Past Kennedy Library Forums

Judge Nancy Gertner discussed her new book, In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate, with Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory.

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Boston Globe Pulitzer Prize-winners Ellen Goodman, Walter Robinson, Charlie Savage and Sebastian Smee reflected on how winning the award changed their careers.  Former Boston Globe columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Tom Oliphant moderated.

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HBO presented the Boston premiere of Citizen USA, which follows filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi as she travels across the U.S. to attend naturalization ceremonies in all 50 states, meeting brand-new citizens to find out why they chose America as their home. The screening included a discussion with the filmmaker and a reception.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s signing the Cape Cod National Seashore Act, the Kennedy Library, in conjunction with PEN New England and the National Park Service, hosted readings by local authors Rebecca Goldstein, Alice Hoffman, Kermit Moyer, Dale Peterson, Steven Pinker, and Richard Russo, and others extolling the beauty of this unique shoreline, its dunes, its habitats and wildlife that were preserved by the stroke of his pen. Introduction by Senator Paul Kirk. The event was held at the Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham, MA.

Clinton Hill, Jacqueline Kennedy’s Secret Service detail, shared memories of the Kennedy White House and his service protecting the first family with Tom Putnam, Director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

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In September 1961, President Kennedy was officially notified by the CIA that the United States had surpassed the Soviet Union in missiles, dispelling the notion of Soviet superiority in the arms race. The CIA has commissioned a special report to analyze this history, and on the anniversary, sponsored two panels on the challenges of intelligence analysis and the implications for US policy with a former CIA Director of Intelligence, a former head of CIA’s Guided Missile Task Force, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Threat Reduction, and others.

In September 1961, President Kennedy was officially notified by the CIA that the United States had surpassed the Soviet Union in missiles, dispelling the notion of Soviet superiority in the arms race. Former senior CIA intelligence officer Gene Poteat and historians Timothy Naftali, Fred Kaplan and John Prados discussed this pivotal moment in world history. Mary Elise Sarotte, Professor of International Relations at USC, moderated. This forum followed the afternoon panel sessions of the CIA Overview of the Missile Gap.

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Clifton Truman Daniel, the grandson of Harry and Bess Truman, discussed Dear Harry, Love Bess: Bess Truman’s Letters to Harry Truman, 1919-1943, with Fred Thys of WBUR.

On the publication of Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Coversations on Life with John F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy joined presidential historian Michael Beschloss, who wrote the introduction and historical annotations for the book; Richard K. Donahue, former White House assistant to President Kennedy; and moderator Ted Widmer, to discuss the 1964 interviews with Mrs. Kennedy.

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Retired Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice Margaret Marshall shared memories of her childhood in South Africa, her immigration to the United States and her most memorable court cases with Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse.

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Paul Hendrickson discussed his new biography of Ernest Hemingway as seen through Hemingway’s long relationship with his beloved boat, Pilar. Scott Simon, of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, moderated.

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Stephen King read from his new novel 11/22/63 and discussed his long literary career with novelist Tom Perrotta.

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Annie Leibovitz discussed her new book, Pilgrimage, which explores the places where the people who have inspired her have worked. The book includes the homes of Henry David Thoreau, Eleanor Roosevelt, Marian Anderson, and Abraham Lincoln, among others.

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Harry Belafonte discussed his new memoir My Song with award-winning television host and journalist Liz Walker.

* With special sponsorship from Bingham McCutchen LLP.

Chris Matthews, host of Hardball, discussed his new biography, Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, with former Boston Globe editor Marty Nolan.

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On the publication of the first volume of Ernest Hemingway's letters,  Sandra Spanier, the book’s editor; novelist Ward Just; and moderator Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday discussed The Letters of Ernest Hemingway: Volume 1, 1907-1922. The actor, Corey Stoll, who played Hemingway in Woody Allen’s recent Midnight in Paris read selections.

