...the week when the world listens.

 

 

Joy and Power of Great Talk
to be celebrated at New York events during global Conversation Week March 22-29, 2009

CONVERSATION WEEK 2009 IN NEW YORK CITY

See the list of events at the bottom of the page, and check back. More events are being added weekly.

Contact: Ron Gross at [email protected]

Imagine thousands of New Yorkers coming together in public spaces throughout the five boroughs…discussing the ten most important questions facing the world today…and comparing their insights with those of comparable groups throughout the world, via the Internet.

That's going to happen during Conversation Week 2009, as part of the global program sponsored by Conversation Cafe.

From March 22-29, 2009, New Yorkers will be offered a wealth of opportunities for street-level conversations in informal groups, using the city's publics spaces such as its 329 parks (including “vest pocket” ones in every neighborhood), 81 branch libraries, 567 churches, 56 campuses, 111 office building atria, and other available venues. This project will build on successful precursors in Seattle, Paris, Vancouver, and other cities, and on the success of a pilot in Manhattan last year.

Twenty-five events are already scheduled for 2009.

These conversation groups will be maximally visible, open, handicapped-accessible, and hospitable to all. They will enhance neighborhood life with friendliness and mutual respect. They will also stimulate Big Talk – cultural, intellectual, political, and civic.

"We the people need to find our voices again," says Ronald Gross, project coordinator, who co-chairs the University Seminar on Innovation, at Columbia University. "Let's revive the great American tradition of discussing the challenges we face, passionat but respectfully."

The project will also display for a worldwide audience, an image of New York City as a modern-day Athens, where citizens engage with one another in convivial, productive, and exhilarating discourse.

As the vanguard of the global Conversation Week initiative, participants will have the added excitement of being part of a worldwide event. Thousands of people in over a hundred different countries will be choosing one among 10 important questions to discuss during that week, and in the aftermath anyone will be able to go on-line and find out how other groups throughout the world handled their question.

This non-profit project is sponsored by the Conversation Café. The project coordinator is Ronald Gross, co-chair of the University Seminar on Innovation in Education, at Columbia University (www.columbiaseminar.org).

New York will be the flagship of a national campaign involving six other cities, and a concomitant global activity reaching people in over 100 countries. Want to be involved, by attending a group, or convening your own? The website ( www.conversationcafe.org ) provides free how-to, materials, and PR support. "Guerilla Conversationalist" Ron Gross is available by e-mail (address at top) to help you find a venue, get publicity, etc. Among the free events already scheduled are the following, all handicapped-accessible; special assistance will also be provided, on request, for persons with hearing or visual limitations. In a few cases advance registration by e-mail will be required due to space limitation. All dates/times/locations should be checked for changes on March 1, 2009.

• SOCRATES will return after 2,500 years at noon on March 20, the first day of Spring, to conduct one of his famed dialogues with all-comers at Olympic Tower (where else?), 645 Fifth Avenue, on 54 th Street east of Fifth Avenue.

• BEYOND SCHMOOZING: GREAT CONVERSATION HERE AND NOW, a preview of Conversation Week in NYC, by Ronald Gross, on Wednesday, March 4, 6:30 p.m., at a mid-Manhattan location TBA.

• CONVERSATION CAFÉ on-the-street, Monday, March 23, noon, on the steps of the New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue and 42 nd Street, conducted by Ronald Gross.

• CONVERSATION CAFÉ, Monday, March 23, noon, New York University, Gallatin Division, location TBA, conducted by Bill Caspary.

• CONVERSATION CAFÉ, Monday, March 23, 5:30 p.m., West 29 th Street bet. 7 th and 8 th Avenues (address provided on pre-registration), conducted by Art Park.

• CONVERSATION CAFÉ, Monday, March 23, 12:30 p.m., 135 th St. and Amsterdam Avenue (address provided on registration), conducted by Janet Avery.

• SOCRATES CAFE, Tuesday, March 24, 6:45 p.m., IBM Atrium, 590 Madison Ave., between 56 th and 57 th Streets, conducted by Evan Sinclair (look for the red balloon).

• CONVERSATION CAFÉ, Tuesday, March 24, noon, Brooklyn Collegiate High School, Brooklyn, conducted by Rohini Parikh.

• CONVERSATION CAFÉ, Wednesday, March 25, 6 p.m., Brooklyn, location TBA, conducted by Shelly Neiderbach.

• CONVERSATION CAFÉ, Wednesday, March 25, 5:30 p.m., Barnes and Noble Bookstore, Lexington Ave. bet. 85th and 86th St, Manhattan, conducted by Yvonne Blanche.

• CONVERSATION CAFÉ, Wednesday, March 25, 3 p.m., St. Joseph's College, 245 Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn, conducted by Gail Lamberta.

• CONVERSATION CAFÉ, Wednesday, March 25, 3:00 p.m., location TBA, conducted by Linda Farhood-Karasawa.

• CAFÉ PHILO, Thursday, March 26, 6:30 p.m., Bamiyan Restaurant, 358 Third Avenue at 26 th Street, conducted by Bernard Roy. (No purchase necessary.)

• CONVERSATION CAFÉ, Thursday, March 26, 6:45 p.m., IBM Atrium, 590 Madison Ave., between 56 th and 57 th Streets, conducted by Terri McNichol.

• SOCRATIC CONVERSATION, Thursday, March 26, 4 p.m., Gottesman Library, 525 W. 120 th Street, Columbia University, conducted by Ronald Gross.

• CONVERSATION CAFÉ, Saturday, March 28, 11 a.m., Socrates Restaurant, 101 Hudson Street, facilitator TBA.

• CONVERSATION CAFÉ, Sunday, March 29, noon, Socrates Sculpture Park, Broadway at Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, facilitator TBA.

Additional events are currently being scheduled at a rate of three per week.