Capital Region Curated: August 17-23
Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events, with Tang, UAlbany, EMPAC’s closing shows, and a Tony winner at Williams.
Alan Koslow
13
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
Capital Region Curated, Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events.
What’s worth your time at Capital Region colleges and universities.
A Light Local Week, with Tang, UAlbany, EMPAC, and a Tony-Winning Williams Pick 🎶🎭📚
This is one of the quieter late-summer campus weeks.
That is not a problem. It is useful information.
The local timed-event core is small: a UAlbany Innovation Center founder talk on Wednesday and Tang’s Upbeat on the Roof concert with The Millstone Rounders on Thursday.
There are also two EMPAC installations in their final days: P. Staff’s Terminal Lucidity and Chloe Alexandra Thompson’s Untitling. They are not one-night events, but in a light week they are absolutely worth flagging before they close.
The stronger arts item is outside the normal Capital Region footprint: Lillias White with Seth Rudetsky at Williams College’s ’62 Center. Williams is not part of the regular weekly campus sweep, but a Tony Award-winning Broadway performer clears the regional-extension threshold.
No filler this week. A small local core, two EMPAC exhibitions in their final days, one strong Williams pick, two Plan Ahead items, and then the first installment of the 2026 Fall Preview.
This issue begins with the immediate week, then turns to TOPOS 2026 at EMPAC and the Albany Book Festival, then opens the fall preview series with Speakers, Writers, Ideas, Forums & Public Conversations.
☀️ Late-Summer Note
Late August is still thin.
Most colleges are not yet back in full public-programming mode. A lot of fall schedules are announced, but the actual weekly calendar has not fully turned on.
So this week’s issue does two things.
First, it points to the few events that are actually worth your time now.
Second, it starts the larger fall planning work. Campus programming for fall 2026 is beginning to take shape, and there is already a remarkable amount worth putting on the calendar.
📣 Help Spread the Word
It really helps when readers share Capital Region Curated.
If you work with a college department, program, gallery, museum, performing arts office, campus newsletter, or personal newsletter, I’d be grateful if you would share it with people who might want a weekly guide to public events on Capital Region campuses.
Subscribe here: Capital Region Curated
🗓️ PART ONE: THIS WEEK’S CAMPUS EVENTS
August 17–23
This is still a very light week.
The local timed events are UAlbany and Tang. The exhibitions to catch before they close are at EMPAC. The regional-extension pick is Williams.
That is the honest shape of the week.
⭐ Top Picks
Upbeat on the Roof with The Millstone Rounders 📅 Thursday 8/20, 5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music — Skidmore / Tang Teaching Museum (Saratoga Springs — Tang Grounds) (Map | Details | Free)
Tang’s summer concert series continues with The Millstone Rounders, described by Tang as acoustic Americana. This appears to be the final visible Upbeat on the Roof listing of the summer series, which makes it a good late-August campus outing.
Regional Extension Pick — The Seth Rudetsky Concert Series featuring Lillias White 📅 Saturday 8/22, 7:00 PM — Williams College / ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance (Williamstown, MA — MainStage) (Map | Details/Tickets | $50 and up)
Williams is outside the normal weekly campus sweep, but this one clears the threshold. Lillias White is a Tony Award-winning Broadway performer, and her appearance with Seth Rudetsky is strong enough to justify the drive for readers who follow Broadway, cabaret, or musical theater.
💡 Also This Week
From MVP to Enterprise Ready: What Founders Need to Know Before Selling to Customers 📅 Wednesday 8/19, 12:00–1:00 PM — UAlbany Innovation Center / ETEC (Albany — 1220 Washington Avenue) (Map | Details/Register)
A practical founder-focused discussion with John D. Flory III, co-founder of Cyberstone Security and creator of HarborShield Cybersecurity. This is a good fit for readers interested in startups, enterprise sales, cybersecurity, and how early products become customer-ready.
🖼️ Ending This Week at EMPAC
EMPAC has two installations in their final days. These are not timed evening events, so they do not belong in the By Day Calendar, but they do belong in a light late-August issue.
Terminal Lucidity — P. Staff
On view through Thursday 8/20 — RPI / EMPAC (Troy — EMPAC Concert Hall) (Details | Free)
A public installation ending this week at EMPAC.
Untitling — Chloe Alexandra Thompson
On view through Friday 8/21 — RPI / EMPAC (Troy — Studio 1—Goodman) (Details | Free)
A sound-based installation with public weekday viewing hours.
🔮 Plan Ahead — Buy Early
TOPOS 2026 Music Festival — RPI / EMPAC
September 2–5 — EMPAC and the Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy
This is the advance-planning item of the week.
TOPOS 2026 brings four days of adventurous music, performance, film, and conversation to EMPAC and the Sanctuary for Independent Media, with Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith, Miho Hatori, Fred Moten, Edward George, IMA, Paul Abbott, and others.
Full-festival passes are $50, with selected individual events at $20.
Do not treat this as a casual week-of decision. TOPOS events are exactly the kind of limited-capacity programming that can disappear early, and readers who want the full festival experience should buy now rather than hoping tickets are still available in September.
ADVERTISEMENT
📚 Plan Ahead — Save the Date
9th Annual Albany Book Festival — NYS Writers Institute / UAlbany
Saturday 9/26 — University at Albany
(Details)
The Writers Institute’s annual Albany Book Festival returns for a full Saturday of authors, books, conversations, signings, vendors, children’s activities, and literary programming.
The festival date is confirmed, and an initial 2026 author-and-panel preview is now posted. The complete schedule is still to come, but there is already enough here to mark September 26 now.
Previewed names include:
Elizabeth Kolbert — climate / natural world
Arash Azizi — Iran / modern history
Porochista Khakpour — Iranian-American fiction
Amir Ahmadi Arian — contemporary Iran
Terry Golway — New York history
Megan Nolan — Irish fiction
Carol Gilligan — feminist psychology
Gish Jen — fiction / identity
Kelly McMasters — memoir / essays
Keith McNally — restaurants / memoir
John Katzenbach — psychological thrillers
Canwen Xu — debut thriller fiction
Namwali Serpell — fiction / Morrison
Katie Barnes — sports / gender
Brianne Brinker — trans athletes / memoir
This is still a preliminary festival note, not the full program. Once the Writers Institute posts the complete schedule, this should be replaced with a richer listing highlighting the strongest panels, exact times, rooms, signing schedule, and featured authors.
🏛️ PART TWO: FALL PREVIEW PART 1
Speakers, Writers, Ideas, Forums & Public Conversations
This issue begins the Capital Region Curated 2026 Fall Preview series.
There is now too much announced fall programming to fit comfortably into one issue. That is good news for readers, but it means the preview needs structure.
So this week begins with Speakers, Writers, Ideas, Forums & Public Conversations.
Theater, music, performance, exhibitions, and additional announced schedules will follow in later installments.
This is not meant to be a giant chronological calendar. The goal is simpler and more useful:
Here are the major public speakers, writers, conversations, forums, and intellectual programs already announced for fall — and the dates worth putting on your calendar now.
⚖️ Albany Law School — Public Legal and Civic Programming
Start here because these Albany Law programs are exactly the kind of public events that can get lost.
Albany Law’s public lectures are hidden gems in the Capital Region. They are often under-attended for the quality of the speakers, the legal insight, the civic substance, and the access they offer. I attended several Albany Law lectures last year, and the best of them were world-class public programs hiding in plain sight.
Albany Law has not announced a complete fall lecture season, but two significant public programs are already on the calendar.
