Events
Lisa Brennan-Jobs with Lisa Napoli
8pm
Lisa Brennan-Jobs
in conversation with Lisa Napoli
Small Fry
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Blvd.,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS/RSVP
This event is part of our Newer Voices Series.
General Admission tickets are complimentary, but we encourage you to support these newer authors and purchase their books.
PURCHASE TICKETS
Comp General Admission Tickets RSVP HERE (Available Sep 10)
$30 Reserved Section Seat + Book
$35 Two Reserved Section Seats + 1 book
A frank, smart and captivating memoir by the daughter of Apple founder Steve Jobs.
Lisa Brennan-Jobs was born on a farm and named in a field by her parents―artist Chrisann Brennan and Steve Jobs. Her childhood unfolded in a rapidly changing Silicon Valley. When she was young, Lisa’s father was a mythical figure who was rarely present in her life. As she grew older, her father took an interest in her, ushering her into a new world of mansions, vacations, and private schools. His attention was thrilling, but he could also be cold, critical and unpredictable. When her relationship with her mother grew strained in high school, Lisa decided to move in with her father, hoping he’d become the parent she’d always wanted him to be.
“As clear-eyed, amusing, honest, unsentimental and sad as any memoir I’ve read in years. The prose sparkles, the vision behind it is ruefully compassionate and wise. No other book or film has captured Steve Jobs as distinctly as this one has. The love between father and daughter, thwarted and baffled as it often is, comes through beautifully.”―Phillip Lopate
“A gorgeous, compelling work of art and a dazzling coming-of-age story. This is a lovely, sweetly intimate portrait, a story told through the eyes of a daughter whose father struggled with his own origins―and who almost became the father she hoped he would be.” ―Susan Cheever
Small Fry is Lisa Brennan-Jobs’s poignant story of childhood and growing up. Scrappy, wise, and funny, young Lisa is an unforgettable guide, marveling at the particular magic of growing up in this family, in this place and time, while grappling with her feelings of illegitimacy and shame. Part portrait of a complex family, part love letter to California in the seventies and eighties, Small Fry is an enthralling story by an insightful new literary voice.
Lisa Napoli is the creator and host of the podcast, Gracefully: Your field guide to growing old. A career journalist who has worked for the New York Times, MSNBC, and public radio’s Marketplace, she’s also the author of two books, Ray & Joan and Radio Shangri-la.
Scott Harrison with Sophia Bush
8pm
(Reception: 6:30-7:30p, details below)
Scott Harrison
in conversation with Sophia Bush
Thirst: A Story of Redemption, Compassion, and a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Blvd.,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
This event is part of our Newer Voices Series.
General Admission tickets are complimentary, but we encourage you to support these newer authors and purchase their books.**** We are hosting a reception in conjunction with this event from 6:30-7:30pm before the talk with Scott Harrison. Tickets are $95 and also include the book. 100% of the proceeds from the reception support Charity: Water.
PURCHASE/RESERVE TICKETS
Comp General Admission Tickets
$30 Reserved Section Seat + Book
$35 Two Reserved Section Seats + 1 book
$95 Pre talk reception (6:30-7:30pm) + Reserved Seat + Book
An inspiring personal story of redemption, second chances, and the transformative power within us all, from the founder and CEO of the nonprofit charity: water.
Scott Harrison is the founder and CEO of charity: water, a non-profit that has mobilized over one million donors around the world to fund over 28,000 water projects in 26 countries that will serve 8.5 million people. Harrison has been recognized on Fortune’s 40 under 40 list, Forbes’ Impact 30 list, and was ranked #10 in Fast Company‘s 100 Most Creative People in Business. He is currently a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
In Thirst, Harrison recounts the twists and turns that built charity: water into one of the most trusted and admired nonprofits in the world. Renowned for its 100% donation model, bold storytelling, imaginative branding, and radical commitment to transparency, charity: water has disrupted how social entrepreneurs work while inspiring millions of people to join its mission of bringing clean water to everyone on the planet within our lifetime.
