Édouard Louis In conversation with Steven Reigns “Édouard Louis uses literature as a weapon,” says a recent New York Times profile of the internationally bestselling French author. Louis, whose highly acclaimed first autobiographical novel, The End of Eddy, confronts both the institution of discrimination as he experienced it first-hand, growing up in a small town […]
Susan Orlean In conversation with author Attica Locke Join us for a special program on the 25th anniversary of the reopening of the Los Angeles Central Library that brings home the inspiring story of how Central Library rose from the ashes after the catastrophic fire of April 29, 1986. In a new book by New […]
Kwame Anthony Appiah and Njideka Akunyili Crosby In conversation with Erin Christovale, Assistant Curator, Hammer Museum Who do you think you are? What do you think you are? These questions of gender, religion, race, nationality, class, culture, and all our polarizing, contradictory natures permeate Kwame Anthony Appiah’s newest book. In The Lies That Bind, Appiah, […]
Lynsey Addario In conversation The Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur-winning photojournalist and New York Times bestselling author Lynsey Addario has captured audiences with her highly compelling and beautifully harrowing photographs from war zones across the globe. With her uncanny ability to emotionally connect with her subjects and to personalize even the most remote corners and unimaginable […]
Reyna Grande, Jean Guerrero, Octavio Solis A reading and conversation Bestselling author Reyna Grande’s newest memoir, A Dream Called Home, offers an inspiring account of one woman’s quest to find her place in America as a first-generation Latina university student and then pursue her dream of writing. Award-winning writer Jean Guerrero’s Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir […]
David Kipen and guest readers A reading What might Marilyn Monroe, Cesar Chavez, Susan Sontag, Albert Einstein have to say about Los Angeles? Their diary entries, along with those of other actors, musicians, activists, cartographers, students, geologists, cooks, merchants, journalists, politicians, composers, and many more—provide a kaleidoscopic view of Los Angeles over the past four […]
In conversation with Roxane Gay Co-presented with Eso Won Books Dubbed an “African Games of Thrones,” Marlon James’s transfixing new epic, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, defies all categorizations. From the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings, this first novel of a forthcoming trilogy follows a mercenary’s journey to find a missing child in a magical […]
The movie industry is going through seismic changes as we enter the streaming era. Will fewer movies come out in theaters? How will Netflix weather the onslaught of new streaming services about to debut? And are there new opportunities for underrepresented storytellers to make their mark? Join New York Times pop culture reporter Kyle Buchanan, […]
Lulu Wang In conversation with John Nein, Senior Programmer, Sundance Film Festival From the outset, Lulu Wang’s The Farewell lets us know that the film is “based on an actual lie,” which turns out to be true. Wang drew inspiration from a deception that unfolded within her own family when her grandmother, living in Changchun, […]
Daniel Jones In conversation with Terri Cheney Daniel Jones, who has edited the weekly “Modern Love” column for The New York Times since 2004, has read tens of thousands of stories about the trials and tribulations of love, relationships, and humanity at large. First expanding this popular series of weekly reader-submitted essays into a podcast […]
Daniel Mendelsohn In conversation with writer Richard Kramer Daniel Mendelsohn, the award-winning author, critic, translator, and Editor-at-Large at The New York Review of Books, shares from his new collection of essays that casts an eye at literature, film, television, and the personal essay. Reflecting on how we continue to look to the Greeks and Romans […]
Randall Kennedy In conversation with Eric Miller, Professor of Law, Loyola Marymount University Rights Night returns with author and American Law scholar Randall Kennedy on the Bill of Rights. Kennedy is a professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation of race relations. For his education he […]
Dr. Achuta Kadambi In conversation Nellie Bowles, reporter for The New York Times What if search-and-rescue robots could sense survivors through dense smoke? What if surgical robots could perform impossible surgeries by seeing details invisible to a human doctor? At Dr. Achuta Kadambi’s UCLA lab, his team works to make these possibilities a reality. By […]
Education is an issue that hits home to every American. One of the foremost authorities on education and the history of education in the United States and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, Diane Ravitch offers an impassioned defense of public education. In her new book, Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the […]
Erika L. Sánchez and Kali Fajardo-Anstine In conversation with Lisa Lucas, Executive Director, National Book Foundation 2019 National Book Award Finalist Kali Fajardo-Anstine (Sabrina & Corina: Stories) joins poet, essayist, novelist, and 2017 National Book Award Finalist Erika L. Sánchez (I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter) to discuss their work and why the preservation, […]
Mark Rosenbaum and Talia Inlender In conversation with Lindsay Toczylowski and Miriam Jordan Featuring a special performance by poet Marcelo Hernandez Castillo What makes a country home? Four experts on immigration and human rights will come together to share from their work from different sides of the border crisis. Having argued landmark cases on immigration […]
