Free Entry, Conference Centre Chaucer Room, 12.30-2.00pm on stated dates The Eccles Centre Summer Scholars series runs through July and August.  The series highlights the work of the Eccles Visiting Fellows and Postgraduate Researchers have done during their residency in the British Library, bringing the latest research related to the North Americas collections to a public audience. Gaiutra Bahadur, author of Coolie Woman, the Orwell Prize-shortlisted narrative history of indentured women, speaks about her strategies for overcoming elisions and biases in the archives that document the migration of bonded labourers from the Indian subcontinent to the West Indies.

Ezra Furman: The Velvet Underground, Punk Pioneers Thursday 23 June, 19.30-21.00, British Library Conference Centre, book online: http://www.bl.uk/events/ezra-furman-the-velvet-underground-punk-pioneers An intimate evening with genre-fluid American singer-songwriter Ezra Furman reflecting on the Velvet Underground’s influence on punk and their musical legacy ‘Lou Reed is, possibly more than anyone, the person who gave me the keys to rock n roll. His songs let me in and showed me, when I was still just a kid, a view of a world I had previously known nothing about except in a dark corner of my heart. Lou Reed was radically ambiguous and radically free’. Genre and gender-fluid American singer songwriter Ezra Furman will discuss the Velvet Underground and their influence on his own music, punk and everything else, through the words of his upcoming book published by the now legendary 33 & 1/3 series, on Lou Reed’s iconic album Transformer. Ezra's passion for old-world rock n roll has invited […]

The Folio Academy Sessions Saturday 18 June - Sunday 19 June, British Library Conference Centre, book online: http://www.bl.uk/events/the-folio-academy-sessions For the third year running, the Folio Prize Foundation and the British Library host some of the world’s finest writers and their guests. Sponsored by The Eccles Centre for American Studies, this year’s line-up includes a range of authors for eight panel discussions including Richard Francis on Utopias, Tracy Chevalier on historical narratives, Caryl Philips on 'A Place Called Home', and Roger Roberts on 'The Authenticity Paradox.' Over eight sessions each programmed by a different member of the Folio Prize Academy, the weekend will explore how stories have the power to transform us: how they can impact individuals and effect social change. Tickets can be purchased for individual events or day and weekend passes.