\, and has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2020 and 2021\, as well as The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony\, Yaddo\, and the KHN Center for the Arts. He lives in Sewanee\, Tennessee\, with his wife\, the poet Leigh Anne Couch\, and his sons\, Griff and Patch \, where he is an Associate Professor in the English & Creative Writing Dep artment at the University of the South. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/05/14/run-for-the-hills-an-eve ning-with-kevin-wilson END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-355@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250520T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250520T190000 SUMMARY:They Poisoned the World: An Evening with Mariah Blake with Rob Bilo tt DESCRIPTION:A landmark investigation of the chemical industry's decades-lon g campaign to hide the dangers of forever chemicals\, told through the stor y of a small town on the frontlines of an epic public health crisis\nIn 201 4\, after losing several friends and relatives to cancer\, an unassuming in surance underwriter in Hoosick Falls\, New York\, began to suspect that the local water supply was polluted. When he tested his tap water\, he discove red dangerous levels of forever chemicals. This set off a chain of events t hat led to 100 million Americans learning their drinking water was tainted. Although the discovery came as a shock to most\, the U.S. government and t he manufacturers of these toxic chemicals—used in everything from lipstic k and cookware to children’s clothing—had known about their hazards for decades.\nIn They Poisoned the World\, investigative journalist Mariah Bla ke tells the astonishing story of this cover-up\, tracing its roots back to the Manhattan Project and through the postwar years\, as industry scientis ts discovered that these chemicals refused to break down and were saturatin g the blood of virtually every human being. By the 1980s\, manufacturers we re secretly testing their workers and finding links to birth defects\, canc er\, and other serious diseases. At every step\, the industry’s deception s were aided by our government’s appallingly lax regulatory system—a sy stem that has made us all guinea pigs in a vast\, uncontrolled chemistry ex periment.\nDrawing on years of on-the-ground reporting and tens of thousand s of documents\, Blake interweaves the secret history of forever chemicals with the moving story of how a lone village took on the chemical giants—a nd won. From the beloved local doctor to the young mother who took her figh t all the way to the nation’s capital\, citizen activists in Hoosick Fall s and beyond have ignited the most powerful grassroots environmental moveme nt since Silent Spring.\nHumane and revelatory\, this book will provoke out rage—and hopefully inspire the change we need to protect the health of ev ery American for generations to come.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of They Poisoned the W orld will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnat i.\nAbout Mariah Blake\nMariah Blake is an investigative journalist whose w riting has appeared in The Atlantic\, Mother Jones\, The New Republic\, and other publications. She was a Murrey Marder Nieman Fellow in Watchdog Jour nalism at Harvard University.\nAbout Rob Bilott\nRob Bilott is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm\, Taft Stetti nius & Hollister LLP\, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Liti gation Practice Groups for over 34 years. During that time\, Rob has handle d and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”)\, including the first individual\, class action\, mass tort\, and multi-dist rict litigation proceedings involving PFAS\, recovering $ billions for clie nts impacted by these “forever chemicals.” In 2017\, Rob received the R ight Livelihood Award\, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize\,” for hi s decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination . Rob is the author of the book\, Exposure: Poisoned Water\, Corporate Gree d\, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont\, and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture\, “Dark Waters\,” starring Mark Ruffalo as Rob. Rob’s story and work is also featured in the docume ntaries\, The Devil We Know\, Burned: Protecting the Protectors\, and How t o Poison a Planet. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/05/20/they-poisoned-the-world- an-evening-with-mariah-blake-with-rob-bilott END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-323@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250528T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250528T200000 SUMMARY:The Mother Code: An Evening with Ruthie Ackerman DESCRIPTION:In this propulsive memoir\, an award-winning journalist blends history\, science\, and cultural criticism to uncover whether motherhood ou tside of society’s rigid rules and expectations is possible—and whether she fits the mold for what a mother should be.\nRuthie Ackerman had long b elieved that the decision to not have children was a radical act. She’d g rown up being told that she came from a long line of women who had abandone d their kids and feared she would pass on her half-brother’s rare genetic disorder. So when she marries a man who doesn’t want children\, she hope s she can be happy without any. But a voice in her head keeps returning to the question: What if mothering can be a radical act too? When her marriage veers off course\, she goes searching through the twists and turns of her DNA to decide once and for all whether she should become a mother.\nBy the time Ruthie finally determines that she desperately wants a child\, she lea rns that motherhood won’t happen the way she thought it would. Now she mu st enter the hall of mirrors where biology\, genetics\, and philosophy coll ide as she wonders what it means to both create and nurture a life. What do es inheritance really entail? What does it mean to be a “good” mother? When it comes down to it\, how important is nature versus nurture? And wher e are the models for what a “good life” can look like for women\, both with and without children?\nSynthesizing reportage and memoir\, The Mother Code unravels how we’ve come to understand the institution of motherhood. What emerges is a groundbreaking new vision for what it means to parent: a mother code that goes beyond our bloodlines and genetics and instead urges us to embrace inheritance as the legacy we want to leave behind for those we love.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Regis tration required.\nCopies of The Mother Code will be available for sale & s igning courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\n\nAbout Ruthie Ackerman\nAn awa rd-winning journalist\, Ruthie's writing has been published in Vogue\, Glam our\, O Magazine\, The New York Times\, The Atlantic\, The Wall Street Jour nal\, Forbes\, Salon\, Slate\, Newsweek\, and more. Her Modern Love essay f or the New York Times became the launching point for her forthcoming memoir \, The Mother Code. She has a Master's in Journalism from New York Universi ty and lives in Brooklyn with her family.\nAbout Stacy Sims\nStacy is the F ounder and Executive Director of The Well\, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit wo rking at the intersection of arts and wellness. She is also a novelist\, pl aywright and children's book author. She met Ruthie several years ago at a gathering for On Being and the two have remained connected since. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/05/28/the-mother-code-an-eveni ng-with-ruthie-ackerman END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-360@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250603T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250603T070000 SUMMARY:Who Pays for Diversity?: An Evening with Oneya Fennell Okuwobi DESCRIPTION:How diversity initiatives harm employees of color by turning th em into workplace commodities. Diversity programs are under attack. Should those interested in racial justice fight to keep them\, or might there be another way forward? Who Pays for Diversity? reveals the costs that employe es of color pay under current programs by having their racial identities co mmodified to benefit white people and institutions. Oneya Fennell Okuwobi p roposes fresh and thoughtful ways to reorient these initiatives\, move beyo nd tokenism\, and authentically center marginalized employees. Drawing on accounts of employees from across the workplace spectrum\, from corporation s to churches to universities\, Who Pays for Diversity? details how the opt ics of diversity programs undermine employees' competence while diminishing their well-being and workplace productivity. Okuwobi argues that diversity programs have been a costly detour on the path to racial justice\, and get ting back on track requires solutions that provide equity\, dignity\, and a gency to all employees\, instead of defending the status quo.\n6 pm recepti on/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopie s of Who Pays for Diversity? will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Oneya Fennell Okuwobi\nOneya Fennell Okuw obi is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. Her research examines how organizational diversity policies affect racial inequality. In particular\, Oneya’s work centers the experiences of peopl e of color to portray in rich detail the hidden causes and lasting effects of workplace inequality. Oneya was previously a corporate finance manager w ith 14 years’ experience in strategic business planning\, category expans ion\, and organizational leadership. She is also a regular commentator and consultant on issues at the intersection of race and religion\, especially the multiracial church. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/06/03/who-pays-for-diversity-a n-evening-with-oneya-fennell-okuwobi END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-330@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250626T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250626T193000 SUMMARY:Fulfillment: An Evening with Lee Cole DESCRIPTION:Fulfillment tells the story of two half brothers—Joel\, a suc cessful academic and author\, whose marriage is in deep trouble\, and his y ounger sibling Emmett\, paralyzed by indecision and working on a factory as sembly line—who find themselves at their family home in Kentucky and upen d each other’s lives in devasting ways.\nBetween them is Alice\, Joel’s wife\, a wry\, passionate young woman who is being slowly asphyxiated by d omestic tedium\, and whose longing collides with Emmett’s hunger for conn ection and desire to escape a sense of burgeoning failure and shame. As the chemistry between them escalates\, the family is plunged into a violent cr ucible\, each character brought to a precipice of immutable catastrophe.\nI ncisive\, poignant\, gorgeously written\, Lee Cole has written a haunting n ovel about class\, privilege\, brotherhood\, and the American South\, a boo k that asks whether people can change\, and at what cost\, and what it take s to build a life of fulfillment and meaning.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm progr am Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Fulfillment will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\n About Lee Cole\nLee Cole was born and grew up in rural Kentucky. He is the author of the novel Groundskeeping. A recent graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop\, he now lives in Houston\, Texas. URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/06/26/fulfillment-an-evening-w ith-lee-cole END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-399@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250708T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250708T193000 SUMMARY:2025-2027 Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate Celebrati on with Richard Hague DESCRIPTION:The Mercantile Library is thrilled to announce Richard Hague as the 2025-2027 Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate.\nThe two-ye ar post includes a stipend underwritten by the City of Cincinnati and the M ercantile Library. Previously held by poets Pauletta Hansel\, Manuel Iris\, and Yalie Saweda Kamara\, the Poet Laureate promotes poetry throughout the city\, reads poems at events\, and leads programming.\nRichard Hague is a graduate of Xavier University whose work has appeared in Poetry\, Smartish Pace\, Appalachian Journal\, Northern Appalachian Review\, Birmingham Poetr y Review\, Nowhere Magazine\, Hiram Poetry Review\, Nimrod\, Mid-American R eview\, Ohio Magazine\, Still: The Journal\, Gyroscope Review\, The Clevela nd Plain Dealer and Creative Nonfiction\, among many others\, and in dozens of anthologies. He is author or editor of 22 volumes of prose and poetry\, most recently Continued Cases (Dos Madres Press\, 2023)\, a collection of environmental\, satirical\, and political poems and the nonfiction collecti on Earnest Occupations: Teaching\, Writing\, Gardening\, and Other Local Wo rk (Bottom Dog Press 2018) listed as “Recommended” by the US Review of Books. A Katharine Bakeless Scholar at Bread Loaf\, he studied with Scott R ussell Sanders. He has taught writing and literature in Cincinnati and else where for 54 years.\n“Not only am I honored to be named Poet Laureate\, b ut I look forward to supporting poets and the art of poetry in the city I h ave lived\, studied\, and taught in for sixty years\,” said Hague. “I a lso hope to celebrate\, among many other things\, Cincinnati’s river heri tage\, being myself a native of another old Ohio River town\, Steubenville\ , site of the original Land Office for the Northwest Territory. Finally\, I am privileged to follow Pauletta Hansel\, Manuel Iris\, and Yalie Kamara i n maintaining the vital and varied poetry scene they have created in their roles as Poets Laureate.”\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open t o the public. Registration required. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/07/08/2025-2027-cincinnati-and -mercantile-library-poet-laureate-celebration-with-richard-hague END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-322@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250710T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250710T200000 SUMMARY:The Albert Pyle Urban Lecture: Becca Costello & Ella Rowen DESCRIPTION:Backed Up Podcast hosts Becca Costello & Ella Rowen deliver the 2025 Albert Pyle Urban Lecture.\nThere's something wrong with the plumbing in Cincinnati. Sewage is bubbling up in our basements and pouring into our waterways. Climate change is making it worse\, and the powers that be can' t seem to agree on how to fix it.\nBacked Up is a podcast that demystifies one of the most complex systems of public infrastructure — our sewers — and tells the stories of the people suffering under decades of mismanageme nt.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program\nFree to members/$25 nonmembers\nRegi stration required.\n\nBecca Costello and Ella Rowen are co-hosts of Backed Up. Becca is Cincinnati Public Radio’s Local Government Reporter\; she ha s a Master’s in Journalism from Indiana University and nearly ten years o f public media experience. Ella is CPR’s Podcast Coordinator with a parti cular passion for sound design\; she also produces and engineers CPR’s po dcast Looking Up with Dean Regas. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/07/10/the-albert-pyle-urban-le cture-becca-costello-ella-rowen END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-361@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250715T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250715T190000 SUMMARY:A Preponderance of Starry Beings: An Evening with Samantha Edmonds DESCRIPTION:Genre-bending stories of the cosmos and the worlds within our o wn skin\nBlending fairy tale and science fiction with the otherworldliness of adolescence\, A Preponderance of Starry Beings is a collection for anyon e preoccupied with looking skyward. These stories probe the experience of c oming of age on the outskirts of the universe\, whether that be a small Mid western town or a distant galaxy\, and of weighing earthly obligations agai nst the vast promises of space.\nIn a sleepy Ohio neighborhood\, two girls seek refuge from their homophobic schoolmates in an antiques shop filled wi th Star Trek memorabilia. On a generation spaceship\, children revolt again st their parents’ plans to colonize a distant world. Deep in the Florida Everglades\, seven sisters must protect their otherworldly mythology when t wo men arrive to fix the family automobile.\nA Preponderance of Starry Bein gs invites us into a mundane and whimsical world of night islands\, small t owns\, and faith lost and found\, where a safe landing matters less than ta king the leap.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. R egistration required.\nCopies of A Preponderance of Starry Beings will be a vailable for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Sama ntha Edmonds\nSAMANTHA EDMONDS is the author of the short story collection A Preponderance of Starry Beings as well as the chapbooks The Space Poet an d Pretty to Think So. Her work appears in the New York Times\, Fourth Genre \, Ninth Letter\, Mississippi Review\, and The Rumpus\, among others. She i s an assistant professor in the creative writing program at Berry College a nd lives in Rome\, Georgia. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/07/15/a-preponderance-of-starr y-beings-an-evening-with-samantha-edmonds END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-385@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250722T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250722T193000 SUMMARY:American Scare: An Evening with Robert W. Fieseler DESCRIPTION:A vital story for both our history and our present day\, Americ an Scare is a riveting exposé of how the Florida government became determi ned to destroy the lives of Black and queer citizens in the 1950s. In Janu ary of 1959\, Art Copleston was escorted out of his college accounting clas s by three police officers. In a motel room\, blinds drawn\, he sat in fron t of a state senator and the legal counsel for the Florida Legislative Inve stigation Committee. His crime? Being a suspected homosexual. And the gover nment of Florida would use any tactic at their disposal—legal or not—to get Copleston to admit it. Using a secret trove of primary source documen ts that have been decoded for the first time in history\, award-winning jou rnalist Robert Fieseler unravels the mystery of what actually happened behi nd the closed doors of the Johns Committee. In this fast-paced true crime s tory\, Fieseler places readers in the center of the action\, illustrating t he shocking techniques the government would use to intimidate and break tho se who they saw as a threat to Florida’s white\, conservative identity. The state of Florida would prefer if its history remained buried. But for a lmost a decade\, the Florida Legislature founded\, funded\, and supported t he Johns Committee—an organization using the cover of communism to viciou sly attack members of the NAACP and queer professors and students. Fieseler describes the heartbreaking ramifications for the citizens of Florida whos e lives were imperiled\, profiling marginalized residents with compassion\, curiosity\, and a determination to bring their devasting experiences into the limelight at last. A propulsive\, human-centered drama\, with fascinati ng insight into Florida politics\, American Scare is a page-turning reckoni ng of our racist and homophobic past—and its chilling parallels to today. About American Scare\nA vital exposé for both our history and our present day\, American Scare tells the riveting story of how the Florida governmen t destroyed the lives of Black and queer citizens in the twentieth century. In January 1959\, Art Copleston was escorted out of his college accountin g class by three police officers. In a motel room\, blinds drawn\, he sat i n front of a state senator and the legal counsel for the Florida Legislativ e Investigation Committee\, nicknamed the “Johns Committee.” His crime? Being a suspected homosexual. And the government of Florida would use any tactic at their disposal—legal or not—to get Copleston to admit it. Us ing a secret trove of primary source documents that have been decoded and d e-censored for the first time in history\, journalist Robert Fieseler unrav els the mystery of what actually happened behind the closed doors of an inq uisition that held ordinary citizens ransom to its extraordinary powers. T he state of Florida would prefer that this history remain buried. But for n early a decade\, the Florida Legislature founded\, funded\, and supported t he Johns Committee—an organization using the cover of communism to viciou sly attack members of the NAACP and queer professors and students. Spearhea ded by Charley Johns\, a multi-term politician in a gerrymandered legislatu re\, the Committee was determined to eliminate any threats to the state’s white\, conservative regime. Fieseler describes the heartbreaking ramific ations for citizens of Florida whose lives were imperiled\, profiling margi nalized residents with compassion and a determination to bring their devast ing experiences to light at last. A propulsive\, human-centered drama\, wit h fascinating insight into Florida politics\, American Scare is a page-turn ing reckoning of our racist and homophobic past—and its chilling parallel s to today.\nSee Less\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of American Scare will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Robert W. Fie seler\nRobert W. Fieseler is a journalist investigating marginalized groups and a scholar excavating forgotten histories. A National Lesbian and Gay J ournalists Association Journalist of the Year and recipient of the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship\, his debut book Tinderbox won seven awards\, includi ng the Edgar Award\, and his reporting has appeared in Slate\, Commonweal\, and River Teeth\, among others. Fieseler graduated co-valedictorian from t he Columbia Journalism School and is pursuing a PhD at Tulane University as a Mellon Fellow. He lives with his husband on the gayest street in New Orl eans.\nAbout Chris Ashwell\nChris Ashwell is an award-winning storyteller\, filmmaker\, and co-founder of Cincy Stories\, a nonprofit dedicated to bui lding community through story. With 13 Emmy Awards recognizing his work acr oss broadcast television\, national campaigns\, and feature documentaries\, Chris is known for his immersive\, authentic approach to capturing real-li fe narratives. As moderator\, he brings a deep passion for meaningful conve rsation and a commitment to exploring the power of non-fiction storytelling to connect us and reveal shared truths. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/07/22/american-scare-an-evenin g-with-robert-w-fieseler END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-358@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250729T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250729T190000 SUMMARY:Maggie\; Or\, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar: An Evening with Ka tie Yee DESCRIPTION:“A light and nimble debut novel about some of life’s most d evastating events...this a novel that crackles with heartfelt intelligence and wit....A funny\, stirring novel about resilience.”\n—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)\nA Chinese American woman spins tragedy into comedy when her life falls apart in a taut\, wry debut novel that grapples with grief\, motherhood\, and myths—perfect for fans of Joan Is Okay and Crying in H Mart.\nA man and a woman walk into a restaurant. The woman expects a lovely night filled with endless plates of samosas. Instead\, she finds out her h usband is having an affair with a woman named Maggie.\nA short while after\ , her chest starts to ache. She walks into an examination room\, where she finds out the pain in her breast isn’t just heartbreak—it’s cancer. S he decides to call the tumor Maggie.\nUnfolding in fragments over the cours e of the ensuing months\, Maggie\; Or\, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar f ollows the narrator as she embarks on a journey of grief\, healing\, and re clamation. She starts talking to Maggie (the tumor)\, getting acquainted wi th her body’s new inhabitant. She overgenerously creates a “Guide to My Husband: A User’s Manual” for Maggie (the other woman)\, hoping to eas e the process of discovering her ex-husband’s whims and quirks. She turns her children’s bedtime stories into retellings of Chinese folklore passe d down by her own mother\, in an attempt to make them fall in love with the ir shared culture—and to maybe save herself in the process.\nIn the style of Jenny Offill and the tradition of Nora Ephron’s hilarious and devasta ting writing on heartbreak and womanhood\, Maggie is a master class in tran sforming personal tragedy into a form of defiant comedy.\n6 pm reception/6: 30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Maggie\; Or\, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Katie Yee\nKatie Yee i s a writer from Brooklyn. She has received fellowships from the Center for Fiction\, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop\, and Kundiman. Her work h as appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books\, No Tokens\, The Believer\, the Washington Square Review\, Triangle House\, Epiphany\, and Literary Hu b. By day\, she works at the Brooklyn Museum. By night\, she writes\, usual ly under the watch of her judgmental rescue dog\, Ollie. