Many CBH Talks were recorded. To view, visit the Center for Brooklyn History Talks YouTube channel at bklynlib.org/CBH-Talks.
Past Events
New York City History Day Virtual Office Hour
Virtual drop-in office hour to talk to the New York City History Day Coordinator about your History Day project. Get one-on-one help with registration, brainstorming, research, and more! Open to all students and teachers. Zoom link will be sent on the day of the office hour to those who've…
CBH Talk | Photographer Jamel Shabazz on Prospect Park: A Brooklyn Oasis
Renowned photographer Jamel Shabazz returns to the borough that has shaped his life and art with his most recent book, Prospect Park: Photographs of a Brooklyn Oasis, 1980 to 2025. This expansive, meditative volume captures the heart and soul of Brooklyn through one of its most beloved communal…
CBH Talk | Democracy on Your Block: Inside Brooklyn’s Community Boards
Community boards are one of New York City’s most vital engines of grassroots democracy. From shaping land use and transportation decisions to advocating for city services, resources, and quality-of-life improvements, community boards offer a direct way for residents to influence the future of…
CBH Talk | The Cost of Gun Violence: Black Men, Trauma, and Community Repair
Across the United States, Black men bear a disproportionate share of the trauma created by gun violence—its physical toll, its psychological weight, and its generational consequences. Journalist and Pulitzer Prize–winner Trymaine Lee, in his powerful new book A Thousand Ways to Die, chronicles…
CBH Talk | Scouting Brooklyn: Inside the CBH Film Location Archive
Before digital files, databases, and location-scouting apps transformed the industry, New York’s production world ran on hard copies—real photographs, taped into real folders, stored in real boxes. In the 1980s and ’90s, this analog system became an improvised but indispensable collective…
CBH Talk | Page by Page: Jennifer Egan and Hernan Diaz in Conversation
Two of today’s most acclaimed novelists, Pulitzer Prize winners Jennifer Egan and Hernan Diaz, come together for a rare, in-depth conversation about the foundations of their craft, their work in archives, and how the historical record can both anchor and ignite narrative invention.
In this…
Freedom and Its Futures: A Community Conversation on the Meaning of Freedom Today
Join a small group discussion about freedom and responsibility, one in a series of round table conversations in connection with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.New Yorkers live amid a tangle of crises that test both imagination and resolve: trust has…
New York City History Day Virtual Office Hour
Virtual drop-in office hour to talk to the New York City History Day Coordinator about your History Day project. Get one-on-one help with registration, brainstorming, research, and more! Open to all students and teachers. Zoom link will be sent on the day of the office hour to those who've…
CBH Talk | The Long Road to Change: A Screening and Discussion about NYC and Safe Streets
Ben Wolf’s new documentary, Changing Lanes, follows the multi-year fight to redesign Brooklyn’s notoriously dangerous McGuinness Boulevard from a high-speed four-lane thoroughfare into a safer, calmer street with protected bike lanes. Filmed over the course of three years, the documentary traces…
CBH Talk | The Changing Face of Progressive Brooklyn
Brooklyn’s reputation as one of America’s most progressive boroughs reflects a long history of demographic shifts, social movements, labor organizing, and vibrant urban culture. With each new wave of residents, Brooklynites have carried forward a legacy of progressivism, adapting it to new…
CBH Family Program: Brooklyn Stories & Art with Author-Illustrator Eric Velasquez
Celebrate the magic of creativity with author-illustrator Eric Velasquez in a family program inspired by his beloved book, Grandma’s Records!We’ll begin with a special storytime reading, inviting children and parents to experience Eric’s vibrant world, where music and art bring generations…
CBH Talk | Capturing Brooklyn’s Gilded Age
The Gilded Age is often remembered for its mansions and millionaires — J. P. Morgan, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt. Our collective imagination, reinforced by popular portrayals like HBO’s The Gilded Age, lingers in those ornate ballrooms and formal portraits. But photographer George Bradford…
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