Winter Arts Preview: Books & Lectures
Winter Arts Preview
With each new season, the scope and breadth of public lectures and author appearances in Santa Barbara burgeons. This community is rich in educational opportunities and literary events, so grab a pen and start marking your calendars.
This Saturday, January 16, don’t miss television journalist and master interviewer Charlie Rose at the Arlington Theatre, courtesy Arts & Lectures. The next day, Sunday, January 17, S.B. author Kathryn Cushman will be signing copies of her new novel Leaving Yesterday at the Goleta Borders Books.
Concerned about the future of the UC system? You’ll want to attend a roundtable discussion, The Future of the University: Equity and Access, hosted by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at UCSB’s McCune Conference Room on Thursday, January 21. Also that evening, stop by Chaucer’s Books for Leila Rupp’s signing of Sapphistries: A Global History of Love Between Women. Visit chaucersbooks.com for many more signings and events. The same night, P.W. Singer will appear at UCSB’s Campbell Hall to discuss robotic warfare.
On Thursday evenings January 21 through February 18, stop in at the Bodhi Path Buddhist Center for a public lecture series on the laws of karma, delivered by Bart Mendel. Thursday, January 21, also brings Public Religion Research Institute CEO Robert Jones to the Unitarian Society, courtesy UCSB’s Capps Center, to discuss his book, Progressive & Religious.
Courtesy of Arts & Lectures, S.B.’s beloved bad boy author, T.C. Boyle, appears at Victoria Hall on Monday, January 25, to discuss his latest books, The Women and Wild Child. That weekend, Friday, January 29, and Saturday, January 30, the Santa Barbara Public Library holds a special fundraiser, selling rare books, photography, and other art. Speaking of Stories presents tales from India at Center Stage Theater on Sunday, January 31, and Monday, February 1, including a reading of Salman Rushdie’s Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies.
February kicks off with a discussion on racial discrimination at UCSB’s MultiCultural Center Lounge on Monday, February 1, led by UCLA professor of psychology Phil Goff. Visit mcc.sa.ucsb.edu for a complete schedule of MCC talks and discussions. On the third of the month, A&L brings cult comic author Neil Gaiman to Campbell Hall.
Poets Melinda Palacio, Phil Taggart, and Marsha de la O will read their work at the library’s Faulkner Gallery in a free Santa Barbara Poetry Series event on Saturday, February 6, at 6:30 p.m. And on February 8, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for the New York Times Ethan Bronner will speak at Campbell Hall on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This year’s UCSB Reads book is Enrique’s Journey, the true story of a young Honduran boy’s journey to find his mother in the United States. Author Sonia Nazario, who won a Pulitzer for the Los Angeles Times series on which the book is based, will give a free public lecture at UCSB’s Campbell Hall on Thursday, February 11. And on Wednesday, March 10, Arts & Lectures brings The Tipping Point and Blink author Malcolm Gladwell to the Arlington Theatre to discuss his latest social phenomenon book, Outliers: The Story of Success.