At 28 years old, Scott Harrison had it all. A top nightclub promoter in New York City, his life was an endless cycle of drugs, booze, models—repeat. But 10 years in, desperately unhappy and morally bankrupt, he asked himself, “What would the exact opposite of my life look like?” Walking away from everything, Harrison spent the next 16 months on a hospital ship in West Africa and discovered his true calling. In 2006, with no money and less than no experience, Harrison founded charity: water. Today, his organization has raised over $300 million to bring clean drinking water to more than 8.2 million people around the globe.
In the tradition of such bestselling books as Shoe Dog and Mountains Beyond Mountains, Thirst is a riveting account of how to build a better charity, a better business, a better life—and a gritty tale that proves it’s never too late to make a change.
100% of the author’s net proceeds from Thirst will go to fund charity: water projects around the world.
Sophia Bush is an actress, activist, entrepreneur, and global education access advocate. Bush is a member of the Directors Guild of America and in 2017 entered into a talent and development deal with 20th Century Fox TV. The deal calls for her to star in a comedy or drama project for the studio this coming pilot season, as well as develop additional projects for which she will serve as an executive producer.
This Fall, Bush will begin filming CBS’ Surveillance, a spy thriller drama starring Bush, from The Passage and Batman‘s Matt Reeves, writer David C. White (Sons of Liberty), director Patricia Riggen (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan). Most recently, Bush starred in Disney/Pixar’s Incredibles 2, where she played Voyd, a young superhero and major Elastigirl fan, who has the power of creating voids in space, allowingobjects to appear and disappear.
Bush is recently wrapped production as the lead of Hard Luck Love Song, an indie from Synthetic Pictures and Dime Box Entertainment. Last year, she was seen in Acts of Violence, opposite Bruce Willis.
Over the course of her career, Bush has captured film and television audiences alike with the diverse characters she portrays. For nine seasons she portrayed the fan favorite Brooke Davis on The CW’s hit drama One Tree Hill. She starred as Detective Erin Lindsay for 4 seasons of Dick Wolf’s Chicago PD. Bush appeared in the CBS comedy, Partners and starred opposite Sean Bean in the remake of the classic horror film The Hitcher. She starred in Serenade Film’s The Narrows, the independent comedy Table for Three, and the feature film Chalet Girl opposite Bill Nighy and Brooke Shields. Previously, Bush starred the comedy John Tucker Must Die. She also starred in the thriller, Stay Alive.
Bush has earned multiple Teen Choice Awards in the categories of “Choice Movie Actress: Comedy;” “Choice Movie Actress: Horror/Thriller;” and “Choice Movie: Breakout Female.” In addition, she received the Rising Star Award at the Vail Film Festival, the New Hollywood Style Icon Award at the Hollywood Style Awards and the Bing Philanthropy Award at the Young Hollywood Awards.
Off screen, Bush is also an early stage tech investor, who looks to bolster companies that create innovation and efficiency in people’s lives. She counts PenPal Schools, Uber, StyleSeat, Mark 43, and THINX among investments she calls “lifehacks.”
Named one of the most charitable celebrities by CNN, Sophia devotes her free time to bettering girl’s education and the environment. She inspires millions as she uses her personal platform and social media influence to raise awareness and funds for great causes. Since taking to social media to share her passion for change, Bush has inspired young people to join her in raising nearly half a million dollars for charity, built three primary schools in Guatemala and Laos, and now serves as a global ambassador for Glamour’s The Girl Project. Her focus, with The Girl Project, is to break down the barriers the girls face to secondary school education. They are currently working in 96 countries around the world.
