Nerd Nite NYC is back in Manhattan on Saturday March 15, 2025 featuring fun-yet-informative presentations about the graphic design of the Kamala Harris presidential campaign, how Chess the Musical breaks all the rules, and the dumb (mis)spellings of the English language. Enough is enuf!!! Tickets here.
Nerd Nite NYC
Saturday March 15, 2025 at 7pm
$16 early bird (until March 8, 2025 at 7pm) | $21 standard | $26 at the door
Caveat NYC: 21 A Clinton St, New York, NY 10002 (Lower East Side)
Tickets here: https://www.caveat.nyc/events/nerd-nite-3-15-2025
Back to the Lectures At-Hand
*Presentation #1
Fonts Couldn’t Save Democracy: Graphic Design for the Harris Campaign
by Andrea Wang
Description: The recent US election results have caused many to theorize on reasons why Trump won– but where does “graphic design” fall on that list? In the aftermath of November 2024, many are wondering, what did camo hat sales have to do with getting votes? If Kamala picked a different font, could she have won Pennsylvania? Graphic designer and comedian Andrea Wang will share her experience working as a graphic designer for the Biden-turned-Harris campaign and give context on how graphic design fits in with larger political strategy and the history of design for political campaigns.
Bio: Andrea is a graphic designer for news and politics, most recently on the Biden/Harris campaign in Wilmington, Delaware. She also performs stand-up and has been featured in TimeOut NY, Asian Comedy Fest (NYC), Uptown Comedy Fest (Utica), Hell Yes Fest (New Orleans). This is her 2nd time presenting at Nerd Nite, both times on fonts. Design work: andreajw.com
*Presentation #2
Chess: My Six-Month Descent Into Musical Madness
by Meryl Federman
Description: It started with a Youtube link to the trailer for a new production of the musical Chess. It ended with me questioning everything I knew about storytelling. Join me on a journey about how one of the messiest shows in musical theatre history taught me more about what makes a musical tick than any other single theatrical title.
Bio: Meryl Federman is a former theatre kid, once and future Broadway producer, massive Shakespeare nerd, and devoted karaoke singer. She’s worked for producers, general managers, and production managers for film, television, and theatre, and even wrote a screenplay once, but won’t let it happen again.
*Presentation #3
Enough is ENUF! A (Brief) History of the Simplified Spelling Movement
by Gabe Henry
Description: Why does the G in George sound different from the G in gorge? Why does C begin both case and cease? And why is it funny when a philologist faints, but not polight to laf about it? Gabe Henry explores the quirky history of the Simplified Spelling Movement, which tried for centuries to streamline our spelling by turning through into thru, laugh into laf, and enough into enuf (tu naim a few). Gabe also attempts, without shame, to sell you his new book Enough is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Eezier to Spell.
Bio: Gabe Henry is the author of three books including the poetry anthology Eating Salad Drunk (Vulture’s Best Comedy Books of 2022), a humor collaboration with Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Odenkirk, Margaret Cho, Mike Birbiglia, Janeane Garofalo, Roy Wood Jr., and other titans of comedy. He has spent more than a decade exploring the strange and forgotten history of simplified spelling, which, by his own admission, has only made him a worse speller. He lives in New York.
