Princeton is one of 19 locations across the United States participating in the 2025 Being Human Festival, an annual event launched in the United Kingdom in 2014 and in the United States in 2024. The festival is organized by the nonprofit National Humanities Council in partnership with humanists and humanities organizations from around the country.
According to the festival’s website, “These community-focused events, organized and presented by local artists, scholars, and educators, highlight the incredible breadth of the humanities and demonstrate how they add depth and meaning to our lives, help us understand ourselves and one another, and provide context for the complex world around us.”
The Princeton portion of the Being Human Festival is titled “Centennial Landmarks of Literature and Cinema in Princeton” and consists of four free events organized by Princeton Public Library and Princeton University focused on “Princeton’s legacy as a center of literary and cinematic culture during the last century.”
Princeton on the Big Screen
A Cinematic Guided Tour takes place Thursday, April 17, from 3 to 4:15 p.m. and Friday, April 25, from 10 to 11:15 a.m. starting from FitzRandolph Gate, the gateway from Nassau Street to the Princeton University campus. Registration is required for the one-hour tour that is wheelchair-friendly and will include visuals shown on an electronic tablet.
A specific itinerary will be shared with those who register, but a statement from event organizers sets the stage:
“Since at least the beginning of the sound film era in the 1920s, the town and campus of Princeton have always attracted major and emerging filmmakers who found, in its exceptional architecture, evolving landscapes, and historical campus, a unique background for their stories. From Frank Tuttle’s ‘Varsity’ (1929), one of the first sound films produced by Paramount Pictures, to Christopher Nolan’s recent and internationally acclaimed ‘Oppenheimer’ (2023), not forgetting an impressive range of lesser-known cinematic works as well as the local arthouse (Princeton Garden Theatre) built in 1920, Princeton has a rich, varied, yet unfortunately unexplored history of cinema that was often at the intersection of major historical, cultural, and intellectual events.”
Princeton and Civil Rights
“Baldwin in New Jersey” is an immersive experience taking place in the Community Room at Princeton Public Library on Thursday, April 17, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The event features a panel discussion on writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin’s legacy in Mercer County. Registration is requested on the library’s website, www.princetonlibrary.org.
According to event organizers, “In 1942, James Baldwin relocated to Central New Jersey to work at the Belle Mead defense plant. It was in New Jersey that he first became conscious of directly experiencing Jim Crow racism. During this special event, led by community-based experts, attendees are invited to reflect on Baldwin’s life and legacy in Mercer County.”
Participants in the discussion are:
Trenton activist Darren “Freedom” Green, who opens the event with a reading from “Notes of a Native Son,” in which Baldwin discusses his time in New Jersey. Green also helps the discussion navigate between historical context and primary text.
Historians Beverly Mills and Elaine Buck, who will contextualize Baldwin’s time in Princeton, Trenton, and Belle Mead based on their own research to present a more complete view and correct inaccurate perceptions. Mills and Buck are co-founders of the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum, the first Black history museum in Central New Jersey.
Musician and producer Wise Intelligent, a member of the Trenton-based hip hop group The Poor Righteous Teachers, who discusses his experience growing up and creating art in Trenton.
Princeton and Literature
Raconteur Radio’s presentation of “The Great Gatsby” — also a Great Gatsby at 100 event, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the classic novel’s publication — takes place Tuesday, April 22, from 7 to 8:15 p.m. in the Community Room at Princeton Public Library. Registration is required.
Princeton alumnus F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age story is brought to life as a staged radio play, complete with period costumes, vintage commercials, and Golden Age radio equipment.
“A Walk through Princeton’s Literary Century” takes place Wednesday, April 23, from noon to 2:30 p.m. starting from the Newsroom at Princeton Public Library. The guided tour led by the library’s local history team explores the last century of literature in Princeton and includes complimentary lunch and a copy of a book by one of the authors featured. Registration is required; a waitlist was available at press time.
During lunch prior to the tour, participants hear a presentation by Princeton University junior Dana Serea, one of the editors-in-chief of the Nassau Literary Review, the second oldest undergraduate literary and arts magazine in the nation and the oldest student publication at Princeton University.
Organizers’ description of the tour is as follows:
“In 1994, Princeton University alumnus Aaron S. Madsen created a ‘Literary Map of Princeton, New Jersey’ for the Humanities Council at Princeton University. This map encodes the names of more than 60 notable authors and associates them with 23 buildings in the environs of the town and University campus. While some locations are inaccessible on foot, many are near enough connected, that they allow for a walkable tour of the town’s literary heritage.
“The library’s local history team leads this tour of the last century of Princeton’s literature, sharing passages from the authors’ texts, providing details about their lives in Princeton, and identifying locations significant to their development. Note that accessible routes will be planned wherever possible, but the tour will happen on pedestrian paths through town and on the University campus.”
For more information on the Being Human Festival, visit nationalhumanitiescenter.org/being-human-festival-usa.
