Library of Congress to Launch LIVE! AT THE LIBRARY Series in October

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Author Dana Bash will discuss pivotal elections, and trivia night will celebrate American folklife.

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Live! At the Library will open two of the Library of Congress's specialized reading rooms for special evening events in October. On Oct. 8, the African and Middle Eastern Reading Room hosts an open house featuring collection displays and a look at rare Arabic manuscripts. On Oct. 15, the Hispanic Reading Room welcomes visitors for an open house celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with collection displays, family-friendly activities and Reading Room tours.

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Bestselling author Dana Bash brings her new book, 'The Elections That Changed the World: Fifteen Pivotal Moments That Shaped How We Live,' to the Library on Oct. 15 for a discussion on the most consequential elections in world history, from ancient Rome to recent American politics.

For America's 250th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the American Folklife Center, visitors are invited to a special edition of 'Who Knew?' Trivia Night on Oct. 22. This month's theme focuses on the cultural practices and shared traditions found in communities across America. Trivia questions will cover the depth of folklife throughout the years. Guests will have the opportunity to talk with Library of Congress experts and view the new exhibition, 'Alive in Many Hands: The American Folklife Center at 50,' during extended hours.

During Live! At the Library on Thursday evenings, the Library's Thomas Jefferson Building and all exhibitions are open for extended hours from 5 to 8 p.m. Visitors are invited to enjoy happy hour drinks and snacks available for purchase in the Great Hall overlooking the Capitol. Live! At the Library attendees are also invited to experience the Main Reading Room. Usually reserved for researchers, visitors can now walk inside the reading room and see one of Washington's most beautiful spaces.

For events during Live! At the Library, an event registration ticketing link can be found next to each event listed below, or at loc.gov/live . This ticket grants access to the program as well as the Library's exhibitions and the happy hour portion of the evening.

Oct. 8: Visitors are invited to a special open house of the African and Middle Eastern Reading Room, featuring collection displays and tours. The Reading Room serves as an important starting point for research on African, Hebraic and Middle Eastern topics.

Oct. 8: Scholars Mbaye Lo and Carl Ernst will discuss the Arabic writings of enslaved African Muslims in the Americas and how those works were received in the United States. The conversation will focus on texts by Omar ibn Said, Abdurrahman and Sana See, exploring what they reveal about the lives, beliefs and intellectual traditions of West African Muslims in the Americas during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A special curated display of the Omar ibn Said collection and related materials will be on view starting at 4 p.m. prior to the conversation. This event will be held in the Mumford Room of the James Madison Memorial Building.

Oct. 15: Join librarians, specialists and curators for a drop-in open house highlighting collections related to celebrations and cultural traditions observed by Latino communities across the United States. Visitors can explore collection displays and participate in family-friendly activities, including trivia, Hispanic Reading Room tours and papel picado crafts, and learn more about Library resources and services.

Oct. 15: Bestselling author Dana Bash brings her new book, 'The Elections That Changed the World: Fifteen Pivotal Moments That Shaped How We Live,' to the Library of Congress. Bash takes readers from ancient Rome to recent American history, examining the 15 most consequential elections in world history.

Oct. 15: A lecture titled 'Gods, Rabbis, and Kabbalists,' by Professor Maoz Kahana, explores how Jewish scholars reimagined classical mythology between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment to examine identity, memory and spirituality.

Oct. 22: Neta Elkayam will perform with her New Orleans band, joined by special guest Moroccan vocalist Siham Chala. The concert celebrates Morocco's intertwined Jewish and Muslim musical traditions. This program is made possible through the support of Lilly Endowment Inc.

Oct. 22: In celebration of America's 250th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the American Folklife Center, visitors are invited to a special edition of 'Who Knew?' Trivia Night. This month's theme focuses on shared traditions found in communities across America. From long-standing traditional songs to memes and contemporary legends, the trivia questions will cover the depth and breadth of folklife today.

Oct. 29: The Rare Book and Special Collections Division will host 'Our Common Table: The Sweets That Bring Us Together.' The event explores American history through food. Panelists KC Hysmith, Stacey Mei Yan Fong and Lokelani Alabanza will discuss how desserts reveal stories of memory, migration and belonging, drawing on the division's historic cookbooks, recipes and ephemera. The evening closes with a display of culinary treasures and a dessert social.

Visitors can take a trip through a re-created version of Thomas Jefferson 's Library , which assembles 6,487 volumes that founded the Library of Congress, and learn how one of America's great thinkers was inspired through the world of books.

' The Declaration's Promise ,' in the David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery, explores the foundational principles of the Declaration of Independence and their impact on American history. Featured treasures include Thomas Jefferson 's rough draft of the Declaration of Independence and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, among other items. The new exhibition begins with the Revolutionary moment and then uses language of the Declaration's most famous phrases to organize the presentation of treasures from American history. Multimedia experiences draw on the Library's audiovisual collections and connect visitors with the Library's content experts.

To mark America's 250th anniversary, the Library of Congress has created a molecular data storage device featuring treasures from the Library's collections, which was placed in a time capsule in Philadelphia to be opened in 2276. A small display will feature an identical copy of the miniature device, which uses synthetic DNA to store digital copies of specially selected Library materials.

'Alive in Many Hands: The American Folklife Center at 50' is a new exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the American Folklife Center. This exhibition explores how the American Folklife Center has documented, preserved and shared living cultural traditions that connect families, communities and generations. Through more than 150 collections items, including photographs, recordings and films, the exhibition demonstrates how these traditions continue to evolve while preserving cultural identity and memory.

Live! At the Library is part of a broader effort to reimagine the visitor experience at the Library of Congress, inviting visitors to enjoy the Library and its collections in new ways during extended evening hours from 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday nights. The series regularly features special conversations, music, performances, films and workshops that showcase the broad range of holdings at the national library.

The Library of Congress is the world's largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/LIVE-AT-THE-LIBRARY-to-Open-Reading-Rooms-in-October-20260924)._