Who built the Empire State Building? Glen Kurtz knows! Plus Jon Weber on the piano

Must RSVP by the Friday before

$55 admission includes a three-course lunch payable at the door by cash or check only

Glenn Kurtz is the author of Men at Work: The Empire State Building and the Untold Story of the Craftsmen Who Built It (Seven Stories Press, 2025), which recovers the identities of the construction workers in Lewis W. Hine’s iconic photographs. His previous book, Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2014), was named a “Best Book of 2014” by The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, and National Public Radio. A documentary film based on the book, Three Minutes—A Lengthening, directed by Bianca Stigter, co-produced by Academy Award-winner Steve McQueen, and narrated by Helena Bonham Carter, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2021. A New York Times Critics’ Pick, it was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival 2022, and received the inaugural Yad Vashem Award for Excellence in Holocaust Documentary Filmmaking. Glenn’s first book, Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), received enthusiastic reviews from The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere and was featured on NPR’s “Weekend Edition” with Scott Simon. The recipient of a 2016-2017 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Glenn graduated from Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music, and he holds a PhD from Stanford University.

Men at Work. Who built the Empire State Building? The answer to this question is, We don’t know. While the names of the architects, the contractors, and the businessmen who financed the construction are well documented, astonishingly, no list of workmen on this historic project was ever compiled. For the first time, Men at Work: The Empire State Building and the Untold Story of the Craftsmen Who Built It uncovers the previously unknown identities of the construction workers who appear in Lewis W. Hine’s iconic photographs. For almost a century, these “anonymous” workers have illustrated the heroic tale of the Empire State’s record-breaking construction and have served as symbols of the American spirit in the midst of the Great Depression. Now, as the building celebrates its 95th anniversary, we finally learn the names and real-life histories of the ordinary men who built the world’s most famous skyscraper.

Jon Weber is one of our favorite jazz pianists and composers, whose dazzling performances and inventive compositions have earned critical and popular acclaim around the world. Largely self-taught, Weber possesses perfect pitch and extraordinary melodic recall, allowing him to summon thousands of songs instantly at the keyboard. He has performed and recorded internationally and collaborated with renowned artists including Gary Burton, Roy Hargrove, and Avishai Cohen. A celebrated broadcaster as well as performer, Weber appeared on NPR’s Piano Jazz with the legendary Marian McPartland and was later chosen as her successor, hosting the program’s modern incarnation, Piano Jazz with Jon Weber. Equally at home as a virtuoso performer, composer, and jazz historian, Weber brings brilliance, wit, and a deep knowledge of the American Songbook to every performance.