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Amanda Smith, the daughter of Jean Kennedy Smith, discussed her recent biography, Newspaper Titan: The Infamous Life and Monumental Times of Cissy Patterson, with WBUR's political news reporter Fred Thys.

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Jonathan Alter, author of The Promise: President Obama, Year One, and Hendrik Hertzberg, columnist for The New Yorker, analyzed the Obama presidency as the 2012 presidential race began, with former Boston Globe Editorial Page Editor Renee Loth.

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Colleagues and writers, including Joe Armstrong, Betty Sue Flowers, Harriet Rubin and David Stenn shared their memories of working with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis during her time as an editor in New York City. Greg Lawrence, author of Jackie as Editor, moderated.

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Jim Lehrer, former host of PBS Newshour, discussed his book, Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates, from Kennedy-Nixon to Obama-McCain, with PBS Newshour senior correspondent Ray Suarez.

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Join us for a screening and discussion with White House curator William Allman of Mrs. Kennedy’s famous televised tour where she describes her work on the restoration of the White House.

This conference examined key moments in the civil rights movement during five American presidencies – from Roosevelt to Johnson. A final panel examined contemporary civil rights struggles in the years after the signing of the Civil Rights Act. Brought to you by special sponsorship from Bingham McCutchen LLP.

PEN New England and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum hosted the 2012 Awards for Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence which were presented to Chuck Berry and Leonard Cohen. Special guests included: Caroline Kennedy, Richard Hoffman, Tom Perrotta, Bill Flanagan, Salman Rushdie, Shawn Colvin, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, and Keith Richards.

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Authors André Dubus III (Townie), Marianne Leone (Knowing Jessie), and Richard Russo, (Empire Falls, Nobody’s Fool) recounted how writing changed their lives.

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Mark Updegrove, Director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum, discussed his new book, Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency with Daily Beast writer, John Avlon.

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Renowned Irish Tenor Anthony Kearns presented a special performance and was joined by students from the University of Massachusetts Boston, who read selections from Irish literature.

* This event was co-sponsored with the University of Massachusetts Boston

Patrick Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway's sole surviving son, introduced the 2012 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, which was given to Teju Cole for his first novel Open City. In addition, the Laurence L. & Thomas Winship/PEN New England Awards were given to fiction winner Yannick Murphy for The Call, poetry winner Elizabeth Willis for Address, and nonfiction winner Mitchell Zuckoff for Lost in Shangri-La. The two Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award finalists, Amy Waldman for The Submission and Stephanie Powell Watts for We Are Taking Only What We Need, were also honored. Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog and Townie, delivered the keynote speech.

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Carole King discussed her new memoir, A Natural Woman, with veteran journalist Mike Barnicle.

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Following a screening of Rooters: The Birth of the Red Sox Nation, Peter Nash, baseball historian and author of Boston's Royal Rooters; Richard Johnson, curator of Boston's Sports Museum; and Thomas Fitzgerald, grandson of Boston mayor "Honey Fitz," discussed the building of the park and its passionate fans, including then-mayor John Francis Fitzgerald. Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys closed with a rendition of "Tessie."

Madeleine Albright discussed her memoir, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948, with Ambassador Nicholas Burns, professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Alan Brinkley, the Allan Nevins Professor of American History at Columbia University, discussed his new biography in The American Presidents Series, John F. Kennedy: The 35th President, 1961-1963, with historian Ellen Fitzpatrick. 

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Pulitzer Prize winning-author Robert Caro discussed the fourth volume in his biography of LBJ, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, with Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe writer Mark Feeney.

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Conan O’Brien discussed the art of comedy with Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris.

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On the 50th anniversary of the publication of Michael Harrington’s The Other America, historian and Harrington biographer Maurice Isserman joined Peter Edelman, author of So Rich, So Poor, and Harvard professor Jennifer Hochschild to discuss the politics and persistence of poverty in the US.

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David McCullough discussed his latest book, The Greater Journey, about prominent 19th-century Americans’ formative years in Paris.