Nancy M. Sills ’76 Memorial Lecture on Aging Law and Policy
📅 Saturday 10/3, 1:00–2:00 PM — Albany Law School (Dean Alexander Moot Court Room 421)
Part of Senior Citizens Law Day. Free and open to the public. (Details)
Richard Rifkin Memorial Lecture
📅 Monday 10/26, 6:00–7:30 PM — Albany Law School (Dean Alexander Moot Court Room 421)
A program honoring Richard Rifkin, longtime public servant and former Legal Director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School. The event includes remarks from former New York Attorney General Robert Abrams, with a reception to follow. (Details)
Reader note: Albany Law should be treated selectively, but not lightly. These are serious public civic/legal programs and some of the most overlooked public lecture opportunities in the Capital Region.
ADVERTISEMENT
📚 NYS Writers Institute — Fall 2026
The NYS Writers Institute is the biggest announced fall public-programming source so far.
The season runs from early September into mid-December and includes literary names, public-affairs conversations, film screenings, AI and society programs, the Albany Book Festival, and several dates that should be circled now.
Do not treat every item below as equal. The point is to notice both the biggest draws and the broader season pattern.
Highest-Priority Dates
📅 Wednesday 9/2, 7:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Main Theatre
This is a conversation with Joe Donahue, not a concert. Merchant is a major regional and national figure, and the format should give the evening more depth than a standard appearance.
Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark
📅 Monday 9/14, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
Bird’s work and Goldmark’s public-policy background make this one of the more substantial idea-driven programs of September.
Albany Book Festival
📅 Saturday 9/26 — UAlbany
The date is confirmed, and an initial 2026 author-and-panel preview is now posted. See Plan Ahead above.
📅 Wednesday 10/28, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
Lowry’s work has shaped generations of readers, and this is one of the most broadly recognizable Writers Institute names of the fall.
D.B. Woodside
📅 Wednesday 11/4, 7:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
The Burian Lecture. A notable fall date for readers interested in acting, television, performance, and public conversation with a major screen performer.
📅 Thursday 11/12, 7:00 PM — The Egg
The Empire State Archives & History Award program. Tickets are required. Brinkley is one of the season’s biggest public-history names, and the venue signals a larger-than-usual event.
Telling the Truth — Jonathan Alter and Devlin Barrett
📅 Friday 11/13, 7:00 PM — Page Hall
A public-affairs program for readers interested in journalism, politics, truth-telling, and public accountability.
📅 Thursday 11/19, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
A notable literary date late in the fall season.
📅 Tuesday 12/15, 7:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Main Theatre
A strong fall-season closer, especially for readers interested in music, culture, performance, and creative life.
Other Notable Public Programs
📅 Thursday 9/17, 4:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
Mehta’s work fits the Writers Institute’s public conversation lane: migration, cities, identity, politics, and the global lives behind public debate.
Brownsville Bred
📅 Friday 9/18, 7:00 PM — Page Hall
Screening and discussion with Elaine Del Valle. This sits between film, memoir, performance, and public storytelling.
Francine Berman
📅 Tuesday 9/22, 4:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
An AI & Society program. Campus conversations about AI are moving from technical departments into public humanities, policy, ethics, and civic life.
Literature to Life: The Giver
📅 Monday 10/5, 7:00 PM — UAlbany PAC Main Theatre
A stage adaptation tied to a major literary work, with a natural connection to the Lois Lowry appearance later in October.
📅 Friday 10/9, 7:00 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
A public conversation candidate for readers interested in media, technology, public life, and contemporary ideas.
📅 Tuesday 10/13, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
A local/regional literary and journalism figure who belongs in the fall public-conversation mix.
Joe the King
📅 Friday 10/16, 7:00 PM — Page Hall
Screening and discussion with filmmaker/actor Frank Whaley. A film-and-conversation program with regional and creative interest.
📅 Thursday 10/29, 4:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
A late-October public conversation candidate.
📅 Thursday 11/12, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
An AI & Society program. Same date as Douglas Brinkley at The Egg, so readers interested in both should note the timing.
Seized
📅 Saturday 11/7 — Palace Theatre
Screening and discussion. Time is still TBA, so this should be treated as an announced program with details still forthcoming, not as a finished event listing.
Roscoe Marathon Reading
📅 Tuesday 11/17, 11:00 AM–10:00 PM — Albany Distilling Co.
A long-form literary event and one of the more unusual announced formats in the season.
Rachel Eliza Griffiths
📅 Wednesday 12/2, 7:30 PM — Huxley Theater, NYS Museum
A December literary program with a museum venue.
Shani King
📅 Wednesday 12/9, 6:30 PM — Alice Moore Black Arts and Cultural Center
A community-connected December program.
Additional Announced Writers Institute Dates
These are not invisible. They are simply not the top draws of the season.
M. Lin — The Memory Museum
📅 Thursday 9/3, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Andrew Martin — Down Time
📅 Tuesday 9/8, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Joshua Bennett — poet, scholar, performer
📅 Tuesday 9/29, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Roger Rosenblatt — essayist and memoirist
📅 Wednesday 10/7, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Kristen Millares Young — novelist, essayist, journalist
📅 Thursday 10/15, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
m.s. RedCherries — poet / Indigenous writing
📅 Tuesday 10/20, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Kristen McCallum — YA fiction / Free Girls
📅 Thursday 11/5, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Elliot Williams — CNN legal analyst
📅 Monday 11/9, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
Anna Moschovakis — poet and translator
📅 Tuesday 12/1, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
🧭 Other Core-Campus Intellectual Programming
The rest of the core-campus fall intellectual calendar is still uneven.
That will change.
For this preview, the rule is strict: include additional symposiums, lectures, forums, and public conferences only when there is a confirmed date, time, venue, public access, and official source.
Do not pad the issue with routine department seminars, internal campus events, admissions programs, professional CLEs, alumni outings, athletics, fundraisers, or purely social items.
If Union, UAlbany, RPI, Siena, Skidmore, Russell Sage, ACPHS, HVCC, SUNY Schenectady, or Albany Med posts major qualifying public programming before final publication, it can be added. But the standard should remain high.
🧩 How to Read This Preview
The fall is not fully visible yet.
What is visible now is the shape of the public-conversation season.
Albany Law already has two significant civic/legal programs that deserve more attention than they usually get. The Writers Institute has announced a large and substantial season. TOPOS needs a separate Plan Ahead flag because the timing and ticket structure matter. The Albany Book Festival is confirmed, with an initial author-and-panel preview now posted and the full schedule still to come.
The next installment will move into Theater, Music, Performance & Exhibitions. That is where Skidmore, Tang, Zankel, Russell Sage, Opalka, UAlbany PAC, Union, SUNY Schenectady, Siena, and EMPAC should become more prominent.
After that, if needed, the preview can widen to Regional Extension + Late Announcements, including Bard and Williams only when the events clear the drive-worthy threshold.
This is Part 1. It is not the whole fall calendar.
📅 By Day Calendar
Wednesday — August 19
From MVP to Enterprise Ready: What Founders Need to Know Before Selling to Customers — UAlbany Innovation Center / ETEC (12:00–1:00 PM)
Thursday — August 20
Upbeat on the Roof with The Millstone Rounders — Skidmore / Tang Teaching Museum, Tang Grounds (5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music)
Saturday — August 22
Regional Extension Pick — The Seth Rudetsky Concert Series featuring Lillias White — Williams College / ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance, MainStage (7:00 PM)
🤝 Community Newsletter Partner
Capital Region Curated is pleased to cross-promote with The Jewish World, a local source for Jewish community news, culture, events, and stories.
Read or subscribe to The Jewish World
This only works if people share it—feel free to forward to anyone who attends campus events.
I’m building this into a comprehensive weekly guide—recommendations are always welcome.
Fall is starting to come into focus.
Alan Koslow
13
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
ADVERTISEMENT
Capital Region Curated: August 17-23
Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events, with Tang, UAlbany, EMPAC’s closing shows, and a Tony winner at Williams.
