Past Events

Join GBH Music in welcoming the Ulysses Quartet as its first-ever quartet in residence with a free performance at the GBH Studio at the Boston Public Library.

The Ulysses Quartet's season-long partnership as quartet in residence furthers GBH Music's ongoing effort to connect with listeners of all backgrounds and ages. The partnership will span over fifty performances and events throughout the year, including with the Boston Public and Massachusetts schools.

Please note that this event was originally scheduled for March 13 at 12pm.

Registration is encouraged for this free event.

Photo credit: Lara St. John

This event is presented with support from CRB and the Ulysses Quartet.

The Ulysses Quartet’s residency at GBH is made possible by a generous contribution from the Mattina R. Proctor Foundation.

Ada Ferrer is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Cuba: An American History. The book chronicles more than five hundred years of Cuban history and its relations with the United States. She is also the author of Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868–1898, which won the Berkshire Book Prize for the best first book by a woman in any field of history, and Freedom’s Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution, which won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize from the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale University as well as the Frederick Katz, Wesley Logan, and James A. Rawley prizes from the American Historical Association. Her essay “My Brother’s Keeper,” published by The New Yorker, tells the story of her and her family’s relationship with the Cuban Revolution. In her lectures and keynote talks, Ferrer discusses Cuba’s past and its complex ties with the United States, giving audiences unexpected insights into the history of both countries and helping them to imagine a new relationship with Cuba.

Cosponsored by the Boston College History Department, Romance Languages and Literatures Department, the Heinz Bluhm Memorial Lecture Series, and the McMullen Museum of Art.

Russia will always matter, said Fiona Hill, former White House Russian expert, at the Harvard Kennedy School, only last month. This is due to its strategic location, it enormous land mass and its environmental impact, all of which make Russia impossible to ignore. The sudden death of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s opposition leader, coupled with Ukraine’s recent setbacks, America’s political turmoil and the coming presidential elections in Russia, have all conspired to boost Putin’s reckless confidence. Is he anticipating a new phase of global aggression, perhaps? And does his current political posturing signal the death knell for democracy?

Cambridge Forum considers what future prospects exist for Russia, post-Navalny, pre-election and what the global response should be in light of America’s ambivalence about the future of NATO. Can anything substantial be done to strengthen the democratic values of the Western alliance and counter the creeping worldwide shift toward autocratic regimes?

This week saw several thousand Russians brave the extreme cold and the real risk of arrest, to attend Navalny’s funeral in Moscow, giving mixed messages to the Kremlin. Was this gesture indicative of a deep political rift with Putin’s presidency or merely a last-ditch attempt to register dissent against all odds.

To aid our discussion we have two Russian experts, Neil MacFarlane , Professor Emeritus at Oxford University and Peter Pomerantsev is a Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and co-director of the Arena Initiative.

American Experience presents a virtual PAST FORWARD conversation exploring the relationship between women's demeanor, appearance, and fashion choices and their opportunities for advancement in workplaces built by and for men. This conversation is inspired in part by our new film Fly With Me.

Panelists will discuss the ways in which women are made to toe the line between authority and “femininity” in the ways they present themselves at work. They will also explore the historical origins of these pressures, and the different forms they take depending on the race and class of the women involved. The panel will look at the enduring impact social biases have on the opportunities available to working women, and will reflect on how female-led workplaces have challenged these norms, exploring the work that remains to be done going forward.



Panelists:

Allison Elias is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. Professor Elias teaches courses about communication and negotiation, and her research investigates historical and contemporary issues of gender and diversity in occupations and organizations. She has provided commentary regarding gender issues at work to media outlets such as NPR’s Marketplace, and her research on women in business schools has been featured in Quartz.com and Poets & Quants.

Ann Hood is the author of over a dozen novels, including the bestsellers The Knitting Circle, The Obituary Writer, and Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine. She has also written several memoirs, including the bestsellers Fly Girl, about her experiences as a TWA flight attendant in the 1970s and 80s, and Comfort: A Journey Through Grief, which was named one of the top ten books of 2008 by Entertainment Weekly. Her latest novel, The Stolen Child, will be released on May 7th.