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/07/29/maggie-or-a-man-and-a-wo man-walk-into-a-bar-an-evening-with-katie-yee END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-400@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250730T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250730T183000 SUMMARY:On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports DESCRIPTION:A news-making and electrifying portrait of sports phenomenon Ca itlin Clark\, whose dramatic ascendance in college basketball and now in th e WNBA has captured the attention of media and fans unlike any other female team-sport athlete in history—by award-winning USA TODAY columnist and t elevision commentator Christine Brennan. America has never seen an athlete quite like Caitlin Clark. Attracting record-shattering attendance and TV r atings\, she has riveted the nation with her famous logo threes and thrilli ng passes and changed how fans across the country view women’s sports. Dr awing on dozens of extensive interviews and exclusive\, behind-the-scenes r eporting\, veteran journalist Christine Brennan narrates Clark’s rise—i ncluding the formative experiences that led to her scoring more points than any woman or man in major college basketball history—and delivers fascin ating new details about Clark’s Olympic snub by USA Basketball\, the safe ty concerns around her that led to charter flights for all players\, the WN BA’s lack of preparation for heightened national scrutiny\, and troubling outbreaks of jealousy and resentment as a white player became the top stor y in a predominantly Black league. The 2024 season was a watershed. Always taking the high road in the face of criticism\, Clark proceeded to write h erself into WNBA record books as one of the league’s most talented rookie s ever. And her winning persona—on full display whether surrounded by chi ldren begging for autographs or reporters hanging on her every word—made Clark such a fan favorite that increasingly larger arenas needed to be foun d to accommodate the hordes who traveled hundreds\, and sometimes thousands \, of miles to watch her play. Clark arrived as a sports and cultural icon a little more than fifty years after the passage of Title IX\, the 1972 la w that opened the floodgates for girls and women to play sports in America. On Her Game is a sports story\, certainly\, but it’s also the story of a nation falling in love with what it has created because of that law—mill ions of new athletes\, led by the magical Caitlin Clark.\n5 pm reception/5: 30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of On Her Game will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Ci ncinnati.\nAbout Christine Brennan\nCHRISTINE BRENNAN is an award-winning n ational sports columnist for USA TODAY\; a commentator for ABC\, CNN\, and PBS NewsHour\; and the bestselling author of Inside Edge\, named one of the top 100 sports books of all time by Sports Illustrated. She has been selec ted as one of the country’s top ten sports columnists multiple times by t he Associated Press Sports Editors and has covered the last twenty-one Olym pic Games\, summer and winter. A trailblazer\, she was the first woman spor tswriter at The Miami Herald\, the first woman to cover Washington’s NFL team for The Washington Post\, and the first president of the Association f or Women in Sports Media. https://christinebrennan.com/ LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/07/30/on-her-game-caitlin-clar k-and-the-revolution-in-womens-sports END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-384@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250808T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250808T193000 SUMMARY:The End of Childhood: An Evening with Wayne Miller DESCRIPTION:"These poems achieve the beautiful\, uncanny fusing that Miller defines as poetry itself.”—Rick Barot\, author of Moving the Bones\nA tender and provocative collection of poems interrogating the troubles and w onders of both childhood and parenthood against the backdrop of global viol ence.\nFrom accomplished poet Wayne Miller comes a collection examining how an individual’s story both hews to and defies larger socio-political nar ratives and the sweep of history. A cubist making World War I camouflage\, a forlorn panel on the ethics of violence in literature\, an obsessive lita ny of “late capitalist” activities\, a military drone pilot driving hom e after work—here\, the awkward\, the sweet\, and the disturbing often me rge. And underlying it all is Miller’s own domestic life with two childre n\, who highlight the hopeful and ingenious aspects of childhood\, which is “not // as I had thought / the thicket of light back at the entrance // but the wind still blowing / invisibly toward me / through it.” \nThe End of Childhood\, Miller’s sixth collection of poems\, is his most intimate \, juxtaposing his own fraught youth with that of his children amid insurre ction and pandemic\, vacation and vocation\, art and war. This piercing boo k spares nothing as it searches for a measure of personal benevolence and t ruth in today’s turbulent\, brutalizing world—which it confronts throug h a singularly candid and lyrical voice.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Fr ee & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of The End of Child hood will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnat i.\nAbout Wayne Miller\nBorn and raised in Cincinnati\, Ohio\, Wayne Miller is the author of six poetry collections\, most recently The End of Childho od (Milkweed\, 2025) and We the Jury (2021). His awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation\, as we ll as the UNT Rilke Prize\, two Colorado Book Awards\, two Pushcart Prizes\ , the George Bogin Award\, the Lucille Medwick Award\, the Lyric Poetry Awa rd\, and a Fulbright Distinguished Scholarship to the Seamus Heaney Centre in Northern Ireland. He has co-translated two books by the Albanian writer Moikom Zeqo—most recently Zodiac (Zephyr\, 2015)\, shortlisted for the PE N Center USA Award in Translation—and he has co-edited three books\, most recently Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century (Milkweed\, 2016) . He teaches at the University of Colorado Denver\, co-directs the Unsung M asters Book Series\, and edits the literary journal Copper Nickel. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/08/08/the-end-of-childhood-an- evening-with-wayne-miller END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-418@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250814T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250814T200000 SUMMARY:Back to School: Cocktail Class with Molly Wellmann DESCRIPTION:Get back to school in style with Molly Wellmann!\nLearn to make some new cocktails for a delicious end of summer and hear the history behi nd them.\nRegistration required. Space is limited.\n$35 members/$50 nonmemb ers\nIncludes recipes\, cocktails\, and more! Historian and seventh generat ion Cincinnatian Molly Wellmann is the kind of girl who needs to know where everything comes from. Anytime she was curious about anything\, her mom wo uld reply\, “find out for yourself”…so she did\, and still does. She continually studies (often at The Mercantile Library) the history and prope r preparation of classic cocktails—as well as the histories of the people who made them. Wellmann is one of the co-founders of Stand-Up History\, th e author of the book Handcrafted Cocktails\, and is currently at work on an other about Cincinnati and our drinking history. LOCATION:414 Walnut St.\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/08/14/back-to-school-cocktail- class-with-molly-wellmann END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-417@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250819T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250819T193000 SUMMARY:Crossing Borders\, Expanding Boundaries: An Evening with Dan Hurley DESCRIPTION:Through 720 letters home\, Irwin Hurley created a remarkable re cord documenting the personal impact of service in the World War II U.S. Ar my. He commented on military campaigns but\, more importantly\, reflected o n the way military service challenged him to mature as a person.\nIrv grew up in a middle-class Catholic family in a Northern Kentucky suburb of Cinci nnati. After graduating from college and law school\, he secured a job and married before being drafted in September 1942. The army challenged him in many ways to expand his horizons\, especially after being assigned as a lie utenant to the 3659th Quartermaster Truck Company.\nComposed of 130 African Americans from the deep South led by a Jewish Captain\, this was the first time Irv came face-to-face with the crushing legacy of American segregatio n and racism. It culminated in a brutal murder of a uniformed enlisted Afri can American who dared to sit in the “wrong” seat on a city bus.\nOnce in Europe\, Irv became very aware of the way the French and Germans puzzled over the way multiracial and multiethnic American units fought effectively together. On two occasions\, he commented on the irony that surrendering N azi troops found themselves guarded by “American colored boys” in a uni t commanded by a Jewish captain.\nAt the end of fighting in May 1945\, the 3659th helped liberate the Dachau Concentration Camp\, forcing Irwin to con front the horrors of the Holocaust.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Crossing Borders\, Ex panding Boundaries will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph- Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Dan Hurley\nDan Hurley founded Applied History Asso ciates\, a public history consulting firm\, in 1985. Dan contracts with mus eums and corporations to produce research reports\, books\, exhibits and vi deo documentaries. He is best known locally as a producer and on-air report er for Local 12 News (CBS affiliate) for 36 years. He worked as a columnist for the Cincinnati Post and Cincy Magazine from 2005 to 2020. He also serv ed as the original project manager from 1994 to 1997 for what became the Na tional Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Since retiring as director of L eadership Cincinnati in 2016\, Dan has stepped in as the interim President of the Freedom Center and as host of Cincinnati Edition on 91.7 WVXU (NPR a ffiliate). LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/08/19/crossing-borders-expandi ng-boundaries-an-evening-with-dan-hurley END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-315@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250827T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250827T200000 SUMMARY:SOLD OUT - The Science & Nature Lecture: Ada Limón DESCRIPTION:SOLD OUT - Please email michael@mercantilelibrary.com to be add ed to the waitlist.\n24th Poet Laureate of The United States and National B estseller Ada Limón delivers the 2025 Science & Nature Lecture.\nPublished in association with the Library of Congress and edited by the twenty-fourt h Poet Laureate of the United States\, a singular collection of poems refle cting on our relationship to the natural world by fifty of our most celebra ted contemporary writers.\nIn recent years\, our poetic landscape has evolv ed in profound and exciting ways. So has our planet. Edited and introduced by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States\, Ada Limón\, this book challenges what we think we know about "nature poetry\," illuminating the myriad ways our landscapes-both literal and literary-are changing.\nYo u Are Here features fifty previously unpublished poems from some of the nat ion's most accomplished poets\, including Joy Harjo\, Diane Seuss\, Rigober to González\, Jericho Brown\, Aimee Nezhukumatathil\, Paul Tran\, and more . Each poem engages with its author's local landscape-be it the breathtakin g variety of flora in a national park\, or a lone tree flowering persistent ly by a bus stop-offering an intimate model of how we relate to the world a round us and a beautifully diverse range of voices from across the United S tates.\nJoyful and provocative\, wondrous and urgent\, this singular collec tion of poems offers a lyrical reimagining of what "nature" and "poetry" ar e today\, inviting readers to experience both anew.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free to members/$25 nonmembers Registration required.\n\nCopies of You Are Here will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Bet h Cincinnati.\nPlease pre-order the book here - https://www.josephbeth.com/ event/mercantile-library-event-%E2%80%93-science-nature-ada-limon\n\nAda Li món is the author of six books of poetry\, including The Carrying\, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Her most recent book of poetry\, The Hurting Kind\, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Priz e. She is the 24th Poet Laureate of The United States\, the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship\, and a TIME magazine woman of the year. As the Poet L aureate\, her signature project is called You Are Here and focuses on how p oetry can help connect us to the natural world. Her first books for childre n include In Praise of Mystery and And\, Too\, The Fox. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/08/27/sold-out--the-science-na ture-lecture-ada-limn END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-319@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250909T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250909T200000 SUMMARY:SOLD OUT - The Modern Novel Lecture: Kaveh Akbar DESCRIPTION:SOLD OUT - Please email michael@mercantilelibrary.com to be add ed to the waitlist.\nNew York Times Bestseller & National Book Award Finali st Kaveh Akbar delivers the 2025 Modern Novel Lecture.\nA newly sober\, orp haned son of Iranian immigrants\, guided by the voices of artists\, poets\, and kings\, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn M useum. Electrifying\, funny\, and wholly original\, Martyr! heralds the arr ival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.\nCyrus Shams is a y oung man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless acci dent\; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work kil ling chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk\, an addic t\, and a poet\, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the myst eries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields d ressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying\, and toward his mother\, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that s uggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.\nKaveh Akbar’s Mart yr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith\, art\, ourselves\, others.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free to members/$25 nonmembers Registration required.\nCopies of Martyr! will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Downbound Books. You can also purchase any of Ka veh's books at downboundbooks.com/kaveh-akbar\n\nKAVEH AKBAR’s poems appe ar in The New Yorker\, The New York Times\, The Paris Review\, The Best Ame rican Poetry\, and elsewhere. He is the author of two poetry collections: P ilgrim Bell and Calling a Wolf a Wolf\, in addition to a chapbook\, Portrai t of the Alcoholic. He is also the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 110 Poets on the Divine. He lives in Iowa City. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/09/09/sold-out--the-modern-nov el-lecture-kaveh-akbar END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-386@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250916T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250916T193000 SUMMARY:Destroy This House: An Evening with Amanda Uhle DESCRIPTION:For fans of The Glass Castle and The Liars’ Club\, a tender\, heartbreaking\, and hilarious memoir chronicling the challenges of growing up with a desperately scheming father\, a mother plagued by an acute hoard ing disorder\, and parenting parents while seeking independence. The Long family’s love was fierce\, their lifestyle bizarre\, and their deceptions countless. Once her parents were gone\, Amanda Uhle realized she was close r to them than anyone else\, yet she found herself utterly confounded by th e lives they had led. Amanda’s striving fashion designer mother and her charismatic wheeler-dealer father wove a complex life together that spanned ten different homes across five states over forty perplexing years. Throug hout her childhood\, as her mother’s hoarding disorder flourished and her father’s schemes crumbled\, contradictions abounded. They bartered for d ental surgery and drove their massive Lincoln Town Car to the food bank. Wh en financial ruin struck\, they abandoned their repossessed mansion for hum ble parish housing\, and Amanda’s father became a preacher. They swung be tween being filthy rich and dirt poor\, devious and virtuous\, lonely and l oved\, fake and real. In Destroy This House\, Amanda sets out to document her parents’ unbelievable exploits and her own hard-won escape into indep endence. With humor and tenderness\, Uhle has crafted a heartfelt and utter ly unique memoir\, capturing the raucousness\, pain\, joy\, and ultimately\ , the boundless love that exists between all parents and children.\n6 pm re ception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\n Copies of Destroy This House will be available for sale & signing.\nAbout A manda Uhle\nAmanda Uhle writes about culture\, politics\, and civil rights for The Washington Post\, Politico Magazine\, The Boston Globe\, and Newswe ek. Uhle is coeditor of the I\, Witness series of first-person stories by y outh activists\, former director of the 826michigan youth writing and tutor ing program\, and cofounder\, with Dave Eggers\, of the International Congr ess of Youth Voices. Their work with youth writing organizations worldwide is documented in Unnecessarily Beautiful Spaces for Young Minds on Fire. Uh le is the publisher and executive director of McSweeney’s\, an independen t nonprofit publisher of distinctive books and magazines. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/09/16/destroy-this-house-an-ev ening-with-amanda-uhle END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-381@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250918T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250918T193000 SUMMARY:Such Great Heights: An Evening with Chris DeVille DESCRIPTION:The definitive history of indie rock—from Iron & Wine and Dea th Cab for Cutie to Fiona Apple and St. Vincent—and how the genre shifted the musical landscape and shaped a generation.\nMaybe you caught a few exh ilarating seconds of “Teen Age Riot” on a nearby college radio station while scanning the FM dial in your parents’ car. Maybe your friend invite d you to a shabby local rock club and you ended up having a religious exper ience with Neutral Milk Hotel. Perhaps you were scandalized and tantalized upon sneaking Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville from an older sibling’s CD collection\, or you vowed to download every Radiohead song you could find o n Limewire because they were the favorite band of the guy you had a major c rush on.\nHowever you found your way into indie rock\, once you were a list ener\, it felt like being part of a secret club of people who had discovere d something special\, something superior. In Such Great Heights\, music jou rnalist Chris DeVille brilliantly captures this cultural moment\, from the early aughts and the height of indie rock\, until the 2010s as streaming ro cks the industry and changes music forever. DeVille covers the gamut of ban ds and in the vein of Chuck Klosterman’s The Nineties\, touches on stagge ring pop culture moments like sharing music recommendations via AOL Instant Messenger and the life-changing OC soundtrack. Nerdy\, fun\, and a time ma chine for millennials\, Such Great Heights is about how subculture becomes pop culture\, how capitalism consumes what's “cool\,” about who gets to define what's hip and how\, and how an “underground” genre shaped our lives.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registrat ion required.\nCopies of Such Great Heights will be available for sale & si gning courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Chris Deville\nChris Devil le is the managing editor at Stereogum\, where he has written extensively a bout the full spectrum of indie music for the last ten years. In 2014\, he launched The Week In Pop\, a column exploring mainstream music from an indi e fan’s perspective. Chris has also been featured in outlets like The Atl antic\, The Washington Post\, and Rolling Stone and prominent digital outle ts like The Ringer\, Deadspin\, and The Verge. He lives with his family in Columbus\, Ohio. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/09/18/such-great-heights-an-ev ening-with-chris-deville END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-320@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251008T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251008T200000 SUMMARY:SOLD OUT - The Innovation Lecture: Lauren Groff DESCRIPTION:SOLD OUT - Please email michael@mercantilelibrary.com to be add ed to the waitlist.\nNew York Times Bestselling Novelist & Lynx Bookstore O wner Lauren Groff delivers the 2025 Innovation Lecture.\nLauren Groff is a three-time National Book Award finalist and The New York Times–bestsellin g author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton\, Arcadia\, Fates and Furi es\, Matrix\, and The Vaster Wilds\, and the celebrated short story collect ions Delicate Edible Birds and Florida. She has won The Story Prize\, the A BA Indies’ Choice Award\, France’s Grand Prix de l’Héroïne\, and th e Joyce Carol Oates Prize\, and has been a finalist for the National Book C ritics Circle Award. Her work regularly appears in The New Yorker\, The Atl antic\, and elsewhere. Her work has been translated into thirty-six languag es. She lives in Gainesville\, Florida.\nIn 2024\, Lauren Groff She was nam ed one of the 100 most influential people by TIME and opened a bookstore\, The Lynx\, in Gainesville\, Florida.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free to members/$25 nonmembers Registration required.\nCopies of Lauren’s boo ks will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati. \nPlease pre-order the book here - https://www.josephbeth.com/event/mercant ile-library-event-%E2%80%93-innovation-lauren-groff LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/10/08/sold-out--the-innovation -lecture-lauren-groff END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-430@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251010T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251010T130000 SUMMARY:America's River Roots Festival River Talks: The Arts in the Queen C ity DESCRIPTION:The CEOS of ARR pillar artistic organizations (Cincinnati Opera \, Cincinnati Symphony & Cincinnati Ballet) will join panel host Victoria M organ to discuss the contemporary state of arts organizations and the reali ties facing them. Our panelists will also discuss the role the Performing A rts play in the richness of our city with an eye on both the historical and contemporaneous view of their impact. URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/10/10/americas-river-roots-fes tival-river-talks-the-arts-in-the-queen-city END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-434@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251010T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251010T160000 SUMMARY:America's River Roots Festival River Talks: R. Alan Wight discusses the Cincinnati Food Shed DESCRIPTION:Noted academic R. Alan Wight will discuss his new project highl ighting the unique role the Cincinnati Food Shed and the Ohio River Valley shaped our national and global food systems. URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/10/10/americas-river-roots-fes tival-river-talks-r-alan-wight-discusses-the-cincinnati-food-shed END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-379@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251014T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251014T193000 SUMMARY:The Gales of November: An Evening with John U. Bacon DESCRIPTION:On the fiftieth anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald’s sinkin g\, the bestselling author of The Great Halifax Explosion tells the definit ive story of the “Mighty Fitz.”\nFor three decades following World War II\, the Great Lakes overtook Europe as the epicenter of global economic st rength. The region was the beating heart of the world economy\, possessing all the power and prestige Silicon Valley does today. And no ship represent ed the apex of the American Century better than the 729-foot-long Edmund Fi tzgerald—the biggest\, best\, and most profitable ship on the Lakes.\nBut on November 10\, 1975\, as the “storm of the century” threw 100 mile-p er-hour winds and 50-foot waves on Lake Superior\, the Mighty Fitz found it self at the worst possible place\, at the worst possible time. When she san k\, she took all 29 men onboard down with her\, leaving the tragedy shroude d in mystery for a half century.