Cornelia Channing. Photo courtesy of The New York Times.
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Co-Presented by The Peter Matthiessen Center & Guild Hall
We live in a culture that rarely questions growth. Expansion—of markets, wealth, productivity, even the self—is treated not only as an economic goal, but as a moral good. But what happens when growth begins to function as a belief system? What, in this framework, do we worship—and what do we lose?
Moderated by writer and editor Nina Channing, this conversation brings together authors whose work engages these questions across literature, criticism, and environmental thought. Taking Peter Matthiessen’s work as a point of departure, the discussion considers traditions of writing attentive to limits, place, and forms of life not organized around accumulation.
Guest speakers to be announced.
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Nina Channing
Nina Channing is a writer and editor from Bridgehampton, New York. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Paris Review, The East Hampton Star and Slate.
Sponsors
Performing Arts programs are supported by 2026 season sponsors Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, with additional lead support from Henry and Peggy Schleiff, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, Monica and Peter Tessler, and Vital Projects Fund.
Guild Hall’s Performing Arts programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: Natascia Ayers and Jim Ciquera, Bonnie and Joel Bergstein, Gene Bernstein and Kathy Walsh, Amy Cooney and Marty Feinman, John and Joan D’Addario, Suzanne and John Golden, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Steve and Susan Pesner and Peace, in memory of Michéle Pesner, whose entire life was devoted to all aspects of culture, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, Stacey and Oliver Stanton, and Susi and Peter Wunsch.