Los Angeles Public Library Podcasts: ALOUD @ Central Library
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The Making of the Great Bolaño: The Man and the Myth
Co-presented with LéaLA, Feria del Libro en Español de Los ÁngelesThe Making of the Great Bolaño: The Man and the MythPanel discussion with author Ben Ehrenreich; Barbara Epler, president, New Directions; author Mónica Maristain; and poet-translator David ShookModerated by Héctor Tobar, staff writer, Los Angeles TimesBooks are the only homeland of the true writer, books that may sit on shelves or in the memory, wrote Roberto Bolaño. Ten years after his death, the legacy of Chilean author...
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Granta's Best Young British Novelists
In 1983, Granta devoted an entire issue to new fiction by 20 of the Best of Young British Novelists, and did so again 10 years later. From Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, to Zadie Smith, these lists have offered a revealing snapshot of a generation of writers about to come into their own. Join us for a reading and discussion with some of Britains best, including a judge of the 2013 series and this years newly announced novelists.*Click here to see photos from the program!
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The Bonobo and the Atheist
Esteemed primatologist de Waal discusses his pioneering research on primate behavior, the latest findings in evolutionary biology, and insights from moral philosophy to prove that morality does not require the specters of God or the law of man.*Click here to see photos from the program!
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Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
At age twenty-six, in the wake of a divorce and her mothers death, Cheryl Strayed made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert to Washington Stateand to do it alone. Wild, Strayeds best-selling memoir, is the utterly compelling story of a young woman finding her wayand herselfone brave step at a time.*Click HERE to see photos from the program!
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Caroline Kennedy and Eloise Klein Healy
Caroline Kennedy, editor of eight New York Times bestselling books on American history, politics, law, and poetry, discusses her new anthology, Poetry to Live By with Los Angeles first Poet Laureate, Eloise Klein Healy. In their far-ranging conversation, these two long-time poetry advocates deliberate on the roles of language, imagination and education in the development of children, and explore how a poem can inspire and challenge both the young and the young at heart.*Click HERE to see...
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The Book of My Lives: A Memoir
Hemon returns to his childhood roots in Sarajevo, a small blissful city where he used to write bad poetry, play soccer, and listen to American music. Years later, Sarajevo came under siege while Hemon was in Chicago starting a new life and new family, as his parents were fleeing all theyd ever known. The Book of My Lives is a love song to two citiesa daring first book of non-fiction from a turbulent literary talent.*Click here to see photos from the program!
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From the Ground Up: Sustainable Coffee Culture
More valuable than gold, more ubiquitous than water, what is really brewing behind the $100 billion global coffee industry? Local coffee connoisseurs gather to discuss the journey of the bean from seed to cup. From the role of organic farming and the livelihood of producers, to trends in curating the consumers palate, the nuances of this beloved beverage have never been so complex.Free coffee tasting before the program, compliments of Cafecito Orgnico*Click here to see photos from the...
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A Photograph Brought to Life: A Novelist Reimagines...
Many generations have been moved by Dorothea Langes iconic image of Migrant Mother, photographed during the Great Depression. In her decades-spanning new novel, Mary Coin, author Marisa Silver presents a brilliant reimagining of the story behind that arresting face. In todays world, bombarded with visual imagery and the need for information, Silver brings into question: Whats in a picture?*Click here to see photos from the program!
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How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia: A Novel
Borrowing the ambitious structure of a self-help guide, Hamid, a radically inventive storyteller and author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, tells the riveting tale of a mans journey from impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon. Both social satire and love story, Hamids new book braves its way into the frenetic epicenter of the global economy.*Click here to see photos from the program!
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The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music...
Krause, a musician and naturalist and one of the worlds leading experts in natural sound, explores how the myriad voices and rhythms of the natural worldfrom snapping shrimp to cracking glaciersformed a basis from which our own musical expression emerged. His book is an impassioned plea for the conservation of one of our most overlooked natural resourcesthe music of the wild.*Click here to see photos from the program!
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Nathan Englander
Considered one of the masters of the short story form, Nathan Englander offers fiction that is both edgy and timeless. His new collection, the title of which is inspired by Raymond Carvers masterpiece on love, grapples with some of todays questions with great care. As Jonathan Lethem praises, Englanders elegant, inquisitive, and hilarious fictions are a working definition of what the modern short story can do.
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Citizenville: Connecting People and Government in the...
Is it possible for Americans to better their future by reinventing their relationship with government? Newsom, lieutenant governor of California and San Franciscos former mayor, explores how a modern digital government could house the information, concerns, convictions-even the protests of an enlightened digital citizenry.*Click HERE to see photos from the program!
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The Feminine Mystique: Where Are We 50 Years Later?
Betty Friedans groundbreaking book is now 50 years old, and the global struggle for gender equality is-according to many-the paramount moral struggle of this century. Different generations of feminists discuss their perspectives on the issues defining the struggle for womens rights today. Where are we now and where is this revolution headed?*Click here to see photos from the program!
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A Guide to Living on our Radioactive Planet
Gale, one of the worlds leading experts on radiation, together with writer Eric Lax, draw on the most up-to-date research and on Gales extensive experience treating victims of radiation accidents around the globe to correct myths and establish facts about life on our radioactive planet in our post-Chernobyl, post-Fukushima world.*Click HERE to see photos from the program!
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Mid-Century Modern: Architecture, Photography, and the...
Join us for a conversation about the hugely influential photographer Maynard L. Parker, who aimed his lens at the mid-century masterworks of the L.A. architects and designers whose homes embodied the American dream during a time of demographic transitions, Cold War anxieties, and a suburban society driven to consume.
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Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti BY Amy Wilentz
Veteran journalist Wilentz, a passionate longtime observer of Haiti, reports on the uncanny resilience of the confounding country that emerged from the dust of the 2010 earthquake like a powerful spirit. She looks back and forward--at Haiti's slave plantations, revolutionary history, its totalitarian regimes and its profound creative culture. Populated with rock stars and Voodoo priests, heartbreak and magic, her brilliant storytelling brings to life a place like nowhere in the world.
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The Dude and The Zen Master BY Jeff Bridges, Bernie...
In their new book, Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges and world-renowned Roshi Bernie Glassman offer an intimate glimpse into the conversations between student and teacher, a shared philosophy of life and spirituality, and the everyday wisdom of Buddhism. The Dude and the Zen Master captures a freewheeling dialogue about life, laughter, and the movies, from two men whose charm and bonhomie never fail to enlighten and entertain—while reminding us of the importance of doing good in a difficult...
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Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers BY Anne...
It is these three prayers- asking for assistance from a higher power, appreciating the goodness in our lives, and feeling awe at the world around us- that Lamott believes can guide us through the day and illuminate the way forward. As one of today's most trusted authorities on life lessons, Lamott coalesces everything she has learned about prayer through her own everyday trials of faith, and explores how others have embraced these same ideas.
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An Evening with U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey BY...
Meditations on captivity, knowledge and inheritance permeate Trethewey’s poems, as she reflects on her own interracial, complicated—and utterly American—roots. This brilliant and fearless poet masterfully gives a voice to the past and present as she explores human struggles we face in common.
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Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific...
