Calendar of Events

Nina Sankovitch - "Universal Friend: Forgotten Hero of the American Revolution"

November 12, 2026 · 7 p.m.
Garden House

On Thursday, November 12th, author Nina Sankovitch will present the compelling true story of Universal Friend, a self-proclaimed genderless minister who, after awakening from a prolonged illness in 1776, announced they had been sent by God to save the world. Universal Friend ended up founding communities which, in the years following America’s independence from England, provided anyone – no matter their gender or race – with the opportunity to enjoy the “unalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” that had been promised to all Americans in the Declaration of Independence. Universal Friend, in other words, did what other early American leaders had promised: created a society that strove to uphold equality and opportunity – and succeeded beyond all expectations. But into every Eden comes a snake.

Tickets go on sale soon. Books on the Common will have copies of Not Your Founding Father available for purchase at the event.

Nina Sankovitch is the author of five nonfiction books, including American Rebels: How the Hancock. Adams, and Quincy Families Fanned the Flames of Revolution,  and The Lowells of Massachusetts. Not Your Founding Father: How a Nonbinary Minster Became America’s Most Radical Revolutionary is her latest book and explores the forgotten history of America’s first home-grown minister and first non-binary minister, and the first leader in the United States to implement the ideals for which the American Revolution was fought, including equality and opportunity.  Sankovitch has written for the New York Times, the Huffington Post, Vogue Magazine, and other media, and was formerly a judge for The Book of the Month Club. A graduate of Tufts University and Harvard Law School, Sankovitch grew up in Evanston, Illinois, and currently lives in New York City. 

» View the full calendar of events