Upcoming events

Event Calendar

    • 20 Dec 2023
    • 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
    • The Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park S, New York, NY 10003
    Register

    Poetry Book Launch

    First Letter of My Alphabet

    by Lance Strate

    Join us on Wednesday, December 20th, as we celebrate the publication of First Letter of My Alphabet, the latest book by Institute of General Semantics President Lance Strate. The New York Society for General Semantics is pleased to host a reading and book signing with the author, also featuring a musical performance by composer Iris Karlin of several songs with lyrics based on Strate's poetry. The event is cosponsored by the Institute of General Semantics.

    About the Book: This 3rd collection of poetry by Lance Strate is his most spiritual, and his most intimate. First Letter of My Alphabet is a personal pentateuch, populated by a diverse cast of characters that include Adam andffir Eve, Moses, Saul, Qohelet, Joan of Arc, Marie Curie, Brigitte Bardot, Max Weinberg, an assortment of superheroes, the Tailors of Eternity, angels and avatars, and the Supreme Being in myriad manifestations. Flashes of humor mix with bittersweet memory, poignant longings for escape are juxtaposed with calls for resistance and transcendence, sound and vision, speech and inscription, language and symbol, history and memory, past and present, the particular and the universal, the intellectual and the ineffable, all come together in a volume that speaks to flesh and blood and mind and soul as one.

    Review: “Lance Strate has reached poetic Nirvana in his new collection First Letter of My Alphabet. Strate covers big philosophic territory with simplicity and exquisite language. This is truly a collection showcasing the sparkle of words spread wide and deep.”
    ⏤Doris White, Professor of Language, Literature, Culture, and Writing, William Paterson University

    “This is an inspired, frightening hopeful book. Anchored in Hebraic tradition, some of Strate’s poems call to mind the apocalyptic Dylan of Hard Rain, the Coleman Barks version of Rumi, and The Book of Revelations. But there is levity too–wit, wisdom and the lightning connectivity of ‘wordplay’ to take us laterally into unexpected illuminations. “It is not thought that confirms existence/that's putting Descartes in front of the horse's mouth.” Remembrances of a 60s New York childhood are delightful and endearing while the more dire summoning of a parentage only made possible by survival of the Holocaust gives a profound grounding to Strate’s wonders and questions: “how strange it is to be born from flames that never burned me.” And so much more.”
    ⏤Robert Priest, poet, playwright, and songwriter, author of Reading the Bible Backwards and If I Didn’t Love the River

    “This personal collection of mnemonics moves me beyond measure. It is a playful masterpiece of persistence and patience. Lance Strate is simply the best poet I know.”
    ⏤Michelle Shocked, singer-songwriter

    Come join us for an affecting and euphonious evening!

    6 PM to 9 PM Wednesday, December 20th at the historic Players Club in Gramercy Park. 

    Registration is free, but all attendees must be registered in order to gain admittance to the club. This includes any guests you might want to bring with you.

    The program will take place in the Library on the 2nd floor of the club. Please note that, as an historic 19th century landmark, the site is not handicap accessible. Dress code is business casual and is strictly enforced, including no sneakers, shorts, ripped jeans, t-shirts).

Past events

27 Oct 2023 AKML & Symposium
30 Sep 2023 Combining: A Reading by Nora Bateson
10 May 2023 Art and Technology: An Overview of 20 Years of Cooperative Creative Practice
25 Apr 2023 Film Screening: The Frontier Gandhi
28 Mar 2023 Non-Aristotelian Reading Circle - Concerning Communication (Strate)
27 Jan 2023 Democracy and Media Ecology
20 Dec 2022 Non-Aristotelian Reading Circle
12 Dec 2022 Metaphors and Definitions: A General Semantics Look at the Language of Pain, Addiction, and the Opioid Epidemic
30 Nov 2022 Massaging the Medium: An Evening with Adeena Karasick
11 Nov 2022 Challenging Some Common-Sense Notions About Language
28 Oct 2022 The Issue of Is: A Commentary on The Case Against the Verb “To Be”
31 May 2022 Non-Aristotelian Reading Circle: People in Quandaries
30 Dec 2021 Non-Aristotelian Reading Circle - Language in Thought and Action
21 Apr 2021 The Intimacy of Enemies: When Maps and Territories are in Conflict and What We Can Do About It
02 Dec 2020 General Semantics and All That Jazz
29 Oct 2020 The Election and the Semantic Environment
10 Oct 2020 The Semantic Environment in a Time of Uncertainty Symposium
09 Oct 2020 The 68th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture
18 Mar 2020 The Intimacy of Enemies: When Maps and Territories are in Conflict and What We Can Do about It
19 Feb 2020 What Would Korzbyski Say? A Panel Discussion
24 Jan 2020 The State of the Semantic Environment 2020
18 Dec 2019 Mediating the Sexes: Women, Technology & Work in American Narrative
20 Nov 2019 The Language of Poetry 3
16 Oct 2019 Politics and Public Discourse 2019: A Panel Discussion
12 Oct 2019 The Tyranny of Words Symposium
11 Oct 2019 The 67th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture & Dinner
18 Sep 2019 General Semantics & GIFs: A Panel Discussion on Symbols & Social Media
05 Jun 2019 The Medium of the Sidewalk: Holocaust Commemoration and Stolpersteine
01 May 2019 Shine the Light: A Presentation by Seamus Kelleher in Story and Song
12 Apr 2019 General Semantics as a Conversing Activity: A Book Reading and Talk by Martin H. Levinson
20 Mar 2019 Between Two Worlds: A Reading and Conversation with Vasu Varadhan
20 Feb 2019 Theatre and Translation: A Reading and Conversation With Robin Levenson
18 Jan 2019 The State of the Semantic Environment
19 Dec 2018 What is Sanity? And Have We Lost It?
28 Nov 2018 The Reformed English Curriculum Revisited 2
27 Oct 2018 Language and Meaning in the 21st Century Symposium
26 Oct 2018 The 66th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture & Dinner
03 Oct 2018 Political Talk and Political Drama: Election 2018
27 Jun 2018 Tom Wolfe, Man of Letters, Man of Words: A Panel Discussion
02 May 2018 Language, Symbol, and the Theatre
04 Apr 2018 The Language of Poetry 2
21 Feb 2018 Trauma: Semantic Reactions, Reflections, Retentions
26 Jan 2018 The Reformed English Curriculum Revisited
06 Dec 2017 Play, Learning, and Language: A Panel Discussion
03 Nov 2017 Dark Nets and Disruptive Practices
28 Oct 2017 Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk Symposium
27 Oct 2017 The 65th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture & Dinner
04 Oct 2017 Words, Mind and Magic
08 Sep 2017 Media Ecology and the Human Condition: A Reading and Conversation With Lance Strate
26 Apr 2017 Between Map and Territory: The Art of the Tour Guide
29 Mar 2017 Systems, Contexts, Frames, and Patterns: A Reading and Conversation With Nora Bateson
01 Mar 2017 Science Fiction, Language, and General Semantics
08 Feb 2017 Post-Truth, Alternate Facts, & Fake News
30 Nov 2016 Music-Lyrics-Language: Bob Dylan and the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature
26 Oct 2016 Political Talk and Political Drama Part 2
22 Oct 2016 Language in Thought and Action Symposium
21 Oct 2016 The 64th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture & Dinner
14 Oct 2016 New York State Communication Association Conference
28 Sep 2016 The Language of Poetry
09 Sep 2016 Political Talk and Political Drama: Election 2016
02 Jun 2016 NYSGS Meet-Up


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