america

The Justice Center of Rensselaer County is presenting their fourth annual Robert Doherty Memorial Lecture this week with Douglas Blackmon. Blackmon is a distinguished journalist, scholar, filmmaker, and the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.His talk: “What Comes Next? Redefining Police Power, Restoring Personal Freedom, Rebuilding Faith in American Democracy” will be held on Thursday, April 2nd @ 7PM in the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.

Albany’s Lost Radio Rounders are a true acoustic trio featuring Tom Lindsay on guitar and vocals, Paul Jossman on banjo and guitar, and Michael Eck on mandolin and guitar.Their themed musical/historical programs attract audiences interested in both the songs and the stories behind them. At most Lost Radio Rounders shows you will find no amplifiers, no instrument cables, and a minimum of P.A. gear. Their 2026 offering America 250: Songs & Stories debuted at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in January, and they are playing alllllll over this year. Michael Eck and Tom Lindsay join us!

Journalist Eugene Robinson has spent decades chronicling American democracy. In his new book, 'Freedom Lost, Freedom Won,' Robinson blends sweeping history with personal narrative, grounding the national struggle for civil rights in his own family’s story.

Journalist Eugene Robinson has spent decades chronicling American democracy. In his new book, 'Freedom Lost, Freedom Won,' Robinson blends sweeping history with personal narrative, grounding the national struggle for civil rights in his own family’s story.

Most of us think we’d never fall for a cult. But toxic groups don’t just exist on the fringe. They thrive in boardrooms, group chats, fitness classes, political rallies, religious groups, and corporate retreats—anywhere we seek identity, purpose, and belonging.The new book, "The Culting of America," cult survivor, scholar, and former Army intelligence officer Daniella Mestyanek Young—author of the bestselling memoir Uncultured looks to dismantle the illusion that cults are rare or easy to spot.

Walter Isaacson is a biographer of geniuses like Benjamin Franklin and in his new book he reveals the origins of the most genius revolutionary line in the Declaration of Independence. He does so in his book “The Greatest Sentence Ever Written.”

This Saturday, October 25, Hudson Hall presents a special preview performance of “What is Your Hand in This?,” a new collaboration between acclaimed baritone Davóne Tines and early music band Ruckus.The performance will be broadcast live as part of WAMC’s On the Road series.

In the #1 “New York Times” bestseller “So You Want To Talk About Race” Ijeoma Oluo offered a vital guide for how to talk about important issues of race and racism in society. In the book “Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy Of White Male America” she discussed the ways in which white male supremacy had an impact on our systems, our culture, and our lives throughout American history.

It is 1883, and America is at a crossroads. At a tiny college in Upstate New York, an idealistic young professor has managed to convince Mark Twain, Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Confederate memoirist Forrest Taylor, and romance novelist Lucy Comstock to participate in the first (and last) Auburn Writers’ Conference for a public discussion about the future of the nation."The Auburn Conference" is a new novel by Tom Piazza.

Pianist Jacqueline Schwab will perform a concert entitled “Mothers and Children: A Mother's Day Concert of Hope and Peace” at the Guilderland Public Library this Sunday, May 14 at 2 p.m.Schwab’s signature piano playing features in over a dozen of Ken Burns’ documentaries, including his Grammy-winning “Civil War,” “Baseball,” “The War” and others. As a solo pianist, she has performed vintage American music in almost every state of the union. Her latest album is “I Life My Lamp: Illuminations from Immigrant America.”