For over sixty years, La Maison Française of New York University has served as a major forum for cultural exchange between the French-speaking world and the United States. Its rich program of lectures, symposia, concerts, screenings, exhibitions, and festivals provides an invaluable resource to the university community, as well as the general public. One of the most active French centers on an American campus, La Maison Française of NYU is recognized as a Center of Excellence by the French Embassy in the United States.
A Rich History of Programming
Over its history, La Maison Française has welcomed thousands of literary, artistic, and intellectual luminaries.
It has always been a home for writers, from the authors of The Nouveau Roman such as Robbe-Grillet and Nathalie Sarraute, to Jean Genet who came with Black Panthers activists, and recently to Hélène Cixous, Dany Laferrière, and so many others today, from all around of the world.
In collaboration with Francophone partners, our yearly festival organizes exhibitions, debates, and performances. Eugène Ionesco was among the first Francophone guests of La Maison and today we continue inviting playwrights and directors who renew theater and staging.
Music is also a part of our regular activities and we have always invited performers and composers such as Pierre Boulez and recently Michael Levinas. By the way, do you know that La Maison Française has a wonderful piano, on which Francis Poulenc played?
A French-Speaking house in touch with the modern world
All the important trends of thought in French have passed through La Maison since 1957. And today we are very keen to introduce new generations of thinkers. After welcoming most famous philosophers, from Derrida, Foucault, to Julia Kristeva and Edouard Glissant, we have recently launched a series on 2020 philosophers, coming from all continents, who renew French thought.
La Maison Française is the place where the major intellectual, literary, and political issues of our time are discussed: we have initiated podcasts on “Thinking in Pandemic Times,” we confront difficult issues such as the misunderstandings between France and the U.S. on free speech and liberté d’expression. And we welcome political personalities, most recently President François Hollande as well as activists from ecologist movements.
A living place, inventive and free, in the heart of Manhattan, La Maison Française est votre maison.
