Tuesday, September 16 BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY & SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK: A debate instigated by Paul Holdengräber Violence & the Left in Dark Times Bernard-Henri Lévy, France’s “rock-star philosopher” and author of Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against New Barbarism and Slavoj Zizek, the Slovanian”Elvis of cultural theory” and author of Violence: Six Sideways Reflections, will scrutinize the totalitarianisms of the past as well as those of the future, as they argue for a new political and moral vision for our times and investigate the limits of tolerance. Celeste Bartos Forum Wednesday, September 17 DANIEL MENDELSOHN & JAMES WOOD in conversation with PICO IYER Reading in a World of Images “Does the common reader exist in our world of splitting screens? Where might we find beauty, seriousness or moral passion among our fraying books? And does it even make sense to put Flaubert, Homer, and Oliver Stone into the same sentence? Two of the defining public critics of our time—James Wood, a passionate reader who creates cathedrals out of words, and Daniel Mendelsohn, a professional classicist bringing rigor to the popular arts—investigate the space where reading ends and real criticism begins.” Pico Iyer South Court Auditorium Friday, September 19 ROBERT BADINTER in conversation with NEAL KATYAL Abolition of Capital Punishment Robert Badinter, the French Minister of Justice from 1981-86, led the battle to abolish the death penalty in France. Badinter’s book, Abolition: One Man’s Battle Against the Death Penalty, serves as a guidebook on legal and political strategies n the quest for abolition. Badinter co-authored a book on the role of judges with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Neal Katyal recently won Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in the U.S. Supreme Court, a case that challenged the policy of military trials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Celeste Bartos Forum Tuesday, September 23 ANTÓNIO LOBO ANTUNES in conversation with Paul Holdengräber What Can I Do When Everything’s On Fire? The preeminent Portuguese novelist, trained as a psychiatrist who spent four year in the Portuguese army during the Angolan War, tells a story in What Can I do When Everything Is On Fire? of sanity lost, of madness and consumption. This is a saga of growing old, of loving no matter what, and finally of a young man ineluctably coming to terms with the sins of his father and the life he has inherited now. South Court Auditorium Wednesday, September 24 PAUL AUSTER & CÉLINE CURIOL Man in the Dark & Voice Over In Céline Curiol’s Voice Over, a lonely young woman works as an announcer in Paris’s Gare du Nord, surrounded by people yet separate from them. In her solitude, she wanders the streets of the modern city, playing on the edge of danger, seeking connection. “I am alone in the dark, turning the world around in my head as I struggle through another bout of insomnia, another white night in the great American Wilderness.” So begins Paul Auster’s Man in Dark. Celeste Bartos Forum Friday, September 26 SPIKE LEE in conversation Miracle at St. Anna Spike Lee’s new film, Miracle at St. Anna, chronicles the story of four black American soldiers who are members of the US Army as part of the all African-American 92nd “Buffalo Soldier” Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II. Based on the novel and with screenplay by James McBride, it is a story about redemption and triumph over the bleakest of experiences. Celeste Bartos Forum Friday, October 10 FERRAN ADRIÀ A Day at elBulli Ferran Adria, “the Salvador Dali of the Kitchen,” has won global acclaim as one of the most creative and inventive culinary geniuses in the world. His restaurant elBulli has 3-Michelin stars and was ranked # 1 for the past three years in a row by the S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards. Each year elBulli receives 2 million requests for only 8000 seats. Celeste Bartos Forum Wednesday, October 29 WIRED & LIVE present GRANT ACHATZ & NATHAN MYHRVOLD moderated by MARK MCCLUSKY The Cutting Edge: Tales from the Culinary Frontier James Beard-award winning chef Grant Achatz, owner of Chicago’s Alinea restaurant, and sous vide guru Nathan Myhrvold, CEO of Intellectual Ventures and former CTO of Microsoft, will explore the ways that science and technology are transforming our notions of food with moderator Mark McClusky, senior editor at Wired. South Court Auditorium Thursday, October 30 AN EVENING WITH DRACULA Beware of The New Annotated Dracula! After his New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Leslie S. Klinger returns with a daring conceit: the Dracula tale is based on historical fact. Be prepared on the eve of Halloween to travel through the graveyards and the wilds of Transylvania as Klinger investigates the multifarious subtexts of the original narrative—from the masochistic to the necrophilic. South Court Auditorium Wednesday, November 5 NEW YORK CITY OPERA & LIVE present: “The Sound of Literature” Co-presented with New York City Opera’s Opera Matters! Series, “The Sound of Literature” will explore the creative vistas on the remarkable intersection of words and music. Celeste Bartos Forum Monday, November 10 JOAN DIDION, ANDREW DELBANCO, DARRYL PINCKNEY, MICHAEL TOMASKY, GARRY WILLS & others. MODERATED BY ROBERT B. SILVERS The Cullman Center for Scholars & Writers & LIVE present What Happens Now? A conversation on the 2008 election As the New York Review of Books turns 45, the evening will feature some of the publication’s most illustrious contributors including former Cullman Center Fellow and Melville scholar Andrew Delbanco, journalist, essayist, and novelist Joan Didion, writer Darryl Pinckney, journalist Michael Tomasky, historian Garry Wills, and others. Moderated by The New York Review of Books editor Robert B. Silvers. Celeste Bartos Forum Wednesday, November 12 TONI MORRISON in conversation A Mercy Nobel Prize recipient Toni Morrison‘s novel reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery in an ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother abandoning her daughter in order to save her. Set in the 17th century when the slave trade was in its infancy, the book describes the religious persecution, racial hatred, and class distinction that allowed the institution of slavery to take root in the US. Celeste Bartos Forum Friday, December 5 ZADIE SMITH: On Sensibility The Robert B. Silvers Lecture Celeste Bartos Forum Programs begin at 7 pm unless otherwise indicated Made possible with generous support from Celeste Bartos and the Margaret and Herman Sokol Public Education Endowment Fund. STAY TUNED! WWW.NYPL.ORG/LIVE