Alan Koslow
13
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
Capital Region Curated, Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events.
What’s worth your time at Capital Region colleges and universities.
A Light Local Week, with Tang, UAlbany, EMPAC, and a Tony-Winning Williams Pick 🎶🎭📚
This is one of the quieter late-summer campus weeks.
That is not a problem. It is useful information.
The local timed-event core is small: a UAlbany Innovation Center founder talk on Wednesday and Tang’s Upbeat on the Roof concert with The Millstone Rounders on Thursday.
There are also two EMPAC installations in their final days: P. Staff’s Terminal Lucidity and Chloe Alexandra Thompson’s Untitling. They are not one-night events, but in a light week they are absolutely worth flagging before they close.
The stronger arts item is outside the normal Capital Region footprint: Lillias White with Seth Rudetsky at Williams College’s ’62 Center. Williams is not part of the regular weekly campus sweep, but a Tony Award-winning Broadway performer clears the regional-extension threshold.
No filler this week. A small local core, two EMPAC exhibitions in their final days, one strong Williams pick, two Plan Ahead items, and then the first installment of the 2026 Fall Preview.
This issue begins with the immediate week, then turns to TOPOS 2026 at EMPAC and the Albany Book Festival, then opens the fall preview series with Speakers, Writers, Ideas, Forums & Public Conversations.
☀️ Late-Summer Note
Late August is still thin.
Most colleges are not yet back in full public-programming mode. A lot of fall schedules are announced, but the actual weekly calendar has not fully turned on.
So this week’s issue does two things.
First, it points to the few events that are actually worth your time now.
Second, it starts the larger fall planning work. Campus programming for fall 2026 is beginning to take shape, and there is already a remarkable amount worth putting on the calendar.
📣 Help Spread the Word
It really helps when readers share Capital Region Curated.
If you work with a college department, program, gallery, museum, performing arts office, campus newsletter, or personal newsletter, I’d be grateful if you would share it with people who might want a weekly guide to public events on Capital Region campuses.
Subscribe here: Capital Region Curated
🗓️ PART ONE: THIS WEEK’S CAMPUS EVENTS
August 17–23
This is still a very light week.
The local timed events are UAlbany and Tang. The exhibitions to catch before they close are at EMPAC. The regional-extension pick is Williams.
That is the honest shape of the week.
⭐ Top Picks
Upbeat on the Roof with The Millstone Rounders 📅 Thursday 8/20, 5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music — Skidmore / Tang Teaching Museum (Saratoga Springs — Tang Grounds) (Map | Details | Free)
Tang’s summer concert series continues with The Millstone Rounders, described by Tang as acoustic Americana. This appears to be the final visible Upbeat on the Roof listing of the summer series, which makes it a good late-August campus outing.
Regional Extension Pick — The Seth Rudetsky Concert Series featuring Lillias White 📅 Saturday 8/22, 7:00 PM — Williams College / ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance (Williamstown, MA — MainStage) (Map | Details/Tickets | $50 and up)
Williams is outside the normal weekly campus sweep, but this one clears the threshold. Lillias White is a Tony Award-winning Broadway performer, and her appearance with Seth Rudetsky is strong enough to justify the drive for readers who follow Broadway, cabaret, or musical theater.
💡 Also This Week
From MVP to Enterprise Ready: What Founders Need to Know Before Selling to Customers 📅 Wednesday 8/19, 12:00–1:00 PM — UAlbany Innovation Center / ETEC (Albany — 1220 Washington Avenue) (Map | Details/Register)
A practical founder-focused discussion with John D. Flory III, co-founder of Cyberstone Security and creator of HarborShield Cybersecurity. This is a good fit for readers interested in startups, enterprise sales, cybersecurity, and how early products become customer-ready.
🖼️ Ending This Week at EMPAC
EMPAC has two installations in their final days. These are not timed evening events, so they do not belong in the By Day Calendar, but they do belong in a light late-August issue.
Terminal Lucidity — P. Staff
On view through Thursday 8/20 — RPI / EMPAC (Troy — EMPAC Concert Hall) (Details | Free)
A public installation ending this week at EMPAC.
Untitling — Chloe Alexandra Thompson
On view through Friday 8/21 — RPI / EMPAC (Troy — Studio 1—Goodman) (Details | Free)
A sound-based installation with public weekday viewing hours.
🔮 Plan Ahead — Buy Early
TOPOS 2026 Music Festival — RPI / EMPAC
September 2–5 — EMPAC and the Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy
This is the advance-planning item of the week.
TOPOS 2026 brings four days of adventurous music, performance, film, and conversation to EMPAC and the Sanctuary for Independent Media, with Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith, Miho Hatori, Fred Moten, Edward George, IMA, Paul Abbott, and others.
Full-festival passes are $50, with selected individual events at $20.
Do not treat this as a casual week-of decision. TOPOS events are exactly the kind of limited-capacity programming that can disappear early, and readers who want the full festival experience should buy now rather than hoping tickets are still available in September.
ADVERTISEMENT
📚 Plan Ahead — Save the Date
9th Annual Albany Book Festival — NYS Writers Institute / UAlbany
Saturday 9/26 — University at Albany
(Details)
The Writers Institute’s annual Albany Book Festival returns for a full Saturday of authors, books, conversations, signings, vendors, children’s activities, and literary programming.
The festival date is confirmed, and an initial 2026 author-and-panel preview is now posted. The complete schedule is still to come, but there is already enough here to mark September 26 now.
Previewed names include:
Elizabeth Kolbert — climate / natural world
Arash Azizi — Iran / modern history
Porochista Khakpour — Iranian-American fiction
Amir Ahmadi Arian — contemporary Iran
Terry Golway — New York history
Megan Nolan — Irish fiction
Carol Gilligan — feminist psychology
Gish Jen — fiction / identity
Kelly McMasters — memoir / essays
Keith McNally — restaurants / memoir
John Katzenbach — psychological thrillers
Canwen Xu — debut thriller fiction
Namwali Serpell — fiction / Morrison
Katie Barnes — sports / gender
Brianne Brinker — trans athletes / memoir
This is still a preliminary festival note, not the full program. Once the Writers Institute posts the complete schedule, this should be replaced with a richer listing highlighting the strongest panels, exact times, rooms, signing schedule, and featured authors.
🏛️ PART TWO: FALL PREVIEW PART 1
Speakers, Writers, Ideas, Forums & Public Conversations
This issue begins the Capital Region Curated 2026 Fall Preview series.
There is now too much announced fall programming to fit comfortably into one issue. That is good news for readers, but it means the preview needs structure.
So this week begins with Speakers, Writers, Ideas, Forums & Public Conversations.
Theater, music, performance, exhibitions, and additional announced schedules will follow in later installments.
This is not meant to be a giant chronological calendar. The goal is simpler and more useful:
Here are the major public speakers, writers, conversations, forums, and intellectual programs already announced for fall — and the dates worth putting on your calendar now.
⚖️ Albany Law School — Public Legal and Civic Programming
Start here because these Albany Law programs are exactly the kind of public events that can get lost.
Albany Law’s public lectures are hidden gems in the Capital Region. They are often under-attended for the quality of the speakers, the legal insight, the civic substance, and the access they offer. I attended several Albany Law lectures last year, and the best of them were world-class public programs hiding in plain sight.
Albany Law has not announced a complete fall lecture season, but two significant public programs are already on the calendar.
