For the fifth year in a row, New School Jazz students, faculty, alumni, and friends performed Monday nights at Sweet Rhythm, the beloved Greenwich Village jazz club, which closed its doors in 2009. In February, the school celebrated Black History Month with performances honoring American jazz legend Charles Mingus directed by faculty members Diane Moser and Andy McKee, and featuring special guests Marcelino Feliciano, Vic Juris, Idris Muhammad, and Ivan Renta.

Milano and the Center for New York City Affairs held an election roundtable on the 2009 campaigns for New York City mayor and comptroller. Appearing at the event were representatives from the campaigns of the comptroller candidates John Liu, Melinda Katz, David Weprin, and David Yassky and mayoral candidates Mike Bloomberg and Bill Thompson. In panels hosted by New York Times reporter Sam Roberts, they discussed the strategies that propelled the winners to victory and the hurdles that kept others behind in the polls.

The Tishman Environment and Design Center hosted “The Good Food Good Jobs Coalition,” a discussion about FRESH (Food Retail Expansion to Support Health), the city’s new program designed to ensure fresh, healthful foods are available in all city neighborhoods. Speakers included Christine C. Quinn, New York City Council speaker; Dan Barber, owner of Blue Hill restaurant; Bruce Both, president of UFCW Local 1500; and Peggy M. Shepard, executive director and founder of We Act for Environmental Justice.

Bruce Nussbaum, BusinessWeek contributing editor and visiting professor of innovation and design at The New School, took part in a series of conversations in 2009. In May, he sat down with international design innovator Ezio Manzini as part of Design at the Edge: Redesigning Our Lives in an Era of Radical Change, a lecture series held in conjunction with a course Nussbaum taught at Parsons’ School of Design Strategies. In September, he and Tim Brown, president and chief executive officer of the global design consultancy IDEO, discussed critical issues in design and innovation today. And in November, Nussbaum discussed the paths taken by design thinkers in business, science, and the arts with Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

Judith Jones, senior editor and vice president at Alfred A. Knopf, read from her book The Pleasures of Cooking for One. The evening was moderated by Luis Jaramillo, associate chair of the Writing Program.

Ian Martin, former special representative of the secretary-general and head of the United Nations Mission in Nepal, discussed the fragile peace process in Nepal in an event sponsored by the India China Institute.

Former U.S. Senator Adlai Stevenson III delivered The New School for Social Research’s 2009 Paul H. Douglas Lecture on Ethics and Government. The lecture series was established to honor Paul Douglas’ distinguished three-term career in the U.S. Senate.

Peter M. Rutkoff, professor of American studies at Kenyon College, presented “What Would Dewey Do?,” a lecture commemorating The New School’s 90th anniversary. Professor Rutkoff co-authored New School: A History of The New School for Social Research, the only publication to deal in depth with the school’s history. The lecture was part of the event series By Any Name: Institutional Memory at The New School and the Vera List Center’s 2009–2010 program cycle: Speculating on Change.

Award-winning writer Mark Danner discussed his groundbreaking book Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence War with investigative journalist Amy Goodman, co-founder and host of the news program Democracy Now!

During “Race and the Subprime Crisis: The Future of Minority Neighborhoods,” the 2009 Nathan W. Levin Lecture, speakers discussed the impact of the economic collapse on African-American communities, consumer access to credit, and the role of race in public policy. Participants included Maxine Waters, Democratic representative from California and James Carr, COO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. “Race and the Subprime Crisis” was sponsored by Milano and the Center for New York City Affairs.