Looking at Art in Times of Crisis with Megan O’Grady and Benjamin Saltzman
  • Arts and Culture

Looking at Art in Times of Crisis with Megan O’Grady and Benjamin Saltzman

A conversation about How It Feels to Be Alive and Turning Away
Wednesday, May 20, 2026 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm CTSalt Shed - Three Top Lounge

Optional Books

How It Feels To Be Alive: Encounters with Art and Our Selves

How It Feels To Be Alive: Encounters with Art and Our Selves

By Megan O'Grady

Turning Away: The Poetics of an Ancient Gesture

Turning Away: The Poetics of an Ancient Gesture

By Benjamin A. Saltzman

About the Event:

You know Megan O’Grady as the Culture Therapist at T: The New York Times Style Magazine and from her acclaimed writing about art and life in The New Yorker, New York Times Book Review, Vogue, and more. Now, she’s releasing her debut book, How It Feels To Be Alive: Encounters with Art and Our Selves, a vital testament to how art makes us who we are. 

Benjamin Saltzman is Associate Professor of English at the University of Chicago, and his newest book, Turning Away: The Poetics of an Ancient Gesture, is a sweeping account of how we are at our most human when we turn away from the pains of the world — and how art helps us confront those things we would prefer not to see.

Join Megan and Ben at the Three Top Lounge for a wide-ranging conversation about the ethics of seeing and the ways that art helps us face life in all its beauty and all its difficulty.

A book signing will follow this event.


This event is presented in partnership with Three Top Lounge.

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Megan O'Grady

Megan O'Grady

Megan O’Grady is a critic and an essayist. She was a writer at large for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, where she created t...

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Benjamin A. Saltzman

Benjamin A. Saltzman

Benjamin A. Saltzman is associate professor of English at the University of Chicago, where he coedits the journal Modern Philology...

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