With excursions into culture and public policy, a theoretical physicist named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” explores how we decide which scientific questions to study, how we go about answering them, and how science might radically revise our understanding of the world.
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In Search of a Form: Two Writers Talk About the Essay BY...
Mendelsohn, who has devoted his career to nonfiction—memoir, translation and criticism—discusses his latest collection of essays, (Waiting for the Barbarians), with novelist and essayist Lethem (The Ecstasy of Influence), as the two celebrate (and commiserate) the blessings and curses of the contemporary essay form.
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Desert America: Boom and Bust in the New Old West BY...
Martnez, an award-winning author and performer, takes us on a deeply personal tour of the 21st century West—far from our romantic illusions of John Wayne, cacti and cowboys—and discusses the political and demographic upheaval in this most iconic of American landscapes
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Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of...
In the wake of 9/11 and the growth of a worrying animosity towards American Muslims, Patel—author, activist, and presidential advisor—argues that prejudice is not just a problem for American Muslims but also a challenge to the very idea of an America founded on the premise of pluralism. In this visionary book, he illuminates how faith can be a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division.
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Taking the Kitchen to the Street: Experiments in Flavor...
The culinary experience has turned into an experiment through the hands of Chef Ludo’s guerilla style pop-up restaurant LudoBites and Chef Roy’s roaming Kogi BBQ truck. How do these ephemeral establishments play with the identity of the city and the palates of its inhabitants? Listen in on what promises to be a playful, irreverent journey into the creative minds of these celebrated chefs.
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The Future of African American Literature and the...
Locke, whose new novel The Cutting Season is set at a Louisiana plantation re-purposed for weddings and Civil War reenactments, joins Edwards (Charisma and the Fictions of Black Leadership) to explore how African American literature, rooted in stories of struggle and dispossession and overcoming all odds, has been affected by the same racial progress that has culminated in the first African American presidency.
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Playing the Future: How Games Are Changing the Way We...
Play is an inherent part of life. How are games revolutionizing the way we educate our children, think about the future, and engage with each other? Game designers Essen and Fullerton bridge the gap between art and education with their approach to play, and show us how reality is really just one big game we should all be playing.
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Freedom, Literature, and Living on the Run BY Salman...
Rushdie, recipient of the 2012 Los Angeles Public Library Literary Award, honoring his commitment to public libraries and literature, discusses Joseph Anton, his provocative new memoir—a frank depiction of how he and his family lived with the threat of murder for nine years after being condemned for his writing, and how he struggled for the freedom of speech.
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How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden...
Imagine a world where kids got gold stars for grit and curiosity. Paul Tough introduces us to a new generation of scientists and educators who are radically rethinking our understanding of how children develop character, how they learn to think, and how they overcome adversity.
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As Texas Goes...: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the...
The popular columnist for the New York Times declares that the proud state of big oil and bigger ambitions matters most in America’s political landscape, that “what happens in Texas doesn’t stay in Texas anymore.” The country’s fundamental divide has long been seen as a war between the Republican heartland and its two liberal coasts. But after visiting Texas, Collins reconsiders where the epicenter of a conservative political agenda resides and how it is sweeping across the country to...
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The Elemental West: Reflections on Moving Water BY...
Two celebrated writers deeply influenced by the riparian and other landscapes of the American West will read from their work and explore how storytelling, in the tradition of Thoreau and Emerson, can give voice to natural resources. Activist and award-winning author Kathleen Dean Moore discusses her newest book Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril and Craig Childs, the author of more than a dozen acclaimed books on nature and science, reflects on expedition adventures from...
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An Evening with Novelist Richard Ford BY Richard Ford
The Washington Post calls Richard Ford, "One of the finest curators of the great American living museum." In his haunting new novel, Canada, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author explores the mysterious and consoling bonds of family in a tale about a young man forced by catastrophic circumstance to reconcile himself to a world that has been rendered unrecognizable.
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The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times BY...
From hired mourners who will scatter your loved one's ashes, to nameologists (who help you name your child)-the sociologist and acclaimed author of The Second Shift draws on original research to reveal the threats inherent in a world in which the most intuitive and emotional of human acts have become work for hire.
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The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional...
How have unreasonable principles —from negotiating to risk-taking, from investing to hiring— helped billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad in founding two Fortune 500 companies, funding scientific research and education reform, and building some of the world’s greatest contemporary art museums? Why is he drawn to the unreasonableness of contemporary artists like Richard Serra and Robert Rauschenberg? What can we learn from the wisdom of an unreasonable man?
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Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain BY David...
If the conscious mind is the only part of the brain we are aware of, then what in the world else is happening up there? Renowned neuroscientist (and novelist) David Eagleman navigates the depth of the subconscious brain to illuminate surprising mysteries that take in brain damage, plane spotting, dating, drugs, synesthesia, criminal law, artificial intelligence and visual illusions.
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Autobiography and the Graphic Novel BY Alison Bechdel
Bechdel follows her best-selling graphic memoir, Fun Home, with a second tale of filial sleuthing-this time about her mother: voracious reader, music lover, amateur actor, and also a woman, unhappily married to a gay man. Bechdel's quest for answers concerning the mother-daughter gulf leads through psychoanalysis and Dr. Seuss to a truce that will move all adult children of gifted mothers.
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When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice BY...
Upon her mother's passing, Williams inherited three shelves of journals. Not only was it a shock that her mother kept journals, but it was also a shock to see what the journals contained-pages and pages of blank pages. In fifty-four chapters that unfold like a series of yoga poses, each with its own logic and beauty, Williams-author of the iconic memoir Refuge-creates a soaring meditation on the mystery of her mother's empty journals, always asking, "What does it mean to have a voice?"
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Poetics of Protest: Giving Voice to Mexico's Movement...
Javier Sicilia, Mexican poet-turned-activist and leader of Mexico's Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, is turning personal horror into hope for himself and his country. After the death of his son at the hands of drug traffickers last year, Sicilia swapped his pen for protest, pushing to stop the bloodshed. Leading the fight with a radiant intellect and deep faith, this TIME Magazine Protester of the Year speaks on the power of words as an instrument for peace, recognizing that...
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God in Pain: Inversions of Apocalypse BY Slavoj Zizek
Slavoj Zizek, renowned Slovenian critical theorist, dissects and reconstructs three major faith-based systems of belief in the world today, showing how each faith understands humanity and divinity-and how the differences between the faiths may be far stranger than they at first seem.
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Heart of Dankness: Underground Botanists, Outlaw...
Smith takes us on a trip-mind-blowing and humorous-deep into the international underground where super-high-grade marijuana is developed, produced, sold, and entered into the Super Bowl of the marijuana world, Amsterdam's Cannabis Cup. Moving between California, the hub of the legalization and decriminalization debate, and the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, Smith infiltrates a world where science, nature, and the sometimes criminal intersect.
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Concrete Rivers: The Emotional Topography of LA BY Wanda...
Two celebrated poets read from their most recent work and discuss how Los Angeles has influenced their writing, how some influences overlap and others diverge. Born in Watts, Wanda Coleman witnessed Simon Rodia working on the Towers firsthand. Coleman's work is often concerned with the outsider, both in terms of race and poverty in California. Lewis MacAdams is a poet, journalist, filmmaker, and activist who has written on topics ranging from cultural history to the environment. Known as the...
