Lucas Wittmann's Contact Details

Lucas Wittmann's Company Details

HOUSE OF SPEAKEASY FOUNDATION

NEW YORK, NY, US • 5 - 9 Employees
Government

House of SpeakEasy is a home for close encounters of a literary kind: a place where authors and their audiences come together in innovative and sustaining ways to build bridges through storytelling. Founded in 2013 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit by the biographer and historian Amanda Foreman and the editor Lucas Wittmann, SpeakEasy is dedicated to the idea that literature matters, and that the essence of literary culture is the relationship between writers and their readers. To foster that relationship SpeakEasy seeks to: 1) Bring authors out from behind the book, lectern, or screen into direct contact with audiences;2) Ensure that writers are compensated for their work and their time; 3) Stimulate the audiences (and authors) of tomorrow by exposing them to the best writing of today.At root, SpeakEasy believes that book ownership and access to books should not be privileges. We fulfill our mission through four primary programs: The SpeakTogether program connects SpeakEasy writers with students and teachers in public schools in Brooklyn, The Bronx, and East Harlem, and at community centers, including Union Settlement Association's highly regarded after-school College Readiness Program.SpeakFreely makes free tickets available to Seriously Entertaining and Shakespeare in the Park shows for teachers and students throughout New York City. The SpeakEasy Bookmobile delivers new books, and often their authors, to "book deserts," areas where few or no bookstores exist.SpeakEasy's flagship program is an acclaimed series of literary cabarets, "Seriously Entertaining." Each month, authors take the stage to riff and ruminate informally, dinner-theater-style, on the evening's theme. The Wall Street Journal calls it "Think-y entertainment for New York's book-loving crowd." Performances are usually held at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater in New York City.