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This event is presented in partnership by Princeton Public Library and Princeton Adult School. Steve Kornacki, NBC News national political correspondent, and John Mooney, founding editor of NJ Spotlight, look back at the primary and ahead to the general election with a focus on New Jersey.

Steve Kornacki is a national political correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, reporting on the latest political developments across all platforms. For MSNBC’s election coverage, he provides real-time analysis of voting patterns, exit polls and electoral data. Kornacki is the author of “The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism” and host of "The Revolution," a seven-part podcast series that tells the story of the rise of Newt Gingrich and the first Republican House majority in 40 years.

Kornacki was the host of “Up with Steve Kornacki” and was a co-host of MSNBC’s “The Cycle.” He also wrote for The New York Observer and covered Congress for Roll Call.

Kornacki spent three years in New Jersey, chronicling the state’s political world for a website and co-hosting a weekly show on News 12 New Jersey.

His work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The New York Post, The Boston Globe, The Daily Beast and at Capital New York, where he’s written a series of deeply-researched profiles of prominent New York political figures. He is a native of Groton, Massachusetts, and graduated from Boston University.

This recording is presented in partnership by Princeton Public Library, Morven Museum & Garden and Labyrinth Books.

A popular library tradition since 2016, the Summer Reading Soirée features sparkling beverages, sorbet and other sweets as well as door prizes and giveaways. Attendees will mix and mingle with library staff and other area book lovers, share what they have been reading and discover titles they may want to read this summer.

About the Books:

"The Stolen Child" by Ann Hood: Haunted by a decision he made as a young soldier in World War I, involving a French artist and her baby, Nick Burns, with only months left to live, enlists Jenny, a college dropout, to help him unravel the mystery, forcing them both to reckon with regret, betrayal and the lives they've left behind.

"Beyond That, the Sea" by Laura Spence-Ash: As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their 11-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America to live with another family for the duration of the war. When Beatrix returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go, and always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue a life of her own

About the Authors:

Ann Hood is the editor of "Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting" and the bestselling author of more than a dozen books including "The Book That Matters Most," "The Knitting Circle," "The Red Thread," "Comfort," and "An Italian Wife," among other works. She is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, a Best American Spiritual Writing Award, a Best American Food Writing Award, a Best American Travel Writing Award, and the Paul Bowles Prize for Short Fiction. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Laura Spence-Ash’s fiction has appeared in One Story, New England Review, Crazyhorse, and elsewhere. Her critical essays and book reviews appear regularly in the Ploughshares blog. She received her MFA in fiction from Rutgers–Newark, and she lives in New Jersey.

This event was recorded on June 10, 2024.

This recording is presented in partnership by Princeton Public Library, Nassau Presbyterian Church and Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church Joint Mission Committee, Not In Our Town Princeton, Paul Robeson House of Princeton, McCarter Theater, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton.

Community Partners included African American Cultural Collaborative of Mercer County, Arm in Arm, Arts Council of Princeton, Baha'i Community of Princeton, Bayard Rustin Center For Social Justice, Building the Moral Arc, CASA for Children of Mercer & Burlington Counties, Center for Modern Aging Princeton, Coalition for Peace Action, Greater Somerset County YMCA, Historical Society of Princeton, Housing Initiatives of Princeton, I Am Trenton, John H. Pace Jr '39 Center for Civic Engagement, League of Women Voters of Greater Princeton Area, Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Mass Incarceration Task Force, McCarter Theater Center, Morningstar Church of God in Christ, Morven Museum & Garden, Muslim Center of Greater Princeton, Mt. Pisgah A.M.E. Church, Princeton Charter School, Princeton Day School Black Alumni, Princeton Jewish Center, Princeton Middle School, Princeton United Methodist Church, Office of Community and Regional Affairs at Princeton University, Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum, Trenton Literacy Movement, Trenton Spoken Word, Unitarian Universalist Church, United Mercer Interfaith Organization, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Witherspoon Jackson Historical & Cultural Society, YWCA Princeton.

Community members read an amended version of Frederick Douglass' influential speech, given on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, to the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society.

The life and works of Frederick Douglass continue to shape our understanding of America. A gifted orator and prescient writer, Douglass forces us to reckon with the legacy of slavery and the promises of democracy. One of the most celebrated orators of his day, Douglass’ powerful language, resolute denunciations of slavery and forceful examination of the Constitution challenge us to think about the histories we tell, the values they teach, and if our actions match our aspirations. To quote Douglass, “We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the future.”

This event was recorded on July 8, 2024.

This event is presented in partnership by Princeton Public Library and Not In Our Town Princeton. Princeton High School racial literacy students offer their annual presentation.

"The goal of racial literacy is not a singular destination, instead it is an open acknowledgement that literacy is multi-faceted and requires a life-long commitment to a growth mindset. In the case of racial literacy, it is that which allows us to take steps toward courageous conversations with those closest to us." Students will share insights about their experiences in the racial literacy class as they present on their individualized research from the semester.

Get recommendations from teens who share a book that made a lasting impression on them at this special event. For more information about the selections, visit https://princetonlibrary.bibliocommons.com/list/share/104628707/2519142069.

This recording is presented in partnership by Princeton Public Library and Princeton University's Humanities Council and Center for Collaborative History and Labyrinth Books. Michael Cook is joined in conversation by Sadaf Jaffer to discuss his forthcoming book, "A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity." A signing will follow the event.

Michael Cook is joined in conversation by Sadaf Jaffer to discuss his new book, "A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity," to be published in May 2024 by the Princeton University Press. Copies of the book should be available ahead of the publication date for a book signing to be held after the conversation. Registration is requested, but not required.

About the book (from the publisher):
This book describes and explains the major events, personalities, conflicts, and convergences that have shaped the history of the Muslim world. The body of the book takes readers from the origins of Islam to the eve of the nineteenth century, and an epilogue continues the story to the present day. Michael Cook thus provides a broad history of a civilization remarkable for both its unity and diversity.

After setting the scene in the Middle East of late antiquity, the book depicts the rise of Islam as one of the great black swan events of history. It continues with the spectacular rise of the Caliphate, an empire that by the time it broke up had nurtured the formation of a new civilization. It then goes on to cover the diverse histories of all the major regions of the Muslim world, providing a wide-ranging account of the key military, political, and cultural developments that accompanied the eastward and westward spread of Islam from the Middle East to the shores of the Atlantic and the Pacific.

At the same time, "A History of the Muslim World" contains numerous primary-source quotations that expose the reader to a variety of acutely insightful voices from the Muslim past.

In conversation:
Michael Cook is the Class of 1943 university professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. His books include "Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective," "A Brief History of the Human Race," and "The Koran: A Very Short Introduction."

Sadaf Jaffer is an associate research scholar of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. Her current book project, “Secularism, Sexuality and Islam: Ismat Chughtai’s Indian Muslim Progressivism,” elucidates alternative Muslim subjectivities through the lens of a prominent Urdu writer and cultural critic. Jaffer’s web-based publications include posts to the Foreign Policy Research Institute E-Notes, the Huffington Post and the blog Altmuslimah.

Presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This event was recorded on April 30, 2024.