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The Anatomy of Harpo Marx BY Wayne Koestenbaum
Using film clips and text in a detailed play-by-play of Harpo Marx's physical movements, Koestenbaum celebrates the astonishing range of Harpo's body-- its kinks, sexual multiplicities, somnolence, Jewishness, "cute" pathos, and more. Holding up a mirror to Marx's 13 films, Koestenbaum takes a sharp look at American culture and mythology and the intimacies of how we communicate without words.
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Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India...
Lelyveld, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, offers an intricate portrait of Gandhi's conflicted mission. After shaping his philosophy of nonviolent resistance during his time in South Africa, Gandhi promoted these social values back in his native India. Although India quickly revered the "Great Soul," Gandhi's following only contributed a small part to the social transformation he imagined. In this new biography, Lelyveld brings us closer to one of history's most remarkable self-creations...
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Imagine: How Creativity Works BY Jonah Lehrer
From the best-selling author of How We Decide comes a revelatory look at the new science of creativity. Why did Elizabethan England experience a creative explosion? What can we learn from Bob Dylan's writing habits and the drug addiction of poets? How did Pixar redesign its office space for maximum creativity? How can you embrace your own creative side and make your community more vibrant? Join us for a discussion into the deep inventiveness of the human mind, and its essential role in our...
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"The Man in the Empty Boat", A Special One Man...
As he approached midlife, bestselling author and Los Angeles local Mark Salzman (Iron and Silk, The Soloist, Lying Awake) confronted a year of catastrophe. Overwhelmed by terrifying panic attacks, suffering from a crippling case of writer's block, and dealing with the very sudden death of his sister, Salzman began a spiritual search for equanimity. His new memoir, The Man in the Empty Boat is the result of his journey to find peace as a father, writer, and individual. Navigating the...
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Eisenhower: The White House Years BY Jim Newton
There may be more to "Like Ike" than we realize. Veteran journalist and editor-at-large of the Los Angeles Times, Jim Newton offers a bold reappraisal of the 34th president, who was belittled by critics as "the babysitter in chief." Newton yields a portrait of a shrewd leader, a progressive politician, and a champion of peace who refused to use an atomic bomb, grounded McCarthyism, built an interstate system, and turned a $8 billion deficit into a $500 million surplus.
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From the Outside Looking In: Writers Finding Their Place...
Literary Los Angeles has always existed apart from our country's publishing capital--3,000 miles apart, to be exact. What does this distance offer writers and book artists? What are the freedoms and the challenges of being outside the traditions and trends of literature? A panel of L.A. writers-authors of fiction, essays, graphic novels, screenplays, and poetry-delve into these questions, considering their impact on both the individual and the community. Part of Pacific Standard Time, Los...
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The Rocket's Red Glare: Politics in Art and Poetry BY...
In an election year driven by worldwide public demonstrations, congressional stagecraft and conflicting narratives, rhetoric, aesthetics and politics are apt to collide. As part of a 2012 national series, poet-performer Douglas Kearney and artist-activist Edgar Arceneaux of the Watts House Project discuss the political impetus and implications of their work.
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Thinking the Twentieth Century BY Timothy Snyder
What is the power of historical perspective? How can we learn from the past to reform our society of the future? The late historian Tony Judt reframed the history of the European continent after WWII in his book Postwar. A luminous thinker, he clarified the power of historical perspective for living even ordinary lives. In this final book, written with Timothy Snyder, he traverses the complexities of the twentieth century and guides us through the great debates that made our world.
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Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal...
Independents unite! In a powerful assessment of an unprecedented social change, a renowned sociologist chronicles the biggest demographic shift since the baby boom: we thrive when we go it alone.
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An Evening with Philip Levine, U.S. Poet Laureate BY...
The 18th Poet Laureate reads from his work and discusses life, literature, and his time in the Golden State. Presented in collaboration with the California Center for the Book and the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress
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From Exile to Home: Los Angeles Literary Life 1945 to...
In the years since World War II, the literature of Los Angeles, like much about the city, has shifted, becoming less a literature of exile than one of place. Weschler- one of our foremost practitioners of literary nonfiction discusses this definitive period in Los Angeles' literary life. Part of Pacific Standard Time, Art in LA 1945-1980
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Two Novelists on Memory, Identity, and Place BY Percival...
Percival Everett's Assumption, a baffling murder mystery and Steve Erickson's These Dreams of You, an enigmatic search for an adopted black daughter's past, both delve into race, the history of their characters, and the places they reside. From a hippie commune in Denver to a city in Ethiopia, these two acclaimed Los Angeles novelists go to great lengths in search of truth.
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Keeping Your Brain Healthy: Preventing Alzheimer's BY...
Take control of your brain, come learn from the authors of Memory Bible about cutting-edge research on this devastating brain disease and the progress towards a cure as well as strategies for prevention.
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The Obamas BY Jodi Kantor
The Washington correspondent for the New York Times leads us on a tour deep inside the White House as the Obamas grapple with their new roles, raise children, maintain friendships, and figure out what it means to be the first black President and First Lady.
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An Evening with Wael Ghonim, "Revolution 2.0: The Power...
Wael Ghonim was a little-known 30-year-old Google exec when he launched a Facebook campaign to protest the death of an Egyptian man at the hands of security forces. Now, in his new memoir, one of the key figures behind the Egyptian uprising takes us inside the making of a modern revolution- and discusses youth, activism, the Arab Spring, and why he is optimistic for the future.
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Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the...
El Sistema, the music education program that nurtured Gustavo Dudamel's musical talent, now reaches children in Los Angeles and cities around the world. Changing Lives author Tricia Tunstall reveals in her book how arts education effects positive social change. Join us for an inspiring look at El Sistema and Dudamel's great passion for spreading hope through music.
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The Man Within My Head BY Pico Iyer
In his new memoir, Pico Iyer, one of our most astute observers of inner journeys, chronicles his obsession with the writer Graham Greene, what it means to be an outsider, and the place of a mysterious father in his own imagination.
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The Barbarian Nurseries: A Novel BY Hctor Tobar
A live-in maid in the conflicted Torres-Thompson household is accused of kidnapping the family's children, when in fact, she is taking them by bus from Orange Co. to L.A. to find refuge with their grandfather. An authentic rendering of social and class divides from a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Tobar's brilliant novel redefines Southern California in the 21st century.
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Why Mahler? How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed Our...
In his new biography, Lebrecht explores the life of the composer who straddled two musical worlds- born into the age of high romanticism and most prolific at a time of artistic revolution. Presented in association with The Mahler Project, A Symphonic Cycle for the New World, a project of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
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Ayad Akhtar and Amy Waldman: Two Novelists on The Lives...
Akhtar's American Dervish and Waldman's The Submission, both explore the lives of American Muslims, one in pre-9/11 suburbia and the other in post-9/11 Manhattan. In Akhtar's family drama, a father and son are fractured by their understandings of Islam. In Waldman's story, a city is outraged when a Muslim architect wins a blind competition to design the 9/11 Memorial. Following the conflicts within and between religions, these two brilliant debut novels grapple with identity, community, and...