Nancy M. Sills ’76 Memorial Lecture on Aging Law and Policy
📅 Saturday 10/3, 1:00–2:00 PM — Albany Law School (Dean Alexander Moot Court Room 421)
Part of Senior Citizens Law Day. Free and open to the public. (Details)
Richard Rifkin Memorial Lecture
📅 Monday 10/26, 6:00–7:30 PM — Albany Law School (Dean Alexander Moot Court Room 421)
A program honoring Richard Rifkin, longtime public servant and former Legal Director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School. The event includes remarks from former New York Attorney General Robert Abrams, with a reception to follow. (Details)
Reader note: Albany Law should be treated selectively, but not lightly. These are serious public civic/legal programs and some of the most overlooked public lecture opportunities in the Capital Region.
ADVERTISEMENT
📚 NYS Writers Institute — Fall 2026
The NYS Writers Institute is the biggest announced fall public-programming source so far.
The season runs from early September into mid-December and includes literary names, public-affairs conversations, film screenings, AI and society programs, the Albany Book Festival, and several dates that should be circled now.
Do not treat every item below as equal. The point is to notice both the biggest draws and the broader season pattern.
Highest-Priority Dates
📅 Wednesday 9/2, 7:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Main Theatre
This is a conversation with Joe Donahue, not a concert. Merchant is a major regional and national figure, and the format should give the evening more depth than a standard appearance.
Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark
📅 Monday 9/14, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
Bird’s work and Goldmark’s public-policy background make this one of the more substantial idea-driven programs of September.
Albany Book Festival
📅 Saturday 9/26 — UAlbany
The date is confirmed, and an initial 2026 author-and-panel preview is now posted. See Plan Ahead above.
📅 Wednesday 10/28, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
Lowry’s work has shaped generations of readers, and this is one of the most broadly recognizable Writers Institute names of the fall.
D.B. Woodside
📅 Wednesday 11/4, 7:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
The Burian Lecture. A notable fall date for readers interested in acting, television, performance, and public conversation with a major screen performer.
📅 Thursday 11/12, 7:00 PM — The Egg
The Empire State Archives & History Award program. Tickets are required. Brinkley is one of the season’s biggest public-history names, and the venue signals a larger-than-usual event.
Telling the Truth — Jonathan Alter and Devlin Barrett
📅 Friday 11/13, 7:00 PM — Page Hall
A public-affairs program for readers interested in journalism, politics, truth-telling, and public accountability.
📅 Thursday 11/19, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
A notable literary date late in the fall season.
📅 Tuesday 12/15, 7:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Main Theatre
A strong fall-season closer, especially for readers interested in music, culture, performance, and creative life.
Other Notable Public Programs
📅 Thursday 9/17, 4:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
Mehta’s work fits the Writers Institute’s public conversation lane: migration, cities, identity, politics, and the global lives behind public debate.
Brownsville Bred
📅 Friday 9/18, 7:00 PM — Page Hall
Screening and discussion with Elaine Del Valle. This sits between film, memoir, performance, and public storytelling.
Francine Berman
📅 Tuesday 9/22, 4:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
An AI & Society program. Campus conversations about AI are moving from technical departments into public humanities, policy, ethics, and civic life.
Literature to Life: The Giver
📅 Monday 10/5, 7:00 PM — UAlbany PAC Main Theatre
A stage adaptation tied to a major literary work, with a natural connection to the Lois Lowry appearance later in October.
📅 Friday 10/9, 7:00 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
A public conversation candidate for readers interested in media, technology, public life, and contemporary ideas.
📅 Tuesday 10/13, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
A local/regional literary and journalism figure who belongs in the fall public-conversation mix.
Joe the King
📅 Friday 10/16, 7:00 PM — Page Hall
Screening and discussion with filmmaker/actor Frank Whaley. A film-and-conversation program with regional and creative interest.
📅 Thursday 10/29, 4:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
A late-October public conversation candidate.
📅 Thursday 11/12, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
An AI & Society program. Same date as Douglas Brinkley at The Egg, so readers interested in both should note the timing.
Seized
📅 Saturday 11/7 — Palace Theatre
Screening and discussion. Time is still TBA, so this should be treated as an announced program with details still forthcoming, not as a finished event listing.
Roscoe Marathon Reading
📅 Tuesday 11/17, 11:00 AM–10:00 PM — Albany Distilling Co.
A long-form literary event and one of the more unusual announced formats in the season.
Rachel Eliza Griffiths
📅 Wednesday 12/2, 7:30 PM — Huxley Theater, NYS Museum
A December literary program with a museum venue.
Shani King
📅 Wednesday 12/9, 6:30 PM — Alice Moore Black Arts and Cultural Center
A community-connected December program.
Additional Announced Writers Institute Dates
These are not invisible. They are simply not the top draws of the season.
M. Lin — The Memory Museum
📅 Thursday 9/3, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Andrew Martin — Down Time
📅 Tuesday 9/8, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Joshua Bennett — poet, scholar, performer
📅 Tuesday 9/29, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Roger Rosenblatt — essayist and memoirist
📅 Wednesday 10/7, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Kristen Millares Young — novelist, essayist, journalist
📅 Thursday 10/15, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
m.s. RedCherries — poet / Indigenous writing
📅 Tuesday 10/20, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Kristen McCallum — YA fiction / Free Girls
📅 Thursday 11/5, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Elliot Williams — CNN legal analyst
📅 Monday 11/9, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
Anna Moschovakis — poet and translator
📅 Tuesday 12/1, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
🧭 Other Core-Campus Intellectual Programming
The rest of the core-campus fall intellectual calendar is still uneven.
That will change.
For this preview, the rule is strict: include additional symposiums, lectures, forums, and public conferences only when there is a confirmed date, time, venue, public access, and official source.
Do not pad the issue with routine department seminars, internal campus events, admissions programs, professional CLEs, alumni outings, athletics, fundraisers, or purely social items.
If Union, UAlbany, RPI, Siena, Skidmore, Russell Sage, ACPHS, HVCC, SUNY Schenectady, or Albany Med posts major qualifying public programming before final publication, it can be added. But the standard should remain high.
🧩 How to Read This Preview
The fall is not fully visible yet.
What is visible now is the shape of the public-conversation season.
Albany Law already has two significant civic/legal programs that deserve more attention than they usually get. The Writers Institute has announced a large and substantial season. TOPOS needs a separate Plan Ahead flag because the timing and ticket structure matter. The Albany Book Festival is confirmed, with an initial author-and-panel preview now posted and the full schedule still to come.
The next installment will move into Theater, Music, Performance & Exhibitions. That is where Skidmore, Tang, Zankel, Russell Sage, Opalka, UAlbany PAC, Union, SUNY Schenectady, Siena, and EMPAC should become more prominent.
After that, if needed, the preview can widen to Regional Extension + Late Announcements, including Bard and Williams only when the events clear the drive-worthy threshold.
This is Part 1. It is not the whole fall calendar.
📅 By Day Calendar
Wednesday — August 19
From MVP to Enterprise Ready: What Founders Need to Know Before Selling to Customers — UAlbany Innovation Center / ETEC (12:00–1:00 PM)
Thursday — August 20
Upbeat on the Roof with The Millstone Rounders — Skidmore / Tang Teaching Museum, Tang Grounds (5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music)
Saturday — August 22
Regional Extension Pick — The Seth Rudetsky Concert Series featuring Lillias White — Williams College / ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance, MainStage (7:00 PM)
🤝 Community Newsletter Partner
Capital Region Curated is pleased to cross-promote with The Jewish World, a local source for Jewish community news, culture, events, and stories.
Read or subscribe to The Jewish World
This only works if people share it—feel free to forward to anyone who attends campus events.
I’m building this into a comprehensive weekly guide—recommendations are always welcome.
Fall is starting to come into focus.
Alan Koslow
13
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
ADVERTISEMENT
Capital Region Curated: August 17-23
Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events, with Tang, UAlbany, EMPAC’s closing shows, and a Tony winner at Williams.
Alan Koslow
13
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
Capital Region Curated, Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events.
