Announcing the 16th Annual New Yorker Festival, October 2-4 in New York City
Featuring Adam Driver, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, Zaha Hadid, Joi Ito, Billy Joel, JR, Norman Lear, Congressman John
Lewis, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Toni Morrison, Mark Ronson, Sleater-Kinney, Patti Smith, and More Than 125 Others
And Introducing Tech@Fest, a Special Series of Events Exploring Technology’s Place in Society
(New York, N.Y. – September 8, 2015)—On October 2, 3, and 4, 2015, The New Yorker will present its sixteenth annual
Festival, a three-day celebration that brings to life the magazine’s rich reporting and incisive cultural coverage, plus live
performances, film previews, and one-of-a-kind excursions throughout New York City. Drawing together an acclaimed
and exciting group of writers, artists, and thinkers from a range of fields—including film, music, television, politics,
architecture, science, food, and literature—the Festival is New York City’s foremost cultural event of the season.
This year, the New Yorker Festival will introduce Tech@Fest, a slate of programs on Friday, October 2nd, and Saturday,
October 3rd, featuring innovators, engineers, artists, entrepreneurs, and disruptors discussing the radical implications of
technological advancements and their potential to transform our world. Tech@Fest will take place in the Condé Nast
photography studios at One World Trade Center, home of The New Yorker.
Since the Festival’s inception, events have sold out quickly, drawing nearly twenty thousand people from around the world
every year. The full program guide is available at newyorker.com/festival and on the New Yorker Festival app, available for
iPhone and Android devices. The September 14, 2015, issue of the magazine, on newsstands now, also features the
Festival schedule.
Below is the program lineup, in brief. To request press credentials, email Adrea Piazza at Adrea_Piazza@newyorker.com.
Please specify which event(s) you are interested in covering.
This year’s one-on-one interviews with luminaries in a variety of fields include:
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The actor Adam Driver in conversation with The New Yorker’s Lizzie Widdicombe
The creators and stars of “Broad City,” Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, in conversation with The New Yorker’s
Emily Nussbaum
The actor Jason Segel in conversation with The New Yorker’s Michael Schulman
The writer, performer, and visual artist Patti Smith in conversation with The New Yorker’s David Remnick, in
advance of the publication of her forthcoming book
The author Toni Morrison in conversation with The New Yorker’s Hilton Als
The actor Jesse Eisenberg in conversation with The New Yorker’s Susan Morrison
The rock band Sleater-Kinney in conversation with The New Yorker’s Dana Goodyear
The composer, lyricist, and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose musical “Hamilton” is now on Broadway, in
conversation with The New Yorker’s Rebecca Mead
The actress Julianna Margulies in conversation with The New Yorker’s Joshua Rothman
Congressman John Lewis, the only surviving member of the Big Six, the leaders of six prominent organizations at
the center of the civil-rights movement, in conversation with The New Yorker’s David Remnick
The writer and comedian Marc Maron in conversation with The New Yorker’s Kelefa Sanneh
The actor Jeffrey Tambor in conversation with The New Yorker’s Ariel Levy
The actress Sigourney Weaver in conversation with The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane
The author Don DeLillo in conversation with The New Yorker’s Deborah Treisman
The television writer and producer Norman Lear in conversation with The New Yorker’s Emily Nussbaum
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The architect Zaha Hadid in conversation with The New Yorker’s John Seabrook
The comedian, writer, producer, and television host Larry Wilmore in conversation with The New Yorker’s David
Remnick
The actor Damian Lewis in conversation with The New Yorker’s Lauren Collins
The filmmaker Andrew Jarecki in conversation with The New Yorker’s Patrick Radden Keefe
The comedian Jim Gaffigan in conversation with The New Yorker’s Andy Borowitz
The writers and New Yorker contributors Jonathan Safran Foer and George Saunders in conversation
The actress Ellie Kemper in conversation with The New Yorker’s Lauren Collins
The writer, screenwriter, and political activist Larry Kramer in conversation with The New Yorker’s Calvin Trillin
The writers and New Yorker contributors Junot Díaz and Aleksandar Hemon in conversation
Tech@Fest: Joi Ito, the director of the M.I.T. Media Lab, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in conversation with
the newyorker.com editor Nicholas Thompson
Tech@Fest: Sean Murray, the architect of the hotly anticipated video game No Man’s Sky, in conversation with
The New Yorker’s Raffi Khatchadourian. Murray will also give a sneak preview of the game.