\nIn The Gales of November\, award-winning journalist John U. Bacon presents the definitive account of the disaster\, drawing on more than 100 interviews with the families\, friends\, and forme r crewmates of those lost. Bacon explores the vital role Great Lakes shippi ng played in America’s economic boom\, the uncommon lives the sailors led \, the sinking’s most likely causes\, and the heartbreaking aftermath for those left behind—"the wives\, the sons\, and the daughters\,” as Gord on Lightfoot sang in his unforgettable ballad.\nFocused on those directly a ffected by the tragedy\, The Gales of November is both an emotional tribute to the lives lost and a propulsive\, page-turning narrative history of Ame rica’s most-mourned maritime disaster.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Fr ee & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of The Gales of Nov ember will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinna ti.\nAbout John U. Bacon\nJohn U. Bacon has authored fourteen books on spor ts\, business\, health\, and history\, the last seven of which are critical ly acclaimed national bestsellers\, including five New York Times bestselle rs. He lives in Ann Arbor and northern Michigan with his wife and son. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/10/14/the-gales-of-november-an -evening-with-john-u-bacon END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-373@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251016T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251016T193000 SUMMARY:Three Authors\, One Evening: An Evening with James Stewart III\, Br ock Clarke & Brian Trapp DESCRIPTION:Join us for an evening of fiction with a trio of authors presen ting their new books from UC’s Acre Books.\nAbout Defiant Acts\nJames Ste wart III’s powerful debut novel documents the life of a working-class int erracial couple and their children in a Chicago suburb in the early 1990s. Rooted in the tradition of Black authors from Chicago and drawing on the au thor’s own experiences\, Defiant Acts eschews a conventional plot\, prese nting a series of captured moments—past and present—and multiple perspe ctives to build a mosaic of the family’s lives. In clear\, concise prose\ , Stewart focuses on the complexities of human relationships and on race re lations both in and outside the domestic space\, placing emphasis on the va lues that bind this tight-knit family together: solidarity\, care\, and hop e.\nAbout Special Election\nIn Special Election\, ingenious fictions target our all-too-familiar preoccupations and vulnerabilities—belonging\, (dis )engagement\, the struggle for self-worth\, the difficulty of loving and be ing loved\, the banality and absurdity of existence. Brock Clarke’s rapie r wit\, inexhaustible imagination\, and brilliant leaps of illogic transfor m his characters’ desperation and distress into tragicomic delight.\nAbou t Range of Motion\nTwin A and Twin B. That’s what Michael and Sal’s neu roscientist father irreverently calls them. The boys are born moments apart \, but baby Sal’s brain scan shows a bleed. He has severe cerebral palsy and intellectual disabilities. Told through multiple perspectives—Gabe\, the boys’ father\; Hannah\, their mother\; and Michael—this debut novel follows the Mitchell family from the boys’ infancy to the cusp of adulth ood as they all try to interpret what Sal\, who speaks only eight words\, i s thinking and feeling. Transforming perceptions of disability and interdep endence through tender attention to detail\, Range of Motion is wrenching\, beautiful\, and sharply comic.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout James Stewart III\nJame s Stewart III is a Black writer and arts organizer from Chicago. His debut novel\, Defiant Acts\, is forthcoming from Acre Books in May 2025. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals\, including Lampblack\, Zone 3\ , Midwest Review\, The Forge\, and 580 Split. He is a co-founder of the rea ding series and artist collective Exhibit B. Stewart earned an MFA from SAI C\, an MA from North Central College\, and a BA from Columbia College Chica go. He lives with his wife and daughter at the end of Dusable Lake Shore Dr ive.\nAbout Brock Clarke\nBrock Clarke is the author of nine previous books \, including the bestselling novel An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Home s in New England and the award-winning essay collection I\, Grape. He lives in Portland\, Maine\, and is the A. LeRoy Greason Professor of English and Creative Writing at Bowdoin College.\nAbout Brian Trapp\nBrian Trapp is di rector of disability studies at the University of Oregon\, where he also te aches fiction and nonfiction. His work has been published in the Kenyon Rev iew\, Southern Review\, Longreads\, Brevity\, and elsewhere. He has been a Steinbeck Fellow\, a Borchardt Scholar\, and an Elizabeth George grant reci pient. He grew up in Cleveland\, Ohio\, with his twin brother\, Danny. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/10/16/three-authors-one-evenin g-an-evening-with-james-stewart-iii-brock-clarke-brian-trapp END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-392@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251105T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251105T200000 SUMMARY:Selected Letters of John Updike: An Evening with James Schiff DESCRIPTION:The arc of literary giant John Updike's life emerges in these l uminous daily letters to family\, friends\, editors\, and lovers—a remark able outpouring over six decades\, from his earliest consciousness as a wri ter to his final days. As James Schiff writes in the introduction to this volume\, of the writer who would eventually express himself in written form as copiously and as elegantly as any American writer before him\, "Updike needed to write the way the rest of us need to breathe or eat." With his st unning rhetorical gifts—allowing him to thrive in both fiction and nonfic tion\, in criticism as well as poetry—he was also a consummate letter wri ter. From his early writing attempts (he began submitting work to magazines as a teenager) to the 150 eye-opening letters home when he left the farm a nd family to go to Harvard\, to the young adult correspondence with The New Yorker and other publications where his work began to appear\, and on into the fullness of a long literary life\, his correspondence\, Schiff notes\, "figures not as an adjunct to but rather an integral part of his astonishi ng literary output." The intimacy and lucidity of these letters brings to the fore all matter of subjects and situations\, notably the ardent feeling s for his first love and wife\, Mary\, and later the heartbreaking but hone stly accounted breakup of their marriage\; the uncensored passion for other women\, including the neighbor and friend of the Updikes who became his se cond wife\; the concern for his children's path to adulthood\; and the ongo ing conversations with many literary peers\, from Joyce Carol Oates to Phil ip Roth\, as well as Knopf and The New Yorker editors\, publicists\, and ot hers in the lit business. Filled with comic observations\, opinions\, and personal news\, told in the exquisitely fluid first-person voice of the wri ter himself\, these missives\, taken together\, make a page-turning "life i n letters" like no other.\n6 pm reception/7:00 pm program Free & open to th e public. Registration required.\nCopies of Selected Letters of John Updike will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\n About Jim Schiff\nBorn and raised in Cincinnati\, Jim Schiff received his B .A. from Duke University\, his M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University\, an d is Professor of English at the University of Cincinnati. He is the author or editor of six books on contemporary American fiction\, including John U pdike Revisited and Understanding Reynolds Price. In 2016\, he was named by the John H. Updike Literary Trust to edit a volume of the author's letters \, which is now being published by Knopf under the title\, Selected Letters of John Updike. Schiff’s work has appeared in American Literature\, The Southern Review\, Tin House\, Critique\, Studies in American Fiction\, and elsewhere. He is currently working on a biography of Updike and is the edit or of The John Updike Review. He has also served on various community board s\, including the Duke University Trinity Board of Visitors\, the Universit y of Cincinnati Foundation\, The Seven Hills School\, the Community Learnin g Center Institute (CLCI)\, WCET-TV\, and the Mercantile Library. Over the years\, he has had the privilege of introducing and interviewing many write rs at the Mercantile Library\, including quite a few Niehoff Lecturers. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/11/05/selected-letters-of-john -updike-an-evening-with-james-schiff END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-461@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251109T103000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251109T113000 SUMMARY:Special Event - Salman Rushdie at Memorial Hall DESCRIPTION:The Mercantile Library and The Dayton Literary Peace Prize pres ent Salman Rushdie in conversation with James Schiff\nDoors open at 9:30am\ nTickets are $75 and include entrance to the event plus a copy of Salman Ru shdie’s new book\, The Eleventh Hour: A Quintet of Stories.\nThis event i s a staged conversation only\, there will not be a signing or a meet & gree t.\nTickets are available HERE\n\n*Please Note: This event will have enhanc ed security measures including a bag check and wanding.\n\nFrom internation ally renowned\, award-winning author Salman Rushdie\, a spellbinding explor ation of life\, death\, and what comes into focus at the proverbial elevent h hour of life. Rushdie turns his extraordinary imagination to life’s fi nal act with a quintet of stories that span the three countries in which he has made his work—India\, England\, and America—and feature an unforge ttable cast of characters. “In the South” introduces a pair of quarrel some old men—Junior and Senior—and their private tragedy at a moment of national calamity. In “The Musician of Kahani\,” a musical prodigy fro m the Mumbai neighborhood featured in Midnight’s Children uses her magica l gifts to wreak devastation on the wealthy family she marries into. In “ Late\,” the ghost of a Cambridge don enlists the help of a lonely student to enact revenge upon the tormentor of his lifetime. “Oklahoma” plunge s a young writer into a web of deceit and lies as he tries to figure out wh ether his mentor killed himself or faked his own death. And “The Old Man in the Piazza” is a powerful parable for our times about freedom of speec h. Do we accommodate ourselves to death\, or rail against it? Do we spend our “eleventh hour” in serenity or in rage? And how do we achieve fulfi llment with our lives if we don’t know the end of our own stories? The El eventh Hour ponders life and death\, legacy and identity with the penetrati ng insight and boundless imagination that have made Salman Rushdie one of t he most celebrated writers of our time.\n\nAbout Salman Rushdie\nSalman Rus hdie is the author of fifteen novels—Luka and the Fire of Life\; Grimus\; Midnight’s Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of t he Booker)\; Shame\; The Satanic Verses\; Haroun and the Sea of Stories\; T he Moor’s Last Sigh\; The Ground Beneath Her Feet\; Fury\; Shalimar the C lown\; The Enchantress of Florence\; Two Years\, Eight Months\, and Twenty- Eight Nights\; The Golden House\; Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize)\; and Victory City—and one collection of short stories: Eas t\, West. He has also published six works of nonfiction—The Jaguar Smile\ ; Imaginary Homelands\; Step Across This Line\; Joseph Anton\; Languages of Truth\; and Knife (which was a finalist for the National Book Award)—and coedited two anthologies\, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories 2008 . He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Distingu ished Writer in Residence at New York University. A former president of PEN America\, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature.\nAbout James Schiff\nBorn and raised in Cincinnati\, Jim Schiff received his B.A. from Duke University\, his M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University\, and is Professor of English at the University of Cincinnati. He is the author or editor of six books on contemporary American fiction\, including the Select ed Letters of John Updike\, which was published two weeks ago by Knopf and praised in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Currently working on a biography of Updike\, he has\, over the years\, had the privilege of int erviewing many writers\, including Updike\, Julian Barnes\, and Zadie Smith . LOCATION:1225 Elm Street\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/11/09/special-event--salman-ru shdie-at-memorial-hall END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-470@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251115T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251115T183000 SUMMARY:SPECIAL EVENT - Hart & Cru presents Katie Parla Book Release & Tast ing Event DESCRIPTION:PLEASE NOTE: This is a ticketed event. Tickets are $110 for Mer cantile members and $120 for non-members. Tickets and full event informatio n are available HERE\nROME: A Culinary History\, Cookbook & Field Guide to the Flavors that Built a City — Book Tour with Rome-based author\, food h istorian\, and dear friend Katie Parla. Set in the beautifully remodeled Me rcantile Library\, this guided standing tasting and talk with Katie Parla a nd Kevin Hart explores the history\, flavors\, and stories that have shaped Roman cuisine.\nStanding\, Guided Tasting - 7 Italian Wines | 3 Small Bite s from Katie’s new book prepared by Pepp & Dolores LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/11/15/special-event--hart-cru- presents-katie-parla-book-release-tasting-event END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-408@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251118T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251118T193000 SUMMARY:SOLD OUT - How About Now: An Evening with Kate Baer DESCRIPTION:SOLD OUT - Please email michael@mercantilelibrary.com to be add ed to the waitlist.\nThe third full-length poetry collection from the #1 Ne w York Times bestselling author of What Kind of Woman.\nRenowned poet Kate Baer returns with a bold and compassionate collection that confronts the ma rch of time in a shifting world.\nWith her trademark candor and curiosity\, Baer explores what it means to grow older\, to release children into the w ildness of their own lives\, and to reclaim the ever evolving self. Raw\, l uminous\, and urgent\, this collection channels Baer’s own journey to mid dle age into poems that are profoundly intimate yet resound universally\, i dentifying the beauty\, resilience\, and fragility that arrive in every sta ge of life.\nHow About Now is a striking declaration of ongoing transformat ion and self-discovery. From the poet who has captured the heartbeat of the modern woman\, this collection reaffirms Kate Baer’s place among the mos t vital voices of our era.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to t he public. Registration required.\nCopies of How About Now will be availabl e for sale & signing.\nAbout Kate Baer\nKate Baer is the three-time New Yor k Times bestselling author of What Kind of Woman\, I Hope This Finds You We ll\, and And Yet. Her work has also been published in The New Yorker\, Lite rary Hub\, Huffington Post\, and the New York Times. For more about Kate an d her work\, visit: https://www.katebaer.com/\n\nAbout Rachel DesRochers\nR achel DesRochers is a serial entrepreneur\, international speaker\, thought leader on the power of gratitude\, community builder\, mother\, dreamer\, author\, and podcast host. Gratitude and community are the foundation of ev erything she creates.\nHer diverse projects\, businesses and nonprofit are housed under her umbrella\, The Gratitude Collective. They include: The Inc ubator Kitchen Collective\, a shared-use commercial kitchen space\; Good n' Local\, a regional wholesale food show celebrating and accelerating growth in the local food ecosystem\; and her largest project to date\, Power to P ursue\, a women’s empowerment movement offering programming in multiple c ities.\nAdditionally\, Rachel is a board member\, advisor\, and consultant. With more than two decades of experience\, she shares her insights on heal thy entrepreneurship\, heart-centered community building\, the power of gra titude\, and women's empowerment. As a speaker\, she has inspired audiences worldwide with her authentic and engaging style.\nHer innovative spirit an d community impact have been recognized with numerous awards and accolades. \nWhen not managing her multiple businesses\, Rachel revels in being a mom to three wildly wonderful children. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/11/18/sold-out--how-about-now- an-evening-with-kate-baer END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-401@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251120T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251120T193000 SUMMARY:And to Think We Started as a Book Club: An Evening with Tom Toro DESCRIPTION:What can Leonardo DiCaprio\, Bernie Sanders\, Greta Thunberg\, and Elon Musk all agree on? That Tom Toro's cartoons belong in their social media feeds. Now\, with this debut collection by one of The New Yorker's c ontemporary stars\, everybody can enjoy the timeless witticism and thigh-sl apping wisecracks of Toro's cartoons without needing to go online. In Tom T oro's hilarious world\, the Grim Reaper binges television while Superman sh ops for health insurance. The collection features original chapter art that sets the perfect tone for these brilliant cartoons and what they reveal ab out the absurdity of modern life\, all drawn in the author's wry and winsom e style Showcasing hundreds of Toro's greatest hits from his fifteen-year career at the New Yorker\, as well as previously unpublished cartoons that we shouldn't shy from calling "undiscovered masterpieces\," this book is su re to delight readers—if not outright corrupt them.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of And to Think We Started as a Book Club . . . will be available for sale & sign ing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Tom Toro\nTom Toro is an acc laimed New Yorker cartoonist\, cover artist\, and award-winning children's book author and illustrator. His books include Crocodiles Need Friends\, To o! (Little\, Brown)\, A User's Guide to Democracy (Celadon)\, How to Potty Train Your Porcupine (Little\, Brown)\, and I'm Terrified of Bath Time and Back to School\, Backpack! in collaboration with Simon Rich (Little\, Brown ). He is creator of the Substack cartoon series Undiscovered Masterpieces. Tom was a finalist for the 2019 and 2022 Reuben Award for gag cartoonist of the year. He lives in Portland\, Oregon with his family\, which somehow in cludes too many cats. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/11/20/and-to-think-we-started- as-a-book-club-an-evening-with-tom-toro END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-463@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251203T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251203T193000 SUMMARY:What We Inherit: An Evening with Robert A. Flischel and Michael Wil son DESCRIPTION:“Eight years ago\, I overheard a comment that sparked the ins piration for this book: “Everyone in this country gets the same opportuni ties. Some people choose to use them\, and others don’t.”\nI think the comment got my full attention because it contrasts so starkly with my own e xperience.\nI’ve spent years as a social worker and photojournalist worki ng with impoverished people. I’ve also heard many stories from my wife an d daughter\, both teachers in poor neighborhoods. Perhaps most compellingly \, I’ve witnessed family members and friends struggle with addiction\, me ntal illness\, family disintegration\, disease\, and spousal abuse—all of which\, of course\, can quickly lead to poverty or make poverty almost imp ossible to escape.\nI wanted to create a photographic documentation of pove rty in Southern Ohio\, Southern Indiana\, Kentucky and West Virginia from t he year 1900 to the present to show the reality of what people must overcom e from one generation to the next—before they can begin to take advantage of the “opportunities” many of us take for granted.” — From the in troduction by Robert A. Flischel\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & ope n to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of What We Inherit will be available for sale & signing.\nAbout Robert A. Flischel\nRobert A. Flischel graduated from Purcell High School in 1967 and Xavier University in 1972. He studied photography with Kazik Pazovski from 1972-1974. Mr. Flischel is a founding trustee of Radio Reading Service\, which assists the visually im paired. He has served on the board of the Regional Chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers and is currently President Emeritus of The A rt League\, serving Cincinnati Public Schools. Mr. Flischel has taught phot ography at Northern Kentucky University and lectures frequently on historic preservation.\nAbout Michael Wilson\nMichael Wilson was born in 1959 in Ci ncinnati\, Ohio. Discovering a love of photography in college he began work as a freelance photographer in 1987. His work in the music industry is the most recognizable face of his freelance work. Among the artists Michael ha s photographed are: Lyle Lovett\, David Byrne\, B.B.King\, Emmylou Harris\, Bill Frisell\, Joshua Redman\, Philip Glass\, Robert Plant\, Doctor John a nd Doc Watson.\nHis work has been featured in numerous exhibitions includin g the The Annenberg Space for Photography (Los Angeles\, California)\, Cinc innati Art Museum\, the Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati\, Ohio)\, Clev eland Center for Contemporary Art (Cleveland\, Ohio) and the J.B. Speed Mus eum (Louisville\, Kentucky).\nHe is Resident Instructor of photography at M anifest Drawing Center in Cincinnati.\n LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/12/03/what-we-inherit-an-eveni ng-with-robert-a-flischel-and-michael-wilson END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-471@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251205T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251205T193000 SUMMARY:The Cincinnati Review Issue Launch DESCRIPTION:The Cincinnati Review celebrates the launch of issue 22.2 and i ts all-new website with an evening of readings and merriment. Light refresh ments will be provided.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to th e public. Registration required. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/12/05/the-cincinnati-review-is sue-launch END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-374@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251208T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251208T200000 SUMMARY:Chokepoints: An Evening with Edward Fishman DESCRIPTION:The epic story of how America turned the world economy into a w eapon\, upending decades of globalization to take on a new authoritarian ax is—Russia\, China\, and Iran.\nIt used to be that ravaging another countr y’s economy required blockading its ports and laying siege to its cities. Now all it takes is a statement posted online by the U.S. government.\nIn Chokepoints\, Edward Fishman\, a former top State Department sanctions offi cial\, takes us deep into the back rooms of power to reveal the untold hist ory of the last two decades of U.S. foreign policy\, in which America renou nced the gospel of globalization and waged a new kind of economic war. As V ladimir Putin\, Xi Jinping\, and Ayatollah Khamenei wreaked havoc on the wo rld stage\, mavericks within the U.S. government built a fearsome new arsen al of economic weapons\, exploiting America’s dominance in global finance and technology. Successive U.S. presidents have relied on these unconventi onal weapons to address the most pressing national-security threats\, for g ood and for ill.\nChokepoints provides a thrilling account of one of the mo st critical geopolitical developments of our time\, demystifying the comple x strategies the U.S. government uses to harness the power of Wall Street\, Silicon Valley\, and Big Oil against America’s enemies. At the center of the narrative is an eclectic group of policy innovators: the diplomats\, l awyers\, and financial whizzes who’ve masterminded America’s escalating economic wars against Russia\, China\, and Iran.\nEconomic warfare has bec ome the primary way the United States confronts international crises and co unters rivals. Sometimes it has achieved spectacular success\; other times\ , bitter failure. The result we live with today is a new world order: an ec onomic arms race among great powers and a fracturing global economy. Chokep oints is the definitive account of how America pioneered this new\, hard-hi tting style of economic war—and how it’s changing the world.