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92nd Street Y

A New York cultural and community center that has recorded decades of talks and readings.

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Where 92nd Street Y comes up1 episode or test

At a glanceThe internet misses landmark talks still on the Y's reels

Online record

Y's basement reelsWon

Popova: "I want the primary source materials."

From Maria Popova on the 92nd Street Y archive

The 92nd Street Y holds recordings of landmark talks that never reached the internet. Its basement has undigitized reels of Pablo Neruda's first US appearance and Susan Sontag's first big lecture. Maria Popova uses them as proof of how thin the internet is as a record of human culture.
The Y is a New York cultural and community center that has recorded decades of talks and readings. Popova says what lives in basements and reels has shaped the present more deeply than what is online.
How I Write▶ 2:51
Go to primary sources and archives, not the surface Wikipedia page. Popova's work is research heavy, so she seeks original material, often in university and library archives that were never digitized. The 92nd Street Y reels are her example of what the internet misses.
Her stated stance: "I want the primary source materials."
How I Write▶ 2:51