Raise a glass to William Kennedy, beloved Writers Institute founder and Albany’s greatest storyteller, at a marathon reading of Legs (1975), the novel that launched his “Albany Cycle.”

Legs tells the story of Jack 'Legs' Diamond, Albany bootlegger, Irish-American celebrity, self-made man, and one of the most notorious gangsters of the 1920s and ‘30s. Join Legs and his paramour, Marion ‘Kiki’ Roberts, on their wanderings through the gritty, glamorous, and very dangerous world of Prohibition-era Albany.

 

In previous seasons, we've hosted marathon readings of Kennedy's novels Ironweed in 2023 and Billy Phelan's Greatest Game in 2024.

Our cosponsor, Albany Distilling Co., maker of Ironweed whiskey, is located in the North Albany neighborhood where William Kennedy grew up, and where some of the fictional scenes in the Depression-era narrative take place.

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Donations will be collected at the door to benefit the food pantry and free meal outreach at Sacred Heart Church, 33 Walter St. in Albany, which was Kennedy’s childhood parish.