\n6 pm rece ption/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCo pies of Chokepoints will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph -Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Edward Fishman\nEdward Fishman teaches at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and is a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy. He is the New York Times–bestselling author of Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Eco nomic Warfare\, which has been called “masterful” by the Financial Time s and “a compelling and dramatic narrative about the new shape of geopoli tics” by the Wall Street Journal. He previously served at the U.S. State Department on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff and as the R ussia and Europe Sanctions Lead\, at the Pentagon as an advisor to the Chai rman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff\, and at the U.S. Treasury Department as special assistant to the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intell igence. His writing and analysis have appeared in The New York Times\, The Wall Street Journal\, The Washington Post\, Foreign Affairs\, Politico\, an d on NPR. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/12/08/chokepoints-an-evening-w ith-edward-fishman END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-424@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251209T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251209T193000 SUMMARY:SOLD OUT - Tarbell: An Evening with Jim Tarbell\, Greg Hand\, and B uck Niehoff DESCRIPTION:SOLD OUT - Please email michael@mercantilelibrary.com to be add ed to the waitlist.\nEveryone in Cincinnati knows Jim Tarbell. He is the ci ty’s most beloved merrymaker. He has produced concerts with the biggest s tars\; organized extravagant galas and celebrations\; welcomed with open ar ms customers to his restaurants\, Arnold’s and Grammer’s\; and spent hi s career on City Council talking to folks on the street. But he is much mor e. He is a dedicated urban pioneer who understands what is necessary to mak e cities exciting places to live. Using his talent at bringing people toget her\, he helped transform Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborho od. He has proven that with hard work and commitment one person can make a difference.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Regi stration required.\nCopies of Tarbell will be available for sale & signing. \n\nAbout Buck Niehoff\nBuck Niehoff is a retired attorney who specialized in municipal bond law. Many people consider that profession to be a bit dry . However\, he thought it was very interesting. He has served as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the University of Cincinnati and was co-chair o f the “Proudly Cincinnati” capital campaign which raised nearly $1.1 bi llion\; Chair of the Hamilton County Republican Party\; Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Cincinnati Museum Center\; President of The Mercantile L ibrary\; and founding President of The Corporation for Findlay Market. He a nd his wife Patti live in Cincinnati’s Hyde Park neighborhood where his f amily has resided since 1870. His son Peter lives with his wife Betsy and t heir son Oliver in the Cincinnati suburb of Indian Hill. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/12/09/sold-out--tarbell-an-eve ning-with-jim-tarbell-greg-hand-and-buck-niehoff END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-483@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251217T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251217T193000 SUMMARY:Tributaria: An Evening with Richard Hague\, Sherry Cook Stanforth & Michael Thompson DESCRIPTION:The contributions of poetry\, prose\, visual art\, and photogra phy in this collection form a creative tribute (using one meaning of the wo rd) to one of the largest river systems in North America. The Ohio River Ba sin’s scenic and historic tributaries—rivers\, streams\, creeks\, and r ills—are flowing through nearly 204\,000 square miles of territory\, impa cting more than 25 million people living in areas of Pennsylvania\, Ohio\, Kentucky\, West Virginia\, Indiana\, Illinois\, Tennessee\, New York\, Virg inia\, Maryland\, Georgia\, Mississippi\, Alabama\, and North Carolina. Nea rly five million people drink water from the Ohio River itself\, and millio ns more depend on the commerce\, recreation\, and transportation provided b y its connected watersheds. The lovely living gift of the ohi:yó sustains us\, body and soul.\nAnd yet this precious lifeline\, this vast and beautif ul ecosystem\, is being sickened by pollution\, rewritten in the specialize d\, expressive language of dioxins\, furans\, PCBs\, mercury\, VOCs\, phtha lates\, POPs\, phenols\, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons\, HAB dead zones\ , E. coli contamination\, on and on and on. In 2023\, the American Rivers c onservation group listed the Ohio River as the second most endangered water way in the country. This diagnosis came well ahead of the February 3\, 2024 \, Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine\, Ohio\, that dumped at least five different toxic chemicals into a cradle holding people\, flo ra and fauna\, forests\, fields\, farms\, parklands\, yards—and of course \, ever-moving water sources. And so Tributaria sings an elegy for irrevoca ble damage to the living world\, even as it celebrates its sacred beauty.\n Former US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo witnesses for us all the practice of inte ntional connection\, of learning to claim (and reclaim) what exists beyond our immediate senses: “When I began to listen to poetry\, it’s when I b egan to listen to the stones\, and I began to hear what the clouds had to s ay\, and I began to listen to others.” May these words and images invite that accountable\, curious tuning. Tributaria offers only a glimpse into th e complex heart of Ohio River country’s flowing waters\, riparian margins \, diverse life forms\, geological features\, and industrial properties. Th e living energy of nature and culture cannot be contained by simple designs and functions. Our stories of water will move throughout time\, while we r emain bound to the unfolding plots and diverse settings that shape our esse ntial well-being within all of creation.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Fr ee & open to the public. Registration required.\nLight Refreshments Provide d\nCopies of Tributaria will be available for sale & signing\nAbout Richard Hague\nRichard Hague is editor or author of 23 volumes\, most recently the prose collection Earnest Occupations: Teaching\, Writing\, Gardening\, & O ther Local Work (Bottom Dog Press\, 2018) and the poetry collection Continu ed Cases (Dos Madres Press\, 2023). During The Recent Extinctions: New & Se lected Poems 1984-2012 was winner of the 2012 Weatherford Award in Poetry. Alive in Hard Country won the 2003 Appalachian Writers Association’s Poet ry Book of the Year\, and Milltown Natural: Essays & Stories from a Life\, was a National Book Award nominee. He is 2025-27 Poet Laureate of Cincinnat i & the Mercantile Library.\n\nAbout Sherry Cook Stanforth\nSherry Cook Sta nforth serves as artist-in-residence for the Carnegie Center of Columbia Tu sculum and managing editor of Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel. She founded Orig inary Arts Initiative to provide diverse communities with creative opportun ities and place-based inspiration. She publishes in various creative genres —her poetry collection Drone String (Bottom Dog Press\, 2015) reflects th e storytelling and music traditions of her Appalachian heritage. She plays in the band Tangled Roots\, studies native plants\, and works very hard to keep bees alive.\n\nAbout Michael Thompson\nMichael Thompson is an artist\, writer\, and speaker based in Cincinnati\, Ohio. His work focuses on ecolo gy and space\, connecting the human spirit to their environment. Working ac ross painting\, installation\, and text\, he blends the surreal with the fa miliar\, utilizing interdisciplinary storytelling to create immersive space s. His practice is largely built around social and public works\, collabora ting with museums\, universities\, and non-profits on exhibitions\, residen cies\, and educational programming. His artistic and community work has bee n recognized by Forbes\, the Urban League\, & the Ohio Arts Council amongst others. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2025/12/17/tributaria-an-evening-wi th-richard-hague-sherry-cook-stanforth-michael-thompson END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-513@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260115T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260115T193000 SUMMARY:Mapping the City: The stories cartography tells about Cincinnati pa nel DESCRIPTION:The panel will explore how maps inform community building effor ts\, journalism and academic work in Cincinnati.\nPanelists:\n\nCincinnati in 50 Maps editor Nick Swartsell\nCincinnati Foodshed: An Art Atlas editor Alan Wight\nUniversity of Cincinnati Center for the City Director Dr. Anne Delano Steinert\n\nModerator: Cincinnati Anthology editor Zan McQuade\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required .\nCopies of the books will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Dow nbound Books. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/01/15/mapping-the-city-the-sto ries-cartography-tells-about-cincinnati-panel END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-516@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260116T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260116T193000 SUMMARY:Celebration of Poets Laureate featuring Rita Dove\, Emilia (Mia) Wa tka\, and Richard Hague DESCRIPTION:In celebration of Rita Dove's original poem created for the Cin cinnati Symphony Orchestra's performance American Voices\, join Rita Dove a nd Richard Hague as they discuss their journeys as Poets Laureate. Moderate d by 2025-2026 Cincinnati Youth Poet Laureate\, Emilia (Mia) Watka. Signing to follow.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Regi stration required.\nAbout Rita Dove\nRita Dove\, Pulitzer Prize winner and former U. S. Poet Laureate\, is the only poet honored with both the Nationa l Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts. Her recent works include Playlist for the Apocalypse\, Sonata Mulattica\, and the National Book Awa rd-shortlisted Collected Poems: 1974-2004. In 2021 she was awarded the Gold Medal for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters\, and in 20 23 she received the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Co ntribution to American Letters. She lives in Charlottesville\, where she te aches creative writing at the University of Virginia.\nAbout Richard Hague\ nRichard Hague is editor or author of 23 volumes\, most recently the prose collection Earnest Occupations: Teaching\, Writing\, Gardening\, & Other Lo cal Work (Bottom Dog Press\, 2018) and the poetry collection Continued Case s (Dos Madres Press\, 2023). During The Recent Extinctions: New & Selected Poems 1984-2012 was winner of the 2012 Weatherford Award in Poetry. Alive i n Hard Country won the 2003 Appalachian Writers Association’s Poetry Book of the Year\, and Milltown Natural: Essays & Stories from a Life\, was a N ational Book Award nominee. He is 2025-27 Poet Laureate of Cincinnati & the Mercantile Library. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/01/16/celebration-of-poets-lau reate-featuring-rita-dove-emilia-mia-watka-and-richard-hague END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-518@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260120T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260120T180000 SUMMARY:The Annual Meeting DESCRIPTION:The Annual Meeting & Cincinnati History Lecture\nAGENDA4:00 pm RECEPTION4:30 pm BUSINESS MEETING & 2026 SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT4:50 pm CINCINN ATI HISTORY LECTUREAmerica's First Black Socialist: The Radical Life of Pet er H. ClarkDelivered by Dr. Nikki M. Taylor\nFree to members. Reservations required.R.S.V.P. by January 15.For more information: 513.621.0717\nJoin us for the announcement of our 2026 Season and the Cincinnati History Lecture \,delivered by Dr. Nikki M. Taylor.\nPolitician\, intellectual\, educator\, activist\, and The Mercantile Library’s first African-American member\, Peter Humphries Clark (1829–1925) defied easy classification.\nComplex an d enigmatic\, Clark influenced a generation of abolitionists and civil righ tsactivists. In pursuit of his foremost goal\, full and equal citizenship f or African Americans.A pioneer educational activist\, Clark led the fight f or African Americans' access to Ohio'spublic schools and became the first B lack principal in the state\, and Cincinnati PublicSchools’ first Black e mployee.\nDr. Nikki M. Taylor is a Professor of U.S. History. Born and rais ed in Toledo\, Ohio\, sheattended the University of Pennsylvania where she developed an interest in History andan academic career. She earned her PhD in U.S. History (and a certificate in Women’sStudies) from Duke Universit y. Dr. Taylor has had a long academic career that hasspanned two decades\, including a decade at the University of Cincinnati. She was therecipient of several prestigious fellowships and grants\, including a Fulbright (Ghana) \,Woodrow Wilson\, Mellon Mays (institutional grant)\, and a $5 million Mel lon Just FuturesGrant. She authored 4 monographs including her most recent\ , Brooding Over BloodyRevenge: Enslaved Women and Lethal Resistance (2023) –which won the SlaveryArchive Prize\, the Letitia Woods Brown Prize\, and was a finalist for the L.A. Times bookaward.\nHer three other books all fo cus on Cincinnati. They are: Driven Toward Madness: TheFugitive Slave Marga ret Garner and Tragedy on the Ohio (2016)\, America’s First BlackSocialis t (2013) and Frontiers of Freedom: Cincinnati’s Black Community\, 1802-18 68(2005)\, which is being honored with the best prize of all---the book is being made into adocumentary about this community. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/01/20/the-annual-meeting END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-440@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260123T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260123T193000 SUMMARY:SOLD OUT - Fearless\, Sleepless\, Deathless: An Evening with Maria Pinto & Ross Gay DESCRIPTION:SOLD OUT - Please email michael@mercantilelibrary.com to be add ed to the waitlist.\nA beautiful examination of nature and human connection \nNaturalist\, forager\, and educator Maria Pinto offers a stunning debut b ook that uncovers strange and beautiful fungal connections between the natu ral and human worlds. She mingles reportage\, research\, memoir\, and natur e writing\, touching on topics that range from Black farmers’ domesticati on of the unforgettable aroma of truffles to the possibility that enslaved people wielded mycological poisons against their enslavers. Pinto brings a new perspective and a distinctive literary voice to this mix of environmen tal and lived history\, and every page sings with her enthusiasm for the ne tworks in which we are embedded: fungal\, ecological\, ancestral\, and comm unal. Join her in pursuit of beautiful\, perplexing\, delicious\, and deadl y mushrooms as she explores this understudied kingdom’s awe-inspiring div ersity and discovers how fungi have been used by people\, especially those on the margins\, for survival\, pleasure\, revelation\, and revolution.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration requir ed.\nCopies of Fearless\, Sleepless\, Deathless will be available for sale & signing.\nAbout Maria Pinto\nMaria Pinto spent her feral childhood in the Jamaican hills and grassy waters of South Florida. She lives in the Boston area now\, where she teaches for the literary arts nonprofit GrubStreet\, serves on the board of Hale\, an outdoor education and land conservancy org anization\, and leads mushroom walks independently and at the Arnold Arbore tum of Harvard University. Her words have appeared or will appear in Orion\ ,Longreads\, Necessary Fiction\, Peripheries\, and Arnoldia. Her book of ly ric essays inspired by mushrooms is called Fearless\, Sleepless\, Deathless : What Fungi Taught Me About Nourishment\, Ecology\, Poisons\, Hidden Histo ries\, Zombies\, and Black Survival.\n\nAbout Ross Gay\nRoss Gay is interes ted in joy.\nRoss Gay wants to understand joy.\nRoss Gay is curious about j oy.\nRoss Gay studies joy.\nSomething like that.\n~\nRoss Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which\; Bringing the Shovel Down\; Be Hol ding\, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award\; and Catalog o f Unabashed Gratitude\, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Awa rd and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. In addition to his poetry\, Ro ss has released three collections of essays—The Book of Delights was rele ased in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller\; Inciting Joy was release d in 2022\, and his newest collection\, The Book of (More) Delights was rel eased in September of 2023. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/01/23/sold-out--fearless-sleep less-deathless-an-evening-with-maria-pinto-ross-gay END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-485@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260127T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250127T073000 SUMMARY:Something Italian: An Evening with Annette Januzzi Wick DESCRIPTION:For what is food but the greatest expression of joy and hurt in the world\, Annette Januzzi Wick writes in this blending of history\, memo ir\, and cooking. In response\, readers are taken to the cherished place wh ere her Italian ancestors and immigrant grandparents meet her mother’s re cipe binders written by hand—the family table. Join her as she follows fo ur Italian families from Abruzzo and Calabria who cross the ocean to Americ a. There they toil on railroads and in coal mines\, start shoe stores and b akeries\, and face disease and injuries\, poverty and tragedy\, Mafia tempt ations and labor recruiters\, knowing that forging ahead is their only mean s to survive. In Lorain\, Ohio\, all these dynamisms finally collide.\nWhat does food signify on their journeys? To the immigrant son who sends money back home\, so his aging parents avoid becoming beggars? To the first-gener ation Italian American mother who holds tight to tradition in annotating al l her recipes? To her daughter who one day lands in Italy to share a meal w ith newly discovered Italian cousins? When ancestors disappear\, die\, or d eclare themselves missing\, food is the impetus for subsequent generations to gather at the family table and become something Italian again.\n6 pm rec eption/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nC opies of Something Italian will be available for sale & signing.\nAbout Ann ette Januzzi Wick\nAnnette Januzzi Wick is the author of I’ll Be in the C ar and I’ll Have Some of Yours. With a focus on Italy and food\, writing and connections\, cities and memory\, her work has appeared in Writers Dige st\, Creative Nonfiction\, Edible Ohio Valley\, Soapbox Media\, Cincinnati Neighborhood Guidebook\, Ovunque Siamo\, Italian Americana\, and numerous o ther publications. Born\, raised and educated in northern Ohio\, she’s ma de Cincinnati her home\, though often yearns for Italy or Oregon (and yes\, Cleveland). If you’re awake early enough\, you might spot her out for mo rning walks in Over-the-Rhine. Something Italian is her latest memoir. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/01/27/something-italian-an-eve ning-with-annette-januzzi-wick END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-436@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260129T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260129T193000 SUMMARY:SOLD OUT - The Modern Novel Lecture: Ocean Vuong in conversation wi th John Brooks DESCRIPTION:SOLD OUT - Please email michael@mercantilelibrary.com to be add ed to the waitlist.\nThe Modern Novel Lecture with Ocean Vuong in conversat ion with John Brooks\nIn partnership with The Weston Art Gallery\n The inst ant New York Times bestseller • Oprah’s Book Club Pick • Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted novel about chosen family\, unexpected friendship \, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive“Stunning . . . A heartfelt and powerful examination of those living on the fringes of socie ty\, and the unique challenges they face to survive and thrive.” —Oprah Winfrey“Magnificent . . . In writing this book\, Vuong may have joined t he ranks of an elite few great novelists.” —Leigh Haber\, Los Angeles T imesThe hardest thing in the world is to live only once…One late summer e vening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness\, Connecticut\, ninetee n-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain\, ready to ju mp\, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Gra zina\, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia\, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options\, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year\, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering b ond\, one built on empathy\, spiritual reckoning\, and heartbreak\, with th e power to transform Hai’s relationship to himself\, his family\, and a c ommunity on the brink.Following the cycles of history\, memory\, and time\, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love\, labor\, an d loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epi c about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Ocean Vuong’s wr iting—formal innovation\, syntactic dexterity\, and the ability to twin g rit with grace through tenderness—are on full display in this story of lo ss\, hope\, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleetin g mercies: a second chance.\nOcean Vuong is the author of the critically ac claimed poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time Is a Mother\ , as well as the New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the American Book Awa rd\, he was born in Saigon\, Vietnam\, and currently splits his time betwee n western Massachusetts and New York City. The Emperor of Gladness is his l atest novel. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/01/29/sold-out--the-modern-nov el-lecture-ocean-vuong-in-conversation-with-john-brooks END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-514@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260204T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260204T193000 SUMMARY:Reckoning with the Past: The Historical Poetry of Frank X Walker DESCRIPTION:Medgar Evers\, civil rights organizer. Isaac Murphy\, one of th e greatest jockeys of all time. York\, enslaved explorer on the Corps of Di scovery expedition. These three pivotal figures are brought together in Fra nk X Walker's body of work.\nKnown for coining the term Affrilachia and cof ounding the Affrilachian Poets\, acclaimed writer and activist Frank X Walk er challenges dominant historical narratives and renders "the invisible vis ible" through his persona poetry. His extensive creative output is informed by his own experiences as well as figures important to US history. While t hese figures are eras apart\, Walker finds the shared undercurrents of thei r lives\, exploring themes of gender\, family\, and race in each collection . His poetry joins in a deep tradition of Black American literature that ex hibits both a concern for historical truth-telling and a powerful empathy t hat looks to the future.\nThis first book-length study of an Affrilachian p oet examines five of Walker's collections to highlight how his poems on Yor k\, Isaac Murphy\, and Medgar Evers address and bridge the disconnect betwe en past and present. Author Kristine Yohe pays deep attention to Walker's c raft and emphasizes the pursuit of social justice and racial reconciliation underpinning his work. In this way\, Reckoning with the Past not only adds to the well-deserved recognition of Walker's poetry but also brings more a wareness and respect to the lives of others whose voices are essential to t he American story.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the publi c. Registration required.\nCopies of Reckoning with the Past will be availa ble for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\n\nKristine Yohe is a professor of English at Northern Kentucky University\, where she has taught since 1997 and where her teaching and scholarship focus on Black Ame rican literature\, especially Toni Morrison\, Frank X Walker\, and the Affr ilachian Poets collective. She received her BA in English from Emory Univer sity and her MA and PhD\, specializing in African American literature\, fro m the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2005\, she served as director for the Toni Morrison Society Fourth Biennial Conference\, held in greater Cincinnati and at NKU\, in conjunction with Morrison’s Margaret Garner opera. Kris is currently serving as a board member for the Toni Morr ison Society and for the Harriet Beecher Stowe House.\nHer publications inc lude essays on history in Morrison’s Beloved\, as well as chapters in two books about Margaret Garner. Her article about Walker’s Turn Me Loose: Th e Unghosting ofMedgar Evers was published in Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters in Fall2024. Kris’s book\, Reckoning With the Past: The Historical Poetry of Frank X Walker\, will bepublished on 27 Janu ary 2026 from the University Press of Kentucky. In addition\, she iscoediti ng\, with Zanice Bond of Tuskegee University\, the forthcoming book Teachin g Affrilachia:Cultivating Community and Culture\, also with the University Press of Kentucky.