Booking and details
Dates Thurs, Aug 15, 6pm
Venue Great Hall
Tickets $25
Each ticket includes one specialty Mixology cocktail or mocktail and themed snacks
Doors open at 6pm; Trivia begins at 7pm
Is Taylor Swift the Shakespeare of our time? This “cruel summer,” join the Folger Institute as we explore the poetry, literary devices, and early modern allusions of Swift’s discography. Whether you prefer All’s Well That Ends Well or “All Too Well,” all are welcome to join us for a fun night of cocktails, trivia, and prizes. Don your Eras-themed outfit—doors open at 6pm for themed cocktail sipping and friendship bracelet making, and trivia begins at 7pm. Are you ready for it?
Trivia
Show us your knowledge (and learn a few fun facts along the way)! Trivia teams may have up to six people; bring your own team or meet new friends to form a team at the event! The first-place team will receive tickets to the Folger production of Romeo & Juliet!
About Folger Institute
The Folger Institute is a center for early modern research at the Folger Shakespeare Library that brings public audiences together with researchers to explore the cultures and legacies of the early modern world. Learn more.
Folger Institute’s “Mixology” series
Alchemy, aqua vitae, and Mixology: How alchemy gave us liquor
Without alchemy there would be no mixology. No cocktails, no spirits, no liqueurs, no essences! Dive into the history of alchemy and distillation, with two cocktail recipes.
High spirits: Alchemy in Elizabethan England
Jennifer Rampling, a Princeton history professor and author of The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300–1700, explores alchemy in Shakespeare’s England.
Shax it Off: Taylor Swift-themed cocktails inspired by recipes in our collection
Three Taylor Swift-themed cocktails inspired by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century recipes from our collection.
Taylor Swift and Shakespeare
“Lend me your ears”: Harvard English professor Stephanie Burt explores the songs and songwriting of Shakespeare and Taylor Swift.
Four Cocktails Inspired by the Folger Collection
Learn more about—and how to make!—the four cocktails featured at Folger Institute’s upcoming Mixology event.
The coriander connection: Brain health in early modern English recipes and Ayurvedic practices today
An Ayurvedic doctor explores resonances between traditional Indian medicine and an early modern English recipe in the Folger collection that prescribes coriander to “helpe the memorie.”
"To preserve the memorie": Cocktails inspired by the Folger Collection
The Folger Institute has partnered with two DC mixologists to bring you cocktail and mocktail recipes featuring the key memory-enhancing ingredient from Mrs. Baker’s recipe book: coriander.
Recipes to remember: Coriander, gallyngale, and the legacies of the lost
The Receipt Book of Margaret Baker, compiled in 1675, contains a recipe for a memory-potion called “Confect of Coriander Seed.”
Love-in-idleness, Part Two: Intoxicating botanicals in 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream'
Love-in-idleness, a flower also called pansy or heartsease, plays an important role in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” as Marissa Nicosia explores.
Love-in-idleness, Part One: Adapting an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial
Marissa Nicosia adapts an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial. This purple pansy syrup was used to “clear the heart” – to treat the chest and lungs or to reduce fever – but also for healing heartaches.
Assistive listening devices
Our assistive listening devices, which work with headphones or with T-Coil wireless transmission, are available at no extra charge.