Watch "Ten Things I Learned from Shakespeare"

In October 2017, the Library was pleased to host Michael Witmore, Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. for a visit and series of programs. A scholar of wisdom literature and culture, he delivered an engaging lecture that explored what wisdom he gleaned from Shakespeare’s plays. Witmore also shared his thoughts about why so many of us still connect with Shakespeare’s work. For example, he observed how King Lear and Richard II demonstrated that power is harder to give away than it is to get and he described how The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and Titus Andronicus speak to the ways in which race governs our actions. In a nod to the JCB’s focus, he noted that Shakespeare was likely influenced by living during the time of colonial expansion. Watch the full lecture here.