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An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and...
Acclaimed journalist and poet Luis J. Rodrguez, who chronicled his harrowing journey from gang member to a revered figure of Chicano literature, discusses the struggles of post-gang life with Father Gregory Boyle, the founder of Homeboy Industries and author of a bestselling memoir.
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Dark Carols: A Christmas Cycle (World Premiere) BY Peter...
An original song cycle exploring the regrets, fears, and remembered losses that arise in this fell season. This year, the unsung and the unsaid, the long-buried and repressed, the saddened and the dead... are allowed a voice, and are made welcome at the table. Piano provided courtesy of Keyboard Concepts
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Queen of America: A Novel BY Luis Alberto Urrea
Award-winning novelist Luis Alberto Urrea explores the intrepid life of his great-aunt, a healer and "Saint of Cabora" who flees to Arizona when she is claimed as the spiritual leader of the Mexican Revolution. This spellbinding sequel to The Hummingbird's Daughter is a turn-of-the-century journey across America. Presented in association with the exhibition, A Nation Emerges: The Mexican Revolution Revealed
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It Chooses You BY Miranda July
In procrastination mode while finishing the screenplay for her second film, Miranda July obsessively read the Pennysaver. Who was the person selling Care Bears for two dollars each? She crisscrossed L.A. to meet a random selection of PennySaver sellers, grabbing hold of the invisible world in a book that blends narrative, interviews, photographs and deadpan humor.
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Physics on the Fringe: Smoke Rings, Circlons, and...
Challenging our concept of what science is; how it works; and who it is for, outsider physicist Jim Carter discusses with science writer Margaret Wertheim his own theory of matter, energy, and gravity.
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An Evening with Joan Didion BY Joan Didion
A literary icon for Los Angeles and a cultural visionary for the rest of America, the acclaimed author of The White Album, The Year of Magical Thinking, and most recently, Blue Nights, discusses her current work and life in Los Angeles in the 60s. Part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945-1980
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The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick BY Jonathan Lethem,...
Philip K. Dick dedicated his life to questioning the nature of reality and perception, the malleability of space and time, and the relationship between the human and divine. Dick's two daughters and novelist Jonathan Lethem- Exegesis co-editor-serve as guides to exploring the magnificent final work of the author.
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From Tijuana to Gaza to Bosnia: Rethinking Borders in a...
Artists, scholars, and cultural activists from Europe, Mexico, and the United States convene in Los Angeles-home to migrants, refugees, and exiles from all over the world-to share their respective experiences with and approaches to border issues. In an age of increased border militarization, how might we redefine borderlands as zones of mutual intermingling, co-existence, and dialogue? Made possible by special funding from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, part of the...
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What It's Like to Go to War BY Karl Marlantes
Having spent the last 40 years examining his experiences in Vietnam, Marlantes, the decorated war veteran and bestselling author (Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War), discusses his visceral new nonfiction book about the psychological and spiritual toll that combat takes on those who fight.
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Hollywood Left and Right BY Steven J. Ross, Mike...
From Chaplin to Schwarzenegger, movie stars have played a leading role in shaping the course of American politics. Join us for a conversation about how Hollywood has evolved into a vital center for American political life.
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Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race, and...
Twenty years after her testimony in the Clarence Thomas confirmation mesmerized the nation, Hill shifts her focus from the public forum to the private. As today's families are being devastated by the subprime mortgage crisis, Hill speaks out for a new understanding about the importance of home and its place in the American Dream.
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Zone One: A Novel BY Colson Whitehead
In MacArthur Award-winning Whitehead's satiric take on the post-apocalyptic horror novel, a plague has sorted humanity into two types: the infected and the uninfected, the living and the living dead. How will these civilians rebuild their lives? Join this subversive discussion about the 21st century zombie.
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Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to...
How did a 19-year-old undocumented migrant worker toiling in the tomato fields of central California become an internationally renowned neurosurgeon? Join us for a story about the importance of family, of mentors, the fight to cure brain cancer, and of giving people a chance. In association with the exhibition, "A Nation Emerges: The Mexican Revolution Revealed"
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REVOLUCIN! An Internationalist Homage to the Mexican...
From the Russian steppes to Spanish and French anthems for love, liberty and freedom, REVOLUCIN! looks at a pivotal historic event-- the Mexican Revolution--through an Internationalist gaze, showcasing a rare ensemble of Chicano musical, visual and performance talent. In association with the exhibition, "A Nation Emerges: The Mexican Revolution Revealed"
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Feeding on Dreams: Confessions of An Unrepentant Exile...
Dorfman, one of Latin America's great writers and ally to President Allende, fled Chile in the wake of the military coup in 1973. His passionate memoir describes the transformative decades of exile, his eventual questioning of allegiance to past and party, and the unimaginable outcome of his return to Chile 17 years later.
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The Forgotten Waltz BY Anne Enright
The Irish author of The Gathering (Man Booker Prize) discusses her new novel-set in suburban Dublin with an unforgettably spirited heroine- that explores the momentous romance of everyday life and the volatile arena of family and marriage.
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From Nickerson Gardens to National: An End in Sight to...
Award-winning criminologist Kennedy, who orchestrated the "Boston Miracle", a revolutionary method for gang intervention in the mid-1990s, writes about this successful approach in his new book, Don't Shoot, and discusses solving the problem of crime in our country today, along with the launch of "Operation Ceasefire" in Los Angeles with Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department Charlie Beck.
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Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex...
In a personal account of the communal power of women to change history, the founder of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace chronicles the unthinkable violence she's confronted living through civil war and the peace she helped to broker by empowering her countrywomen and others around the world to take action.
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Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in...
In a provocative and controversial history, Winkler, a constitutional lawyer, disputes that guns--not abortion, race, or religion--are at the heart of America's cultural divide. Co-presented with the Council of the Library Foundation
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1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created BY...
From the best-selling author of 1491-a study of the pre-Columbian Americas- comes a deeply engaging new history that explores the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs.
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The Dolphin in the Mirror: Exploring Dolphin Minds and...
Reiss, a leading expert on dolphins (adviser for the Oscar-winning film, The Cove), offers both a scientific revelation and an emotional eye-opener in this reflection on one of the greatest intelligences on the planet.
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One Day It'll All Make Sense BY Common
Common, the Grammy award-winning hip-hop artist and actor was born Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. on Chicago's rough South Side. In his soulfully candid memoir, he unleashes himself line by line--from his childhood to tragic losses, from addiction to love--revealing the inner-makings of an extraordinary life.
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Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness BY...
In this sequel to Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller returns to Africa and her unforgettable family in a multilayered narrative that contrasts the perfectly lit, Happy Valley-era Africa of her mother's childhood and the darker, civil war-torn Africa of her own.
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Conscious Capitalism: Start Something That Matters BY...
Mycoskie, the man behind TOMS Shoes and Goldhirsh, founder of GOOD, discuss alternatives for creating work that simultaneously fulfills our hunger for material success, philanthropic impact, and personal meaning.
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Leo Braudy: The Hollywood Sign BY Leo Braudy
It took fifty years and more before a former real-estate billboard atop Mt. Lee became the world-wide symbol of Hollywood. How did it happen? A master interpreter of popular culture examines why the Hollywood sign is unique in the way cities show themselves to the world.