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Mark Shriver discussed his new book, A Good Man, about his late father, R. Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps with Richard Parker, Lecturer in Public Policy and Senior Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Kevin Bleyer, Emmy Award–winning writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart discussed his new book, ME THE PEOPLE: One Man's Quest to Rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America, with Meghna Chakrabarti, host of WBUR's Radio Boston.

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Massachusetts senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren discussed her visions for the future of the Commonwealth with veteran journalist and radio host, Christopher Lydon.

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Ira Shapiro, the author of The Last Great Senate: Courage and Statesmanship in Times of Crisis, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, and Tom Daschle, former US Senate Majority Leader, discussed the achievements and bi-partisanship of the US Senate during the 1960s and 1970s with Peter Canellos, Editorial Page Editor of The Boston Globe.

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Join astronaut Chris Cassidy who will share his firsthand accounts of what it's like in space; read the children's book, Reaching for the Moon by Buzz Aldrin, pictures by Wendell Minor; answer your questions and sign autographs.

Astronaut Chris Cassidy attended the Naval Academy Prep School, the US Naval Academy, MIT, and spent ten years as a Navy SEAL where he completed four six-month deployments (two in Afghanistan and two in the Mediterranean) before being selected by NASA in May of 2004 for Astronaut Candidate training.

Please join us for a special opportunity to ask questions to two American astronauts living and working on the International Space Station. Joe Acaba arrived on the Space Station May 15 and will depart on September 17. Suni Williams, who graduated from Needham High School in 1983, arrived on the Space Station July 15. On August 30, she will be the lead spacewalker (her fifth walk in space) and will be replacing one of the main electrical units, which will take approximately six-and-a-half hours. She will be living on the Space Station until January 2013.

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This special forum at the 2012 Democratic National Convention honored the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy administration. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Democratic strategist Maria Cardona,  New York Times columnist Matt Bai, and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes discussed the influence of changing political demographics on contemporary candidates, campaigns, political parties, and public policy. David Gregory, host of MSNBC's Meet the Press, moderated.

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The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and Xfinity cordially invite you and a guest to join Ethel Kennedy and filmmaker Rory Kennedy at the Boston premiere of the HBO documentary film Ethel: A Private Look Inside a Highly Public Life. A public reception begins at 5:30, and the screening and discussion begin at 6:30.

Caroline Kennedy opened a discussion with presidential historians Ted Widmer (who worked with the Kennedy Presidential Library selecting the recordings for the book) and Ellen Fitzpatrick, on a new book highlighting the most significant tapes of the Kennedy Presidency. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tom Oliphant moderated.

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Historians, journalists and policy makers reflected on the events leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, how it was resolved, and how lessons learned can be applied to the nuclear challenges facing us today.

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**Due to the storm, the Tuesday, October 30 forum, 2012 Presidential Campaign, is canceled and will not be rescheduled.

Journalists James Fallows, Ryan Lizza and Martha Raddatz will analyze the 2012 presidential race between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney with Callie Crossley, host of WGBH’s daytime show, Boston Public Radio.

New Yorker writer and legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, discussed his new book, The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court with Harvard Law professor David Barron.

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This special ceremony will honor the recipients of the 2012 John F. Kennedy New Frontier Awards. Each year, the Kennedy Library Foundation, in collaboration with Harvard’s Institute of Politics, presents the New Frontier Awards to two outstanding young Americans whose public service exemplifies the spirit of President Kennedy. Caroline Kennedy will present this year’s awards to Stacey Abrams, Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and the first woman to lead either party in the Georgia General Assembly, and social entrepreneur Veronika Scott, founder of an innovative humanitarian project that is creating a new garment industry in Detroit by hiring the city’s homeless women.

On the centennial of the birth of former House Speaker Tip O’Neill, journalists Mike Barnicle, Al Hunt, Cokie Roberts and Steve Roberts, and host of Hardball Chris Matthews shared their memories of the Speaker with former ABC World News host Charlie Gibson.

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