What’s worth your time at Capital Region colleges and universities.
A Light Local Week, with Tang, UAlbany, EMPAC, and a Tony-Winning Williams Pick 🎶🎭📚
This is one of the quieter late-summer campus weeks.
That is not a problem. It is useful information.
The local timed-event core is small: a UAlbany Innovation Center founder talk on Wednesday and Tang’s Upbeat on the Roof concert with The Millstone Rounders on Thursday.
There are also two EMPAC installations in their final days: P. Staff’s Terminal Lucidity and Chloe Alexandra Thompson’s Untitling. They are not one-night events, but in a light week they are absolutely worth flagging before they close.
The stronger arts item is outside the normal Capital Region footprint: Lillias White with Seth Rudetsky at Williams College’s ’62 Center. Williams is not part of the regular weekly campus sweep, but a Tony Award-winning Broadway performer clears the regional-extension threshold.
No filler this week. A small local core, two EMPAC exhibitions in their final days, one strong Williams pick, two Plan Ahead items, and then the first installment of the 2026 Fall Preview.
This issue begins with the immediate week, then turns to TOPOS 2026 at EMPAC and the Albany Book Festival, then opens the fall preview series with Speakers, Writers, Ideas, Forums & Public Conversations.
☀️ Late-Summer Note
Late August is still thin.
Most colleges are not yet back in full public-programming mode. A lot of fall schedules are announced, but the actual weekly calendar has not fully turned on.
So this week’s issue does two things.
First, it points to the few events that are actually worth your time now.
Second, it starts the larger fall planning work. Campus programming for fall 2026 is beginning to take shape, and there is already a remarkable amount worth putting on the calendar.
📣 Help Spread the Word
It really helps when readers share Capital Region Curated.
If you work with a college department, program, gallery, museum, performing arts office, campus newsletter, or personal newsletter, I’d be grateful if you would share it with people who might want a weekly guide to public events on Capital Region campuses.
Subscribe here: Capital Region Curated
🗓️ PART ONE: THIS WEEK’S CAMPUS EVENTS
August 17–23
This is still a very light week.
The local timed events are UAlbany and Tang. The exhibitions to catch before they close are at EMPAC. The regional-extension pick is Williams.
That is the honest shape of the week.
⭐ Top Picks
Upbeat on the Roof with The Millstone Rounders 📅 Thursday 8/20, 5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music — Skidmore / Tang Teaching Museum (Saratoga Springs — Tang Grounds) (Map | Details | Free)
Tang’s summer concert series continues with The Millstone Rounders, described by Tang as acoustic Americana. This appears to be the final visible Upbeat on the Roof listing of the summer series, which makes it a good late-August campus outing.
Regional Extension Pick — The Seth Rudetsky Concert Series featuring Lillias White 📅 Saturday 8/22, 7:00 PM — Williams College / ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance (Williamstown, MA — MainStage) (Map | Details/Tickets | $50 and up)
Williams is outside the normal weekly campus sweep, but this one clears the threshold. Lillias White is a Tony Award-winning Broadway performer, and her appearance with Seth Rudetsky is strong enough to justify the drive for readers who follow Broadway, cabaret, or musical theater.
💡 Also This Week
From MVP to Enterprise Ready: What Founders Need to Know Before Selling to Customers 📅 Wednesday 8/19, 12:00–1:00 PM — UAlbany Innovation Center / ETEC (Albany — 1220 Washington Avenue) (Map | Details/Register)
A practical founder-focused discussion with John D. Flory III, co-founder of Cyberstone Security and creator of HarborShield Cybersecurity. This is a good fit for readers interested in startups, enterprise sales, cybersecurity, and how early products become customer-ready.
🖼️ Ending This Week at EMPAC
EMPAC has two installations in their final days. These are not timed evening events, so they do not belong in the By Day Calendar, but they do belong in a light late-August issue.
Terminal Lucidity — P. Staff
On view through Thursday 8/20 — RPI / EMPAC (Troy — EMPAC Concert Hall) (Details | Free)
A public installation ending this week at EMPAC.
Untitling — Chloe Alexandra Thompson
On view through Friday 8/21 — RPI / EMPAC (Troy — Studio 1—Goodman) (Details | Free)
A sound-based installation with public weekday viewing hours.
🔮 Plan Ahead — Buy Early
TOPOS 2026 Music Festival — RPI / EMPAC
September 2–5 — EMPAC and the Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy
This is the advance-planning item of the week.
TOPOS 2026 brings four days of adventurous music, performance, film, and conversation to EMPAC and the Sanctuary for Independent Media, with Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith, Miho Hatori, Fred Moten, Edward George, IMA, Paul Abbott, and others.
Full-festival passes are $50, with selected individual events at $20.
Do not treat this as a casual week-of decision. TOPOS events are exactly the kind of limited-capacity programming that can disappear early, and readers who want the full festival experience should buy now rather than hoping tickets are still available in September.
ADVERTISEMENT
📚 Plan Ahead — Save the Date
9th Annual Albany Book Festival — NYS Writers Institute / UAlbany
Saturday 9/26 — University at Albany
(Details)
The Writers Institute’s annual Albany Book Festival returns for a full Saturday of authors, books, conversations, signings, vendors, children’s activities, and literary programming.
The festival date is confirmed, and an initial 2026 author-and-panel preview is now posted. The complete schedule is still to come, but there is already enough here to mark September 26 now.
Previewed names include:
Elizabeth Kolbert — climate / natural world
Arash Azizi — Iran / modern history
Porochista Khakpour — Iranian-American fiction
Amir Ahmadi Arian — contemporary Iran
Terry Golway — New York history
Megan Nolan — Irish fiction
Carol Gilligan — feminist psychology
Gish Jen — fiction / identity
Kelly McMasters — memoir / essays
Keith McNally — restaurants / memoir
John Katzenbach — psychological thrillers
Canwen Xu — debut thriller fiction
Namwali Serpell — fiction / Morrison
Katie Barnes — sports / gender
Brianne Brinker — trans athletes / memoir
This is still a preliminary festival note, not the full program. Once the Writers Institute posts the complete schedule, this should be replaced with a richer listing highlighting the strongest panels, exact times, rooms, signing schedule, and featured authors.
🏛️ PART TWO: FALL PREVIEW PART 1
Speakers, Writers, Ideas, Forums & Public Conversations
This issue begins the Capital Region Curated 2026 Fall Preview series.
There is now too much announced fall programming to fit comfortably into one issue. That is good news for readers, but it means the preview needs structure.
So this week begins with Speakers, Writers, Ideas, Forums & Public Conversations.
Theater, music, performance, exhibitions, and additional announced schedules will follow in later installments.
This is not meant to be a giant chronological calendar. The goal is simpler and more useful:
Here are the major public speakers, writers, conversations, forums, and intellectual programs already announced for fall — and the dates worth putting on your calendar now.
⚖️ Albany Law School — Public Legal and Civic Programming
Start here because these Albany Law programs are exactly the kind of public events that can get lost.
Albany Law’s public lectures are hidden gems in the Capital Region. They are often under-attended for the quality of the speakers, the legal insight, the civic substance, and the access they offer. I attended several Albany Law lectures last year, and the best of them were world-class public programs hiding in plain sight.
Albany Law has not announced a complete fall lecture season, but two significant public programs are already on the calendar.
Nancy M. Sills ’76 Memorial Lecture on Aging Law and Policy
📅 Saturday 10/3, 1:00–2:00 PM — Albany Law School (Dean Alexander Moot Court Room 421)
Part of Senior Citizens Law Day. Free and open to the public. (Details)
Richard Rifkin Memorial Lecture
📅 Monday 10/26, 6:00–7:30 PM — Albany Law School (Dean Alexander Moot Court Room 421)
A program honoring Richard Rifkin, longtime public servant and former Legal Director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School. The event includes remarks from former New York Attorney General Robert Abrams, with a reception to follow. (Details)
Reader note: Albany Law should be treated selectively, but not lightly. These are serious public civic/legal programs and some of the most overlooked public lecture opportunities in the Capital Region.
