Steven Gaines Takes on Fridays at Five in Bridgehampton
With a fresh outlook and a new lineup chock-full of luminaries, the Fridays at Five series of author talks at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton will have a new look and feel this year.
Steven Gaines, a writer who spoke last year at the library, said he was “grateful to be there, but it was my fourth or fifth time.” The schedule “seemed familiar to me,” he said, and “I told them I thought I could help.” Mr. Gaines worked with Tina Raymond and Judy Williams, who became co-presidents of the Friends of the Library this year.
“We wanted to shake things up a bit,” Ms. Raymond said last week. “Like library friends in other communities, we’re finding the need to pull in younger members. Steven has been fantastic at bringing new life to the process.”
The series will keep its traditional day and time in July and August, but will kick off at 6 p.m. on Sunday with a panel of notables — Candace Bushnell, Erica Jong, and Gail Sheehy — moderated by the New York Times columnist Philip Galanes. Each woman has been a factor in defining and expanding the female voice of their generations, particularly in regard to sexuality.
Ms. Sheehy helped define the “New Journalism” of the 1960s and ’70s at New York magazine. Ms. Jong’s 1973 novel “Fear of Flying” was a frank revelation of women’s attitudes toward sex for a generation who came of age on the pill. Ms. Bushnell’s “Sex and the City” mini-empire of books, television series, and films, all stem from her mid-’90s column in The New York Observer, which took a gimlet-eyed look at the dating rituals of the urban elite.
This will be Ms. Bushnell’s first “Fridays at Five.” “I recently moved to Sag Harbor and I am excited about participating in the event. I love that it benefits the library,” she said. It will not be her first time speaking with Erica Jong, however. “I don’t know how long I’ve known Erica — at least 20 years, probably longer!”
Some of Mr. Gaines’s suggested innovations, including moving the series to “Saturdays at Six” to attract a broader audience, were not accepted, and he bristled at the resistance. “I quit six times and then came back.” He was told the series was always on Fridays, because Elaine Benson’s gallery had its receptions on Saturdays. The fact that Ms. Benson died two decades ago was not lost on Mr. Gaines, but he let it go.
He thought that Mr. Galanes, who writes the “Table for Three” interview series for the Sunday Times, would be the perfect interviewer for the three women. “I asked and he said yes. I’m thrilled about that. The kickoff will be dynamic and different, with not just local writers, not just people who live nearby, but nationally and internationally known writers.”
There will be eight nights of the regular series. Ina Garten of East Hampton was the first to sign on, with the film and theater director Rob Marshall interviewing her about her latest book, “Cooking for Jeffrey. ”
Mr. Gaines “started with Ina, and then one incredible author after another,” said Ms. Raymond.
Jay McInerney, a Sag Harbor part-timer whom The Guardian newspaper called a “great chronicler of New York,” will begin the official season on July 7, reading from his latest book, “Bright, Precious Days. ”
On July 28, Colson Whitehead, whose spent his childhood summers in Sag Harbor, will read from his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Underground Railroad,” which also received the 2016 National Book Award in literature.
The series ends on Aug. 25 with Carl Bernstein, co-author of “All the President’s Men,” who worked with Bob Woodward at The Washington Post to get to the bottom of the Watergate scandal. Their reporting led to Richard Nixon’s resignation as impeachment loomed. With impeachment talk buzzing around Washington once again, Mr. Bernstein’s event might be standing room only.
Other speakers include Blanche Wiesen Cook, Kati Marton, and Kate Siegel, speaking with her mother, Kim Friedman. Ms. Siegel’s “Mother, Can You Not?” is a collection of essays based on her unusual relationship with her “helicopter mom.” The author chronicles their daily exchanges in a popular Instagram account, @crazyJewishmom, posting screen shots of their text messages.
Mr. Gaines said he had participated with the two of them in a speaking engagement. “Before Kate got to the podium, her mother announced that ‘My daughter went to Princeton and her eggs are dying, come see me later if you have a son for her. ’ I think we are going to bring down the house. ”
According to Ms. Raymond, Mr. Gaines has “really helped us by getting authors and jazzing up the program a bit. At some point, you have to reinvent yourself. ” Allowing him some latitude, she said, also gave those library supporters who resisted his approach in the beginning a chance “to see the difference. ” The Friends of the Library are “completely on board at this point. When someone shakes things up a bit, it hurts, but we’re all having fun. ”
Tickets for Sunday night’s event, to be held in the library’s backyard, can be purchased at the door.