Thu. March 6, 2025
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM ET
$350

Luis A. Miranda Jr. | Authors’ Evenings

Join us for an intimate evening celebrating Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit That Is Transforming America. Essential reading from an expert voice: Luis A. Miranda Jr.’s personal and political memoir reveals a deep understanding of Latino culture and how to build community to change our world for the better. Miranda will be joined in conversation by author and collaborator of Relentless, Richard Wolffe. This evening is being generously hosted by Gail Gregg. 

A veteran of New York and national politics, Luis Miranda embodies the relentless spirit of progress of American immigrants.

There is no one on the Latino, New York, and national political scene with the breadth of experience, passion, and storytelling charm of Luis Miranda. In Relentless, he shares a fascinating narrative of his life and career—from his early days as a radically minded Puerto Rican activist to his decades of political advice and problem-solving.

Miranda recounts the thrill of the ascendency of Hamilton, created by his son Lin-Manuel, and he details the suffering after the devastation of Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria. Amid the triumphs and challenges, Miranda examines what his experience reveals about our ever-changing politics, demographics, and society.


Luis A. Miranda Jr. arrived in New York City from Puerto Rico in 1974 to study psychology at NYU but soon found himself drawn to community action when he organized his neighbors to fight for better schools for their children. In the 1980s he was a special advisor for Hispanic Affairs to Mayor Ed Koch, and he continued to serve in key roles for the Dinkins and Giuliani administrations. As a founding partner of the MirRam Group, Miranda has consulted on several successful political campaigns, including the senatorial campaigns of Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Chuck Schumer, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Most recently he managed New York Attorney General Letitia James’ successful reelection. Miranda is the founding president of the Hispanic Federation and is currently the chairperson of the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, Viva Broadway, and the Public Theater. He is a board member of The City, and former chair of Latino Victory Fund and the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center.


Richard Wolffe is a best-selling author and Emmy Award-winning executive producer. He has worked closely with chef and humanitarian José Andrés for two decades: from op-eds and speeches to books, podcasts and streaming shows. Wolffe’s latest book with Andrés is Change The Recipe: Because You Can’t Build A Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs, to be published by Ecco in April 2025. An MSNBC political analyst for a decade, Wolffe was Vice-President and Executive Editor of MSNBC.com, launching the channel’s website and app in 2013 and its streaming video channel in 2014. After leaving MSNBC, he wrote a regular column for The Guardian, focusing on U.S. politics, through the first Trump term. Wolffe covered the entire length of Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine. His book about the Obama campaign, Renegade: The Making Of A President, was published by Crown in 2009 and became an instant New York Times bestseller. Wolffe began writing about American politics as a senior journalist at the Financial Times, serving as its deputy bureau chief and U.S. diplomatic correspondent in Washington D.C. Born in Birmingham, England, he now lives in New York City.

Please contact Renee Lamarque at [email protected] if you’re interested in attending this special evening. Donations to attend this evening are $350. The donation is considered 100% tax-deductible and supports PEN America’s mission to defend writers and free expression at a time of unprecedented need. Your generosity is deeply appreciated.


About PEN America Authors’ Evenings

The PEN America Authors’ Evenings are nights of literary dinners in private homes and intimate settings. Please visit the Authors’ Evenings webpage for our full calendar of dinners.

Proceeds from the PEN America Authors’ Evenings support PEN America’s programming to secure the liberty of persecuted and imprisoned writers around the world, to defend freedom of expression, and to promote literature and international cultural exchange.