There will be conversations accompanied by musical performances, featuring:
• The singer, songwriter, and composer Billy Joel in conversation with The New Yorker’s Nick Paumgarten
• The recording artist Mark Ronson in conversation with The New Yorker’s John Seabrook
• The musician and composer Trey Anastasio, of Phish, in conversation with The New Yorker’s Alec Wilkinson
• The pop-rock group HAIM in conversation with The New Yorker’s Kelefa Sanneh
• The New R. & B.: Azekel, Bilal, James Fauntleroy, and Kelela in conversation, moderated by The New Yorker’s
Andrew Marantz
• The sounds of Cuba: the journalist Elaine Díaz Rodríguez, the musician Pedrito Martinez, and the writer Yoss
will engage in a conversation, accompanied by performances from Descemer Bueno and the Pedrito Martinez
Group. Moderated by The New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson.
• Tech@Fest: SoundCloud Lounge: the SoundCloud founder and C.E.O. Alexander Ljung in conversation with
The New Yorker’s John Seabrook. Musical performances from prominent SoundCloud artists to be announced.
• Tech@Fest: the comedian, actor, writer, and musician Reggie Watts, who is known for creating improvised sets
with his voice, keyboard, and a looping machine, in conversation with The New Yorker’s Emma Allen.
And sneak previews:
• A preview screening of the HBO documentary “Very Semi-Serious: A Partially Thorough Portrait of New Yorker
Cartoonists.” The screening will be accompanied by a conversation with the New Yorker cartoonists Liana Finck,
Emily Flake, Mort Gerberg, and the cartoon editor, Robert Mankoff. Moderated by the New Yorker cartoonist
Roz Chast.
• A preview screening of the feature film “The Lady in the Van,” which is adapted from a play by Alan Bennett,
followed by a conversation between The New Yorker’s Judith Thurman and the director, Nicholas Hytner.
• A preview screening of the short film “Ellis,” starring Robert De Niro, followed by a conversation between The
New Yorker’s Françoise Mouly and the artist JR, who directed the film.
• A reading of the forthcoming play “Cleo,” written by The New Yorker’s Lawrence Wright, which details the
fraught production of the 1963 Hollywood film “Cleopatra” and the scandalous love affair between Elizabeth
Taylor and Richard Burton, which brought condemnation from the Vatican. Directed by Bob Balaban, with
Damian Lewis as Richard Burton and other cast members to be announced.
Panel discussions on a wide array of subjects will include:
• “The Fire This Time: Black in America,” a panel about black identity and conditional citizenship, featuring the
writer Ta-Nehisi Coates; the actor and activist Jesse Williams; the journalist, screenwriter, and producer David
Simon; the author Claudia Rankine; and the actress, playwright, and activist Danai Gurira. Moderated by The
New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb.
• “The Really Big One,” a panel about the earthquake that threatens to devastate the Pacific Northwest, as detailed
in Kathryn Schulz’s New Yorker piece of the same name, featuring Chris Goldfinger, a professor of geology and
geophysics at Oregon State University and one of the leading experts on the Pacific Northwest earthquake fault;
Stephen Mahin, the director of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center and a professor of structural
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engineering at the University of California, Berkeley; and Carmen Merlo, the director of the Portland Bureau of
Emergency Management. Moderated by The New Yorker’s Kathryn Schulz.
“The Writing Process,” a panel about putting words to paper, featuring the authors Jeffrey Eugenides, Sheila
Heti, and Ben Lerner. Moderated by The New Yorker’s Cressida Leyshon.
“The Hillary Question,” a panel about Hillary Clinton’s career, campaign, and quest to become America’s first
female President, featuring the writer Roxane Gay; Frances Townsend, the former assistant to President George
W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; Geraldo Cadava, an immigration professor at
Northwestern University; and The New Yorker’s Amy Davidson. Moderated by The New Yorker’s Jill Lepore.
“Justice Delayed: Guilty Until Proven Innocent,” a panel on wrongful convictions, featuring Tyrone Hood, the
subject of a New Yorker Profile by Nicholas Schmidle detailing the more than twenty years he spent in prison for a
crime he didn’t commit; the former Governor of Illinois Patrick Quinn, who acted on nearly five thousand
clemency petitions while in office; Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson; and Shawn Armbrust, the
executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. Moderated by The New Yorker’s Nicholas Schmidle.
“Nouveau Science Fiction,” a panel about reinventing the genre, featuring the author Emily St. John Mandel; the
screenwriter, producer, and actress Brit Marling; and the television producer and screenwriter Jonathan Nolan.
Moderated by The New Yorker’s Daniel Zalewski.
“Misfits,” a panel about complicated characters in literature, featuring the writers Joshua Ferris, Yiyun Li, and
Lionel Shriver. Moderated by The New Yorker’s Willing Davidson.
Tech@Fest: “CRISPR,” a panel about cutting-edge gene technology, featuring the biochemist Jennifer Doudna,
who is credited with the discovery of a streamlined technique for altering an organism’s DNA; Kevin Esvelt, a
technology-development fellow at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University; Feng Zhang, a member of the Broad
Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard University; Henry T. Greely, a professor specializing in genetics at Stanford
University and the director of the Stanford Center on Law and the Biosciences. Moderated by The New Yorker’s
Michael Specter.