The conversation will be moderated by Monica Muñoz Martinez. Professor Martinez is an award-winning author, educator, public historian, and active participant in developing solutions that address racial injustice. A national authority on the history of race, Martinez is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research specializes in histories of racial violence, policing on the US-Mexico border, Latinx history, women and gender studies, public humanities, digital humanities, and restorative justice.

This event will be livestreamed on our Facebook and YouTube pages.

Photo credit for event art: United Airlines

GBH News Morning Edition co-host Jeremy Siegel sits down with Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and several dozen other novels, for a late-morning edition coffee talk.

Come to the GBH studio at the Boston Public Library to hear Maguire talk and bring your questions for an audience Q&A.

Registration is encouraged for this free event.

Limited seating is available on a first come, first serve basis. If you require a seat, we encourage you to arrive before the start time of this event.

Location: The GBH Studio at the Boston Public Library is located at 700 Boylston St. at the corner of Exeter Street inside the Newsfeed Café.

Parking: Limited metered parking is available in the area. We recommend taking public transportation when possible. MBTA’s Copley stop on the Green Line and Back Bay stop on the Orange Line are located nearby. Visit http://mbta.com/ to plan your trip on public transportation.

Concessions: Food and drink is available for purchase at the Newsfeed Café. Outside food is not permitted.

Covid Safety: Please review the BPL’s Event COVID-19 Safety information here.

By RSVPing for this event, you agree to receive timely news and updates on events, films, and special offers from GBH.

Photo provided by Gregory Maguire

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Do you need any additional accommodations that we should be made aware of to participate in this event? If so, please contact us a minimum of one week in advanced of the event. We will do our best to accommodate your request. Reach us during regular business hours M-F, 9am-5pm at 617-300-3300 or via email: info@wgbh.org.


If you have questions or can no longer attend, please contact Audience and Member Services Department. Audience and Member Services can be reached during regular business hours M-F, 9am-5pm at phone: 617-300-3300 or via email: info@wgbh.org

GBH Music will introduce new listeners to opera in a video series produced in collaboration with Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) and New England Conservatory (NEC). Designed for newcomers and seasoned enthusiasts, “Getting into Opera” aims to ignite a passion for the genre by showcasing how powerful performances are shaped by vocal coaching and stage direction. The innovative multi-platform video series will be filmed in front of a live audience in GBH’s acoustically acclaimed Fraser Performance Studio.

The second episode features BLO Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artists and New England Conservatory students performing some of the most emotionally resonant arias ever written. Joshua Major, Chair of Opera Studies at NEC and a celebrated opera stage director, will demonstrate how movement and direction add new emotional depth to opera scenes.

“Getting into Opera” will be hosted by Anthony Rudel, General Manager of GBH Music and author of “Tales from the Opera,” “Classical Music Top 40,” and “Imagining Don Giovanni.” Bradley Vernatter, BLO’s Stanford Calderwood General Director & CEO, will share perspectives on producing operas as part of the series.

“Getting into Opera” will be available free of charge on YouTube and other platforms. The production is made possible by a generous donation from David and Janet McCue.







Event timeline:
7-8:30pm Performance in Fraser

8:30-9:30pm Dessert Reception in the Atrium




This event is FREE but every ticket RSVP requires an access code. The access code is provided in the communication that you received.

Event registration is required. Seating is general admission.

Image credit: GBH Creative

Raised with devotion for music, Gregory George Groover Jr is a twenty-seven year old tenor saxophonist and educator from Roxbury, Massachusetts. His love and pursuit of music directed him to the Boston Arts Academy where he graduated in 2011. Currently, Gregory serves as the co-chair of music at his alma mater, the Boston Arts Academy where he provides instruction in Jazz studies to the next generation of artists and scholars. In addition to teaching, Gregory continues to perform regularly with his working bands and is earnestly working towards the release of his second album: the Negro Spiritual Songbook Volume II - “The Message”.

