December 5th, 7PM “Caught in the Act"

Featuring:
James Forman, Jr., Nonfiction
David Friend, Journalist
Laura Lippman, Novelist
JT Rogers, Playwright

James Forman Jr. is a professor of law at Yale Law School and author of Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America.  A former clerk for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, he spent six years as a public defender in Washington, D.C., where he cofounded the Maya Angelou Public Charter School.

David Friend is a Vanity Fair editor, journalist, curator, and Emmy-winning documentary producer. The former director of photography for Life magazine, he is the author of Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11

and, his new book, The Naughty Nineties: The Triumph of the American Libido. 

Laura Lippman is a New York Times bestselling novelist who has won more than 20 awards for her fiction. Since her debut in 1997, she has published 20 novels, a novella and a collection of short stories. Lit Hub recently named her one of the "essential" female crime writers of the last 100 years.  Her forthcoming book is 

J. T. Rogers is a Tony Award-winning American playwright whose works include Oslo, Blood and Gifts, The Overwhelming, White People, and Madagascar. For Oslo he won the Tony, New York Critics, Outer Critics, Drama Desk, Drama League, Lortel, and Obie awards. 

Seriously Entertaining, New York’s premier literary cabaret series showcasing writers and their passions, is an intellectual roller-coaster of a show. The Wall Street Journal calls it “Think-y entertainment for New York’s book-loving crowd,” The New York Times says it’s “a literary mixtape [with] perfect flow and variety,” and CBS Local News adds: “You have never seen a cabaret quite like this…. The lineup includes some of the most brilliant minds in the literary and artistic worlds.”  

Seriously Entertaining packs a big punch, regularly hosting talent such as Margo Jefferson, Amber Tamblyn, John Guare, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, PJ O'Rourke, Graham Moore, Steven Pinker, Emma Sky, and Irvine Welsh.  The show asks each writer to riff on a given theme for fifteen minutes only. Whether the result leaves you howling with laughter or sorrow, it will be an evening you’re sure to remember.

Seriously Entertaining is the flagship show of House of SpeakEasy, a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to connecting writers and audiences in innovative and sustaining ways – in classrooms through our SpeakTogether writing workshops, in the community with our book truck, and at Joe’s Pub.  

For more information please visit www.houseofspeakeasy.org @speakeasy_house  #seriouslyentertaining