Past Kennedy Library Forums

Joyce Carol Oates, recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, delivered the keynote address at the annual PEN/Hemingway Award ceremony hosted annually by the Kennedy Library.  The Kennedy Library is the major repository of Ernest Hemingway's works.

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Frank McCourt, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angela’s Ashes, discussed his Irish heritage.  This forum was one of several that was in conjunction with our exhibit, "A Journey Home - John F. Kennedy and Ireland."  Kevin Cullen of The Boston Globe moderated.

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Charles Daly, Richard Donahue, and Jack McNally -- all members of President Kennedy's White House staff -- shared stories of working in the Kennedy White House.  Political commentator and humorist Dick Flavin moderated.

Geoffrey Canada, founding President of Harlem Children’s Zone; Jason DeParle, New York Times senior writer and author of American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare; and Barbara Ehrenreich , author of the best selling Nickel and Dimed , examined, with other national experts, how to address one of this country’s most compelling challenges, poverty.  David Ellwood, Dean of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, moderated.

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Arlo Guthrie looked back at the cultural impact of protest music that began during President Kennedy’s administration and continues in America today.  Dick Pleasants, host of The Morning Express at WUMB, moderated.

Senator Edward Kennedy  discussed the need for immigration reform in this country and the bipartisan immigration bill he sponsored with Senator John McCain.  The Boston Globe's Tom Oliphant moderated.

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Acclaimed biographer Robert Dallek played and commented on excerpts from some of President Kennedy's most memorable speeches, press conferences and debates.  Boston University historian Bruce Schulman moderated.

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James Carroll  discussed his new book House of War in which he argues the Pentagon has, since its founding, operated beyond the control of any force in government including the President himself. Sarah Sewall, Director of the Program on National Security and Human Rights at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and Retired Colonel Douglas Macgregor, author of Breaking the Phalanx and Transformation Under Fire, joined him.  NPR National Security Correspondent Tom Gjelten moderated.

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Senator George Mitchell , who served as Chairman of the Peace Negotiations in Northern Ireland that led to the historic Good Friday Peace Agreement, analyzed the primary issues involved in resolving the conflicts in Northern Ireland and the Middle East.  Kevin Cullen of the Boston Globe moderated.

Former National Public Radio correspondent Sarah Chayes , who has been living in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, and award-winning journalist Sebastian Junger, who has covered Afghanistan for ABC News and other publications, discussed efforts to help reconstruct Afghanistan after 9/11.  Jessica Stern, an expert on terrorism who teaches at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, moderated.

Michael Patrick MacDonald continues his memoir, All Souls, of growing up in South Boston in a new book, Easter Rising: An Irish American Coming Up from Under.  Maureen Dezell, a former staff writer for The Boston Globe and author of Irish America: Coming into Clover,  moderated.  This forum was presented in conjunction with the Library's exhibit, A Journey Home: JFK and Ireland.

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Senator Barack Obama discussed his new book, The Audacity of Hope, with New York Times columnist Bob Herbert.

Rev. Richard Cizik, Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals; retired Senator John Danforth, author of Faith and Politics; and Rev. Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and author of Piety & Politics,  examined the evolving role of religion in American politics.  Renee Loth, editor of the editorial page of The Boston Globe, moderated.

William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and John Podesta , President and CEO of the Center for American Progress, debated the issues -- from stem cell research to the war on terror -- that define and often divide American politics today.  Evan Thomas, Assistant Managing Editor of Newsweek, moderated.

Operation Homecoming is a program created by the National Endowment for the Arts to encourage returning soldiers to write about their wartime experiences.  Their poems, essays and stories have been published in a literary anthology.  Soldiers having recently returned from Iraq who have participated in this program read from their works.  Andrew Carroll, editor of the anthology and author of the bestselling War Letters, moderated.

Robert Blendon, Director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program, and Andrew Kohut , Diretor of the Pew Research Center, interpreted the results of the Novemer 7th elections.  NECN host, Jim Braude, moderated.

Historians Alan Brinkley, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Sean Wilentz  looked back at the extraordinary life and career of one of America's foremost historians.   John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center, moderated.  Arthur Schlesinger was special assistant to President John F. Kennedy and won the Pulitzer Prize for A Thousand Days, his biography of President Kennedy.

Patrick Hemingway, the son of Ernest Hemingway, discussed his father's writing and legacy with Stanley Katz, President Emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies and chair of the Societies' Social Research Council Working Group on Cuba, through which he has done extensive work with the Hemingway materials remaining in Cuba.  The Kennedy Library is the major repository of Ernest Hemingway's papers.