Two journalist-professors discuss the history of women in American journalism from 1840 to the present; and the new book Undaunted, which showcases the exceptional careers of such impactful reporters as Margaret Fuller, Rachel Carson, Joan Didion, and Martha Gellhorn.

Join us in Women’s History Month to examine the lives of some of the best-remembered and long-forgotten woman journalists, standout reporters who covered the major news stories and every conflict at home and abroad since before the Civil War. In addition to chronicling the careers of journalists and newsroom leaders, Undaunted explores the larger story: the nearly two-centuries-old struggle for women’s rights as it manifests in a field where women have never found easy welcome. The book documents their collective fight for equity from the gentle stirrings of the late 1800s to the work, actions, and pronouncements of celebrated journalists such as Ida Tarbell, Ida B. Wells, and Kate Masterson as the century turned, on to Pauline Frederick, Anne O'Hare McCormick, Martha Gelhorn, and Charlayne Hunter-Gault in the first half of the 20th; through the legal battles of the 1970s to the #MeToo movement and onward. With Tracy Lucht, Kroeger will discuss the huge and singular impact women have had on this vital profession still dominated by men.

This program is presented by the American Inspiration Series from American Ancestors/NEHGS and presented in partnership with with the Boston Public Libraryand the GBH Forum Network.

Come to the GBH Studio at the Boston Public Library to learn about Fly With Me — a new film from American Experience. Debra Adams Simmons will be joining us to interview special guests American Experience Executive Producer Cameo George and Fly With Me writer and director Sarah Colt.

Fly With Me tells the story of the pioneering women who became flight attendants at a time when single women were unable to order a drink, eat alone in a restaurant, own a credit card or get a prescription for birth control. The job offered unheard-of opportunities for travel and independence. These women were on the frontlines of the battle to assert gender equality and transform the workplace.

The recording of Lunch Hour Live event can be found here

Registration is encouraged for this free event. Limited seating is available on a first come, first serve basis. If you require a seat, we encourage you to arrive before the start time of this event.


Location: The GBH Studio at the Boston Public Library is located at 700 Boylston St. at the corner of Exeter Street inside the Newsfeed Café.

Parking: Limited metered parking is available in the area. We recommend taking public transportation when possible. MBTA’s Copley stop on the Green Line and Back Bay stop on the Orange Line are located nearby. Visit http://mbta.com/ to plan your trip on public transportation.

Concessions: Food and drink is available for purchase at the Newsfeed Café. Outside food is not permitted.

Covid Safety: Please review the BPL’s Event COVID-19 Safety information here.

By RSVPing for this event, you agree to receive timely news and updates on events, films, and special offers from GBH.

Photo credit: GBH

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Do you need any additional accommodations that we should be made aware of to participate in this event? If so, please contact us a minimum of one week in advanced of the event. We will do our best to accommodate your request. Reach us during regular business hours M-F, 9am-5pm at 617-300-3300 or via email: info@wgbh.org.

If you have questions or can no longer attend, please contact Audience and Member Services Department. Audience and Member Services can be reached during regular business hours M-F, 9am-5pm at phone: 617-300-3300 or via email: info@wgbh.org

Do recent advances in artificial intelligence herald a new stage of human development? Or is the current AI fervor yet another technology hype?

Rapid advances in AI have captured considerable public interest. Like prior technology developments, we can increasingly replace human activity with machines. But while prior technology developments deeply affected physical labor, AI developments (particularly generative AI) encroach on what was previously an entirely human domain -- knowledge work. Machines now seem to be able to think and learn. With these developments, we may see liberation from routine tasks, standardization of processes, and a head start on human learning. But we may instead see unemployment from job displacement, bias at a massive scale, and a race to mediocrity.

“Has the machine in its last furious manifestation begun to eliminate workers faster than new tasks can be found for them?” Stuart Chase asked this topical question in his book, “Men and Machines” -- in 1929. While everyone seems to talk about artificial intelligence, we’ll talk about what people are really doing now and where they seem to be headed.

The discussion builds from a 10-year MIT Sloan Management Review research program and stories from the Me, Myself, and AI podcast. In particular, we’ll focus on the role of human agency in choosing how we use these exciting tool developments.