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Monday, April 6, 2026 – Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library
Senior project support
Monday, April 6, 2026 – Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library

Senior projects are due Wednesday, April 29 by 5:00 p.m.! The library has many resources to help you get to the finish line:

Online resources
Senior project examples
Senior project submission and formatting guidelines
Submit your project to Digital Commons

Help & support
- For writing help, attend Shut up & Sproj on Fridays from 3:30-5 pm in room 402, or request an appointment with Jane Smith, Associate Director of Library Writing Support, for feedback on your draft.
- For help with research, citations, or formatting, ask at the research help desk on the first floor, or make an appointment with a librarian for 1:1 help.
- Drop-in help will be available at Sproj Clinics on Thursday, April 23 from 5-7 p.m. or Sunday, April 26 from 3-5 pm.
Thursday, April 16, 2026
6:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Stevenson Library

Black Poetry in Times of Crisis

A Reading and Conversation with Kevin Young and Evie Shockley
Thursday, April 16, 2026
6:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Stevenson Library

On Thursday, April 16th, at 6pm in the Stevenson Library, poets Kevin Young and Evie Shockley will come together for a reading and conversation on writing and poetry in times of crisis. This event will launch the Black Poetry Day Collection in the Stevenson Library. All are welcome to attend.

Poet and literary scholar Evie Shockley thinks, creates and writes with her eye on a Black feminist horizon. Her books of poetry include suddenly we, semiautomatic and the new black. Her work has twice garnered the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, been named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and appeared internationally. Her honors include the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Award, the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Holmes National Poetry Prize and the Stephen Henderson Award. Her joys include participating in poetry communities such as Cave Canem and collaborating with like-minded artists working in various media. Shockley is the Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University.

Kevin Young is an American poet and the former director of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture. Author of 11 books and editor of eight others, Young previously served as Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. A winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as a finalist for the National Book Award for his 2003 collection Jelly Roll: A Blues, Young was Atticus Haygood Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University and curator of Emory's Raymond Danowski Poetry Library. In March 2017, Young was named poetry editor of The New Yorker.

The Black Poetry Day Collection was donated to Bard in 2023 by retired Director of the Plattsburgh Public Library Stanley Ransom and his wife, Christina Palhof Ransom (Bard alum ‘73). The collection includes autographed copies of books by each of the poets honored at Black Poetry Day at SUNY Plattsburgh from 1970 to the present.

Sponsored by: Center for Ethics and Writing, Written Arts Program, Stevenson Library, Ellison Center, and Office of the Dean of Inclusive Excellence

Contact: Megan Brien
E-mail: [email protected]
Friday, April 17, 2026
11:30 am – 12:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library, First Floor

AI and Reading: Lessons from Mickey Mouse and John Adams

a talk with Naomi S. Baron, Professor Emerita of Linguistics at American University
Friday, April 17, 2026
11:30 am – 12:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library, First Floor

Naomi S. Baron, Professor Emerita of Linguistics at American University

As a technology, modern AI is at once frighteningly productive (enter Mickey) and a genuine threat to our brains, not to mention to democracy (enter Adams). These challenges loom large when we turn to AI to do our reading for us. Don’t look to Big Tech to worry about the problem. The responsibility is upon us to understand what’s at stake and to forge strategies for protecting the place of human reading in our individual and communal lives.

Naomi S. Baron is Professor Emerita of Linguistics at American University. Her most recent book Reader Bot: What Happens When AI Reads and
Why It Matters (Stanford University Press) will be on sale during the event.

Closing reception to follow.

For event details or questions please contact: [email protected]

This talk is made possible thanks to the support of the Bard Reading Initiative, the Office of the Dean of the College, and an anonymous donor.

Sponsored by: Dean of the College and Bard Reading Initiative

Contact: Sherry Gildersleeve
E-mail: [email protected]
Friday, April 17, 2026
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library, Room 402

Shut Up & Sproj
Friday, April 17, 2026
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library, Room 402

Work on your Senior Project in a calm, quiet, and supportive space. By showing up for your project at the same time each week, you can turn 1.5 hours of focused work into a stable routine that yields real results over time.

Contact: Jane Smith
E-mail: [email protected]
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
5:30 pm – 8:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Bertelsmann Campus Center, Weis Cinema

The Librarians

Documentary screening and panel discussion
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
5:30 pm – 8:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Bertelsmann Campus Center, Weis Cinema

As an unprecedented wave of book banning is sparked in Texas, Florida, and beyond, librarians under siege join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy. The Librarians, which made its world premiere at Sundance and continued on to SXSW and Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, explores the urgent moment we find ourselves in. As an unprecedented wave of book banning is sparked in Texas, Florida, and beyond, librarians under siege join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy, flanked by concerned community members and young readers.
Join us for a screening of this important film, followed by a panel discussion with: Charlotte Adamis, retired public school librarian and active community organizer; Alex Geller, director of the Red Hook Public Library; Jennifer Laughran, senior agent at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency; Dinaw Mengestu, director of the Bard Written Arts Program and president of PEN America; and Dumaine Williams, vice president and dean of Bard Early Colleges. Film screening: 5:30 pm, panel discussion: 7:00 pm.

Contact: Alexa Murphy
E-mail: [email protected]
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
5:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Stevenson Library - 1st Floor

Literature Open House
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
5:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Stevenson Library - 1st Floor

Please join us for the Literature Program's Spring Open House. The Open House will be an opportunity to meet Literature faculty, hear about next semester's courses, talk with Literature seniors and other students about their experiences, and celebrate the spring semester.

Everyone, whether or not you've already taken a course in Literature, is welcome!

Sponsored by: Literature Program

Contact: Marisa Libbon
E-mail: [email protected]
Thursday, April 23, 2026
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library

Cagecircle: Open Curatorial Workshop
Thursday, April 23, 2026
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library

Using John Cage's chance procedures, we will select objects from collections across the Bard Network to be shown in a Stevenson Library exhibition from June 17 to July 31, 2026.

Sponsored by: Stevenson Library and the John Cage Trust

Contact: Heather Topick
E-mail: [email protected]
Sunday, May 24, 2026
Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library

Renaissance Books from Stevenson Library

Curated by students in HIS280: The Renaissance World
Sunday, May 24, 2026
Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library

Join us for an opening reception celebrating an exhibit curated by students in Professor Nathaniel Aschenbrenner's class, The Renaissance World, on Thursday, March 26 from 4 to 5 pm on the third floor of Stevenson Library. This exhibition is on view through through May 24.

Contact: Helene Tieger
E-mail: [email protected]
Monday, May 25, 2026
Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library, First Floor

We have been here before: Censorship and its combatants
Monday, May 25, 2026
Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library, First Floor

This exhibit traces a history of the book and of censorship with selections from the Alan Sussman Collection. Curated by Michael Orsini '13.