\n\nThe first African American writer to be named Kentuck y Poet Laureate\, Frank X Walker is Professor of English and African Americ an and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky in Lexington where he founded pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture. He has publishe d eleven collections of poetry\, including Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers\, which was awarded an NAACP Image Award for Poetry and the B lack Caucus American Library Association Honor Award for Poetry. He is also the author of Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York\, winner of a Lillian Smi th Book Award\, and Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride\, which he adapted f or stage. Voted one of the most creative professors in the south\, Walker\, a Danville native\, coined the term “Affrilachia” and co-founded the A ffrilachian Poets. A Cave Canem fellow\, his honors also include a Lannan L iterary Fellowship for Poetry. His most recent collection is Load in Nine T imes\, winner of the 2025 PEN/Voelcker Award. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/02/04/reckoning-with-the-past- the-historical-poetry-of-frank-x-walker END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-437@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260217T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260217T193000 SUMMARY:The End of Romance: An Evening with Lily Meyer DESCRIPTION:A big-hearted\, wise\, unceasingly buoyant novel about a woman who\, after escaping a bruising marriage\, theorizes that happiness is poss ible solely with the eradication of all romance--only to find a love that c ould change her life foreverSylvie Broder was taught early to embrace joy. The granddaughter of Holocaust survivors whose greatest priority was enjoyi ng the life they'd snatched back from Hitler\, Sylvie believes in the tenac ious pursuit of pleasure—yet\, somehow\, finds herself trapped in a suffo cating\, emotionally abusive marriage. With enormous fortitude\, Sylvie fre es herself and turns to graduate school\, where she develops a new philosop hy: Straight women will find true liberation and happiness only once romanc e is eradicated.Now\, Sylvie prides herself in separating sex from tenderne ss—having fun with men\, but never committing to one. Then she meets Robb ie and Abie\, and finds her philosophy sorely tested. A warm and gentle man \, Robbie treats Sylvie with patience and enormous kindness\, offering her comfort she hasn't had since childhood. Abie is passionate and dynamic\, a man who challenges Sylvie\, and with whom she finds herself constantly disa rmed. With both men\, she feels a deep desire that looks\, worryingly\, a l ot like love.Cleverly constructed\, delightfully funny\, and beautifully wr itten\, The End of Romance is an anti-romance romance novel that charts its fallible heroine's tumultuous journey to love and happiness with erudition and deep feeling—a story for anyone who\, despite their very best effort s\, has fallen in love\, and wondered why.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm progra m Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of The End of R omance will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Downbound Books.\n\ nAbout Lily Meyer\nLily Meyer is a translator\, a critic\, and the author o f the novels The End of Romance (Viking\, 2026) and Short War (Deep Vellum\ , 2024). She is also a contributing writer at The Atlantic. Her stories and translations can be found in The Dial\, The Drift\, The Sewanee Review\, T he Southern Review\, and many other journals\, and her essays and criticism appear in outlets including Bookforum\, The New Yorker\, and The New York Times Book Review.\n \nAbout Leah Stewart\nLEAH STEWART is the author of si x novels: Body of a Girl\, The Myth of You and Me\, Husband & Wife\, The Hi story of Us\, The New Neighbor\, and What You Don’t Know About Charlie Ou tlaw. Her other accomplishments include an NEA Literature Fellowship\, awar ds for promoting literature in Cincinnati and Ohio\, and chairing her Engli sh department. She received her BA from Vanderbilt and her MFA from the Uni versity of Michigan. Before becoming a professor at the University of Cinci nnati\, where she teaches in the undergraduate major and the Creative Writi ng PhD program. She served as staff at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference fr om 1995 to 2004 and returned to the conference in 2019 as its director. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/02/17/the-end-of-romance-an-ev ening-with-lily-meyer END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-442@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260224T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260224T193000 SUMMARY:Everything Lost Returns: An Evening with Sarah Domet DESCRIPTION:The poignant\, utterly original story of two women separated ac ross time but united by the arrival of Halley's comet\, as blazing and as d aring as their stories.\n1986. The Earthshine Soap Company has given Nona D ixon everything\, from making her the brand’s first Earthshine Girl to la unching her acting career. It also threatens to be the very thing that caus es her to unravel when a group of Jane Does file a class action lawsuit acc using the company of putting harmful ingredients into their products. When Nona begins investigating Bertie Tuttle\, the company’s third-generation owner\, she uncovers a complicated history involving her benefactor and a m ysterious woman named Opal Doucet. 1910. Seventy-six years earlier\, Opal Doucet\, a rural doctor’s wife\, is pregnant\, on the run\, and desperate to get to Paris and to the charismatic spiritualist who supposedly commune d with her first love. To save money\, Opal goes to work in the Earthshine Soap factory as an Earthshine Girl where she uses her knowledge of medicine \, and the spiritualist’s teachings\, to prescribe cures to the women who ’ve come down with mystery ailments. As she and Bertie Tuttle secretly pa rtner in a labor strike intended to improve the working conditions at the f actory\, Opal must decide the cost of her own freedom. Gorgeously written and intricately constructed\, Everything Lost Returns is a story of desire and friendship\, guilt and redemption\, and the power we have\, in our own small way\, to change the course of history.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm progra m Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Everything L ost Returns will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Ci ncinnati.\nAbout Sarah Domet\nSarah Domet is the author of the novels The G uineveres and Everything Lost Returns\, and the craft book 90 Days to Your Novel. She is a professor and the coordinator of the MFA program in creativ e writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/02/24/everything-lost-returns- an-evening-with-sarah-domet END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-543@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260226T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260226T193000 SUMMARY:The War Within a War: An Evening with Wil Haygood DESCRIPTION:In partnership with The Dayton Literary Peace Prize\nAward-winn ing author and journalist Wil Haygood explores how the Vietnam War became a mirror for the struggle of Black Americans—fighting for freedom abroad w hile demanding equality at home—and a powerful lens through which to unde rstand the racial and political divides that continue to shape American lif e. “With this book\, Wil Haygood has become the preeminent chronicler of the Black experience in America.” —Richard Rhodes\, Pulitzer Laureate for The Making of the Atomic Bomb “In these masterful pages\, Haygood re frames both the Vietnam War and the United States’ unfinished struggle fo r equality.”—Mitchell Zuckoff\, New York Times bestselling author of 13 Hours and Lost in Shangri-La Drawing on the lives of soldiers and officer s\, doctors and nurses\, journalists and activists\, artists and politician s\, Haygood illuminates a generation caught between two battles: one on the front lines in Vietnam and another for justice and dignity in America. Am ong those at the heart of the story are Air Force pilot Fred Cherry\, the f irst Black officer captured by the North Vietnamese and a hero to millions back home\; Dr. Elbert Nelson\, a doctor who came to Vietnam after watching TV footage of the Watts riots in Los Angeles and soon found himself amid r ising Black soldier protests overseas\; Wallace Terry\, a groundbreaking Bl ack reporter determined to expose the dynamics of race and war to the Ameri can public and Philippa Schuyler\, a biracial concert pianist who traveled to Vietnam to rescue mixed-race orphans\, many fathered by Black soldiers\, and died trying to bring them to safety. Surrounding their experiences ar e the cultural and political forces of the era\, including Martin Luther Ki ng Jr.\, Marvin Gaye\, Berry Gordy\, and Lyndon Johnson\, whose voices and actions shaped a decade of turbulence and transformation. The War Within a War is both sweeping history and intimate revelation\, capturing the trage dies and triumphs\, the honor and hypocrisies\, the courage and cowardice t hat shaped an era and whose repercussions resonate today.\n6 pm reception/6 :30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of The War Within a War will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Jose ph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Wil Haygood\nWIL HAYGOOD is the author of Tigerl and\, which was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize\; Showdown\, a finalist for an NAACP Image Award\; In Black and White\; and The Butler\ , which was made into a film directed by Lee Daniels. He has been a corresp ondent for The Washington Post and The Boston Globe\, where he was a Pulitz er finalist. Haygood is a Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanit ies Fellow\, and is currently Boadway Visiting Distinguished Scholar at Mia mi University in Oxford\, Ohio. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/02/26/the-war-within-a-war-an- evening-with-wil-haygood END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-484@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260304T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260304T193000 SUMMARY:Light As A Feather: An Evening with Will Hillenbrand DESCRIPTION:Let your curiosity take flight with this nonfiction picture boo k exploring the world of North American birds from acclaimed author Will Hi llenbrand. Why are feathers so light? Why do woodpeckers drum? What should you do if you find an injured bird? Acclaimed picture book author Will Hil lenbrand has the answers that are sure to make readers’ imaginations soar ! In these pages you’ll meet North America’s most fascinating birds\, like nature’s drummers (the woodpecker) to its most dynamic dancers (the sandhill crane) and flashiest fliers (the blue jay)\, and more. Colorful m aps explore the bird’s habitats\, and bright\, accessible infographics in vite readers to experience every part of the birds’ world\, from the brow n pelican’s seven-plus foot wingspan to the light waves that make bluebir ds so blue. In this vibrantly-illustrated nonfiction picture book\, the sky ’s the limit on what there is to learn.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program F ree & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Light As A Feat her will be available for sale & signing courtesy of The Bookery.\nAbout Wi ll Hillenbrand\nWill Hillenbrand is a celebrated author and illustrator who se works include eighty picture books for young readers. In addition to his own self-illustrated titles\, he has also illustrated the works of writers and retellers\, including Verna Aardema\, Judy Sierra\, Margery Cuyler\, J udith St. George\, Phyllis Root\, Jane Yolen\, Karma Wilson\, and Jane Hill enbrand.\nAs a child\, Hillenbrand explored the streets of College Hill/Cin cinnati in search of adventure and stories.\nAbout his book LIGHT AS A FEAT HER. Kirkus Reviews said: 'This picture book balances natural history with visual appeal. Hillenbrand's textured\, layered artwork brings each bird to vivid life: The cardinal's brilliant crimson plumage practically glows aga inst a snowy branch\, while the eastern bluebird's azure feathers demonstra te the physics of light refraction through a clever infographic showing how "only blue escapes\; the feather captures all other colors.'\nWill has spe nt most of his life in Cincinnati\, Ohio\, where he grew up as the youngest of four boys. His childhood routines revolved around the neighborhood\, hi s parents' barbershop\, the Northern Hills Library\, playing baseball\, and drawing. He now works in a small studio in the upstairs of his Cape Cod ho me\, which he shares with his wife\, Jane\, a kindergarten teacher. Their s on Ian\, a geologist\, is an avid reader and writer of many published scien tific papers. Currently\, he is doing postdoctoral work at the United State s Geological Survey in Denver\, Colorado. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/03/04/light-as-a-feather-an-ev ening-with-will-hillenbrand END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-533@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260311T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260311T193000 SUMMARY:The Whole Earth Is a Garden of Monsters: An Evening with Manuel Iri s DESCRIPTION:Winner of the Ambroggio Prize of the Academy of American Poets This award-winning bilingual collection intertwines the lives of a Renaiss ance painter and a modern migrant worker\, offering a fresh perspective on art and migration. In this highly imaginative work\, the lives of the nort hern Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450–1516) and an imagined con temporary migrant worker named Juan Coyoc\, later known as Juan Domínguez\ , run in parallel as they mirror each other across languages\, time\, and c ontinents. By comparing and at times intertwining these two poetic narrati ves\, the book explores themes of art\, migration\, narco-violence\, family \, spirituality\, and the idea that every human being represents all humani ty at any moment in history. Both Hieronymus Bosch and Juan Domínguez beco me relatable and intimate figures\, part of our own story. Written in simp le\, sharp language\, the book employs surprising imagery and a novel struc ture to blur the boundaries between reality and fiction\, while examining t he intricacies of the human condition—from the life of Saint Anthony to t he violent acts of narcos across Central America and the U.S.-Mexico border . With formal sophistication and philosophical depth\, this work enriches t he tradition of poetry about both migration and art\, contributing to the l iterary heritage of Mexico and the United States over the past several deca des.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registratio n required.\nCopies of The Whole Earth Is a Garden of Monsters will be avai lable for sale & signing.\nAbout Manuel Iris\nManuel Iris (Mexico\, 1983). Mexican-born American Poet. Author of six collections of poetry.\nPoet Laur eate Emeritus of the City of Cincinnati\, Ohio (2018-2020)\, Writer-in-Resi dence of the\nCincinnati and Hamilton County public library and library fou ndation (2023)\, Writer in\nresidence of Thomas More University (2023-2024) \, and member of the National System of Art\nCreators of Mexico (2022-2024) . His poetic work has received national and international\nrecognition. Rec ently\, Iris was awarded the 2025 Ambroggio Poetry Prize given by the Acade my\nof American Poets for his book The Whole Earth is a Garden of Monsters. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/03/11/the-whole-earth-is-a-gar den-of-monsters-an-evening-with-manuel-iris END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-561@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260318T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260318T193000 SUMMARY:Returning: An Evening with Nicholas Lemann DESCRIPTION:Nicholas Lemann\, a veteran New Yorker correspondent\, grew up in New Orleans\, the son of German Jews in a world of gilded privilege. Yet in contrast to his parents’ generation\, which always sought to downplay their religious background\, Nick was intrigued by his roots\, thinking he wanted to be like Jack Burden\, the ever-curious reporter in Robert Penn W arren’s All the Kings Men.\nAnd like his fictional hero\, who gets drawn into a web of southern political intrigue\, Lemann in Returning delves deep ly into the family story – from their arrival in the 1830s as peddlers fr om Germany\; to their becoming plantation owners and department store owner s after the Civil War\; to their emergence as aspirants in the aristocratic world of New Orleans where they could never quite belong.\nSeemingly more Our Crowd than Yentl in its depiction of a German Jewish family where young scions matriculated at Harvard and liveried staff served “crustless duck sandwiches” at cocktail parties\, Returning\, with its parade of colorfu l family characters – from his grandfather’s cousin\, who participated in a campaign to prevent a Jewish state in the 1940s\, to his father\, a we althy business lawyer in a Deep South seigneurial city\, who took his kids to temple only on Thanksgiving\, to his New Jersey-raised mother\, who “w ent into a cardiac arrest of the soul” upon meeting the family – defies easy categorization. Indeed\, as the Lemanns climbed the ranks of New Orle ans’ high society\, their struggles became part of a larger metaphorical story of the challenges faced by Jews\, even wealthy ones\, who are never a ble to fit in.\nKeenly aware of these contradictions\, Lemann began chafing both at the South’s strict racial hierarchy and at his relatives’ eage rness to be accepted in a subtle but distinctly anti-Semitic environment.\n Returning then follows the narrator as he rejects this cossetted\, assimila ted society\, embraces religion\, and chooses\, along with his wife\, to ra ise his children in a Jewish world.\nSearchingly asking what it is about an ti-Semitism that allows it to flourish after 2\,000 years\, Lemann uses his own family saga as a springboard to address some of the most urgent questi ons of our time. Through its nuanced combination of biography and philosoph y wrapped into a family history\, Returning ultimately becomes one of the m ost memorable statements about Jewish life in the twenty-first century.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration requir ed.\nCopies of Returning will be available for sale & signing courtesy of J oseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Nicholas Lemann\nNicholas Lemann is a profess or and dean emeritus at the Columbia Journalism School. He is the author of The Promised Land\, The Big Test\, Redemption\, and Transaction Man. A sta ff writer for The New Yorker since 1999\, he lives in New York. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/03/18/returning-an-evening-wit h-nicholas-lemann END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-544@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260331T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260331T193000 SUMMARY:100 Books That Shaped My Life: An Evening with John Pepper DESCRIPTION:John Pepper’s love affair with books began when he was a chil d. He sought refuge and escape in books\; he began to explore the world thr ough them\; he developed friendships\, of a sort\, with the authors whose w riting inspired him. Over time\, he came to know many of his favorite auth ors personally. As he said later\, “Reading let me know I wasn’t alone. ”\nHe began to write about the books he was reading many decades ago—su mmarizing them\, calling out passages that stood out for him\, and reflecti ng on their timeless relevance and lessons. Those summaries\, captured in 100 Books That Shaped My Life – Reflections on a Lifetime of Reading\, ar e like a fireside chat with John about the books he’s loved\, what he lea rned from them\, and what they still say to us today.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of 100 Books That Shaped My Life will be available for sale & signing.\nAbout Joh n Pepper\n John Pepper spent a 40-year career at the Procter & Gamble Compa ny\, where he rose to become Chief Executive Officer and Chairman. Later\, he served as Non-executive Chairman of the Walt Disney Company\, as well as Senior Fellow of the Yale Corporation. For over 40 years\, Mr. Pepper has been devoted to early childhood education and development. He is the co-fo under of the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative and Every Child Succeeds and ha s been a leader in the development of the National Underground Railroad Fre edom Center in Cincinnati\, Ohio. He has served as CEO of the Freedom Cente r and has been a member of the board since its creation. Mr. Pepper is the recipient of several honorary degrees\, including from St. Petersburg Univ ersity in Russia and his alma mater\, Yale University. He has been married to his wife\, Francie\, for over 56 years. they are the proud parents of f our children\, John\, David\, Douglas and Susan\, and have ten grandchildre n: Tibby\, Izzy\, Bo\, Andrew\, Katie\, Molly\, Hubbard\, Rhoda\, Jack and Charlie. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/03/31/100-books-that-shaped-my -life-an-evening-with-john-pepper END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-556@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260410T173000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260410T193000 SUMMARY:Adventure Crew Presents Derick Lugo DESCRIPTION:This is a ticketed event. Tickets are available here.\nApril 10 5:30-8:30 p.m.The Mercantile Library\nBack by popular demand! Author Derick Lugo returns to talk about his new book\, "A Fabulous Thru-Hike" (out Febr uary 3).\nDerick will join us on Friday\, April 10 for an inspiring evening at the beautiful Mercantile Library. Adventure Crew’s RAD (Raising Acces s and Diversity) Women's Collective is once again hosting Derick as part of its speaker series. The evening will begin with a 5:30 p.m. social hour (a cash bar will be available)\, followed by Derick's presentation at 6:30 p. m. and a Q&A session. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/04/10/adventure-crew-presents- derick-lugo END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-534@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260415T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260415T193000 SUMMARY:The 1835 Lecture: Alexis Coe DESCRIPTION:THIS LECTURE IS SOLD OUT - Please email michael@mercantilelibra ry.com to be added to the waitlist.\nAlexis Coe delivers the 2026 1835 Lect ure.\nAN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AN NPR CONCIERGE BEST BOOK OF TH E YEAR “In her form-shattering and myth-crushing book….Coe examines my ths with mirth\, and writes history with humor… [You Never Forget Your Fi rst] is an accessible look at a president who always finishes in the first ranks of our leaders.” —Boston Globe Alexis Coe takes a closer look at our first--and finds he is not quite the man we remember Young George Was hington was raised by a struggling single mother\, demanded military promot ions\, caused an international incident\, and never backed down--even when his dysentery got so bad he had to ride with a cushion on his saddle. But a fter he married Martha\, everything changed. Washington became the kind of man who named his dog Sweetlips and hated to leave home. He took up arms ag ainst the British only when there was no other way\, though he lost more ba ttles than he won. After an unlikely victory in the Revolutionary War cast him as the nation's hero\, he was desperate to retire\, but the founders p ressured him into the presidency--twice. When he retired years later\, no o ne talked him out of it. He left the highest office heartbroken over the pa rtisan nightmare his backstabbing cabinet had created. Back on his plantat ion\, the man who fought for liberty must confront his greatest hypocrisy-- what to do with the men\, women\, and children he owns--before he succumbs to death. With irresistible style and warm humor\, You Never Forget Your F irst combines rigorous research and lively storytelling that will have read ers--including those who thought presidential biographies were just for dad s--inhaling every page.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free for Members\, $25 for Non-Members. Registration required.\nCopies of You Never Forget You r First will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincin nati.\n\nAlexis Coe is a presidential historian\, an award-winning\, New Yo rk Times bestselling presidential historian\, and a senior fellow at New Am erica\, a bi-partisan think tank. In July 2025\, Coe became the American Hi story Columnist at the New York Times. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/04/15/the-1835-lecture-alexis- coe END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-549@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260421T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260421T193000 SUMMARY:Iron Insights: An Evening with Laurent Che DESCRIPTION:Iron Insights is the publishing debut of spoken word artist\, p oet\, and speaker\, Laurent Che\, in which he pens an illuminating collecti on of poetry that takes you on a transformative journey through unique prop ositions of wisdom and satiating food for thought. Each poem is an individ ual body of work with its own intentional message that taps into the shared pulse of this entire collection: Perspective.