Charles Dutton, the actor twice nominated for a Tony Award for his performances in August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and The Piano Lesson; and Dwight Andrews, the musical director for several of Wilson's Broadway productions, paid tribute to the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who passed away in October 2005.  Wilson's cycle of ten prize-winning plays chronicles the lives of African Americans throughout the 20th century. Elvis Mitchell, entertainment critic for NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, moderated.

Theodore Sorensen, Special Counsel and speechwriter for President Kennedy, Ray Price, speechwriter for President Nixon, Ted Widmer, foreign policy speechwriter for President Clinton, and Chriss Winston, Director of the Office of Speechwriting for President George H.W. Bush, discussed the art of capturing the president's voice, communicating his ideas, and inspiring the public. They shared memories of the presidents with whom they worked and clips from their favorite speeches. Linda Wertheimer, NPR's National Senior Correspondent, moderated.

James Traub discussed his new book The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the UN in the Era of American World Power with Gillian Sorensen, Senior Adviser at the United Nations Foundation and Iqbal Riza, former Chief of Staff to Secretary General Kofi Annan.  Nancy Soderberg , who served in President Clinton's National Security Council and was an Alternate Representative to the United Nations, moderated.

Born on May 29, 1917, John F. Kennedy would have turned 90 years old this spring. NPR Senior News Analyst, Daniel Schorr, former New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis, and historian Jill  Ker Conway  looked back at the 20th century and reflected on the changes that have shaped and changed our nation and the world since President Kennedy’s death.  Scott Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, moderated.

Former Lt. Governor of Maryland and eldest daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, discussed her new book Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way with Harvard Professor Michael Sandel, and John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center.

Edward P. Jones delivered the keynote address at the PEN/Hemingway Awards ceremony hosted annually by the Kennedy Library. Mr. Jones won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for The Known World. He is a past PEN/Hemingway Award winner and MacArthur Fellow. His new book is All Aunt Hagar's Children. The Kennedy Library is the major repository of Ernest Hemingway's works.

The close friendship between Ernest Hemingway and Gary Cooper is the focus of a new documentary directed by John Mulholland. He and Patrick Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway's son, discussed the film and showed selected excerpts. Peter Keough, film critic for The Boston Phoenix, moderated.

March 2007 marked the fourth anniversary of the U.S. military intervention in Iraq.   Ali Allawi, former Minister of Defense and Minister of Finance in the Iraqi Transitional Government; Ambassador Barbara Bodine, who has spent most of her career in the Middle East, most recently as a coordinator for post-conflict reconstruction in Iraq; and, Ambassador Peter Galbraith, author of The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End  discussed the situation in Iraq today.  Boston Globe reporter Kevin Cullen moderated.

Actor/Activist Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Traffic, Crash) and John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group, discussed their new book, Not On Our Watch, about the genocide in Darfur and individuals who have raised awareness to stop the suffering. Liz Walker, host of Sunday with Liz Walker, moderated.

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May 27, 2007 is the centennial of Rachel Carson's birth.  Her book, Silent Spring, transformed our nation and its understanding of the dangers of pesticide use.  In response to the issues she raised, President Kennedy appointed a special Science Advisory committee that subsequently affirmed her findings.  Stewart Udall , Secretary of the Interior in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, delivered opening remarks. The other speakers who discussed Carson's life and legacy were Professor E.O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist; and Roland Clement, former Vice President of the Audubon Society and her defender during the 1950s and 1960s. Annick Smith, nature writer and co-producer of A River Runs Through It, moderated. *Linda Lear, Carsons's biographer, was unable to attend due to a cancelled flight. 

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In conjunction with the exhibit Jacqueline Kennedy Entertains: The Art of the White House Dinner, Judith Martin , a.k.a. Miss Manners, paid tribute to Mrs. Kennedy's legendary skills as a hostess. Ellen Goodman, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Boston Globe, moderated.

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Before launching her journalism career, Charlayne Hunter-Gault made civil rights history as the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Georgia in 1962.  Ms. Hunter-Gault discussed her trailblazing career, changes in broadcast journalism, and her life in South Africa with Gwen Ifill, host of the PBS program Washington Week.

Alan Alda discussed his new memoir Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself chronicling the turbulent 1960s to the aftermath of 9/11, with former Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant.

