Can We Disagree Without Falling Apart?
A new Humanities New York and Queens Public Library series invites Ridgewood neighbors to explore enduring questions together.
by Joseph Murphy, Director of Strategic Partnerships
Can we disagree without falling apart?
It's an old question, but never only a historical one. It appears wherever people live together: around dinner tables, in classrooms, among neighbors, at work. We inherit it from the past, then find ourselves asking it again.
Beginning August 6, Humanities New York and Queens Public Library invite the Ridgewood community to explore questions like this through The Future of Democracy: Conflict, Disagreement, and Civic Life, a free, three-part conversation series at Ridgewood Library.
The partnership began with a shared belief that libraries can offer more than access to books. They can also make room for thoughtful conversation. Together, Humanities New York and Queens Public Library have created a series built around questions that many people already carry with them—questions about disagreement, free expression, responsibility, and living together.
Every conversation begins with a shared humanities text. Participants read it together, then follow where the questions lead, drawing on their own experiences as the discussion unfolds. No advance reading is required, only a willingness to think alongside other people.
The opening conversation on August 6, Can We Disagree Without Falling Apart?, begins with Robert Frost's Mending Wall. Participants will explore what holds communities together when people disagree, and whether boundaries always separate as much as they protect.
On September 3, Is Offense a Threat or a Necessity in a Free Society? invites participants to consider what a free society owes both those who speak and those who are spoken about, and whether the freedom to offend is a cost of living together in a democracy.
The series concludes on October 1 with When Is It Time to Break the Rules?, inviting participants to consider what happens when conscience comes into conflict with obligation, and how communities respond when people decide they can no longer go along with the status quo.
The conversations are guided, but never scripted. Every group brings something different to the discussion, and each conversation develops in its own way.
That makes the library a natural home for the series. Libraries have always introduced readers to unfamiliar ideas. They also offer something increasingly rare: a welcoming public space where people with different experiences can sit around the same table and think together.
Whether you join us for one conversation or all three, you'll find an invitation to explore enduring questions in good company.
The Future of Democracy: Conflict, Disagreement, and Civic Life is free and open to the public. Conversations will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Thursdays, August 6, September 3, and October 1 at Queens Public Library's Ridgewood Branch, 20-12 Madison Street, Ridgewood, Queens.
No registration is required. Learn more at the Queens Public Library event page.
Light refreshments are sponsored by the Friends of Ridgewood.