Doris Kearns Goodwin with Larry Wilmore
4pm
Doris Kearns Goodwin
in conversation with Larry Wilmore
Leadership: In Turbulent Times
Fox Performing Arts Center
3801 Mission Inn Avenue
Riverside, CA 92501
PURCHASE TICKETS
$75 Premium Seats (1st three rows) + Book
$60 Orchestra 1 + Book
$50 Orchestra 2 + Book
$25 Balcony or Orchestra 2 (book not included)
In this culmination of five decades of acclaimed studies in presidential history, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin offers an illuminating exploration of the early development, growth, and exercise of leadership.
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s interest in leadership began more than half a century ago as a professor at Harvard. Her experiences working for LBJ in the White House and later assisting him on his memoirs led to her bestselling Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. She followed up with the Pulitzer Prize–winning No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II. She earned the Lincoln Prize for the runaway bestseller Team of Rivals, the basis for Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning film Lincoln, and the Carnegie Medal for The Bully Pulpit, the New York Times bestselling chronicle of the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Follow her on Twitter @DorisKGoodwin.
Are leaders born or made? Where does ambition come from? How does adversity affect the growth of leadership? Does the leader make the times or do the times make the leader?
In Leadership, Goodwin draws upon the four presidents she has studied most closely—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in civil rights)—to show how they recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized as leaders by others. By looking back to their first entries into public life, we encounter them at a time when their paths were filled with confusion, fear, and hope.
Leadership tells the story of how they all collided with dramatic reversals that disrupted their lives and threatened to shatter forever their ambitions. Nonetheless, they all emerged fitted to confront the contours and dilemmas of their times.
No common pattern describes the trajectory of leadership. Although set apart in background, abilities, and temperament, these men shared a fierce ambition and a deep-seated resilience that enabled them to surmount uncommon hardships. At their best, all four were guided by a sense of moral purpose. At moments of great challenge, they were able to summon their talents to enlarge the opportunities and lives of others.
This seminal work provides an accessible and essential road map for aspiring and established leaders in every field. In today’s polarized world, these stories of authentic leadership in times of apprehension and fracture take on a singular urgency.
Emmy Award winner Larry Wilmore has been a television producer, actor, comedian, and writer for more than 25 years. He can currently be heard as host of Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air on The Ringer Podcast Network. The show features Wilmore’s unique mix of humor and wit as he weighs in on the issues of the week and interviews guests in the worlds of politics, entertainment, culture, sports, and beyond.
Wilmore is perhaps best known for his role as host of Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, which debuted in January 2015 and ran for nearly two years. Off-screen, Wilmore serves as co-creator and consulting producer on HBO’s Insecure, a half-hour comedy series starring Issa Rae that details the awkward experiences and racy tribulations of a modern-day African-American woman. Wilmore also helped to launch ABC’s Black-ish as an executive producer.
Previously, Wilmore made memorable appearances as the “Senior Black Correspondent” on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and hosted his own Showtime “town hall”-style comedy specials, Larry Wilmore’s Race, Religion & Sex. He has written for In Living Color, The PJ’s (which he co-created), The Office (on which he has appeared as Mr. Brown, the diversity consultant), and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He also served as creator, writer, and executive
producer of The Bernie Mac Show, which earned him a 2002 Emmy Award for “Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series” and a 2001 Peabody Award.
In April 2016, Wilmore hosted the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, DC. His first book, I’d Rather We Got Casinos and Other Black Thoughts, in January 2009.
Doris Kearns Goodwin with Frank Buckley
Thursday, October 4, 2018
8pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)
Doris Kearns Goodwin
in conversation with Frank Buckley
discussing her new book,
Leadership: In Turbulent Times
Aratani Theatre
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center
244 S. San Pedro Street
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90012
PURCHASE TICKETS
$55 Orchestra Section Seat + book
$45 Balcony Section Seat + book
$100 Premium Orchestra Seating, Reception (6:30-7:30p) + Book
$20 General Admission Tickets (on sale Aug 4)
In this culmination of five decades of acclaimed studies in presidential history, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin offers an illuminating exploration of the early development, growth, and exercise of leadership.
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s interest in leadership began more than half a century ago as a professor at Harvard. Her experiences working for LBJ in the White House and later assisting him on his memoirs led to her bestselling Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. She followed up with the Pulitzer Prize–winning No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II. She earned the Lincoln Prize for the runaway bestseller Team of Rivals, the basis for Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning film Lincoln, and the Carnegie Medal for The Bully Pulpit, the New York Times bestselling chronicle of the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Follow her on Twitter @DorisKGoodwin.
Are leaders born or made? Where does ambition come from? How does adversity affect the growth of leadership? Does the leader make the times or do the times make the leader?
In Leadership, Goodwin draws upon the four presidents she has studied most closely—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in civil rights)—to show how they recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized as leaders by others. By looking back to their first entries into public life, we encounter them at a time when their paths were filled with confusion, fear, and hope.
Leadership tells the story of how they all collided with dramatic reversals that disrupted their lives and threatened to shatter forever their ambitions. Nonetheless, they all emerged fitted to confront the contours and dilemmas of their times.
No common pattern describes the trajectory of leadership. Although set apart in background, abilities, and temperament, these men shared a fierce ambition and a deep-seated resilience that enabled them to surmount uncommon hardships. At their best, all four were guided by a sense of moral purpose. At moments of great challenge, they were able to summon their talents to enlarge the opportunities and lives of others.
This seminal work provides an accessible and essential road map for aspiring and established leaders in every field. In today’s polarized world, these stories of authentic leadership in times of apprehension and fracture take on a singular urgency.
Frank Buckley is an anchor of KTLA Morning News. Frank joined KTLA in June 2005 from CNN where he had been a national correspondent. Frank is also host of the “Frank Buckley Interviews” podcast.
Frank’s reporting experiences have taken him around the world and have included assignments covering the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, politics for CNN, frequent reporting from the White House during George W. Bush’s presidency, natural disasters in Japan, the Los Angeles riots, the Hong Kong handover, the OJ Simpson trial and countless other stories in Southern California and across the U.S.
Prior to KTLA and CNN, Frank reported for Los Angeles station KCAL-TV, WXII-TV in Winston-Salem, N.C., and at KESQ-TV in Palm Springs. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit News.
Doris Kearns Goodwin photo credit: Annie Leibowitz
America Ferrera with Anjelah Johnson
America Ferrera
in conversation with Anjelah Johnson
American Like Me:
Reflections on Life Between Cultures
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Blvd.,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$50 Reserved Section Seat + Book
$40 General Admission Seat + Book
$20 General Admission Section Seat (on sale Sep. 4)
From award-winning actress and political activist America Ferrera comes a vibrant and varied collection of first person accounts from prominent figures about the experience of growing up between cultures.
America Ferrera is an award-winning actress, producer, director and activist. Ferrera is best known for her breakthrough role as “Betty Suarez” on ABC’s hit comedy, Ugly Betty, for which she won Golden Globe, Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, ALMA, and Imagen Awards. She produces and stars in the acclaimed NBC workplace comedy, Superstore, currently in its fourth season. In 2016 Ferrera cofounded HARNESS, an organization connecting storytellers and activists to amplify the cultural narrative around social justice. She speaks throughout the country as an advocate for human and civil rights and was the opening speaker at the monumental Women’s March on Washington in January 2017.
America Ferrera has always felt wholly American, and yet, her identity is inextricably linked to her parents’ homeland and Honduran culture. Speaking Spanish at home, having Saturday-morning-salsa-dance-parties in the kitchen, and eating tamales alongside apple pie at Christmas never seemed at odds with her American identity.
Still, she yearned to see that identity reflected in the larger American narrative.
Now, in American Like Me, America invites thirty-one of her friends, peers, and heroes to share their stories about life between cultures. We know them as actors, comedians, athletes, politicians, artists, and writers. However, they are also immigrants, children or grandchildren of immigrants, indigenous people, or people who otherwise grew up with deep and personal connections to more than one culture. Each of them struggled to establish a sense of self, find belonging, and feel seen. And they call themselves American enthusiastically, reluctantly, or not at all.
Anjelah Johnson-Reyes was born and raised in San Jose, California and is of Mexican and Native American descent. She started her career as a professional cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders and as an Oakland Raiderette, she was named Rookie of the Year and even performed in Super Bowl XXXVII. She became an internet sensation with her viral video, “Nail Salon” which led to many stand up, television and film opportunities. She joined the cast of “MADtv” as a series regular, which spawned another internet sensation, “Bon Qui Qui.” This original character, a disgruntled fast food employee with no filter, has been enjoyed, viewed and replicated by over 65 million people worldwide. After recording and releasing 3 songs and 2 music videos as Bon Qui Qui, Anjelah signed a record deal with Warner Bros. Records to release a full album titled, “Gold Plated Dreams”, which she’s toured twice selling out both times. Bon Qui Qui teamed up with Benefit Cosmetics for her third music video “This Is How We Do It”. After the success of her debut album, Bon Qui Qui released a Christmas EP titled “Merry Hoodmas”. Anjelah has appeared in multiple ads & commercials including campaigns for Sprint, Visa, Snickers, Verizon, All-State, K-Swiss, Dryers Ice Cream and was the spokesperson for a Texas based restaurant chain, Taco Cabana. Anjelah has also guest starred on shows such as The Shield, Ugly Betty, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and others all while touring with her stand up comedy. In June 2009 Anjelah recorded her first one-hour special for Comedy Central and Warner Bros. Records titled, “That’s How We Do It.” Her second one-hour special, The Homecoming Show, aired on NUVOtv in July of 2013. In 2014 Anjelah recorded her third hour special, “Not Fancy” which is a Netflix original. In 2017 she filmed her fourth hour special Mahalo & Goodnight in Honolulu, Hawaii. It premiered on the Epix channel and is now available on Hulu. Johnson has starred in such films as OUR FAMILY WEDDING, ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL, ENOUGH SAID, THE RESURRECTION OF GAVIN STONE and the film MOM’S NIGHT OUT which not only features Anjelah but also her husband, musician Manwell Reyes of the musical duo Panda$.
Kate Atkinson with Susan Orlean
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
8pm
Kate Atkinson
in conversation with Susan Orlean
Transcription
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Blvd.,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$45 Reserved Section Seat + Book
$20 General Admission
A dramatic story of WWII espionage, betrayal, and loyalty, by the bestselling author of Life After Life and a God in Ruins
Kate Atkinson’s first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year Award. She has been a critically acclaimed, bestselling author ever since, with over one million copies of her books in print in the United States. She is the author of a collection of short stories, Not the End of the World, and of the novels Life After Life, A God in Ruins, Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, Case Histories, One Good Turn, When Will There Be Good News?, and Started Early, Took My Dog. Case Histories, which introduced her readers to Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, was made into a television series starring Jason Isaacs.
“There is intrigue. There are surprises. But the unknowns aren’t always what we think they are. The deepest pleasure here, though, is the author’s language. As ever, Atkinson is sharp, precise, and funny . . . Another beautifully crafted book from an author of great intelligence and empathy.”―Kirkus, Starred Review
In 1940, eighteen-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever.
Susan Orlean is the author of eight books, including The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup; My Kind of Place; Saturday Night; and Lazy Little Loafers. In 1999, she published The Orchid Thief, a narrative about orchid poachers in Florida, which was made into the Academy Award-winning film, Adaptation starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep. Her book, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, a New York Times Notable book, won the Ohioana Book Award and the Richard Wall Memorial Award. She is currently writing a book about the Los Angeles Public Library, The Library Book, which will be published in this October.
Orlean has been a staff writer for the New Yorker since 1992, covering such subjects as taxidermy, fashion, umbrellas, origami, dogs, and chickens. She previously interviewed T.C. Boyle at Live Talks Los Angeles. (Video)