\nChe uses each piece to offe r various examples of how changing the way you see your world leads to your world changing. Expand your horizons with his thought-provoking poetry on matters of emotional intelligence\, self-worth\, resilience\, and building a powerful personal philosophy to live an enriching life.\n6 pm reception/6 :30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Iron Insights will be available for sale & signing.\nAbout Laurent Che\nLa urent Che is a renowned spoken word artist and inspirational speaker. He’ s commanded stages across the United States\, and graced screens internatio nally for universities\, corporations\, churches\, local government\, notab le franchises\, and beyond.\nFor almost a decade\, Laurent has maintained a n award-winning career as a senior copywriter\, content producer\, and cont ent strategist for various industry leaders from Foot Locker Inc. to Linked In.\nCombining his aptitude for advertising with his artistry\, he’s beco me an “Architect of Brand Anthems” through his business\, Laurent Che S peaks\, using his unique style of spoken word poetry to amplify the mission s of prominent brands and organizations.\nBorn and raised in Cincinnati\, h e remained in Ohio to attend Kent State University\, where he received a ba chelor’s degree in marketing. Soon after\, he ventured out to the East Co ast to receive his master’s degree in advertising from Boston University\ , where he further honed his writing skills.\nAfter years of empowering aud iences by bringing his poetry to life on the mic\, he recently made his pub lishing debut with his first book of poetry\, Iron Insights: Enlightening P oetry to Enrich Your Perspective.\nWith this concise collection of poetic m asterpieces purposed to strengthen perspective\, he now aspires to empower audiences around the world with written words from his heart that continuou sly speak to them on the deepest level without ever having to hear him spea k.\n A quote he lives by: “There is nothing noble in being superior to yo ur fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.” - Ernest Hemingway LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/04/21/iron-insights-an-evening -with-laurent-che END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-536@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260428T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260428T193000 SUMMARY:The Albert Pyle Urban Lecture: Michael Murphy DESCRIPTION:THIS LECTURE IS SOLD OUT - Please email michael@mercantilelibra ry.com to be added to the waitlist.\nMichael Murphy delivers the 2026 Alber t Pyle Urban Lecture.\nFrom “tomorrow’s greatest designer” (The Atlan tic)\, a personal and deeply researched look at how the choices we build in to our environment reflect and determine the way we think\, connect\, and l ive. We've been led to believe that purposefully designed spaces are somet hing reserved only for those that can afford them. But in reality\, all the spaces we inhabit—to work\, to learn\, to heal\, and to live—have been planned and built to influence our lives. They sway our emotions\, nudge o ur behaviors\, protect us from disease\, and do more\, or less\, to support shared prosperity and our sense of the common good. Our World in Ten Buil dings unpacks this hidden but ever more important element of our lived expe rience. As author and architectural designer Michael Murphy takes us throug h ten milestone projects in his career he lays bare the physical\, politica l\, and intellectual labor at work shaping the world we live in. With rare insight\, access\, and passion\, Murphy braids the history of architecture with his own iconic projects to show the power of urban design and how it revolutionizes our homes\, minds\, workplaces\, safety\, and health care. P rofound\, and accessible\, Our World in Ten Buildings will change the way y ou look at and think about your surroundings.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm pro gram Free for Members\, $25 for Non-Members. Registration required.\nCopies of Our World in Ten Buildings will be available for sale & signing courtes y of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nPRE-ORDER YOUR COPY FOR PICK-UP AT THE EVENT HERE!\n\nMichael P. Murphy is an architect\, educator\, and writer\, and is the founder and president of AMMA\, a design and development collaborative focused on the ways in which space shapes our minds\, bodies\, and communi ties. In 2007\, he founded the architectural non-profit firm\, MASS Design Group\, and was CEO until 2022\, leading the design of their projects inclu ding the Butaro Hospital and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice to name a few. He is currently the Thomas Ventulett Chair of Architecture at The Georgia Institute of Technology. Originally from Poughkeepsie\, New Yor k\, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/04/28/the-albert-pyle-urban-le cture-michael-murphy END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-571@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260430T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260430T193000 SUMMARY:Poetry Month Celebration with Poet Laureate Richard Hague and Frien ds DESCRIPTION:Join us for a Poetry Month celebration with Poet Laureate Richa rd Hague and fellow poets.\nCincinnati poets Ellen Austin-Li\, Phoebe Reeve s\, Kyra Liedtke\, Dick Westheimer and Sara Moore Wagner respond imaginativ ely to the 1848 Panorama. A reading accompanied with live music by the band Tangled Roots and visuals from the famous daguerreotype of the Cincinnati riverfront. Organized and narrated by Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poe t Laureate Richard Hague.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to th e public. Registration required.\nAbout Richard Hague\nRichard Hague is a g raduate of Xavier University whose work has appeared in Poetry\, Smartish P ace\, Appalachian Journal\, Northern Appalachian Review\, Birmingham Poetry Review\, Nowhere Magazine\, Hiram Poetry Review\, Nimrod\, Mid-American Re view\, Ohio Magazine\, Still: The Journal\, Gyroscope Review\, The Clevelan d Plain Dealer and Creative Nonfiction\, among many others\, and in dozens of anthologies. He is author or editor of 22 volumes of prose and poetry\, most recently Tributaria – Poetry\, Prose\, & Art Inspired by Tributaries of the Ohio River Watershed\, edited with Sherry Cook Stanforth and Michae l Thompson (Dos Madre Press 2025)\, and the nonfiction collection Earnest O ccupations: Teaching\, Writing\, Gardening\, and Other Local Work (Bottom D og Press 2018) listed as “Recommended” by the US Review of Books. A Kat harine Bakeless Scholar at Bread Loaf\, he studied with Scott Russell Sande rs. He has taught writing and literature in Cincinnati and elsewhere for 54 years. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/04/30/poetry-month-celebration -with-poet-laureate-richard-hague-and-friends END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-472@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260505T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260505T193000 SUMMARY:This Vast Enterprise: An Evening with Craig Fehrman DESCRIPTION:In the epic tradition of Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage\ , This Vast Enterprise offers a bold new take on the Lewis and Clark expedi tion\, humanizing forgotten figures and shattering long-held myths about on e of the most beloved episodes in American history. Celebrated young histo rian Craig Fehrman\, whose first book\, Author in Chief\, was hailed by Tho mas Mallon in The Wall Street Journal as “one of the best books on the Am erican presidency to appear in recent years\,” delivers a major new accou nt of the Lewis and Clark expedition. When Meriwether Lewis and William Cl ark returned from their long journey\, in 1806\, they brought an incredible tale starring themselves as courageous explorers\, skilled scientists\, an d peaceful ambassadors. There was truth in those descriptions. But there wa s also distortion. For the first time in a generation\, This Vast Enterpri se offers a fresh and more accurate account of their expedition—a grippin g narrative that draws on new documents\, stunning analysis\, and Native pe rspectives. Fehrman’s central insight is that the success of Lewis and Cl ark depended on much more than just Lewis and Clark. We all know Sacajawea\ , and some of us know York\, the Black man Clark enslaved. But This Vast En terprise introduces us to John Ordway\, a working-class soldier who fought grizzlies and towed the captains’ bulky barge. It introduces us to Wolf C alf\, a Blackfoot teenager who watched his friend die in a battle with Lewi s and his men. To capture this cast of characters\, each chapter in This V ast Enterprise moves to a new point of view\, describing that person’s de sires and contradictions with an unprecedented level of care. Fehrman balan ces the story’s inherent adventure with the humanity of its protagonists. One chapter shows Thomas Jefferson operating in an age of bitter partisan unrest—his secret maneuvers to fund the expedition\, uncovered here for t he first time\, are a case study in presidential power. Another chapter rev eals the strategy and strength of Black Buffalo\, a Lakota leader\, complet ely upending our understanding of early Lakota American diplomacy. In his c hapters\, Clark is not a bad speller but a student of the Enlightenment. (F ehrman found Clark’s college notebook.) Lewis is someone whose psychologi cal demons feel at once heartbreaking and modern. And yet\, in the end\, t he captains are men who needed help—from Sacajawea\, from York\, and from each other. Their expedition truly was a vast enterprise\, a sprawling and federally funded military mission that came down to the heroic sacrifices of a few human beings. This book portrays those people\, all of them\, for the first time. It is more than just a work of history—it’s a testament to the power of innovative research and emotional storytelling\, and a thr illing reminder that even the most familiar moments in history can still su rprise us.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Regis tration required.\nCopies of This Vast Enterprise will be available for sal e & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Craig Fehrman\nCraig Fehrman\, a journalist and historian\, spent five years writing and resear ching This Vast Enterprise. His first book\, Author in Chief\, was describe d by Thomas Mallon in The Wall Street Journal as “one of the best books o n the American presidency to appear in recent years.” Fehrman lives in In diana with his wife and children. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/05/05/this-vast-enterprise-an- evening-with-craig-fehrman END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-581@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260507T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260507T193000 SUMMARY:Revenge for the Sixties: An Evening with Peter Canellos DESCRIPTION:The first-ever biography of the most pivotal Justice on the Sup reme Court whose decisions\, like the overturning of Roe\, will drive the r eshaping of America\, by prize-winning journalist Peter Canellos. When the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson\, the landmark case overturning Roe v. Wade\, it marked a turning point in the lives of mi llions of Americans. It was also the culmination of a decades-long movement whose grievances were embodied by the man who wrote the court’s opinion: Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. Steely in his demeanor\, with an impassive appea rance that defies changing fashions\, Alito could be the family lawyer in a 1960s television drama. But when he talks there is an emotional undercurre nt\, a fast-flowing stream beneath a placid surface. This is a man driven t o push boundaries and mold ideas. His aim is to right the wrongs of the pas t six decades\, as he saw them. He was the prized son of an Italian-born fa ther and a mother whose parents emigrated from Italy shortly before her bir th\, worked their way into the middle class despite anti-Catholic prejudice and humiliating setbacks like evictions\, and exacting big achievement dem ands of their children. But his family’s values came under attack during the sixties and later when Alito was at Princeton as the Vietnam war raged\ , women demanded equality\, and their brand of patriotism was devalued. Th e Federalist Society provided a safe space for Alito and those like him\, a nd he moved fast up the judicial ladder to eventually land on the Supreme C ourt. There he has been aggressive in pushing the law in new\, conservative directions—from pushing for expanding rights for the religious conservat ives\, overturning affirmative action\, extending the right to bear arms to thwart gun controls\, and reducing the power of the Environmental Protecti on Agency. And finally—most crucial to his legacy—he was the author of Dobbs v. Jackson\, bringing the conservative legal movement full circle in overruling Roe v. Wade. His ethnic and religious background\, his intellect ual confidence\, and his unyielding determination are all illustrative of a group of men and women who\, beset by grievance\, embarked on a decades-lo ng mission to change the rules that govern society.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Reven ge for the Sixties will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph- Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Peter Canellos\nPeter S. Canellos is the author of The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan\, America’s Judici al Hero\, and the editor of the bestselling Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy. He has been POLITICO’s executive editor\, leading the newsr oom during the 2016 presidential coverage\; and the editorial page editor o f The Boston Globe. He has also been a Pulitzer Prize finalist\, a recipien t of the American Society of Newspaper Editors award in 2011 for excellence in editorial writing along with the 2022 George Polk Award\, Robin Toner A ward\, and News Leaders Association Batten Medal for his writing about the Supreme Court. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/05/07/revenge-for-the-sixties- an-evening-with-peter-canellos END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-524@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260512T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260512T193000 SUMMARY:The Hearth & Home Lecture: Priya Krishna DESCRIPTION:THIS LECTURE IS SOLD OUT - Please email michael@mercantilelibra ry.com to be added to the waitlist.\nNational Bestseller Priya Krishna deli vers the 2026 Hearth & Home Lecture.\nA witty and irresistible celebration of one very cool and boundary-breaking mom’s “Indian-ish” cooking—w ith accessible and innovative Indian-American recipes Indian food is every day food! This colorful\, lively book is food writer Priya Krishna’s lovi ng tribute to her mom’s “Indian-ish” cooking—a trove of one-of-a-ki nd Indian-American hybrids that are easy to make\, clever\, practical\, and packed with flavor. Think Roti Pizza\, Tomato Rice with Crispy Cheddar\, W hole Roasted Cauliflower with Green Pea Chutney\, and Malaysian Ramen. Pri ya’s mom\, Ritu\, taught herself to cook after moving to the U.S. while a lso working as a software programmer—her unique creations merging the Ind ian flavors of her childhood with her global travels and inspiration from c ooking shows as well as her kids’ requests for American favorites like sp aghetti and PB&Js. The results are approachable and unfailingly delightful\ , like spiced\, yogurt-filled sandwiches crusted with curry leaves\, or “ Indian Gatorade” (a thirst-quenching salty-sweet limeade)—including ple nty of simple dinners you can whip up in minutes at the end of a long work day. Throughout\, Priya’s funny and relatable stories—punctuated with candid portraits and original illustrations by acclaimed Desi pop artist Ma ria Qamar (also known as Hatecopy)—will bring you up close and personal w ith the Krishna family and its many quirks.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm progr am Free to members/$25 nonmembers Registration required.\nCopies of Indian- Ish will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati .\n\nPriya Krishna is a food reporter and video host for the New York Times and the bestselling author of multiple cookbooks including Indian-ish and Cooking at Home. Her stories have been included in the 2019 and 2021 editio ns of The Best American Food Writing and in 2021\, she was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list. She is originally from Dallas\, Texas\, which happens to be one of the busiest travel hubs in the world. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/05/12/the-hearth-home-lecture- priya-krishna END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-550@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260513T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260513T193000 SUMMARY:Is Is Enough: An Evening with Lauren Camp DESCRIPTION:Is Is Enough marks an endless amount of transformation by looki ng most closely at the ambiguous effects of Alzheimer’s Disease on a fath er and his daughter\, the strength of their bond\, disintegrating memories\ , and unexpected futures. These are poems of awareness\, astonishment\, abs ence and candid revelation.\nIs Is Enough begins in heritage and harmony th en breaks apart into the strange world and tautly stretched emotions that a ccompany dementia. The collection flickers through and locates in distorted realities\, loss\, and gentling. By haunting the past\, the author reweave s and reorients against a continual vanishing. Ordinary situations begin to seem like joy in reverse\, a treatise on the honesty of the present. \n6 p m reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration require d.\nCopies of Is Is Enough will be available for sale & signing.\nAbout Lau ren Camp\nLauren Camp served as the second New Mexico Poet Laureate (2022-2 5)\, and spearheaded the New Mexico Epic Poem Project. She is the author of nine poetry collections\, most recently Is Is Enough (Texas Review Press\, 2026) and In Old Sky (Grand Canyon Conservancy\, 2024)\, which grew from h er role as Astronomer-in-Residence at Grand Canyon National Park. Honors in clude fellowships from the Academy of American Poets\, a Dorset Prize\, the New Mexico Book Award and finalist citations for the Arab American Book Aw ard\, and Adrienne Rich Award. Her poems have been translated into Mandarin \, Turkish\, Spanish\, French\, and Arabic. www.laurencamp.com LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/05/13/is-is-enough-an-evening- with-lauren-camp END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-548@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260519T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260519T193000 SUMMARY:Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks: An Evening with John E. Hancock DESCRIPTION:Join John E. Hancock\, the principal author and photographer fo r the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks UNESCO World Heritage nomination\, to celebrate the release of his two new books: Traveler's Guide to Ancient Ohi o and Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks!\nAbout Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks \nExperience 8 sacred earthworks of the ancient Hopewell culture with this breathtaking book featuring 250+ images and fascinating insights on Native American history. Between 1\,600 and 2\,000 years ago\, Native American co mmunities built monumental earthen enclosure complexes in Ohio. They are th e largest geometrically shaped earthworks in the world. Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks is a gorgeous tribute to eight of these architectural masterpie ces\, featuring more than 250 images that capture their breathtaking scope\ , beauty\, and precision. These ceremonial sites align with Sun and Moon cy cles and reveal the vision and genius of their designers making connections to the cosmos. In 2023\, UNESCO added the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks to their World Heritage list—only the 25th US site with that honor. This celebratory volume brings together:\n\nHistories of the sites\n14 maps and more than 250 photographs\nSummaries of the latest archaeological research\ nIndigenous perspectives from tribal leaders\, scholars\, and artists\nFres h insights on the beauty and brilliance of the earthworks\n\n Fort Ancient\ , Octagon Earthworks\, Great Circle Earthwork\, Mound City\, Hopewell Mound Group\, Hopeton Earthworks\, High Bank Works\, and Seip Earthworks make up the eight impressive sites. Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks is a worthy cel ebration of their scale\, precision\, and artistry\, as well as the history and culture behind them.\nAbout Traveler’s Guide to Ancient Ohio\nTravel er’s Guide to Ancient Ohio is a compact\, richly illustrated\, and in-dep th travel guide to the Indigenous earthwork wonders of southern Ohio—some of the most extraordinary ancient monuments in North America. Featuring th e eight newly inscribed UNESCO World Heritage sites\, this is the first pub lication to present these places from a traveler’s perspective\, offering deeply informative site descriptions alongside curated routes to historica l\, scenic\, and natural treasures across the region.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of bot h books will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincin nati.\nAbout John E. Hancock\nJohn E. Hancock taught architecture\, design\ , and history at the University of Cincinnati for 40 years. He has produced many multimedia exhibits and publications on Ohio’s earthworks\, and ser ved as the principal author and photographer for the Hopewell Ceremonial Ea rthworks UNESCO World Heritage nomination\, and for its public reissue by S mithsonian Books (2026). LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/05/19/hopewell-ceremonial-eart hworks-an-evening-with-john-e-hancock END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-567@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260521T173000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260521T193000 SUMMARY:The London Club: An Evening with Andrew Jones & Laura Hodgson DESCRIPTION:Written by Andrew Jones and illustrated with newly commissioned photographs by Laura Hodgson\, The London Club is a unique guide to the mo st beautiful and unusual club architecture in the UK capital. London has m ore members’ clubs than any other city. There are clubs for everyone: fro m actors\, plutocrats\, aristocrats and bishops to sailors\, soldiers\, fis hermen and spies\, as well as journalists\, jockeys\, architects and æsthe tes. Andrew Jones opens the door to 46 of the most beautiful\, interesting and unusual of these clubs\, presenting 300 years of architecture and desi gn. The London Club features the oldest clubs in London as well as the most recent\, with perfectly preserved interiors\, original furniture and extra ordinary collections. From bohemian to bling\, shabby to chic\, classical a nd brutal\, this is a celebration of variety and beauty\, with newly commis sioned photographs by Laura Hodgson. “From the grandest to the simplest taking in the quirkiest en route\, this book is an irresistible journey thr ough London’s clubland.” - From the Foreword by Nina Campbell OBE\n5:30 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration requi red.\nCopies of The London Club will be available for sale & signing courte sy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Andrew Jones\nAndrew Jones has lived i n the heart of London clubland\, on the border of Mayfair and St James’s\ , for almost 20 years. He is the author of The Buildings of Green Park\, a tour of certain buildings\, monuments and other structures in Mayfair and S t. James’s\, and a contributor to Seeing Things – the small wonders of the world according to writers\, artists and others. He writes about cities for the Financial Times and has also written on architecture for Blueprint \, Drawing Matter and The London Gardener as well as pieces on London for T he World of Interiors and the Londonist.\nAbout Laura Hodgson\nLaura Hodgso n is a freelance photographer specializing in still life and interiors. Aft er a literature degree\, she trained as a photographer in New York and Lond on. Clients include Condé Nast\, the Financial Times and The Times. She wo rks from her studio in central London. This is her fifth book. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/05/21/the-london-club-an-eveni ng-with-andrew-jones-laura-hodgson END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-569@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260527T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260527T193000 SUMMARY:Cinema on Sundays: An Evening with Peter Niehoff DESCRIPTION:Often referred to as the first day of the week\, Sunday was the last frontier for cinemagoing access in Britain and represented complex pe rspectives on the cultural turbulence of the period. This book examines the efforts of the countless people who coalesced around the Sunday cinema mov ement. These cinematic communities began to see the social necessity of fil m and challenged the institution of the British Sunday to make room for thi s new cultural practice. Cinema on Sundays recounts the emergence of legal Sunday cinema culture in Britain between the 1920s to the 1950s. By utiliz ing newly uncovered sources\, this book uncovers the larger social\, politi cal and legal history into a topic often seen as a small historical curiosi ty. Sunday cinemagoers forever altered the one day a week most people were free from work.