Tech@Fest: “Cyber Privacy,” a panel on information ownership, featuring the attorney Cindy Cohn, who
currently oversees multiple lawsuits against the N.S.A. for its mass spying programs; Nick Denton, the founder
and chief executive of Gawker Media; and Barton Gellman, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and a
lecturer and author in residence at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Moderated by The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos.
The program will feature talks on a variety of subjects:
• The New Yorker’s Atul Gawande asks “Was Your Operation Necessary?”
• The New Yorker’s Malcolm Gladwell on “Conjuring the Behemoth”
• The New Yorker contributor Andrew Solomon on “Love Against the Odds: Parents, Children, and the Search for
Identity”
• The New Yorker’s Larissa MacFarquhar on extreme giving, the subject of her new book, “Strangers Drowning”
• The New Yorker cartoonist Matthew Diffee presents “Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive People: A OneMan Show with Pictures and Music”
This year’s About Town excursions, which offer a curated look at New York City culture, led by New Yorker staff, will
include:
• The art critic Peter Schjeldahl leading a tour of the Whitney Museum before public hours begin, followed by
coffee and conversation.
• Calvin Trillin leading his fourteenth-annual walk from Greenwich Village to Chinatown, stopping at his favorite
eateries along the way.
• Critic-curated, travelling “Tables for Two” themed dinner parties at a variety of Manhattan restaurants.
“Noodletown” will be hosted by Silvia Killingsworth; “Healthy-ish” will be hosted by Amelia Lester; “French
Twist” will be hosted by Shauna Lyon.
MasterCard® is the presenting sponsor of the New Yorker Festival. The Festival is also sponsored by Acura, United
Airlines, Autograph Collection Hotels, The Glenlivet, and Shinola. Tech@Fest is sponsored by Citi and The
Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
The weekend’s lineup will feature two sponsor events:
• Tech@Fest: “The Future of Money: The Next Big Innovation,” presented by Citi, will explore how technology is
shaping the way we think about and interact with money.
• “Flavor Profiles,” presented by The Glenlivet, will bring together leading voices from the New York food scene to
discuss how our own personal histories inform the food and drink we create.
Major sponsors have offerings for Festival-goers all weekend long, including:
• Special treats at the New York culinary hot spots Il Gelato at Eataly (200 Fifth Avenue), Doughnut Plant (220
West 23rd Street), and The Meatball Shop (200 Ninth Avenue) for MasterCard cardholders
• Complimentary shuttle service between venues, provided by Acura
• The United Airlines Lounge for breaks, book signings, and food and drink between events (the cell, 338 West
23rd Street)
• A special Festival hotel package at The Algonquin (59 West 44th Street) and The Lexington (511 Lexington
Avenue) hotels, part of the Autograph Collection
• New Yorker cartoonists drawing guests and their dogs in-store at Shinola (177 Franklin Street)
• A digital art installation at Tech@Fest, featuring the artist Laurie Simmons’s 2014 film “Ringtone,” on loan from
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
Tickets will go on sale on Friday, September 11th, at 12 P.M. E.T., and may be purchased at newyorker.com/festival. As
a special offer for MasterCard cardholders, tickets to all Festival events will be available in an advance ticket sale
beginning at 9 A.M. E.T. on Thursday, September 10th, and continuing until 12 midnight, at newyorker.com/festival.
All remaining tickets will be sold at the SVA Theatre box office throughout Festival weekend. A limited number of
tickets will be sold at the door to each event one hour before start time, with some exceptions (these are noted at
newyorker.com/festival).
Download the New Yorker Festival app, free for iOS and Android devices, and get the complete program, ticketing
information, neighborhood guides from the editors of Goings On About Town, and more. You can also create your own
Festival itinerary and receive notifications with last-minute ticket availability.
Follow the Festival across social platforms—on Twitter (@NewYorkerFest, #NYerFest), Facebook (New Yorker Festival),
and Snapchat (newyorkermag)—in the lead-up to the event and throughout the weekend to receive updates, tips, and
information about last-minute tickets. Check in to Festival events on Foursquare, and follow The New Yorker
(foursquare.com/newyorker) for tips about the Festival and other sites about town. And visit the Festival blog
(www.newyorker.com/culture/new-yorker-festival) for full information on all Festival participants, recaps,
announcements, and amusements.
Video clips from select events will be available at video.newyorker.com. Tech@Fest events will be streamed on Periscope
via @NewYorkerFest.
New Yorker Festival Press Contacts:
Natalie Raabe, (212) 286-6591; natalie_raabe@newyorker.com
Mary Wible Vertin, (917) 593-3223; mevertin@gmail.com
Molly Erman, (212) 286-7936; molly_erman@newyorker.com
Adrea Piazza, (212) 286-4255; adrea_piazza@newyorker.com