February 2, 2025
Dear Friends
Today, we raise a glass to celebrate James Joyce’s birthday and to share some exciting updates about the 2025 Bloomsday festival here at the Rosenbach. Every June 16, we gather together to read from Joyce’s Ulysses. It’s a beloved and foundational event for this institution, the home of Joyce’s manuscript of a novel that continues to inspire, scandalize, and thrill.
The Bloomsday celebration at the Rosenbach has been in a constant state of growth and evolution since our first gathering in 1992. We’ve changed locations, expanded our lineup of readers, and navigated the digital sphere during the pandemic (and continued to strengthen our roots there since!)— all in an effort to put Rosenbach supporters, and the world at large, in touch with this masterpiece of modern literature and welcome friends and strangers to the Rosenbach community.
On Bloomsday 2025, we’ll make another leap forward with new programming and an updated structure for the day, directly inspired by feedback we received from attendees of the record-breaking 2024 celebration. We’re pleased to bring you more opportunities to get up close to the historic manuscript and related materials, more opportunities to join the public reading, and a special sunset performance on Delancey Place featuring everyone’s favorite: Molly Bloom.
We’ll share more information in the coming weeks as programs are finalized. We are delighted to once again welcome you to Bloomsday at the Rosenbach.
See you June 16!
Kelsey Scouten Bates
The John C. Haas Director
Philadelphia actor Kirsten Quinn reads Molly Bloom on Bloomsday, 2024.
Photo by Mark Garvin