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Fire Monks: Wildfires in California BY Colleen Morton...
When a massive wildfire blazed across California in June 2008, five monks risked their lives to save Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Pyne-- wildfire expert and the country's pre-eminent fire historian-- and Busch-- author and longtime Zen student-- discuss the ways of wildfires in the West and what it means to meet a crisis with full presence of mind. Program one of four, co-presented with the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West
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L.A. Crime Writers: "We Murder, so You Don't Have To..."...
Four veteran Los Angeles crime writers discuss the genre they love and the stories that keep them up at night. Paula L. Woods (Charlotte Justice mystery series) talks murder and mayhem with Haywood (Cemetery Road), Hirahara (Blood Hina), and Smith (Moist).
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Cannibal Island: An Artist Lecture with Short Films,...
McMillen--part sculptor, installation artist, printmaker, cultural anthropologist and L.A. native-- has been creating environmental installations with architectural references that deal with themes of time, change, and illusion since the 1970s, and his work is the subject of a current retrospective at the Oakland Museum of Art. Join us for a glimpse into McMillen's creative process and current obsessions.
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Newer Poets XVI: A Reading BY Lory Bedikian, Cassandra...
In this popular, long-running event, six talented Los Angeles poets present short readings of their work. Hosted by Suzanne Lummis, Los Angeles Poetry Festival, and Richard Modiano, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
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Huxley on Huxley: Panel Discussion and Film Excerpts BY...
The Hollywood home of Laura and Aldous Huxley, psychedelic pioneer and author of Brave New World, was a hotspot for the West Coast artistic avant-garde like Igor Stravinsky and Christopher Isherwood. Join us for a discussion of the Huxleys' influence on American culture, plus excerpts from Mary Ann Braubach's 2009 documentary, Huxley on Huxley.
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Alina Simone: A Tragic-comic Journey Through the Indie...
In her wickedly bittersweet and hilarious novel You Must Go and Win, the Ukrainian-born, critically acclaimed singer traces her bizarre journey through the indie rock world, from disastrous Craigslist auditions with sketchy producers to catching fleas in a Williamsburg sublet. Simone performs songs from her newly released Make Your Own Danger album.
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We Are Here: We Could Be Everywhere BY Aniko Imre, Henry...
Are the media arts a sensitizing force? What is media art's capacity to respond to political conditions? Cultural practitioners and scholars explore the role artists play as innovators of media technology and instigators in the public and media art realms. Co-presented with Freewaves
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Catastrophe, Survival, Music and Renewal: New Orleans...
HBO's Treme (from the creators of The Wire) is set in the aftermath of the greatest man-made disaster in American history. Join us for a discussion of New Orleans' music and its unique culture as reflected in one of episodic television's most powerful dramas.
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Adam Hochschild, "To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty...
Hochschild (King Leopold's Ghost), one of America's best narrative historians, examines one of the greatest and most puzzling examples of civilized evils in history and the now obscure civilians and soldiers who waged a bitter, often heroic, struggle against it.
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Melissa Faye Greene, "No Biking in the House Without a...
In the eight years after her four children left home, Melissa Greene and her husband adopted five children from orphanages in Bulgaria and Ethiopia. She chronicles their adventures from the front lines of parenthood.
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Gary Snyder, "Song of the Turkey Buzzard: The Poetry of...
Join Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Snyder and friends for an evening of spoken word to celebrate the work of Beat poet Lew Welch, on the 40th anniversary of his disappearance.
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John Sayles, "Some Time in the Sun" BY John Sayles
In his monumental new novel, Sayles-the great indy filmmaker-travels from the Yukon gold fields, to New York's bustling Newspaper Row, to Wilmington's deadly racial coup of 1898, to the bitter triumphs at El Caney and San Juan Hill in Cuba, and to war zones in the Philippines.
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Francisco Goldman, "Say Her Name" BY Francisco Goldman
Written in the aftermath of his wife's death, Goldman's tale weighs the unexpected gift of love against the blinding grief of loss.
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Gary Shteyngart, "Super Sad Ture Love Story" BY Gary...
Shteyngart, one of the New Yorker's "Best Under 40" novelists, offers a devilishly funny cyber-apocalyptic vision of an America future that seems eerily like the present.
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Jamaica Kincaid, "See, Now, Then" BY Jamaica Kincaid
Kincaid, former New Yorker staff writer and author of more than ten books, is known for her candid and emotionally-charged writing. She reads from her forthcoming novel about a family's life in a small Vermont town and discusses her creative process.
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The Origins of Political Order: A Conversation BY...
How did tribal order and society evolve into the political institutions of today? Drawing on a vast body of knowledge-- two celebrated scholars discuss the origins of democratic societies and raise essential questions about the nature of politics.
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Jacques D'Amboise, "I Was a Dancer" BY Jacques D'Amboise
One of America's most celebrated classical dancers writes of his years with Balanchine, Robbins, LeClercq, and Farrell-the irresistible story of an exhilarating life in dance.
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Joyce Carol Oates, "A Widow's Story" BY Joyce Carol Oates
An intimate work by one of America's great writers chronicles the unexpected death of her husband of forty-eight years and its wrenching, surprising aftermath.
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Rebecca Skloot, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"...
Skloot's stunning narrative about the use and misuse of medical authority delves into the life of a poor Southern tobacco farmer named Henrietta Lacks, whose cells-taken without her knowledge-became one of the most important tools in medicine.
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The Use and Abuse of Literature BY Marjorie Garber,...
What is literature? How might we restore it to the center of our lives? Garber, Harvard English professor and Ulin, book critic for the Los Angeles Times, explore how reading can be a "revolutionary act" in the digital age.
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The Nature of Observation BY Jane Hirshfield, Sean M....
How does a poet view time, the slant of light on a windowsill? How might a theoretical cosmologist approach those same phenomena? Hirshfield and Carroll---both at the vanguard of their disciplines-- discuss different (and perhaps similar) points of entry into the realm of observation and metaphor.
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Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, "The Dressmaker of Khair Khana" BY...
Lemmon, a former ABC news reporter, tells the remarkable true story of an unlikely entrepreneur who, against all odds, saved her family and inspired her community in Afghanistan under the Taliban.
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David Brooks, "The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of...
The New York Times columnist uses revolutionary discoveries in neuroscience and cognition to paint a surprisingly moving picture of how we can educate our emotions to lead richer lives.
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Art Collectives and the Current State of Literary...
A reading and panel discussion Moderated by Susan Salter Reynolds, L.A. Times book reviewer With Chuck Rosenthal, Alicia Partnoy, Ramn Garcia, & Gail Wronsky. Projected paintings by Gronk. Members of the L.A.-based Glass Table Collective read their work and discuss publishing outside the lines.
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Colin Thubron, "Climbing Through Memory and Magic in...
Two of the world's most respected travel writers discuss pilgrimages to exceptional places, mining one's personal history, and the holiest mountain on earth.
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Annie Murphy Paul, "Origins: How the Nine Months Before...
What makes us who we are? An award-winning science journalist and a leading scientific investigator delve into the rich history of ideas about how we're shaped before birth.