ADVERTISEMENT
📚 NYS Writers Institute — Fall 2026
The NYS Writers Institute is the biggest announced fall public-programming source so far.
The season runs from early September into mid-December and includes literary names, public-affairs conversations, film screenings, AI and society programs, the Albany Book Festival, and several dates that should be circled now.
Do not treat every item below as equal. The point is to notice both the biggest draws and the broader season pattern.
Highest-Priority Dates
📅 Wednesday 9/2, 7:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Main Theatre
This is a conversation with Joe Donahue, not a concert. Merchant is a major regional and national figure, and the format should give the evening more depth than a standard appearance.
Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark
📅 Monday 9/14, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
Bird’s work and Goldmark’s public-policy background make this one of the more substantial idea-driven programs of September.
Albany Book Festival
📅 Saturday 9/26 — UAlbany
The date is confirmed, and an initial 2026 author-and-panel preview is now posted. See Plan Ahead above.
📅 Wednesday 10/28, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
Lowry’s work has shaped generations of readers, and this is one of the most broadly recognizable Writers Institute names of the fall.
D.B. Woodside
📅 Wednesday 11/4, 7:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
The Burian Lecture. A notable fall date for readers interested in acting, television, performance, and public conversation with a major screen performer.
📅 Thursday 11/12, 7:00 PM — The Egg
The Empire State Archives & History Award program. Tickets are required. Brinkley is one of the season’s biggest public-history names, and the venue signals a larger-than-usual event.
Telling the Truth — Jonathan Alter and Devlin Barrett
📅 Friday 11/13, 7:00 PM — Page Hall
A public-affairs program for readers interested in journalism, politics, truth-telling, and public accountability.
📅 Thursday 11/19, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
A notable literary date late in the fall season.
📅 Tuesday 12/15, 7:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Main Theatre
A strong fall-season closer, especially for readers interested in music, culture, performance, and creative life.
Other Notable Public Programs
📅 Thursday 9/17, 4:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
Mehta’s work fits the Writers Institute’s public conversation lane: migration, cities, identity, politics, and the global lives behind public debate.
Brownsville Bred
📅 Friday 9/18, 7:00 PM — Page Hall
Screening and discussion with Elaine Del Valle. This sits between film, memoir, performance, and public storytelling.
Francine Berman
📅 Tuesday 9/22, 4:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
An AI & Society program. Campus conversations about AI are moving from technical departments into public humanities, policy, ethics, and civic life.
Literature to Life: The Giver
📅 Monday 10/5, 7:00 PM — UAlbany PAC Main Theatre
A stage adaptation tied to a major literary work, with a natural connection to the Lois Lowry appearance later in October.
📅 Friday 10/9, 7:00 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
A public conversation candidate for readers interested in media, technology, public life, and contemporary ideas.
📅 Tuesday 10/13, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
A local/regional literary and journalism figure who belongs in the fall public-conversation mix.
Joe the King
📅 Friday 10/16, 7:00 PM — Page Hall
Screening and discussion with filmmaker/actor Frank Whaley. A film-and-conversation program with regional and creative interest.
📅 Thursday 10/29, 4:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
A late-October public conversation candidate.
📅 Thursday 11/12, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
An AI & Society program. Same date as Douglas Brinkley at The Egg, so readers interested in both should note the timing.
Seized
📅 Saturday 11/7 — Palace Theatre
Screening and discussion. Time is still TBA, so this should be treated as an announced program with details still forthcoming, not as a finished event listing.
Roscoe Marathon Reading
📅 Tuesday 11/17, 11:00 AM–10:00 PM — Albany Distilling Co.
A long-form literary event and one of the more unusual announced formats in the season.
Rachel Eliza Griffiths
📅 Wednesday 12/2, 7:30 PM — Huxley Theater, NYS Museum
A December literary program with a museum venue.
Shani King
📅 Wednesday 12/9, 6:30 PM — Alice Moore Black Arts and Cultural Center
A community-connected December program.
Additional Announced Writers Institute Dates
These are not invisible. They are simply not the top draws of the season.
M. Lin — The Memory Museum
📅 Thursday 9/3, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Andrew Martin — Down Time
📅 Tuesday 9/8, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Joshua Bennett — poet, scholar, performer
📅 Tuesday 9/29, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Roger Rosenblatt — essayist and memoirist
📅 Wednesday 10/7, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Kristen Millares Young — novelist, essayist, journalist
📅 Thursday 10/15, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
m.s. RedCherries — poet / Indigenous writing
📅 Tuesday 10/20, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Kristen McCallum — YA fiction / Free Girls
📅 Thursday 11/5, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Elliot Williams — CNN legal analyst
📅 Monday 11/9, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
Anna Moschovakis — poet and translator
📅 Tuesday 12/1, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
🧭 Other Core-Campus Intellectual Programming
The rest of the core-campus fall intellectual calendar is still uneven.
That will change.
For this preview, the rule is strict: include additional symposiums, lectures, forums, and public conferences only when there is a confirmed date, time, venue, public access, and official source.
Do not pad the issue with routine department seminars, internal campus events, admissions programs, professional CLEs, alumni outings, athletics, fundraisers, or purely social items.
If Union, UAlbany, RPI, Siena, Skidmore, Russell Sage, ACPHS, HVCC, SUNY Schenectady, or Albany Med posts major qualifying public programming before final publication, it can be added. But the standard should remain high.
🧩 How to Read This Preview
The fall is not fully visible yet.
What is visible now is the shape of the public-conversation season.
Albany Law already has two significant civic/legal programs that deserve more attention than they usually get. The Writers Institute has announced a large and substantial season. TOPOS needs a separate Plan Ahead flag because the timing and ticket structure matter. The Albany Book Festival is confirmed, with an initial author-and-panel preview now posted and the full schedule still to come.
The next installment will move into Theater, Music, Performance & Exhibitions. That is where Skidmore, Tang, Zankel, Russell Sage, Opalka, UAlbany PAC, Union, SUNY Schenectady, Siena, and EMPAC should become more prominent.
After that, if needed, the preview can widen to Regional Extension + Late Announcements, including Bard and Williams only when the events clear the drive-worthy threshold.
This is Part 1. It is not the whole fall calendar.
📅 By Day Calendar
Wednesday — August 19
From MVP to Enterprise Ready: What Founders Need to Know Before Selling to Customers — UAlbany Innovation Center / ETEC (12:00–1:00 PM)
Thursday — August 20
Upbeat on the Roof with The Millstone Rounders — Skidmore / Tang Teaching Museum, Tang Grounds (5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music)
Saturday — August 22
Regional Extension Pick — The Seth Rudetsky Concert Series featuring Lillias White — Williams College / ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance, MainStage (7:00 PM)
🤝 Community Newsletter Partner
Capital Region Curated is pleased to cross-promote with The Jewish World, a local source for Jewish community news, culture, events, and stories.
Read or subscribe to The Jewish World
This only works if people share it—feel free to forward to anyone who attends campus events.
I’m building this into a comprehensive weekly guide—recommendations are always welcome.
Fall is starting to come into focus.
Alan Koslow
13
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
ADVERTISEMENT
Capital Region Curated: August 17-23
Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events, with Tang, UAlbany, EMPAC’s closing shows, and a Tony winner at Williams.
Alan Koslow
13
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
Capital Region Curated, Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events.
What’s worth your time at Capital Region colleges and universities.
