Featured Videos

Keep up with our literary programming—no matter where you live. Dive in to discover writers and performances featured at the Library of Congress.

  • Event
    Live! at the Library: An Evening with Simon Schama and Atul Gawande Writer, surgeon, and public health leader Atul Gawande joins writer and public intellectual Simon Schama to discuss Schama’s latest book, “Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines, and the Health of Nations.” The conversation will explore the complex and surprising history of pandemics in the 18th and 19th centuries—and its relevance to our current struggles with Covid-19 today.
    • Date: 2023-11-16
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    Live! at the Library: Pick Your Poison—A Conversation with Louise Penny Louise Penny, author of the award-winning “Armand Gamache” series of murder mysteries, discusses the habitants of “Three Pines” with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.
    • Date: 2023-10-26
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    Live! at the Library: Pick Your Poison—Mystery Night Pick Your Poison—Mystery Night at the Library of Congress celebrates mystery novels in all their confounding glory. Hear Louise Penny in conversation with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. A panel of mystery writers will discuss the perfect murder. Get lost in a real-life mystery in our scavenger hunt! And guess who did it at Erick Acuña Productions’ improv murder mystery show.
    • Date: 2023-10-26
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    Family Mystery Day at the Library of Congress Can You Solve It?: Family Mystery Day at the Library celebrates mystery stories in all their spine-tingling, curious forms. Enjoy two author events (for middle-grade readers in the morning and young adult book readers in the afternoon), a mystery writing workshop, activities and a scavenger hunt.
    • Date: 2023-10-21
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    An Evening with Ann Patchett and Kate DiCamillo Writers Ann Patchett and Kate DiCamillo are major fans of one another’s books, so much so that Patchett wrote an essay in "The New York Times" in 2020 declaring that although she initially meant to read just one of DiCamillo’s books, “in the end I read them all because I wanted to keep the genius of Kate DiCamillo in my head.”
    • Date: 2023-10-19
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    Meet Meg Medina: Family Office Hours with the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Young readers and families, Meg Medina, 8th National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, invites you to join special one-on-one sessions as part of her Cuéntame!: Let’s Talk Books platform.
    • Date: 2023-10-07
  • Film, Video
    Quatuor Van Kuijk Watch Quatuor Van Kuijk perform an impressive program that included a U.S. premiere by the French composer Benjamin Attahir. This video contains excerpts from their performance in the Great Hall of the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. Program: [0:00] Introduction [0:07:20] Gabriel Fauré: "Les berceaux," op. 23/1 [0:10:28] "Mandoline," op. 58/1 [0:12:29] Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartet no. 6 in F minor, op....
    • Contributor: Vita, Susan H.
    • Date: 2023-09-27
  • Film, Video
    Signum Quartet The Signum Quartet's performance of Schubert's Death and the Maiden has been called "as boldly imagined as a symphony" (The Times, London). The exciting German ensemble plays Schubert's emotional masterpiece, a robust Haydn quartet, the enchanting and rarely heard Quartet for Strings by South African British composer Priaulx Rainier ("a revelation, according to The Independent), and a striking contemplation on mortality by South African...
    • Contributor: Quartet, Signum
    • Date: 2023-09-27
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    Live! at the Library: A Conversation with Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the Prime Minister of Iceland, and Co-Writer Ragnar Jónasson This event is a rare chance to hear a foreign prime minister talk about her newly published thriller. “Reykjavík” is co-written with bestselling thriller writer Ragnar Jónasson and is about the long-unsolved murder of fictional character Lára, a 14-year-old in Iceland in 1956. Thirty years later, the murder is still unsolved—and there is someone who wants to keep it that way.
    • Date: 2023-09-21
  • Film, Video
    Hispanic Heritage Month Message from Carla Hayden Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden shares a greeting for Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 through Oct. 15.
    • Contributor: Hayden, Carla D.
    • Date: 2023-09-15
  • Film, Video
    Seeing Lost Enclaves: Research Library of Congress Innovator in Residence Jeffrey Yoo Warren describes the research process for the relational reconstructions of Providence Chinatown and other sites, as well as the search methods, strategies and challenges of doing research into destroyed and erased communities. This video is part of the Seeing Lost Enclaves toolkit, a free resource for virtually reconstructing lost or erased historic neighborhoods of color using...
    • Contributor: Yoo Warren, Jeffrey
    • Date: 2023-09-15
  • Film, Video
    Seeing Lost Enclaves: Atmosphere Library of Congress Innovator in Residence Jeffrey Yoo Warren and artist Alicia Renee Ball discuss the importance of emotional tone in relational reconstructions, including lighting and atmospheric effects. Alicia then demonstrates how she has used a speculative approach to reconstructing a historic site, incorporating fog, trees and fireflies. This video is part of the Seeing Lost Enclaves toolkit, a free resource for virtually reconstructing...
    • Contributor: Yoo Warren, Jeffrey
    • Date: 2023-09-15
  • Film, Video
    Seeing Lost Enclaves: Soundscapes Library of Congress Innovator in Residence Jeffrey Yoo Warren and artist Ann Chen discuss their approach to reconstructing historical soundscapes, including a speculative deep "listening" exercise with an archival photo, and a close listening exercise at the site of Providence Chinatown in 2023. They also demonstrate placement of spatialized audio in a virtual environment. This video is part of the Seeing Lost Enclaves toolkit,...