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Shepard Fairey, "MAYDAY: The Politics of Street Art" BY...
The Los Angeles-based artist and designer behind the ubiquitous Obey Giant stencil and the now legendary Obama HOPE poster, talks about his life, his work and his move from the street to large-scale museum exhibitions.
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Joan Schenkar and Kathleen Chalfant,"The Talented Miss...
Patricia Highsmith's dazzling, dangerous novels entered the American consciousness in classic films such as Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Join us for an evening celebrating Highsmith: Schenkar's author talk that captures Highsmith's brilliance in creating disturbing fictions, a dramatic presentation by Obie Award- winning actress Chalfant, and never-before seen photos.
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Destiny and Desire: A Novel BY Carlos Fuentes
One of literature's masters offers a wild, riveting saga that explores passion, magic and corruption in modern Mexico, mixing ancient mythologies with the avarice of the twenty-first century.
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How the West Was Lost BY Dambisa Moyo
One of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people and best-selling author of Dead Aid reveals the economic myopia of the West and the radical solutions it needs to adopt in order to assert itself as a global economic power once again.
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The Short Sory and the Art of Knowing BY Sarah Shun-Lien...
Two brilliant young writers (among the New Yorker's "Twenty Under Forty" noted fiction writers) read and discuss their work and the role of the unexpected in writing fiction.
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Irrepressible: The Life and Times of Jessica Mitford BY...
She eloped with Winston Churchill's nephew, severing her ties to privilege. She fought in the Spanish Civil War and joined the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama. She bore witness to the defining history of the 20th century. Jessica Mitford: queen of the muckrakers.
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Is There a Conservative Assault on the Supreme Court? BY...
Chemerinsky-- founding dean at U.C. Irvine School of Law-- and Eastman-- Kennedy Chair in Law at Chapman University-- debate whether the country's highest court has been ideologically motivated during recent decades, thus denying justice to millions of Americans.
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What's the Matter with Capitalism? BY Joyce Appleby,...
Barnes, successful entrepreneur (Working Assets Long Distance) and Appleby, eminent historian (The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism) discuss whether the market can effectively serve both private interest and public good. Can capitalism be upgraded for the 21st century?
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I Love a Broad Margin to My Life BY Maxine Hong Kingston
In a voice that is humble, elegiac, and practical, the award-winning author of The Woman Warrior contemplates the meaning of family, the politics of war, and the striving for peace in this unconventional memoir
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The Tell-Tale Brain BY V.S. Ramachandran
From autism to basic self-awareness, "the Marco Polo of neuroscience" traces the strange links between neurology and behavior, probing the mystery of human uniqueness.
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The Imperfectionists BY Tom Rachman
Rachman's witty novel-- about the the ragtag staff of an English language newspaper in Rome facing financial oblivion-- is based on his own experience as a foreign correspondent.
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I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to...
A Palestinian doctor's response to the tragedy of losing four family members to an Israeli shelling has won him humanitarian awards around the world. Rather than revenge, he calls for people in the region to come together in understanding, respect, and peace.
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NPR at 40: What is the Future of Public Radio? BY Geneva...
News and stories from NPR have helped shape our world. Join two veteran journalists to explore how public radio might respond to tectonic shifts in the media landscape.
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Interfaith Sing ALOUD BY Daniel Brummel, Jessica Catron,...
From Auld Lang Syne to Henei Ma Tov, from Sanskrit devotionals to gospel spirituals, join us for an evening of songs new and old drawn from various faith and folk traditions, with perhaps some surprising new lyrics set to familiar tunes. No singing experience necessary, a willingness to participate is the only requirement. Appropriate for all ages. Let us Sing!
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Sacred Activism: Putting Spiritual Knowledge into Action...
Harvey, a poetic and passionate mystic and writer, suggests that what unites all religions "is a truth that the service of God is putting love into action." He discusses his dramatic life conversion from mysticism to mystic activism with the Rector of Pasadena's All Saint's Church-known for its focus on social justice initiatives.
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Finding God in the City of Angels: Film Excerpts and...
Filmmakers Jessum and Joseph explore the meaning and value of inter-faith dialogue with selected representatives of the more than 40 devotional communities in Los Angeles profiled in their award-winning new documentary.
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An Evening with Salman Rushdie BY Salman Rushdie
In his new Novel, Luka and the Fire of Life, written for his youngest son, Rushdie explores the relationships between fathers and sons, life and death, the real and the imagined, freedom and authority. Join us for an evening with one of the world's most celebrated authors.
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Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage BY Hazel...
In a groundbreaking new account, Rowley describes the remarkable courage and lack of convention-private and public-that kept FDR and Eleanor together.
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Ziggurat BY Peter Balakian
Balakian's new collection of poems explore the aftermath of 9/11 through layered perspectives of myth, history, and personal memory; a panoramic work of contemporary witness in a new age of American uncertainty.
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Phantom Noise: An evening with Solider-Poet Brain Turner...
Turner's poems reflect his experiences as a soldier--seven years in the US Army, including a year as infantry team leader in Iraq--with penetrating lyric power and compassion.
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Cleopatra: A Life BY Stacey Schiff
A Pulitzer-Prize willing biographer boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the queen from her own hazy legend, subtly and originally probing classical sources to yield a fresh, thrilling account of a remarkable woman.
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Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Middle East...
This long-awaited work, assembled by Reza Aslan, features literature from countries as diverse as Morocco and Iran, Turkey and Pakistan, many presented in English for the first time. Celebrate this landmark publication with a stellar cast who will read from a diverse selection of authors- from Khalil Gibran to Naguib Mahfouz, from Orhan Pamuk to the grand dame of Urdu fiction, Ismat Chughtai.
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Must you Go? My Life with Harold Pinter BY Lady Antonia...
The acclaimed historian offers a love story, an intimate account of the life of a major artist, and an exercise in self-revelation, based on thirty-three years of marriage.
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Great House: A Novel BY Nicole Krauss
The author of the bestseller The History of Love offers a soaring novel about a stolen desk that contains the secrets, and becomes the obsession of the lives it passes through.
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Los Angeles in Maps: A Multi-media Conversation BY Glen...
A land of palm trees and movie stars, sunshine and glamour, Los Angeles inhabits a place of the mind as much as it does a physical geographic space. Often imagined of as a kind of paradise, the actual reality of the city is far more complex. Join us for cartographic history of the City of Angels from the colonial era to the present, with Creason, author and LAPL map librarian and Waldie, cultural critic and author of Holy Land.
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Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work BY...
Danticat, the acclaimed Haitian-American novelist, tells the stories of artists who create despite, or because of, the horrors that drove them from their homelands and that continue to haunt them.
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Writing in Latino: A National Conversation/ Escribir en...
What is Latino literature? Who writes it? Who reads it? Explore a rich literary tradition of five centuries of writing from two continents and 10 countries, from letters to the Spanish crown, to U.S. urbanites who grow up speaking Spanglish. Join this national conversation about the contribution of Latino writing to American culture.
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The Turquoise Ledge BY Leslie Marmon Silko
One of the most gifted and best known Native American writers today offers this highly original self-portrait, steeped in Native American storytelling traditions, that weaves together family/personal memoir with an accounting of the creatures and landscapes that inform her vision of the world.
