The 2015-16 House of SpeakEasy author visits to Union Settlement’s College Readiness Program have included such luminaries as novelist Susan Minot, composer and lyricist Michael Friedman, Tony-award winning playwright Doug Wright, comedian and head writer for The Daily Show, Elliot Kalan, philosopher and novelist Rebecca Goldstein and New York Times best-selling author and international journalist Hooman Majd. Pulitzer prize-winning critic and memoirist Margo Jefferson is scheduled for the fall.
Unlike many school programs, SpeakTogether isn’t a tutorial or a lecture. Instead, in true SpeakEasy style, it seeks to bring together writers and students – particularly those with few opportunities for such interaction – for a conversation about writing and storytelling. Our partner in this venture, Union Settlement Association, has been working with families in East Harlem since 1895. Their College Readiness Program, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary, has helped more than 18,000 students achieve a 90% acceptance rate at institutions of higher learning and is currently serving nearly 1,400 high-schoolers with academic advising, test preparation, college trips, and application assistance.
Despite February’s blustery winds and biting temperatures, House of SpeakEasy’s 3rd Annual Gala ushered in the icy month with fiery panache and red-hot enthusiasm. Cozy inside City Winery, 250 guests celebrated SpeakEasy’s second birthday and toasted another year of Seriously Entertaining shows. The host of the night, literary luminary Salman Rushdie, introduced each of the writers of the evening to speak on this year’s gala theme “I’ll Have Another”. Aptly, the night’s Grand Quizmaster was chess god Garry Kasparov, who delivered the literary quizzes with his signature grace and charm.
Author and radio show host Kurt Andersen led off the lineup of speakers, delighting the audience with tales of his boyhood before being joined by playwright and actress Sarah Jones for a surprise duo performance. Ms. Jones then continued solo, showcasing the multitude of diverse identities she can assume in a wickedly entertaining 5-minute taste of her acclaimed one-woman show. Best-selling historian Erik Larson let the audience in on the secret of his wife’s crucial role in his book-writing and editing process before the last speaker of the night, SpeakEasy veteran Irvine Welsh, finished things off with a story that included questionable hygiene, a brothel, and, of course, his homeland of Scotland.
Fundraising for our range of community programming – our free ticket program for teachers (SpeakFreely), our after-school writer workshops with Union Settlement’s College Readiness Program (SpeakTogether), and our latest endeavor, a mobile book truck for New York’s book deserts – was central to the evening events. SpeakEasy co-founder Dr. Amanda Foreman led the charge in garnering support for these efforts. Things got exciting when Garry Kasparov volunteered a chess game with himself, and Dr. Foreman donated a dinner with Downton Abbey’s dreamy Dan Stevens, as incentives. As the night concluded, our brilliant speakers were grandly applauded, the clever quiz winners were announced, and our generous friends, supporters, and sponsors were thanked for the over $235,000 raised in support of House of SpeakEasy’s mission.