A Light Local Week, with Tang, UAlbany, EMPAC, and a Tony-Winning Williams Pick 🎶🎭📚
This is one of the quieter late-summer campus weeks.
That is not a problem. It is useful information.
The local timed-event core is small: a UAlbany Innovation Center founder talk on Wednesday and Tang’s Upbeat on the Roof concert with The Millstone Rounders on Thursday.
There are also two EMPAC installations in their final days: P. Staff’s Terminal Lucidity and Chloe Alexandra Thompson’s Untitling. They are not one-night events, but in a light week they are absolutely worth flagging before they close.
The stronger arts item is outside the normal Capital Region footprint: Lillias White with Seth Rudetsky at Williams College’s ’62 Center. Williams is not part of the regular weekly campus sweep, but a Tony Award-winning Broadway performer clears the regional-extension threshold.
No filler this week. A small local core, two EMPAC exhibitions in their final days, one strong Williams pick, two Plan Ahead items, and then the first installment of the 2026 Fall Preview.
This issue begins with the immediate week, then turns to TOPOS 2026 at EMPAC and the Albany Book Festival, then opens the fall preview series with Speakers, Writers, Ideas, Forums & Public Conversations.
☀️ Late-Summer Note
Late August is still thin.
Most colleges are not yet back in full public-programming mode. A lot of fall schedules are announced, but the actual weekly calendar has not fully turned on.
So this week’s issue does two things.
First, it points to the few events that are actually worth your time now.
Second, it starts the larger fall planning work. Campus programming for fall 2026 is beginning to take shape, and there is already a remarkable amount worth putting on the calendar.
📣 Help Spread the Word
It really helps when readers share Capital Region Curated.
If you work with a college department, program, gallery, museum, performing arts office, campus newsletter, or personal newsletter, I’d be grateful if you would share it with people who might want a weekly guide to public events on Capital Region campuses.
Subscribe here: Capital Region Curated
🗓️ PART ONE: THIS WEEK’S CAMPUS EVENTS
August 17–23
This is still a very light week.
The local timed events are UAlbany and Tang. The exhibitions to catch before they close are at EMPAC. The regional-extension pick is Williams.
That is the honest shape of the week.
⭐ Top Picks
Upbeat on the Roof with The Millstone Rounders 📅 Thursday 8/20, 5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music — Skidmore / Tang Teaching Museum (Saratoga Springs — Tang Grounds) (Map | Details | Free)
Tang’s summer concert series continues with The Millstone Rounders, described by Tang as acoustic Americana. This appears to be the final visible Upbeat on the Roof listing of the summer series, which makes it a good late-August campus outing.
Regional Extension Pick — The Seth Rudetsky Concert Series featuring Lillias White 📅 Saturday 8/22, 7:00 PM — Williams College / ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance (Williamstown, MA — MainStage) (Map | Details/Tickets | $50 and up)
Williams is outside the normal weekly campus sweep, but this one clears the threshold. Lillias White is a Tony Award-winning Broadway performer, and her appearance with Seth Rudetsky is strong enough to justify the drive for readers who follow Broadway, cabaret, or musical theater.
💡 Also This Week
From MVP to Enterprise Ready: What Founders Need to Know Before Selling to Customers 📅 Wednesday 8/19, 12:00–1:00 PM — UAlbany Innovation Center / ETEC (Albany — 1220 Washington Avenue) (Map | Details/Register)
A practical founder-focused discussion with John D. Flory III, co-founder of Cyberstone Security and creator of HarborShield Cybersecurity. This is a good fit for readers interested in startups, enterprise sales, cybersecurity, and how early products become customer-ready.
🖼️ Ending This Week at EMPAC
EMPAC has two installations in their final days. These are not timed evening events, so they do not belong in the By Day Calendar, but they do belong in a light late-August issue.
Terminal Lucidity — P. Staff
On view through Thursday 8/20 — RPI / EMPAC (Troy — EMPAC Concert Hall) (Details | Free)
A public installation ending this week at EMPAC.
Untitling — Chloe Alexandra Thompson
On view through Friday 8/21 — RPI / EMPAC (Troy — Studio 1—Goodman) (Details | Free)
A sound-based installation with public weekday viewing hours.
🔮 Plan Ahead — Buy Early
TOPOS 2026 Music Festival — RPI / EMPAC
September 2–5 — EMPAC and the Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy
This is the advance-planning item of the week.
TOPOS 2026 brings four days of adventurous music, performance, film, and conversation to EMPAC and the Sanctuary for Independent Media, with Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith, Miho Hatori, Fred Moten, Edward George, IMA, Paul Abbott, and others.
Full-festival passes are $50, with selected individual events at $20.
Do not treat this as a casual week-of decision. TOPOS events are exactly the kind of limited-capacity programming that can disappear early, and readers who want the full festival experience should buy now rather than hoping tickets are still available in September.
ADVERTISEMENT
📚 Plan Ahead — Save the Date
9th Annual Albany Book Festival — NYS Writers Institute / UAlbany
Saturday 9/26 — University at Albany
(Details)
The Writers Institute’s annual Albany Book Festival returns for a full Saturday of authors, books, conversations, signings, vendors, children’s activities, and literary programming.
The festival date is confirmed, and an initial 2026 author-and-panel preview is now posted. The complete schedule is still to come, but there is already enough here to mark September 26 now.
Previewed names include:
Elizabeth Kolbert — climate / natural world
Arash Azizi — Iran / modern history
Porochista Khakpour — Iranian-American fiction
Amir Ahmadi Arian — contemporary Iran
Terry Golway — New York history
Megan Nolan — Irish fiction
Carol Gilligan — feminist psychology
Gish Jen — fiction / identity
Kelly McMasters — memoir / essays
Keith McNally — restaurants / memoir
John Katzenbach — psychological thrillers
Canwen Xu — debut thriller fiction
Namwali Serpell — fiction / Morrison
Katie Barnes — sports / gender
Brianne Brinker — trans athletes / memoir
This is still a preliminary festival note, not the full program. Once the Writers Institute posts the complete schedule, this should be replaced with a richer listing highlighting the strongest panels, exact times, rooms, signing schedule, and featured authors.
🏛️ PART TWO: FALL PREVIEW PART 1
Speakers, Writers, Ideas, Forums & Public Conversations
This issue begins the Capital Region Curated 2026 Fall Preview series.
There is now too much announced fall programming to fit comfortably into one issue. That is good news for readers, but it means the preview needs structure.
So this week begins with Speakers, Writers, Ideas, Forums & Public Conversations.
Theater, music, performance, exhibitions, and additional announced schedules will follow in later installments.
This is not meant to be a giant chronological calendar. The goal is simpler and more useful:
Here are the major public speakers, writers, conversations, forums, and intellectual programs already announced for fall — and the dates worth putting on your calendar now.
⚖️ Albany Law School — Public Legal and Civic Programming
Start here because these Albany Law programs are exactly the kind of public events that can get lost.
Albany Law’s public lectures are hidden gems in the Capital Region. They are often under-attended for the quality of the speakers, the legal insight, the civic substance, and the access they offer. I attended several Albany Law lectures last year, and the best of them were world-class public programs hiding in plain sight.
Albany Law has not announced a complete fall lecture season, but two significant public programs are already on the calendar.
Nancy M. Sills ’76 Memorial Lecture on Aging Law and Policy
📅 Saturday 10/3, 1:00–2:00 PM — Albany Law School (Dean Alexander Moot Court Room 421)
Part of Senior Citizens Law Day. Free and open to the public. (Details)
Richard Rifkin Memorial Lecture
📅 Monday 10/26, 6:00–7:30 PM — Albany Law School (Dean Alexander Moot Court Room 421)
A program honoring Richard Rifkin, longtime public servant and former Legal Director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School. The event includes remarks from former New York Attorney General Robert Abrams, with a reception to follow. (Details)
Reader note: Albany Law should be treated selectively, but not lightly. These are serious public civic/legal programs and some of the most overlooked public lecture opportunities in the Capital Region.