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Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues: Bass Lines of Music...
The New Yorker music critic leads an audio tour of several hundred years of music history, from Renaissance lute songs to Led Zeppelin, showing how certain motifs of celebration and lament recur in many different contexts and cultures.
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Blood Dark Track BY Joseph O'Neill
O'Neill, a former barrister and PEN/Faulkner award-winning author of the novel Netherland has written a brilliant inquiry propelled by the unexplained incarcerations of both his grandfathers (one Irish, one Turkish) during the Second World War.
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By Nightfall BY Michael Cunningham
Set among the mid-forties denizens of Manhattan's SoHo-the new novel by the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Hours takes a deep look at the meaning of beauty and the place of love in our lives.
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The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen BY Kwame...
Appiah, a leading philosopher ("America's Socrates") and a professor at Princeton University, demonstrates that honor is the driving force in the struggle against man's inhumanity to man.
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Gay, Straight and the Reason Why BY Simon LeVay
What causes a child to grow up gay or straight or bisexual? Neuroscientist LeVay summarizes where the quest for a biological explanation of sexual orientation stands today, taking us on a tour of laboratories that specialize in genetics, endocrinology, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, evolutionary psychology and more.
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National Lampoon: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead BY Ellis...
Join us for a mind-boggling multi-media tour through the early days of an institution whose alumni left their fingerprints all over popular culture: Animal House, Caddyshack, Saturday Night Live, Ghostbusters, SCTV, Spinal Tap, In Living Color, Ren & Stimpy, and The Simpsons. Long before there was The Onion and Comedy Central, there was the National Lampoon.
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The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line...
More than half of the worlds' 1.3 billion Muslims live along the tenth parallel, as do roughly sixty percent of the world's 2 billion Christians. Griswold, award-winning poet and investigative journalist, traveled for seven years on the tenth parallel, examining the complex relationship of religion, land, oil; local conflicts and global ideology; politics and contemporary martyrdom, both Islamic and Christian.
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A World Without Islam? BY Graham E. Fuller
Join us for an illuminating journey through history, geopolitics, and religion to investigate whether Islam is indeed the cause of some of today's most important international crises and how we might move conversations beyond religious and ideological divides.
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Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership BY Lewis...
Hyde--MacArthur Fellow and author of the ground breaking study of art and commerce The Gift--offers a stirring defense of our cultural commons, that vast store of art and ideas we inherited from the past which continues to enrich the present.
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The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's...
A Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter chronicles a watershed event in American history-- the decades-long migration of African Americans from the South to the North and West--through the stories of three individuals and their families.
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My Hollywood BY Mona Simpson
The new novel by the celebrated author of Anywhere But Here tells the story of two women whose lives entwine and unfold behind the glittery surface of Hollywood.
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An Evening with Jonathan Franzen BY Jonathan Franzen
In Freedom, his first novel since The Corrections Franzen comically and tragically captures the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the temptations and burdens of liberty, and the heavy weight of empire.
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Making Our Democray Work: A Judge's View BY Justice...
Fascinating stories of key Supreme Court decisions, told from a unique perspective, illuminate this original and accessible theory of the United States Supreme Court's responsibility and integrity.
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Drugs, a Daughter, and Death: Mark Twain's Final Years...
Trombley, the preeminent Twain scholar at work today (and the president of Pitzer College), cracks open the enduring mystery of Mark Twain's final decade to reveal the true story of Isabel Lyon, the "forgotten woman" who haunts the official Twain narrative.
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Reweaving the Social Fabric of Skid Row BY Clyde Casey,...
A panel discussion and conversation about a public art theater project that chronicles the emergence of a permanent community and culture in what has been perceived as a transient Skid Row. Join the social and artistic visionaries who have contributed to reweaving the social fabric of Skid Row.
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Sing ALOUD BY Jessica Catron, Daniel Brummel
Join us in a celebration and exploration of traditional American vocal music, drawn from several rich sources of community singing- from 19th century Sacred Harp shape note hymnals, to songs from the oral tradition of the Appalachian mountains, to glee club-style rounds. No prior singing experience or musical knowledge necessary. All voices and ages are welcome-the only requirement is a willingness to sing.
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Hamlet's Blackberry BY William Powers, David L. Ulin
How do the technologies we use every day affect our state(s) of mind? One of the country's leading commentators on the information culture ponders the conundrum of connectedness, and offers a new philosophy of life in a world of screens.
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Performance/Anxiety BY Aimee Bender, Glen David Gold
Two L.A.-native novelists read and discuss fiction, theatre, magic spells, cats, MFAs, and some other stuff.
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Truth in Fiction: Navigating History BY Attica Locke,...
Two brilliant young writers-both daughters of the 1960s and '70s civil rights, black power and feminist political movements-read and discuss the inspiriation for their fiction.
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Newer Poets XV BY Erika Ayon, David Eadington, Dina...
Introducing six accomplished poets from the Los Angeles literary world in a lively showcase of poetic voices and styles.
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Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor...
The author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits offers a sane and bracingly honest perspective on the challenges of motherhood.
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The Black Body BY Nzingha Clarke, David Goldsmith, Peter...
Black, white and biracial contributors to a brave and unprecedented anthology take on the challenge of interpreting the black body's dramatic role in American culture. What does it mean to have, or love, a black body?
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Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times BY Bill...
A book and a documentary film chronicle how a family built a paper to greatness and how the confluence of a family feud and a cultural-economic cataclysm changed media history.
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James Workman: Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen...
Workman, a skilled storyteller, uncovers the universal politics of water and draws wisdom from tragedy in the Kalahari desert-opening our eyes to the ongoing struggle to secure water for life on earth.
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John Ashbery's Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror BY Joan...
A staged reading of John Ashbery's great, dense work-one of the defining poems of the 20th century. Six readers, accompanied by projected text and image, illuminate and bring to life Ashbery's tonal shifts and juxtapositions. Directed by Jim Paul with technical direction by Beth Thielen.
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Timur and the Dime Museum BY Timur and the Dime Museum
Operatic Vaudeville with a Bohemian Attitude Blending a tenor's haunting vocals with cabaret-inspired reinventions of songs both old and new. Featuring selections by Russian Gypsy songwriter Vadim Kozin from the 1930s to songs by Radiohead and David Bowie, this eclectic performance will provide the eyes and ears with beautiful and slightly dark entertainment.
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Advancing Urban Agriculture in Los Angeles BY Mud Baron,...
This panel of experts will present and analyze the urban agriculture programs emerging in Los Angeles, with a focus on key topics such as policies, challenges, trends and the programs currently in place.
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That Old Cape Magic BY Richard Russo
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls and Nobody's Fool offers a novel of deep introspection and great comedy-the story of a marriage and of all the other ties that bind.
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WAR BY Sebastian Junger
The author of A Perfect Storm turns his empathetic eye to a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley.
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Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective BY...
A deft and exhaustively researched account of a near-forgotten chapter of Newton's extraordinary life. Levenson, a documentary filmmaker and head of the Graduate Program in Science Writing at MIT, allows us to see how Newton's amazing mind worked when dealing with practical rather than theoretical questions.
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Crossing the Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the...