    • Contributor: Yoo Warren, Jeffrey
    • Date: 2023-09-15
  • Film, Video
    Seeing Lost Enclaves: Modeling Library of Congress Innovator in Residence Jeffrey Yoo Warren demonstrates relational reconstruction techniques for using archival photographs and maps to build virtual models of historic buildings and scenes. Topics include removing working with terrain, perspective distortion, and reconstructing building facades from multiple images. This video is part of the Seeing Lost Enclaves toolkit, a free resource for virtually reconstructing lost or erased historic neighborhoods...
    • Contributor: Yoo Warren, Jeffrey
    • Date: 2023-09-15
  • Film, Video
    Seeing Lost Enclaves: A Virtual Visit of Providence's Historic Chinatown Join Library of Congress Innovator-in-Residence Jeffrey Yoo Warren to experience and learn about his work virtually reconstructing lost neighborhoods with communities of color around the United States.
    • Contributor: Yoo Warren, Jeffrey - Mears, Jaime
    • Date: 2023-09-15
  • Press Release
    National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Invites Families for One-on-One Conversations at the Library National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Meg Medina is launching a new series to engage with local children, teens and families beginning on Oct. 7.Meet Meg Medina: Family Office Hours with the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature is an opportunity for families to engage directly with Medina in person at the Library of Congress. In each 20-minute Meet Meg Medina session, children, teens...
    • Date: 2023-09-14
  • Film, Video
    The Fragile, the Flammable and the Forbidden: Books in the Art of Xiaoze Xie Xie received his Master of Fine Art degrees from the Central Academy of Arts & Design in Beijing and the University of North Texas. Xie has exhibited extensively in the US and internationally, his recent solo exhibitions include "Objects of Evidence" at the Asia Society Museum in New York City (2019-20) and "Eyes On" at the Denver Art Museum (2017-18). Xie's work has garnered...
    • Contributor: Song, Yuwu - Xie, Xiaoze
    • Date: 2023-09-14
  • Film, Video
    Inks and Skins The manuscripts created from calfskin by secular scholars in Ireland prior to 1600 contain a wealth of tales and poetry, together with historical, legal and scientific writing. The vernacular traditions contained in these books are extraordinary witnesses to Gaelic civilization and learning on the western limit of the known world. Inks and Skins seeks to unearth that narrative by focusing on how and by...
    • Date: 2023-09-13
  • Film, Video
    Congress.gov Public Forum The Congress.gov Public Forum provides an opportunity for the public to learn about recent enhancements to Congress.gov and to provide feedback about the site so the Library can learn how we can better serve our patrons' legislative information needs.
    • Date: 2023-09-13
  • Press Release
    Library of Congress Announces 2023 Literacy Awards on International Literacy Day Three organizations working to expand literacy and promote reading will be awarded the 2023 Library of Congress Literacy Awards, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today. Top prizes are being awarded to The News Literacy Project, Downtown Boxing Gym and Worldreader.The Literacy Awards program, sponsored by David M. Rubenstein since 2013, honors organizations that provide exemplary, innovative and replicable strategies to combat illiteracy. For...
    • Date: 2023-09-08
  • Film, Video
    Kent State: Recreating History with Comics from the Small Press Expo Author Series Award-winning artist and author Derf Backderf will discuss his latest published graphic novel: "Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio." He is most famous for his graphic novels, especially "My Friend Dahmer", the international bestseller which won an Angoul??me Prize, and earlier for his comic strip "The City", which appeared in a number of alternative newspapers from 1990 to 2014. In 2006 Derf won the...
    • Contributor: Bernard, Warren - Higley, Georgia - Backderf, Derf
    • Date: 2023-09-07
  • Film, Video
    "Books That Shaped America" C-SPAN Series Kickoff This fall, C-SPAN launches a new series, "Books That Shaped America." The Library of Congress and C-SPAN partnered to explore key works from American history that have had a major impact on society. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and Historian Douglas Brinkley kickoff this series with a discussion about how these books have provoked thought, have been best sellers, have led to significant public...
    • Contributor: Slen, Peter - Brinkley, Douglas - Hayden, Carla
    • Date: 2023-09-07
  • Event
    Live! at the Library: Kent State & Recreating History with Comics with Derf Backderf Award-winning artist and author Derf Backderf will discuss his latest published graphic novel: "Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio."
    • Date: 2023-09-07
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    Live! at the Library: C-SPAN's "Books That Shaped America" Join a discussion with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, special literary guests and C-SPAN to kick off the new series “Books that Shaped America.”
    • Date: 2023-09-07
  • Film, Video
    Singing in Solidarity: Women's Voices Celebrate Labor Day In celebration of Labor Day, the Library's American Folklife Center honors the contributions of women of both the past and present. This compilation of Folklife Homegrown and other concerts includes performances by Thea Hopkins, Ialoni, Martha Gonzales, Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light, Piper Hayes, and the group, Windborne that feature the voices of women.
    • Date: 2023-09-06