ADVERTISEMENT
📚 NYS Writers Institute — Fall 2026
The NYS Writers Institute is the biggest announced fall public-programming source so far.
The season runs from early September into mid-December and includes literary names, public-affairs conversations, film screenings, AI and society programs, the Albany Book Festival, and several dates that should be circled now.
Do not treat every item below as equal. The point is to notice both the biggest draws and the broader season pattern.
Highest-Priority Dates
📅 Wednesday 9/2, 7:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Main Theatre
This is a conversation with Joe Donahue, not a concert. Merchant is a major regional and national figure, and the format should give the evening more depth than a standard appearance.
Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark
📅 Monday 9/14, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
Bird’s work and Goldmark’s public-policy background make this one of the more substantial idea-driven programs of September.
Albany Book Festival
📅 Saturday 9/26 — UAlbany
The date is confirmed, and an initial 2026 author-and-panel preview is now posted. See Plan Ahead above.
📅 Wednesday 10/28, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
Lowry’s work has shaped generations of readers, and this is one of the most broadly recognizable Writers Institute names of the fall.
D.B. Woodside
📅 Wednesday 11/4, 7:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
The Burian Lecture. A notable fall date for readers interested in acting, television, performance, and public conversation with a major screen performer.
📅 Thursday 11/12, 7:00 PM — The Egg
The Empire State Archives & History Award program. Tickets are required. Brinkley is one of the season’s biggest public-history names, and the venue signals a larger-than-usual event.
Telling the Truth — Jonathan Alter and Devlin Barrett
📅 Friday 11/13, 7:00 PM — Page Hall
A public-affairs program for readers interested in journalism, politics, truth-telling, and public accountability.
📅 Thursday 11/19, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
A notable literary date late in the fall season.
📅 Tuesday 12/15, 7:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Main Theatre
A strong fall-season closer, especially for readers interested in music, culture, performance, and creative life.
Other Notable Public Programs
📅 Thursday 9/17, 4:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
Mehta’s work fits the Writers Institute’s public conversation lane: migration, cities, identity, politics, and the global lives behind public debate.
Brownsville Bred
📅 Friday 9/18, 7:00 PM — Page Hall
Screening and discussion with Elaine Del Valle. This sits between film, memoir, performance, and public storytelling.
Francine Berman
📅 Tuesday 9/22, 4:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
An AI & Society program. Campus conversations about AI are moving from technical departments into public humanities, policy, ethics, and civic life.
Literature to Life: The Giver
📅 Monday 10/5, 7:00 PM — UAlbany PAC Main Theatre
A stage adaptation tied to a major literary work, with a natural connection to the Lois Lowry appearance later in October.
📅 Friday 10/9, 7:00 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
A public conversation candidate for readers interested in media, technology, public life, and contemporary ideas.
📅 Tuesday 10/13, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
A local/regional literary and journalism figure who belongs in the fall public-conversation mix.
Joe the King
📅 Friday 10/16, 7:00 PM — Page Hall
Screening and discussion with filmmaker/actor Frank Whaley. A film-and-conversation program with regional and creative interest.
📅 Thursday 10/29, 4:30 PM — UAlbany PAC Recital Hall
A late-October public conversation candidate.
📅 Thursday 11/12, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
An AI & Society program. Same date as Douglas Brinkley at The Egg, so readers interested in both should note the timing.
Seized
📅 Saturday 11/7 — Palace Theatre
Screening and discussion. Time is still TBA, so this should be treated as an announced program with details still forthcoming, not as a finished event listing.
Roscoe Marathon Reading
📅 Tuesday 11/17, 11:00 AM–10:00 PM — Albany Distilling Co.
A long-form literary event and one of the more unusual announced formats in the season.
Rachel Eliza Griffiths
📅 Wednesday 12/2, 7:30 PM — Huxley Theater, NYS Museum
A December literary program with a museum venue.
Shani King
📅 Wednesday 12/9, 6:30 PM — Alice Moore Black Arts and Cultural Center
A community-connected December program.
Additional Announced Writers Institute Dates
These are not invisible. They are simply not the top draws of the season.
M. Lin — The Memory Museum
📅 Thursday 9/3, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Andrew Martin — Down Time
📅 Tuesday 9/8, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Joshua Bennett — poet, scholar, performer
📅 Tuesday 9/29, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Roger Rosenblatt — essayist and memoirist
📅 Wednesday 10/7, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Kristen Millares Young — novelist, essayist, journalist
📅 Thursday 10/15, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
m.s. RedCherries — poet / Indigenous writing
📅 Tuesday 10/20, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Kristen McCallum — YA fiction / Free Girls
📅 Thursday 11/5, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
Elliot Williams — CNN legal analyst
📅 Monday 11/9, 7:30 PM — Page Hall
Anna Moschovakis — poet and translator
📅 Tuesday 12/1, 4:30 PM — UAlbany
🧭 Other Core-Campus Intellectual Programming
The rest of the core-campus fall intellectual calendar is still uneven.
That will change.
For this preview, the rule is strict: include additional symposiums, lectures, forums, and public conferences only when there is a confirmed date, time, venue, public access, and official source.
Do not pad the issue with routine department seminars, internal campus events, admissions programs, professional CLEs, alumni outings, athletics, fundraisers, or purely social items.
If Union, UAlbany, RPI, Siena, Skidmore, Russell Sage, ACPHS, HVCC, SUNY Schenectady, or Albany Med posts major qualifying public programming before final publication, it can be added. But the standard should remain high.
🧩 How to Read This Preview
The fall is not fully visible yet.
What is visible now is the shape of the public-conversation season.
Albany Law already has two significant civic/legal programs that deserve more attention than they usually get. The Writers Institute has announced a large and substantial season. TOPOS needs a separate Plan Ahead flag because the timing and ticket structure matter. The Albany Book Festival is confirmed, with an initial author-and-panel preview now posted and the full schedule still to come.
The next installment will move into Theater, Music, Performance & Exhibitions. That is where Skidmore, Tang, Zankel, Russell Sage, Opalka, UAlbany PAC, Union, SUNY Schenectady, Siena, and EMPAC should become more prominent.
After that, if needed, the preview can widen to Regional Extension + Late Announcements, including Bard and Williams only when the events clear the drive-worthy threshold.
This is Part 1. It is not the whole fall calendar.
📅 By Day Calendar
Wednesday — August 19
From MVP to Enterprise Ready: What Founders Need to Know Before Selling to Customers — UAlbany Innovation Center / ETEC (12:00–1:00 PM)
Thursday — August 20
Upbeat on the Roof with The Millstone Rounders — Skidmore / Tang Teaching Museum, Tang Grounds (5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music)
Saturday — August 22
Regional Extension Pick — The Seth Rudetsky Concert Series featuring Lillias White — Williams College / ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance, MainStage (7:00 PM)
🤝 Community Newsletter Partner
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Read or subscribe to The Jewish World
This only works if people share it—feel free to forward to anyone who attends campus events.
I’m building this into a comprehensive weekly guide—recommendations are always welcome.
Fall is starting to come into focus.
Alan Koslow
13
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
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© 2026 The Jewish World · Since 1965 - The Capital Region's gateway to Jewish life
Designed and Developed by Ta-Da Studios
© 2026 The Jewish World · Since 1965 - The Capital Region's gateway to Jewish life
Designed and Developed by Ta-Da Studios
© 2026 The Jewish World · Since 1965 - The Capital Region's gateway to Jewish life
Designed and Developed by Ta-Da Studios