Melding memoir and history, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author fuses his early life in Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Egypt with an account of the American experience in the Middle East offering intimate insights into the Arab-Israeli tragedy.
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Tattoos on the Heart: Stories of Hope and Compassion BY...
Father Greg (affectionately known as G-dog), pastor of Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights since 1986, has made it his mission to help at-risk youth. His remedy for what he calls "a global sense of failure" is radical and simple: boundless, restorative love. His book, filled with sparkling humor and generosity, gives a window on gangs in the context of spirituality.
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An evening with Isabel Allende BY Isabel Allende
In her new novel, Island Beneath the Sea, the master storyteller introduces yet another unforgettable woman-a slave and concubine determined to claim her own destiny against impossible odds.
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Ilustrado BY Miguel Syjuco
Syjuco's daring debut novel opens with Crispin Salvador, lion of Philippine letters, dead in the Hudson River. Winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize, Syjuco exposes the corruption behind the rich families who have ruled the Philippines for generations offering an unhindered view of a society caught between reckless decay and hopeful progress.
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How Memories Get Made BY Terry McDermott, Dr. Gary Lynch
The world-renowned neuroscientist Gary Lynch, subject of McDermott's new book, discusses his decades-long obsessive pursuit to uncover the mechanism by which the brain makes memories.
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The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in...
A work of brilliant and compassionate reporting, "a must-read for everyone who cares about women, justice, fairness, the military, and the United States." (Katha Pollitt, The Nation)
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Murder City: Ciudad Jurez and the Global Economy's New...
Bowden, award-winning Tucson-based author and journalist reveals the story of the disintegration of Ciudad Jurez. Interweaving stories of the city's inhabitants-a raped beauty queen, a repentant hitman, a journalist fleeing for his life-with a broader meditation on the Mexican town's descent into anarchy.
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Richard Wagner's Ring: Eros, Mythos, and Ethos--A...
Conlon, music director of LA Opera and one of the world's preeminent conductors, will discuss Wagner's monumental work, challenging preconceptions while guiding the audience through the music and dramatic themes in a way that both opera novice and aficionado can enjoy.
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Poetry Reading BY Kate Gale, Douglas Kearney, Peggy...
Gale, editor, writer, teacher; Kearney, poet, performer, and librettist; and Shumaker, poet, author and teacher read from their work.
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Ralph Angel, Carol Muske-Dukes, Cecilia Wolloch:poetry...
Imagination. Luminosity. Mystery and grief. Ghost landscapes. Joy and celebration. Join us for a reading by three award-winning California poets.
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An Evening with Ian McEwan BY Ian McEwan
In his new novel Solar, the best-selling author of Atonement, explores the quest of one overweight and philandering Nobel prize-winning physicist to save the world from environmental disaster.
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Pearl of China: a novel BY Anchee Min
A performative reading and talk, from the bestselling author of Red Azalea and Empress Orchid whose new novel- the powerful story of the friendship of a lifetime-is based on the life of Pearl S. Buck.
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Re-Writing the American Dream BY Sapphire
Sapphire's fiction, poems and essays have taken on the myths and assumptions of class, gender and race in America. Join us for a discussion of her writing, the evolution of Push from stage to screen, her influences from the literary canon to the zeitgeist of our times, and her new novel.
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The Writer in the World BY Laila Lalami, Ngugi wa...
Two celebrated authors-one from Kenya, the other from Morocco-examine how writers take on the challenges posed by political and cultural conflict in our modern world.
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Three Approaches to Writing Biography BY K.C. Cole,...
Three new biographies-on Frank Oppenheimer, Frank Gehry, and Joseph Papp-offer completely different strategies for revealing complex and accomplished lives.
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How Many Billboards? Visual Rights to the City BY Toby...
A panel of outdoor media professionals and legal experts focus on the city's recent debate surrounding LED billboards and illegal signage, raising the notion of free speech as it relates to images on the street along the way. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition "How Many Billboards? Art In Stead" at The MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House, Feb. 5 - March 12, 2010.
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The Things They Carried BY Tim O'Brien
A reading and conversation honoring the 20th anniversary of one of America's most important novels, a book as vitally important for anyone interested in the Vietnam War as it is for those concerned with the craft of storytelling.
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So Much For That BY Lionel Shriver
This enchanting novel by Shriver, author of the bestseller We Need to Talk about Kevin, is a witty and timely exploration of the failure of our health-care system.
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The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives BY...
Mlodinow - a physicist with the grace of a born storyteller - illuminates the improbable ways that chance and probability affect our daily lives.
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From the Barrio to the 'Burbs: Crossing Borders &...
In his remarkable and ambitious new memoir, The Opposite Field, Katz tells a story of good love and failed love, of Los Angeles and Portland and Nicaragua and Mexico and a father and son in search of a place to play baseball.
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The Union of their Dreams: Power, Hope and Struggle in...
Drawing on a trove of original documents, tapes, and interviews to chronicle the rise of the United Farm Workers during the heady days of civil rights struggles, the antiwar movement, and 60s and 70s student activism, Pawel weaves together a powerful portrait of a people and their movement.
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The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the...
Want to know Isaac Babel's secret influence on the making of "King Kong"? Literally and metaphorically following the footsteps of her favorite authors, Batuman combines fresh readings of the great Russians, from Pushkin to Tolstoy, along with some sad and funny stories from the people's lives they've influenced-including her own.
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Free Fall: Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World...
Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz explains the current financial crisis-and the coming global economic order.
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The Great Equations: Breakthroughs in Science from...
Crease, a science historian and philosopher, takes us on a tour of ten of the most important victories in our long struggle to understand the world we live in.
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A Windfall of Musicians: Hitler's Emigres and Exiles in...
Crawford, a musicologist, reveals the uniquely vibrant era when Southern California became a hub of unprecedented musical talent.
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The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050 BY Joel Kotkin
What will America look like in 2050? Kotkin, a renowned social and economic trend analyst, argues that the key to America's economic recovery is its robust population growth.
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Jesus Was a Liberal BY Scotty McLennan
McLennan, Dean for Religious Life at Stanford (and inspiration for Doonesbury's Rev. Scot Sloan) gives voice to millions of liberal Christians and builds solid bridges to all sides of the cultural divide.
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Shush! Growing Up Jewish Under Stalin BY Emil Draitser
Draitser, Professor of Russian at Hunter College (CUNY), resurrects-with great humor-the world of his Jewish childhood in the Soviet Union.
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Parallel Play: Growing Up with Undiagnosed Asperger's BY...
Page, now a Pulitzer-winning music critic, offers a riveting portrayal of what it is like to live in a psychological world that few understand.
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The Swan Thieves: A Novel BY Elizabeth Kostova
In her new novel The Swan Thieves, the author of the bestseller The Historian offers a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.
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An Evening with T.C. Boyle BY T.C. Boyle
The settings for Boyle's bold new stories range from a California suburb terrorizedby a mountain lion, to Napoleonic France where a feral child is captured naked in the forest. He reads and discusses his new collection, Wild Child as well as his novel The Women about the life of Frank Lloyd Wright.
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PROGRAM INFORMATION
- Los Angeles, CA
- Arts & Culture
- English
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