September 12th marks the 45^th anniversary of President Kennedy’s Rice University speech about the importance of space exploration. NASA Astronaut and Needham, Massachusetts native Sunita Williams shared her experiences about having been a crew member on the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle, and having set a new record for the longest spaceflight by a woman. Robin Young, host of WBUR's Here & Now, moderated.

Filmmaker Ken Burns showed excerpts from and discussed his new documentary about World War II, The War, with veteran journalist and news commentator Mike Barnicle.

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Jackie Robinson's daughter, Sharon Robinson, Director of Educational Programming for Major League Baseball, and Scott Simon, author of Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball, paid tribute to Robinson during this 60th anniversary year of his having broken the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Tom Oliphant, former Boston Globe columnist and author of Praying for Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family's Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers, moderated. This forum was presented in conjunction with a new exhibit, Shaping Up America: JFK, Sports and the Call to Physical Fitness.

On 45th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Theodore C. Sorensen, Special Counsel and Adviser to President John F. Kennedy, shared his memories of some of the most harrowing days in U.S. history with Graham Allison, Professor of Government at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

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Archbishop Desmond Tutu,  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall and Justice Richard Goldstone, who served on The Constitutional Court of South Africa, examined the long road toward freedom and justice in South Africa. Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. moderated.

Richard N. Goodwin, an advisor and speechwriter to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, shared memories and reflected on the changes in the political landscape since the 1960s. His wife, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, moderated.

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Martha Raddatz, ABC's chief White House correspondent, discussed her coverage of the war in Iraq and her new book The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family. Veteran journalist and NECN Anchor Chet Curtis moderated.

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Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s children -- Robert, Maria, Mark, and Anthony -- discussed their mother's many accomplishments with Harvard Law School Professor Mary Ann Glendon. Eunice Kennedy Shriver is the founder and Honorary Chairperson of Special Olympics and sister of President John F. Kennedy.

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Julia Child's long-time editor, Judith Jones, discussed French cooking, the joys of eating, and the indefatigable Julia Child with Sheryl Julian, Food Editor of The Boston Globe. Her new memoir is The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food. This forum is presented in conjunction with our current exhibit, Jacqueline Kennedy Entertains: The Art of the White House Dinner.

David Eisenhower, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the son-in-law of President Nixon; David Greenberg, a historian at Rutgers University; and Ray Price;, speechwriter to President Nixon, discussed President Nixon's legacy with Ellen Fitzpatrick, a historian at the University of New Hampshire. This forum is part of the Library's series examining 20th-century presidents.

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Against the backdrop of the 2008 presidential campaign, historian Michael Beschloss discussed his new book, Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989.  Al Hunt of Bloomberg News moderated.

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Maria Shriver introduced American Idealist, a new documentary chronicling the accomplishments of her father, R. Sargent Shriver, who started several programs in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, including Peace Corps and Head Start.  Following the screening, there was a conversation with the film director, Bruce Orenstein; Shriver's biographer, Scott Stossel; and William Josephson and Edgar May, friends of Sargent Shriver's. This forum was presented in partnership with Facing History and Ourselves.

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Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discussed her new book, Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership with Harvard University Professor Joseph Nye.

On June 11, 1963, two African American students -- James Hood and Vivian Malone -- were barred entry to the University of Alabama by Governor George Wallace.  In response, President Kennedy called out the National Guard, Governor Wallace stepped aside, and the President delivered a major civil rights address to the nation.  After President Kennedy's speech, the civil rights leader, Medgar Evers, was tragically murdered in his home. James Hood, Nick Katzenbach, and Ted Sorensen discussed the events of this historic turning point in American history. Callie Crossley moderated.

Former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and new Poet Laureate Charles Simic discussed poetry and read their favorite poems.

Madeleine Kunin, the first woman Governor of Vermont and the author of the upcoming Pearls, Politics, & Power: How Women Can Win and Lead; David Yepsen, Political Columnist for The Des Moines Register; and, former Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant shared their insights about this unprecedented 2008 presidential campaign. *Due to an injury, George McGovern was not able to join us.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anthony Lewis discussed his new book, Freedom for the Thoughts We Hate, with Harvard Law Professor Martha Minow. 

Boston Globe reporter Neil Swidey joined University of Massachusetts Boston Chancellor Keith Motley; former Headmaster of Charlestown High School Michael Fung, and, Shawn Brown, founder of Diamond Educators, a mentoring organization for young men, in a discussion about the plight of our inner-city schools.