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nAbout Peter Niehoff\nPeter Niehoff\, PhD\, is an Ad junct Professor of film and media studies at the University of Cincinnati. His courses include American Film History\, 1896-today\, 1960s British Cine ma\, Prestige TV\, and an Industry Masterclass. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/05/27/cinema-on-sundays-an-eve ning-with-peter-niehoff END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-560@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260602T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260602T193000 SUMMARY:Tore All to Pieces: An Evening with Willie Carver Jr. DESCRIPTION:Nestled in the mountains\, in an out-of-the-way part of rural A merica\, the fictional town of Mosely is home to ordinary people: proud\, c ompassionate\, and complex. Women serving biscuits at the gas station count er\, kids listening to Loretta Lynn with their uncles\, teenage boys flirti ng with one another at prom\, and parents busy raising their children's bab ies. This community is woven together by family ties\, church congregations \, coal mines\, and fast-food chains. In Mosely\, the residents work hard t o find belonging\, love\, and identity.\nTore All to Pieces is a fragmented novel that delves into the lives of Appalachian characters with similar st ruggles\, backgrounds\, and experiences and examines how people are often l onely despite these connections. Each narrative\, presented in the form of a poem or short story\, bends and weaves like the roads of Appalachia. Each character's voice is richly portrayed in gripping and lyrical language\, u niting the stories in a quest for truth\, genuine understanding\, and respe ct.\nAt a time when the rights of queer individuals\, women\, and people of color are increasingly under threat\, this work powerfully reaffirms the h umanity and significance of marginalized people. Tore All to Pieces undersc ores their enduring presence and rightful belonging.\n6 pm reception/6:30 p m program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Tore All to Pieces will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Willie Carver Jr.\nWillie Carver Jr. is a youth advocat e\, Kentucky Teacher of the Year\, and the author of Gay Poems for Red Stat es\, a recipient of awards from Stonewall\, American Library Association\, World Pride\, Read Appalachia\, Whippoorwill\, and Book Riot. His fragmente d novel\, Tore All to Pieces\, was published in March 2026 by the Universit y Press of Kentucky.\nWillie’s writing has been published in textbooks\, anthologies\, and journals\, including Testament\, Discarded\, Rural and Ou trooted\, Appalachian Journal\, Southern Humanities\, Louisville Review\, A nother Chicago\, Harbor\, Smoky Blue Literary\, Miracle Monocle\, Good Rive r Review\, Salvation South\, and Gay & Lesbian Review.\nWillie believes eve ryone deserves to feel that they matter. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/06/02/tore-all-to-pieces-an-ev ening-with-willie-carver-jr END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-589@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260603T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260603T193000 SUMMARY:American Men: An Evening with Jordan Ritter Conn DESCRIPTION:In partnership with The Dayton Literary Peace Prize\nA deeply i ntimate portrait of the lives of four men that examines—in profound and c omprehensive ways—what it means to be a man in America.\nMen wield outsiz ed power across all major institutions. But they are falling behind across all measures of well-being and success. They include loving husbands and ab sent fathers\, corporate strivers and displaced workers\, the objects and i nstruments of incredible violence. They are half the population. And yet wh en mentioned as a bloc\, it’s often to ask the question: What’s wrong w ith them? American Men is a book that burrows deep into the lives of four men\, exploring how each of them construct their relationship to masculinit y\, and how they navigate that relationship over time. They include Ryan\, an amateur MMA fighter from the Akwesasne Mohawk territory\, struggling to come to terms with both his sexuality as a closeted gay man and his draw to ward bar room violence\; Gideon\, an itinerant\, tall and handsome West Poi nt graduate and former baseball star who unravels when he encounters challe nges to his status as the white masculine ideal\; Joseph\, a Seattle law st udent whose marriage teeters on the brink of turmoil as he tries on his own to contend with the effects of childhood sexual trauma\; and Nate\, a youn g Ohio man still living at home and trying to establish security for himsel f in a rural pocket of a red state\, where he’s under threat as someone w ho is Black\, trans\, and poor. Written with searing intimacy after five ye ars of reporting\, American Men interweaves their stories into a mosaic tha t explores identity\, heritage\, and the pressures and performance of moder n American masculinity.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of American Men will be available fo r sale & signing.\nAbout Jordan Riter Conn\nJordan Ritter Conn is the autho r of The Road From Raqqa: A Story of Brotherhood\, Borders\, and Belonging\ , runner-up for the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He is a Senior Staff Writer for The Ringer and the host of the narrative podcasts What If: The L en Bias Story and Sonic Boom\, named by The Atlantic as one of the best pod casts of 2019. He lives in Nashville\, Tennessee\, with his family. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/06/03/american-men-an-evening- with-jordan-ritter-conn END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-600@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260604T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260604T200000 SUMMARY:LIBRARY FALCONS! DESCRIPTION:Falcons can’t read\, but they are the fastest animal on earth . And there is a pair that have nested on the 11th Story ledge of the Merca ntile Library. Join us for a conversation with raptor experts and enthusias ts all while viewing the Library’s resident peregrine falcon family.\nFre e & open to the public. Reservations requested\nPanelists:Jeff Hays\, Biolo gist\, Raptor\, IncDavid Orban\, VP Animal Programs\, Cincinnati ZooCedric Rose\, Collector\, The Mercantile Library Moderator: John Faherty\, Warner Huguenin Executive Director\, The Mercantile Library LOCATION:414 Walnut St.\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/06/04/library-falcons END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-586@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260610T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260610T193000 SUMMARY:Bloodroom: An Evening with Kay E. Bancroft DESCRIPTION:Bloodroom is a howling\, scorching debut collection of deftly f ormatted poetry-circling\, and delicately probing\, themes of familial debt \, legacy\, obligation\, and the matriline. Through an index of past wounds and inherited scars\, the speaker bleeds their histories together with the slow erosion of nostalgia. These poems offer an incisive and scalding inte rrogation of gender\, yet are often unbearably tender-a swirling emulsion o f grief and anger poured into an intricately technical and beautifully chal lenging mold. Each piece draws out a tragic\, cyclical song of love and los s\, resentment and admiration\, as though drawing poison from a wound. Banc roft's writing is meditative\, cleansing\, and compulsively readable: recou nting a feminine childhood transformed into something monstrous until seen through a new lens.\nBloodroom is a plea to identity\, to the process of se arching for purpose and of seeking certainty in a broken world.\n6 pm recep tion/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCop ies of Bloodroom will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Downbound Books.\nAbout Kay E. Bancroft\nKay E. Bancroft is a writer\, educator\, an d artist from Cincinnati\, OH. They hold an MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry from Randolph College\, and a BA in Rhetoric and Professional Writing from the University of Cincinnati. Their writing has appeared in Poet Lore\, Ple iades Journal\, RHINO Poetry\, Passengers Journal\, The Rumpus\, & more. Ex plore more of their work at kayebancroftpoet.com\nAbout Taylor Byas\nDr. Ta ylor Byas\, Ph.D. is a Black Chicago native currently living in Cincinnati\ , Ohio\, where she is a Features Editor for The Rumpus\, an Editorial Advis or for Jackleg Press\, a member of the Beloit Poetry Journal Editorial Boar d\, and a Poetry Editor-at-Large for Texas Review Press. Her debut full-len gth\, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times from Soft Skull Press\, won the 2 023 Maya Angelou Book Award\, the 2023 Chicago Review of Books Award in Poe try\, and the 2024 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry. Her second full-length\, R esting Bitch Face (2025)\, was a September 2025 pick for Roxane Gay’s Aud acious Book Club. She is also a coeditor of The Southern Poetry Anthology\, Vol X: Alabama\, from Texas Review Press\, and Poemhood: Our Black Revival \, a YA anthology from HarperCollins. She is represented by Noah Grey Rosen zweig at Triangle House Literary.\nAbout Eliza GuerraEliza Guerra is the au thor of the chapbook Feral Ecology (Bottlecap Press). Her first full-length poetry book\, Holograms in the Field\, won the inaugural Gasher Book Award . LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/06/10/bloodroom-an-evening-wit h-kay-e-bancroft END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-582@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260620T123000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260620T150000 SUMMARY:Chapter 4\, In Another Lifetime: An Artist Talk with Gee Horton DESCRIPTION:Please join Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) on Saturday\, June 2 0 for an Artist Talk with Gee Horton\, hosted by The Mercantile Library.\nA s a way to open up and discuss his solo exhibition\, Chapter 4\, In Another Lifetime\, on view at CAC between April 24 and August 30\, 2026\, Horton w ill have an informal conversation with CAC Adjunct Curator\, Maria Seda-Ree der at The Mercantile Library. Afterwards\, CAC’s gallery featuring Horto n’s exhibition will be open to attendees\, at no cost.\nDoors to The Merc antile Library open at 12:30 PM\nArtist talk at The Mercantile\, 1 - 3 PM\n CAC will be open until 5 PM that day and free for visitors after 3 PM\n\nIm age Credits:\nGee Horton\, Prince Amadou\, 2026\, Charcoal and graphite pen cil on paper\, 60 x 48 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.\nGee Horton\, Prince Mamadou\, 2026\, Charcoal and graphite pencil on paper\, 60 x 48 inc hes. Image courtesy of the artist. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/06/20/chapter-4-in-another-lif etime-an-artist-talk-with-gee-horton END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-588@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260707T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260707T193000 SUMMARY:Sounds Like Trouble to Me: An Evening with Jean Trounstine DESCRIPTION:Author Jean Trounstine who hails from Cincinnati will discuss h er 8th book and first novel\, Sounds Like Trouble to Me. \nBased on two tru e stories\, Trounstine's novel sheds light on what happens when a correctio ns officer kills her abusive husband and suddenly finds herself on the othe r side of the law. Not only is she shocked with the systematic abuse agains t fellow female prisoners\, but confronted with the complicated history of her own abuse. The officer-turned-prisoner must struggle with her fragile m emory to uncover what actually happened before she goes to trial. The incar cerated women she meets change her\, and in the end\, she spurs on a MeToo movement behind bars.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the pu blic. Registration required.\nCopies of Sounds Like Trouble to Me will be a vailable for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\nAbout Jean Trounstine\nJean Trounstine is the author of eight books\, a prison activi st\, and professor who directed the first Shakespeare play in prison world- wide and wrote about that work in Shakespeare Behind Bars\, the Power of Dr ama in a Women's Prison. While directing eight plays with prisoners\, she c o-founded the women's branch of Changing Lives Through Literature for those on probation. In 2018\, she received a Gramsci award in Italy for 30+ year s of justice work with literature and theatre. Sounds Like Trouble to Me is her debut novel. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/07/07/sounds-like-trouble-to-m e-an-evening-with-jean-trounstine END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-541@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260716T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260716T193000 SUMMARY:The Innovation Lecture: Mac Barnett DESCRIPTION:SOLD OUT - Please email michael@mercantilelibrary.com to be add ed to the waitlist.\nNew York Times Bestseller Mac Barnett delivers the 202 6 Innovation Lecture.\nA book for adults about books for children\, a rally ing cry for art and imagination\, and a celebration of the power of storyte lling in all our lives. Make Believe is bestselling children’s author M ac Barnett’s incisive\, intimate\, and timely invitation to approach chil dren’s literature not only as an art form worthy of deep study and critic ism\, but as a portal into the lives of the children. And at a time when we are faced with a national literacy crisis\, he champions the profound joys of literature and the importance of reading for pleasure. What if childre n are a great audience for art? What if they are in fact better equipped to engage deeply with stories than adults? What if humans’ ability to appre ciate art is\, if not innate\, awakened early in childhood? Well\, then we ’d better do our best to make some good kids’ books. Written with humo r and academic rigor\, Make Believe reads like a letter from your smartest and funniest friend.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free for Members\, $25 for Non-Members. Registration required.\nCopies of Mac’s books will be a vailable for sale & signing.\n\nMac Barnett is the ninth U.S. National Amba ssador for Young People’s Literature\, appointed by the Library of Congre ss and Every Child a Reader. He’s a New York Times-bestselling author of stories for children and the writer\, with Jon Klassen\, of Looking at Pict ure Books\, a newsletter for adults about how picture books work. Barnett s work has been translated into more than 30 languages and sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. His books have won many prizes\, including two Caldecott Honors\, three New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illust rated Awards\, three E.B. White Read Aloud Awards\, the Boston Globe-Horn B ook Award\, Germany’s Jugendliteraturpreis\, China’s Chen Bochui Intern ational Children’s Literature Award\, The Netherlands’ Silver Griffel\, and Italy’s Premio Orbil. He lives in Oakland\, California. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/07/16/the-innovation-lecture-m ac-barnett END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-615@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260805T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260805T193000 SUMMARY:Winning the Earthquake: An Evening with Lorissa Rinehart DESCRIPTION:In partnership with The Jeannette Rankin Foundation\, The Woman 's City Club\, and The Women’s Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation\ nThe first major biography of the groundbreaking suffragist\, activist\, an d first American woman to hold federal office.\n“Few members of Congress have ever stood more alone while being true to a higher honor and loyalty. —President John F. Kennedy on Jeannette Rankin Born on a Montana ranc h in 1880\, Jeannette Rankin knew how to ride a horse\, make a fire\, and r ead the sky for weather. But most of all\, she knew how to talk to people a nd convince them of her vision for America. It was this rare skill that led her\, in 1916\, to become the first woman ever elected to the House of Rep resentatives. As her first act\, Rankin introduced the legislation that wo uld become the 19th Amendment. Throughout her two terms in 1916 and 1940\, she continued to introduce and pass legislation benefitting unions\, protec ting workers\, and increasing aid for children in poverty. In 1941\, she st ood tall as the sole anti-war voice in Congress during WWII\, stating that you can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. A suffragist\, f eminist\, pacifist\, and workers' rights advocate\, Rankin remained ever tr ue to her beliefs—no matter the price she had to pay personally. Yet\, de spite the momentous steps she made for women in politics\, overcoming the b oys club of career politicians who never wanted to see a woman in Congress\ , Jeannette Rankin’s story has been largely forgotten. In Winning the Ear thquake\, Lorissa Rinehart deftly uncovers the compelling history behind th is singular American hero.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to t he public. Registration required.\nCopies of Winning the Earthquake will be available for sale & signing.\nAbout Lorissa Rinehart\nCultural critic and historian LORISSA RINEHART writes about art\, war\, politics\, and the pla ces where these discourses intersect. Her writing has recently appeared in Hyperallergic\, Perfect Strangers\, and Narratively\, among other publicati ons. She holds an MA from NYU in Experimental Humanities and a BA in Litera ture from UC Santa Cruz. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/08/05/winning-the-earthquake-a n-evening-with-lorissa-rinehart END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-614@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260908T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260908T193000 SUMMARY:Murmuration Archives: An Evening with Felicia Zamora DESCRIPTION:In her bold new collection\, Murmuration Archives\, Felicia Zam ora traverses overlapping orbits of an ancient Mesoamerican codex\, lineage \, and her stage two breast cancer treatment. “Desire brought me here\, the voice confesses while studying the Codex Yoalli Ehēcatl\, one of the only pre-Columbian texts to survive the Spanish colonization of Mexico. Th rough interactions with the Codex\, Zamora’s “undulations” emerge— preverbal\, more-than-verbal\, urges and responses to the document\, while also undergoing surgery\, chemotherapy\, and radiation. Spanning Chichén I tzá to the Vatican Apostolic Library\, to the Popol Vuh\, to the exam room \, to the Tōnalpōhualli\, to the infusion center\, to Xibalbá\, these po ems attune to the ancestral\, ontological\, anatomical\, and environmental gaps left in the wake of violence\, to create imaginative bridges of homeco ming\, belonging\, and futurity that wormhole centuries together in a prese nt pulse. Zamora’s poetry reminds us that the body is the first archive\, as she melds the rawness of cancer with the empowerment of finding the sel f in the voices of the ancestors. Docupoems reveal the body as a site of ch anneling\, site of liberation\, and site of occupancy where ruins\, joy\, l ineage\, illegibility\, grief\, and disease live restlessly intertwined. Reminders how the body sings despite.” Murmuration Archives is a love po em to descendants of ancient Mesoamerica and cancer survivors—illuminatin g the primordial collective inside each of us.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm prog ram Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Murmuratio n Archives will be available for sale & signing.\nAbout Felicia Zamora\nFel icia Zamora is the author of eight books of poetry including Murmuration Ar chives (Akrilica Series\, Noemi Press 2026)\, Interstitial Archaeology (Wis consin Poetry Series 2025)\, I Always Carry My Bones (2021) winner of the I owa Poetry Prize and the Ohioana Book Award in poetry\, and Body of Render (2020) winner of the Benjamin Saltman Award. She’s won the Andrés Montoy a Poetry Prize\, Loraine Williams Poetry Prize\, C.P. Cavafy Prize\, Tomaž Šalamun Prize\, Wabash Prize\, and two Ohio Arts Council Individual Excel lence Awards as well as received fellowships and residencies from CantoMund o\, Ragdale Foundation\, Tin House\, and Yaddo. Her writing appears in Acad emy of American Poets Poem-A-Day\, Alaska Quarterly Review\, The American P oetry Review\, Best American Poetry 2022\, Boston Review\,Brevity\, Ecotone \, The Georgia Review\, Gulf Coast\, The Iowa Review\, The Kenyon Review\, Lit Hub\, The Missouri Review\, Orion\, Ploughshares\, Poetry Magazine\, Th e Nation\, Virginia Quarterly Review\, and others. She is a poetry editor f or Colorado Review\, a contributing editor for West Branch\, and an associa te professor of poetry at the University of Cincinnati where she was a 2025 -2026 Taft Research Center Fellow. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/09/08/murmuration-archives-an- evening-with-felicia-zamora END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-616@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260914T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260914T193000 SUMMARY:All That Teethes Within: An Evening with Kari Gunter-Seymour DESCRIPTION:In All That Teethes Within\, poet Kari Gunter-Seymour translate s the poignant complexity of loss into words. This exploration of heartache is layered with the poet's Appalachian identity and overflows with sadness and anger toward the forces that cause societal and environmental damage i n the region. The poems mourn a loved one's sudden passing\, opportunity mi ssed due to poverty or gender inequality\, and the piece of one's identity that vanishes or fades with age. Gunter-Seymour's interrogation of grief an d destruction quietly weaves in elements of nature—"Breezes whistle like wisps of memory / inside clusters of hemlock"—to counter profound pain. S mall joys found in friendship\, the land\, grandchildren\, and wildlife rou nd out this collection. All That Teethes Within reckons with the incomprehe nsible reality of a sibling's suicide\, serving as a guide for survival and a call to speak the truth of our anguish and our rapture.\n6 pm reception/ 6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies o f All That Teethes Within will be available for sale & signing.\nAbout Kari Gunter-Seymour\nKari Gunter-Seymour is the immediate past Poet Laureate of Ohio\, a ninth generation Appalachian and author of four award-winning poe try collections\, including All That Teethes Within (University Press of Ke ntucky 2026) and Dirt Songs (EastOver Press\, 2024). She is the winner of t he 2025 IPPY Bronze Award\, NY Big Book Award\, Feathered Quill Award and N ational Federation of Press Women Award. She is the executive director of t he Women of Appalachia Project and editor of its anthology series\, Women S peak. Gunter-Seymour holds writing workshops for incarcerated adults and wo men in recovery\, is a retired instructor in the E.W. Scripps School of Jou rnalism at Ohio University and the founder\, curator\, and host of “Spoke n & Heard”\; a seasonal performance series featuring poets\, writers\, an d musicians from across the country. She is the editor of I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing: Ohio’s Appalachian Voices\, funded through the Academy of American Poets and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She was selected to serve as a 2022 Dodge Poetry Festival Poet and is a Pillars of Prosperity F ellow for the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio. Her work has been featured i n World Literature Today\, American Book Review\, Poem-a-Day\, The New York Times\, and Katie Curic’s Wake Up Call. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/09/14/all-that-teethes-within- an-evening-with-kari-gunter-seymour END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-540@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260917T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260917T073000 SUMMARY:The Memoir Lecture - Roxane Gay DESCRIPTION:TICKETS GO ON SALE 8/6/26\nNew York Times Bestseller Roxane Gay delivers the 2026 Memoir Lecture.\nRoxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014\, Best American Short Stories 2012\, Best Sex Writing 2012\, A Public Space\, McSweeney’s\, Tin House\, Oxford America n\, American Short Fiction\, Virginia Quarterly Review\, and many others. S he is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. She is the auth or of the books Ayiti\, An Untamed State\, The New York Times-bestselling B ad Feminist\, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and The New York T imes-bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Mar vel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television an d film projects. She also has a newsletter\, The Audacity\, and once had a podcast\, The Roxane Gay Agenda.