Hear author Glenna Lang at an in-person lecture and slide presentation celebrating the release of her new book—Jane Jacobs’s First City: Learning from Scranton, Pennsylvania (New Village Press). Learn how Jane Jacobs’s influential ideas about vibrant cities developed through her early life in the City of Scranton. This May 4th marks what would have been Jane Jacobs’s 105th birthday and the first annual Jane Jacobs Day in Scranton. 

Special guests will include Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, architect John Cowder, and Center for the Living City director Maria MacDonald. Audience Q&A will be followed by a book signing. The socially-distanced program (masks required) will take place at the spacious Theater at Lackawanna College, formerly Central High School from which Jane Jacobs (née Butzner) graduated.

Registration is required but free. This program is part of the Jane Jacobs Lecture Series hosted by the Center for the Living City and Marywood University, and is a kickoff for many events in the Center’s week-long Observe Scranton: Jane Jacobs's First City Festival.

Space is limited but the event will be recorded and available on our website and YouTube channel afterwards. 

The Jane Jacobs Lecture Series is free and open to the public, but your support makes our work possible. Please consider donating to support future lectures. A special thank you to Marywood University’s School of Architecture for sponsoring the Jane Jacobs Lecture Series and to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) NEPA Chapter for sponsoring this event and offering CES credit for architects attending in-person or virtually. Additional sponsors include Lackawanna College and the Scranton Public Library.