The Greene Space

44 Charlton Street New York, NY 10014

Doors open at 6:00 PM
Meeting Convenes on the Main Stage: 6:30 PM
Reception offsite: 8:00 PM

Moderated by Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein.

For the affirmative:

Paul Frymer is a professor of politics at Princeton University, specializing in American politics, law, civil rights, race, labor, political parties, and institutional development. He is the author of Uneasy Alliances: Race and Party Competition in America and Black and Blue: African Americans, the Labor Movement, and the Decline of the Democratic Party.

For the negative:

Jason Riley is an opinion columnist at The Wall Street Journal, where his column, Upward Mobility, has run since 2016. He is also a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of several books, including Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed, False Black Power?, Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell, and The Affirmative Action Myth: Why Blacks Don't Need Racial Preferences To Succeed.

The Sheen Center

18 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10012

Doors open at 6:00 PM
Meeting Convenes on the Main Stage: 6:30 PM
Reception offsite: 8:00 PM

Moderated by Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein.

For the affirmative:

Matt Stoller is the director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project and the author of Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. He co-hosts the Organized Money podcast and publishes the newsletter BIG, available on Substack.

For the negative:

Geoffrey Manne is the president and founder of the International Center for Law and Economics, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center based in Portland, Oregon. He is also a distinguished fellow at Northwestern University’s Center on Law, Business, and Economics and a visiting professor of law at IE University, Madrid.

The Sheen Center

18 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10012

Doors open at 6:00 PM
Meeting Convenes on the Main Stage: 6:30 PM
Reception offsite: 8:00 PM

Moderated by Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein.

For the affirmative:

Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she focuses on child welfare and foster care issues, and a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. She is a former columnist for the New York Post and a former Wall Street Journal editor and writer, as well as the author of several books, including No Way to Treat a Child: How the Foster Care System, Family Courts, and Racial Activists Are Wrecking Young Lives.

For the negative:

Martin Guggenheim is the Fiorello LaGuardia Professor of Clinical Law Emeritus at New York University Law School and founder of the Family Defense Clinic. As one of the nation’s foremost experts on children’s rights and family law, he has published more than 50 articles and book chapters, authored five books, and successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.