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free for Members\, $25 for Non-Members. Registration required.\nCopies of Roxane’ s books will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincin nati. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/09/17/the-memoir-lecture--roxa ne-gay END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-622@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260922T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260922T193000 SUMMARY:Damned If She Does: An Evening with Sarah Stankorb DESCRIPTION:In this landmark account of American women leaving the church\, award-winning journalist Sarah Stankorb\, author of Disobedient Women\, as ks why they leave--and where they land.\nOrdinarily\, women are more religi ous than men. But these are no ordinary times. In America\, where Christian ity is still the most common religion\, women are vacating churches. In the past decade\, 16 million women have left the church. Younger women are dis affiliating from religion faster than men. For some women\, leaving is like a dramatic divorce\; for others\, as one woman tells Stankorb\, it's more like women and the church "stopped calling each other."\nExploring trends f rom the 1980s to today\, Damned If She Does is an intimate account of women whose stories got missed during the Christian Right's headline-grabbing ri se to power. Their exodus is marked by harm\, disillusionment\, and drift: from pastors' wives and a national Christian TV show host\, to girls whose horrific abuse gives another face to the Catholic sex abuse crisis. Some co uldn't stand by a church that cast out their queer friends. Others were mal igned for who they loved. Churches with strong opinions on sexual purity an d abortion stood beside men with histories of assault. With horror\, women who loved the church watched the rise of Christian nationalism and saw thei r faith bastardized.\nFinally\, they've had enough. Some are atheists. Othe rs are forging new spiritual avenues through astrology or energy work or co nnection to their ancestors. Some have a Christian faith they no longer ent rust to an institution.\nAttuned to emotional subtlety\, women's agency\, a nd religious longing\, Stankorb asks what happens when a woman realizes tha t she's damned both if she stays and if she leaves. This consequential work of narrative nonfiction is a poignant reminder that women deserve better\, and a tale of what happens when they don't get it.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Damne d If She Does will be available for sale & signing.\nAbout Sarah Stankorb\n Sarah Stankorb is the author of Disobedient Women\, a USA Today national be stseller\, and her reporting has appeared in The Washington Post\, The New York Times\, Vogue\, Elle\, Marie Claire\, Slate\, and VICE\, among others. She covers the intersection of religion\, politics\, and gender. Stankorb studied religion and philosophy at Westminster College and ethics and South Asian religious history at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Her work has received awards from the American Academy of Religion and the Soci ety of Professional Journalists. She lives in Wyoming\, Ohio. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/09/22/damned-if-she-does-an-ev ening-with-sarah-stankorb END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-619@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261005T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261005T193000 SUMMARY:Korean Messiah: An Evening with Jonathan Cheng DESCRIPTION:A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2026 SO FAR • A landmark history of North Korea\, told through the rise of the Kim dynasty and its surprising ties to American Christianity—a spectacular\, penetrating account of the Hermit Kingdom “How do personality cults take hold? What happens when le aders mix politics and faith to demand immense sacrifices? Jonathan Cheng s magnificent tale poses questions about the world far beyond North Korea. This utterly eye-opening history deciphers a defining pattern of global po litics in the 21st century.” —Evan Osnos\, National Book Award-winning author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune\, Truth\, and Faith in the New C hina For nearly eight decades\, North Korea has marched defiantly to its o wn beat\, shaking off its Soviet and Chinese sponsors to emerge as the worl d’s most enigmatic nation—a nuclear-armed state ruled by a dictatorial dynasty. Underpinning the state is a personality cult more soaked in religi osity than those constructed by Stalin or Mao—one that traces its roots b ack to the Christian fervor of post–Civil War America. Jonathan Cheng\, the Wall Street Journal’s China bureau chief and former Korea bureau chie f\, takes us deep inside Pyongyang\, a city once so dominated by Christiani ty that it was known as the “Jerusalem of the East.” Cheng introduces u s to Samuel Moffett\, a Presbyterian missionary from Madison\, Indiana\, wh o would venture into Pyongyang at the end of the nineteenth century and bui ld a remarkable following—one that would include the Kim family that toda y presides over one of the world’s harshest persecutors of the Christian faith. At the center of this story is North Korea’s founder\, Kim Il Sun g\, son of two fervent Christians and progenitor of an ideology known as Ki milsungism\, an exercise in idolatry that has elevated him\, and his succes sor son and grandson\, to Christlike status\, from the humble manger where he was born to the subway seat on which the venerated leader once placed hi s posterior\, cordoned off as if it were a religious relic. Drawing on let ters\, diaries\, and never-before-unearthed archival material that temper a nd often contradict the glorious historical record promoted by Kim Il Sung s legions of hagiographers\, Korean Messiah tells the true story of a cou ntry shrouded in fictions.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to t he public. Registration required.\nCopies of Korean Messiah will be availab le for sale & signing.\nAbout Jonathan Cheng\nJonthan Cheng is the China bu reau chief for The Wall Street Journal\, and was previously the Korea burea u chief\, running coverage of the Korean peninsula\, including politics and society in both North and South Korea. A native of Toronto\, he lives in B eijing. He has traveled to North Korea twice. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/10/05/korean-messiah-an-evenin g-with-jonathan-cheng END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-532@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261007T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261007T193000 SUMMARY:The Words & Music Lecture: Carrie Brownstein DESCRIPTION:THIS LECTURE IS SOLD OUT - Please email michael@mercantilelibra ry.com to be added to the waitlist.\nCarrie Brownstein delivers the 2026 Wo rds & Music Lecture.\nFrom the guitarist of the pioneering band Sleater-Kin ney\, the book Kim Gordon says "everyone has been waiting for" and a New Yo rk Times Notable Book -- a candid\, funny\, and deeply personal look at mak ing a life--and finding yourself--in music. Before Carrie Brownstein becam e a music icon\, she was a young girl growing up in the Pacific Northwest j ust as it was becoming the setting for one the most important movements in rock history. Seeking a sense of home and identity\, she would discover bot h while moving from spectator to creator in experiencing the power and myst ery of a live performance. With Sleater-Kinney\, Brownstein and her bandmat es rose to prominence in the burgeoning underground feminist punk-rock move ment that would define music and pop culture in the 1990s. They would be ci ted as “America’s best rock band” by legendary music critic Greil Mar cus for their defiant\, exuberant brand of punk that resisted labels and li mitations\, and redefined notions of gender in rock. Hunger Makes Me A Mod ern Girl is an intimate and revealing narrative of her escape from a turbul ent family life into a world where music was the means toward self-inventio n\, community\, and rescue. Along the way\, Brownstein chronicles the excit ement and contradictions within the era’s flourishing and fiercely indepe ndent music subculture\, including experiences that sowed the seeds for the observational satire of the popular television series Portlandia years lat er. With deft\, lucid prose Brownstein proves herself as formidable on the page as on the stage. Accessibly raw\, honest and heartfelt\, this book ca ptures the experience of being a young woman\, a born performer and an outs ider\, and ultimately finding one’s true calling through hard work\, cour age and the intoxicating power of rock and roll.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program $25 for Members\, $50 for Non-Members. Registration required.\nCopi es of Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl will be available for sale & signing co urtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\n\nCarrie Brownstein is a musician\, writ er and actor who first became widely known as the guitarist and vocalist of the band Sleater-Kinney and later as a creator\, writer and co-star of the Emmy-nominated\, Peabody Award winning television show Portlandia. Brownst ein's writing has appeared in The New York Times\, The Believer\, Slate\, a nd numerous anthologies on music and culture. She lives in Portland\, Orego n and Los Angeles. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/10/07/the-words-music-lecture- carrie-brownstein END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-618@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261013T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261013T193000 SUMMARY:King of Kings: An Evening with Scott Anderson DESCRIPTION:NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE • Fr om the author of the landmark bestseller Lawrence in Arabia comes a stunnin gly revelatory narrative history of the Iranian Revolution\, one of the mos t momentous events in modern times. This groundbreaking work exposes the ja w-dropping stupidity of the American government and traces the rise of reli gious nationalism\, offering essential insights into today's global unrest. On New Year’s Eve 1977\, President Jimmy Carter toasted Shah Mohammad R eza Pahlavi\, extolling Iran as “an island of stability” due to “your leadership and to the respect and the admiration and love which your peopl e give to you.” The shah\, known as the King of Kings\, seemed invulnerab le\, and he was invaluable to the United States as an ally in the Cold War. Twelve and a half months later\, the shah fled Iran into exile\, forced fr om the throne by a volcanic religious revolution led by a fiery cleric name d Ayatollah Khomeini. How could the United States have been so blind? Base d on voluminous research and dozens of interviews\, Scott Anderson weaves t he spellbinding story of a dictator oblivious to the disdain of his subject s and a super­power blundering into disaster. The Iranian Revolution\, And erson convincingly argues\, was as world-shattering an event as the French and Russian Revolutions. Around the globe\, including in the United States\ , the hatred of economically marginalized\, religiously fervent masses for a wealthy secular elite has led to violence and upheaval—and Iran was the tem­plate. King of Kings is a bravura work of history\, and a warning.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration requi red.\nCopies of King of Kings will be available for sale & signing.\nAbout Scott Anderson\nScott Anderson is the author of two novels and five works o f nonfiction\, including Lawrence of Arabia\, an international bestseller w hich was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New Yo rk Times Notable Book. He is a contributing writer for The New York Times M agazine. The Magazine devoted an entire issue in August 2016 to his reporta ge across the Middle East\, which was published in book form as Fractured L ands: How the Arab World Came Apart. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/10/13/king-of-kings-an-evening -with-scott-anderson END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-526@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261015T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261015T193000 SUMMARY:The Science & Nature Lecture: Zoë Schlanger DESCRIPTION:TICKETS GO ON SALE 9/3/26\nNew York Times Bestseller Zoë Schla nger delivers the 2026 Science & Nature Lecture.\nThe New Yorker’s Best B ooks of 2024 • TIME’s 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024 • New York Mag azine’s 10 Best Books of the Year • Washington Post’s 50 Notable Work s of Nonfiction of 2024 • Smithsonian’s 10 Best Science Books of the Ye ar • A Best Book of the Year: Boston Globe\, Scientific American\, New Yo rk Public Library\, Christian Science Monitor\, Library Journal\, and Publi shers Weekly • An Amazon Best Nonfiction Book of the Year\nLonglisted for the National Book Critics Circle Nonfiction Prize • Finalist for the Cha utauqua Prize • Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History\n“A masterpiece of science writing.” –Robin Wall Kimmerer\, author of Braiding Sweetgrass \n“Mesmerizing\, world-expanding\, and achingly beautiful.” –Ed Yong\ , author of An Immense World\n“Rich\, vital\, and full of surprises. Read it!” –Elizabeth Kolbert\, author of Under a White Sky and The Sixth Ex tinction \nAward-winning Atlantic staff writer Zoë Schlanger delivers a gr oundbreaking work of popular science that probes the hidden world of the pl ant kingdom\, “destabilizing not just how we see the green things of the world but also our place in the hierarchy of beings\, and maybe the notion of that hierarchy itself.” (The New Yorker)\n\nIt takes tremendous biolog ical creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a sing le spot\, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. In recent year s\, scientists have learned about their ability to communicate\, recognize their kin and behave socially\, hear sounds\, morph their bodies to blend i nto their surroundings\, store useful memories that inform their life cycle \, and trick animals into behaving to their benefit\, to name just a few re markable talents.\nThe Light Eaters is a deep immersion into the drama of g reen life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that chal lenges our very understanding of agency\, consciousness\, and intelligence. In looking closely\, we see that plants\, rather than imitate human intell igence\, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs\, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator\, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe\, digging into her own memories and in to the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying t hese amazing entities up close.\nWhat can we learn about life on Earth from the living things that thrive\, adapt\, consume\, and accommodate simultan eously? More important\, what do we owe these life forms once we come to un derstand their rich and varied abilities? Examining the latest epiphanies i n botanical research\, Schlanger spotlights the intellectual struggles amon g the researchers conceiving a wholly new view of their subject\, offering a glimpse of a field in turmoil as plant scientists debate the tenets of on going discoveries and how they influence our understanding of what a plant is.\nWe need plants to survive. But what do they need us for—if at all? A n eye-opening and informative look at the ecosystem we live in\, this book challenges us to rethink the role of plants—and our own place—in the na tural world.\n\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free to members/$25 nonmembe rs Registration required.\nCopies of The Light Eaters will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.\n\nZoë Schlanger is a staff writer at the Atlantic\, where she covers climate change. She previou sly covered the environment at Quartz and Newsweek. Her work has appeared i n The New York Times\, the New York Review of Books\, Time\, NPR\, and else where. Schlanger was the recipient of a 2017 National Association of Scienc e Writers reporting award. She lives in Brooklyn\, NY. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/10/15/the-science-nature-lectu re-zo-schlanger END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-584@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261020T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261020T193000 SUMMARY:Understory—A Women’s History of Appalachia: An Evening with Pau letta Hansel DESCRIPTION:For Pauletta Hansel\, who grew up in southeastern Kentucky\, th e history of her ancestors traces back to her tenth great-grandmother\, a " tobacco bride" shipped from England to Jamestown\, Virginia\, in exchange f or 150 pounds of tobacco leaves. After the Revolutionary War\, the family m igrated from the Chesapeake area to the mountains of North Carolina and\, e ventually\, into the Appalachian coalfields. As Hansel explored archives an d artifacts\, she found this ancestry was incomplete\, memorialized solely through the lives of men.\nWith a captivating and contemplative voice\, Han sel's Understory weaves history\, genealogy\, and poetry to chronicle the u ntold story of her foremothers. Hansel does not shy away from hard truths\, such as her family's displacement of Indigenous people\, enslavement of th ose of African descent\, and support of the Confederacy. Through research\, her travels across the US\, and her own family stories and memories\, she makes visible those whose lives have been hidden between the lines of docum ents left behind.\nIn revealing generations of women whose experiences have only been glimpsed within others' narratives\, Understory is not simply on e family's story—it is a microcosm of Appalachian\, American\, and women' s histories. \n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Re gistration required.\nCopies of Understory will be available for sale & sig ning courtesy of Roebling Point Books.\nAbout Pauletta Hansel\nPauletta Han sel is a poet\, memoirist\, and teacher. Awards for her writing include the Poetry Society of Virginia’s North American Book Award\, the Weatherfor d Award for Appalachian Poetry\, and Judy Gaines Young Book Award. She is t he author of ten previous books\; individual pieces have been featured in C incinnati Review\, Oxford American\, Rattle\, Cutleaf\, Appalachian Journal \, Southern Humanities Review\, The Southern Appalachian Poetry Anthology\, Verse Daily\, and Poetry Daily\, among others. Born and raised in southeas tern Kentucky\, Pauletta was Cincinnati’s first Poet Laureate and has bee n Writer in Residence at Thomas More University\, WordPlay Cincy\, and the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/10/20/understorya-womens-histo ry-of-appalachia-an-evening-with-pauletta-hansel END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-587@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261113T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261113T193000 SUMMARY:William Howard Taft: An Evening with Walter Stahr DESCRIPTION:William Howard Taft was perhaps not a great president\, althoug h his limited view of the president’s role looks better today than it did at the time. But Taft’s true claim to greatness lies in his work before and after the White House: five decades of selfless public service culminat ing as one of the most transformational chief justices in American history. Taft was the only president to have spent much of his career as a judge\, first in the state court system in Ohio\, then as a federal judge on the S ixth Circuit. He dreamed of serving on the United States Supreme Court and yet\, more than once\, he declined a seat in order to continue his work as America’s first civilian governor in the Philippines. When he returned to Washington\, he took a place in Roosevelt’s cabinet\, effectively servin g as deputy president before winning the presidency in his own right in 190 8. Tariffs. Immigration. Labor unrest. Colonial possessions. Free trade wi th Canada. Civil war in Mexico. The national deficit. Government efficiency . These were just some of the issues Taft faced in the White House. After h is disastrous defeat in the 1912 election\, due in part to Roosevelt’s de cision to challenge him for the Republican nomination\, Taft returned to pr ivate life\, although often involved in public causes\, such as the fight f or the League of Nations. But all this was only a prelude to a second act a s the most important chief justice since John Marshall\, changing the very way the Court worked by securing it the power to select those cases it wish ed to decide. A carefully researched and gracefully written biography\, di splaying a deep understanding of both political history and human nature\, William Howard Taft thoughtfully reassesses what makes a great American pub lic servant worth remembering.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm program Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of William Howard Taft: A Gre at American Life will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Be th Cincinnati.\nAbout Walter Stahr\nWalter Stahr is the New York Times best selling author of Seward: Lincoln’s Indispensable Man\, Stanton: Lincoln s War Secretary\, and John Jay: Founding Father. A two-time winner of the Seward Award for Excellence in Civil War Biography\, Stahr practiced law i n Washington and Asia for more than two decades. He is an honors graduate o f Stanford University and Harvard Law School. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/11/13/william-howard-taft-an-e vening-with-walter-stahr END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event-634@mercantilelibrary.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261119T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261119T193000 SUMMARY:Blue Selvage: An Evening with Preeti Parikh with Yalie Saweda Kamar a DESCRIPTION:Blue Selvage reminds us that a revolutionary message often requ ires new forms of discourse. \nThe poems in Blue Selvage weave lyric\, essa y\, documentary fragments\, and historical reckoning into an exploration of skin\, cloth\, color\, and form as living archives—where the gendered\, racialized\, and colonial histories inscribed on the body are continually e xposed\, resisted\, and re-stitched through memory\, touch\, and language i tself. Preeti Parikh’s debut poetry collection is a mapping of boundarie s\, a (re)framing of fractured interiority\, a text(ile) unfurling across s hifting homelands. In this deeply embodied\, formally daring meditation\, t he corpus is both archive and threshold\, a site where “what’s felt bec omes the body\, what’s draped becomes form.” Here\, passion for indigo\ , a medical-science informed perspective\, fascination with the materiality of cloth and skin\, and a journeying towards reclamation interlace with fe minist inquiries and cultural examination to conceptualize the poems’ mul tivalent inhabitances. Expansive in its rhetorical modes and landscapes\, Blue Selvage is unified by a remarkable singularity of voice and vision th rough which Parikh skillfully invokes form as metaphor\, performance\, dram atization\, and content. Throughout the book\, recurrent vocabularies and s ilences—integument\, selvage\, gaze—operate as warp and weft\, binding personal experience to collective striving\, devotion\, and survival. Meanw hile\, on the page\, multilingual textures and typographic openness resist closure\, offering apertures for looking within and without. What emerges i s a capacious field of attention\, where intimacy and history press against one another\, and where writing itself becomes an act of unstitching and r e-making—an ethical\, sensuous practice of staying with what the body rem embers and what culture would prefer to erase.\n6 pm reception/6:30 pm prog ram Free & open to the public. Registration required.\nCopies of Blue Selva ge will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati. \nAbout Preeti Parikh\nPreeti Parikh is a poet and essayist with a past edu cational background in medicine and a recent MFA from The Rainier Writing W orkshop. A Kundiman Fellow and National Poetry Series finalist\, she is the recipient of a 2023 Sustainable Arts Foundation grant award and a 2024 Ohi o Arts Council Individual Excellence award.\nPreeti’s poems appear in Bel oit Poetry Journal\, The Cincinnati Review\, Hayden’s Ferry Review\, The Margins\, Zócalo Public Square\, and other literary journals. Her writing is anthologized in Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on Being in the Wor ld\, the Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English (2021 and 2022 editions)\, an d The Last Milkweed. Preeti has been a Millay Arts Artist-in-Residence and an AWP Writer to Writer Program mentee and has received staff scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Her work has been performed in a poetry-ballet collaboration and exhibited at the 2025 Creative Asian Socie ty Art Exhibition. Born and raised in India\, she now lives with her family in Ohio.\nPreeti Parikh’s collection of poems\, BLUE SELVAGE\, named by Debutiful as a Most Anticipated Debut Book and one of The Debut Poetry Coll ections You Need to Read in 2026\, will be out in November from Tupelo Pres s. LOCATION:414 Walnut Street\, #1100\, Cincinnati\, OH\, 45202 URL:https://www.mercantilelibrary.com/c/2026/11/19/blue-selvage-an-evening- with-preeti-parikh-with-yalie-saweda-kamara END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR