Events
Jessica Yu with Julie Hébert
8pm
Jessica Yu
in conversation with Julie Hébert
Garden of the Lost and Abandoned:
The Extraordinary Story of One Ordinary Woman and the Children She Saves
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Boulevard
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.
RSVP HERE for free tickets to this event
>>> Pre-purchasing the book includes a Reserved Seat ($27+tax)
Purchase book/Reserved Seat
* a book signing follows the talk
In Garden of the Lost and Abandoned, Jessica Yu turns her keen filmmaker’s eye on the story of Gladys Kalibbala, a Ugandan “orphan sleuth,” who writes the Lost and Abandoned column for Uganda’s largest newspaper in an effort to reunite castaway children with their estranged families.
Jessica Yu is a prolific filmmaker known for both her scripted and nonfiction work, which includes the Academy Award-winning short Breathing Lessons. Jessica also directs episodic TV including Grey’s Anatomy, Parenthood, and most recently 13 Reasons Why. Her documentaries have focused on art, social justice, and the environment.
Julie Hébert is a writer/director of theater, film and television. Her plays have twice been honored with the PEN Award for Drama. Hébert adapted her play Ruby’s Bucket of Blood for Showtime with Angela Bassett, and her film Female Perversions, with Tilda Swinton, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at SunDance. Her 9/11 documentary, In Their Own Words, co-directed with John Wells, was honored with the George Foster Peabody Award. Hébert has written and directed for several highly regarded television series including The West Wing, ER, and American Crime. Currently, she is developing a series with Universal and working on a new play. Hébert is also the Executive Director and creative force behind Look What SHE Did!, a non- profit organization creating video interviews promoting untold stories of amazing women.
In Uganda, millions of children lack parental support, and thousands roam the streets adrift—their plight often neglected. The problem by most lights is overwhelming: at least 5,000 children live on the streets of Uganda’s capital city of Kampala. Some forget the names of their villages. The youngest may not know the names of their parents. Moved by the harrowing stories of these “lost” children, Gladys Kalibbala—part journalist, part detective, part “foot soldier”—devotes the little money and time she has to her “Lost and Abandoned” column for Uganda’s largest newspaper, which features a heartrending profile of a lost child every week. While her means are humble, the indefatigable Gladys forges her own path and immerses herself in the complicated, occasionally risky circumstances she finds herself in to help these wayward children. Independently, she has sought hundreds of cases and achieved miraculous family reunions.
Jessica Yu chronicles Gladys’ journey as she travels to far-flung towns to bear the weight of these children’s tragic past and ultimately improve their lives for the better. Yu delivers an acutely observed story of this hardnosed and warmhearted woman, the children she helps, and the twists of fate they experience together. The subplot of Gladys’s garden—her precarious dream of providing a home and livelihood for her vulnerable charges—adds fascinating depth. Garden of the Lost and Abandoned chronicles one woman’s altruism, both ordinary and extraordinary, in a way that is impossible to forget, and impossible not to take to heart.
Michael Shermer with Adam Felber
8pm
Michael Shermer
in conversation with Adam Felber
Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$45 General Admission Section Seat + a copy of Heavens on Earth
$55 Reserved Section Seat + a copy of Heavens on Earth
$20 General Admission Seat
Michael Shermer is the publisher of Skeptic magazine, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University. He has authored several popular books on science, scientific history, and the philosophy and history of science, including:
Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye; Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design; The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths; Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time; How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science, and Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? (with Alex Grobman).
“This book’s theme is the one of greatest practical importance to all of us: does some heaven or afterlife await us after we die? Most Americans, and even many atheists, believe that the answer is “yes.” If there is no heaven, how can we find purpose in life? Michael Shermer explores these big questions with the delightful, powerful style that made his previous books so successful – but this is his best book.”
—Jared Diamond, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel
“Michael Shermer is a beacon of reason in an ocean of irrationality.”
—Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, host of Cosmos and StarTalk, author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
In his most ambitious work yet, Michael Shermer sets out to discover what drives humans’ belief in life after death. Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia delves into humanity’s obsession with the afterlife and the quest for immortality.
Since the beginning of recorded history, and surely long before that, mankind has concocted numerous manifestations of heaven and the afterlife—where souls go after the death of the physical body. Religious leaders have toiled to make sense of this place that a surprising 74 percent of Americans believe exists. Since no one has ever returned to report what it is really like, we cannot know for sure what awaits us after death.
In Heavens on Earth, Shermer focuses on recent scientific attempts to achieve immortality by radical life extensions, extropians, transhumanists, cryonicists, and mind uploaders, along with the utopians who have attempted to create a literal heaven on earth while we continue to live here. The result is a kaleidoscopic overview of our hopes and dreams—and the scientific boundaries of what is actually possible—concerning the afterlife. Shermer concludes with an uplifting paean to purpose and progress and what we can do in the here and now, whether or not there is a hereafter.
Adam Felber is an American political satirist, author, radio personality, actor, humorist, novelist, television writer, and comic book writer. Felber attended Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and graduated as an English major in 1989. He has lived in Brooklyn, New York, and now lives in Los Angeles, California.
He is a regular panel member (and occasional guest host) of the NPR radio quiz show, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!. Felber is the author of the novel Schrödinger’s Ball, which uses as a conceit the concept of Schrödinger’s cat. He has also written for several television shows including Real Time with Bill Maher, Talkshow with Spike Feresten, Arthur, The Smoking Gun, and Wishbone.
Felber also wrote the second Skrull Kill Krew limited series for Marvel Comics in 2009 as part of the Secret Invasion event.
Pete Souza
Please note this is a morning event!
7:45-8:15am Continental Breakfast
8:15-9:15am Talk, followed by book signing
Breakfast with
Pete Souza
Obama: An Intimate Portrait
Cross Campus–Downtown Los Angeles
800 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90017
PURCHASE TICKETS
$65 General Admission Seating + book
* a book signing follows the event. Doors open at 7:45am
** Continental Breakfast, 7:45am-8:15am
Pete Souza was the Chief Official White House Photographer for President Obama and the Director of the White House Photo Office. Previously Souza was an Assistant Professor of Photojournalism at Ohio University, the national photographer for the Chicago Tribune, a freelancer for National Geographic, and an Official White House Photographer for President Ronald Reagan. His books include the New York Times bestseller The Rise of Barack Obama, which documents the president’s meteoric ascent, from his first day in the U.S. Senate through the 2008 Pennsylvania presidential primary. Souza is a freelance photographer based in Washington, DC, and a Professor Emeritus at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication.
The best day of Barack Obama’s presidency. The worst day. Everyday moments of fatherhood and friendship alongside the singular moments of presidential power. Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza was there next to the president, capturing it all—nearly 2 million photographs in total.
Obama: An Intimate Portrait includes a foreword by President Obama, in which he writes, “Over those eight years, Pete became more than my photographer—he became a friend, a confidant, and a brother.” This is the definitive visual biography of the Obama presidency, including never-before-seen photos of the administration, the president, and his family. Souza’s photographs and poignant behind-the-scenes captions and stories that accompany them, communicate the pace and power of our nation’s highest office.
Of his time at the White House, Pete writes, “I have had the extraordinary privilege of being the man in the room for eight years, visually documenting President Obama for history. This book is the result of that effort; I gave it my all. I hope that the chronological photographs that follow, accompanied by my words, will show you the true character of this man and the essence of his Presidency, as seen through my eyes and felt through my heart.”
This book depicts major milestones in the administration but also intimate personal moments that provide a deeper understanding of Barack Obama, not just as president but as a man. No White House photographer has ever been granted such access to a sitting president, and the result is a moving, comprehensive book full of more than 300 extraordinary photographs. The special relationship Pete forged with President Obama is apparent in these pages. Whether he was hanging back in a door frame, perched on a ladder to snag the perfect shot, or in a freight elevator with the president and the First Lady, his images reveal the undeniable trust between the commander in chief and his photographer.
Souza’s photographs tell the true story of the presidency, from moments behind the scenes at the inauguration to negotiations with foreign leaders and encounters with ordinary citizens. They appear in chronological order, paired with captions to provide context and behind-the-scenes anecdotes.
John Gray
8pm
An Evening with
John Gray
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
discussing his newest book,
Beyond Mars and Venus:
Relationship Skills for Today’s Complex World
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$40 General Admission Section Seat + a copy of Beyond Mars and Venus
$50 Reserved Section Seat + a copy of Beyond Mars and Venus
$95 Reception + Reserved Section Seat + a copy of Beyond Mars and Venus
$20 General Admission Seat
* a book signing follows the talk
The author of the most well-known relationship book of all time returns with an updated guide for today’s generation.
John Gray, Ph.D is the author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, which was first published in 1992 and has sold sold over 50 million copies worldwide. We host him marking the 25th anniversary of it’s release and featuring a conversation on his latest book, Beyond Mars and Venus: Relationship Skills for Today’s Complex World. USA Today listed Mars/Venus as number six among the most influential books of the last quarter century. In hardcover, it was the number one bestselling nonfiction book of the nineties. John Gray’s books are translated into approximately 45 languages in more than 100 countries.
Dr. Gray’s more recent books include Mars and Venus in the Bedroom, Why Mars and Venus Collide, and Work With Me (with Barbara Annis). John has appeared repeatedly on Oprah, as well as on The Dr. Oz Show, TODAY, CBS This Morning, Good Morning America, etc. He has been profiled in Time, Forbes, USA Today, TV Guide, and People. He was also the subject of a three-hour special hosted by Barbara Walters.
Two decades ago, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus revolutionized the way we thought about love and partnership. John Gray’s work has helped countless readers improve and even save their relationships. But as society evolves, relationships do, too. It’s time to move beyond Mars and Venus, toward a new relationship model for modern couples.
Today, men and women are no longer trapped by rigid societal roles. Now more than ever, we have the freedom to be our authentic selves. Women can access their masculine side, and men can embrace their feminine side. This new freedom is a good thing, but it also brings new challenges.
Men and women still need the right tools and skills to help build stronger relation- ships. While previous generations sought “role mate” relationships, based on the more rigid gender roles of the time, today’s couples need a new kind of relationship: a “soul mate” relationship. These more emotionally satisfying relationships require a deeper understanding of our partners’ individual needs. In Beyond Mars and Venus, Gray teaches you how to strengthen your bond and grow in love together, so you and your loved one can meet each other’s needs in the best way possible, bringing you lasting happiness and a fulfilling partnership.
Daniel Ellsberg
An Evening with
Daniel Ellsberg
discussing his book,
The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner
William Turner Gallery
Bergamot Station Arts Center
2525 Michigan Avenue,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$45 Reserved Section Seat + Book
$30 Reserved Section Seat
$20 General Admission Seat
Join us for a timely event featuring the legendary whistle-blower who revealed the Pentagon Papers, an eyewitness exposé of the dangers of America’s Top Secret, seventy-year-long nuclear policy that–chillingly–continues to this day.
“An absolutely imperative read in this day and age of Trump, Putin, Kim Jong Un, and global instability.” – Helen Caldicott, Founding President, Physicians for Social Responsibility
“This long-awaited chronicle from the father of American whistleblowing is both an urgent warning and a call to arms to a public that has grown dangerously habituated to the idea that the means of our extinction will forever be on hair-trigger alert.” – Edward Snowden
“Nobody could have told this horrifying story better than Daniel Ellsberg. He introduces us to the men who have coldly and empirically put in place a plan that can, on a whim–not virtually, but literally–annihilate life on Earth. What a book.” – Arundhati Roy, anti-nuclear activist and author of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and the Pulitzer Prize- and Man Booker Prize-winner The God of Small Things
In his new book, longlisted for the 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, former high level defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg reveals his shocking first-hand account of America’s nuclear program in the 1960s. From the remotest air bases in the Pacific Command, where he discovered that the authority to initiate use of nuclear weapons was widely delegated, to the secret plans for general nuclear war under Eisenhower, which, if executed, would cause the near-extinction of humanity, Ellsberg shows that the legacy of this most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization–and its proposed renewal under the Trump administration–threatens our very survival. No other insider with high level access has written so candidly of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, and nothing has fundamentally changed since that era.
Framed as a memoir–a chronicle of madness in which Ellsberg acknowledges participating–this gripping expose reads like a thriller and offers feasible steps we can take to dismantle the existing “doomsday machine” and avoid nuclear catastrophe, returning Ellsberg to his role as whistleblower. The Doomsday Machine is thus a real-life Dr. Strangelove story and an ultimately hopeful–and powerfully important–book about not just our country, but the future of the world.
Jenifer Lewis with D.J. “Shangela” Pierce
Jenifer Lewis
in conversation with D.J. “Shangela” Pierce
discussing her memoir,
The Mother of Black Hollywood
The Bootleg Theatre
2220 Beverly Blvd,
Los Angeles, CA 90057
PURCHASE TICKETS
$43 General Admission seating + Book
$53 Reserved Section seating + Book
$20 General Admission Seating (on sale Nov 10)
Jenifer Lewis has appeared in more than three hundred television and film roles. She currently stars as the spirited grandmother, Ruby Johnson, on the Emmy-nominated ABC hit black-ish, now in its fourth season. Jenifer is a social media powerhouse with well over 100 million views for her viral videos, including: In These Streets featuring Brandy and Roz Ryan (May 2016) and Get Your Ass Out and Vote (November 2016). She lives in Los Angeles with her bichon frise, Butters Lewis, and has a drag queen named Shangela living in her basement. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
“Jenifer Lewis is a natural comedienne in the spirit of Lucille Ball. Inventive, smart, and all her bones are ‘funny bones.’ You know the workday will be all fun and spirit when Jenifer is on set—the hardest part is to keep from laughing. And now she has written it all down for everyone to enjoy. Congratulations, Mother Jenifer. I love you!”— Taraji P. Henson
The “Mega Diva” and legendary star of Black-ish looks back on her memorable journey to fame and the unforgettable life lessons she learned along the way.
Jenifer Lewis keeps it real in this provocative and touching memoir by a mid-western girl with a dream whose journey from poverty to Hollywood will move, shock, and inspire readers.
She describes a road to fame made treacherous by dysfunction and undiagnosed mental illness, including a sex addiction. Yet, supported by loving friends and strengthened by “inner soldiers,” Jenifer never stopped entertaining and creating.
We watch as Jenifer develops icon status stemming from a series of legendary screen roles as the sassy, yet loveable, mama or auntie. And we watch as her emotional disturbances, culminating in a breakdown while filming The Temptations movie, launch her on a continuing search for answers, love, and healing.
From her first taste of applause at five years old to landing on Broadway within eleven days of graduation and ultimately achieving success in movies, television and global concert halls, Jenifer reveals her outrageous life story with lots of humor, a few regrets and most importantly, unbridled joy. Candid, warm and wonderfully inspiring, The Mother of Black Hollywood intimately reveals the heart of a woman who lives life to the fullest.