City Arts & Lectures

Peggy Orenstein is the author of “Cinderella Ate My Daughter” and other books about the cultural constraints that affect young women.  Orenstein has now turned her attention to boys - conducting comprehensive interviews with young men, psychologists, and academics about consent, vulnerability, hookup culture, and many other issues relating to boys’ emotional lives. These are collected in her new book “Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity”. On March 19, 2020, Peggy Orenstein talked to author Daniel Handler via video conference, under orders to shelter in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our guests are Carmen Maria Machado and Namwali Serpell. Carmen Maria Machado’s “In The Dream House,” is a memoir about queer domestic abuse, beautifully and meticulously told through an array of forms, entirely eschewing convention. Machado is also the author of the short story collection “Her Body and Other Parties.” Namwali Serpell is a professor of literature at UC Berkeley. Her debut novel “The Old Drift” tracks three Zambian families across three generations, from the pre-colonial past into the near future. **** On April 8, 2020, Namwali Serpell and Carmen Maria Machado spoke via video conference, under orders to shelter-in-place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other things, the two reflected on writing post-apocalyptic narratives while they themselves live through a time of pandemic.

Our guests are Dolores Huerta and Alice Waters, legendary activists working in different, but complementary areas of our food systems.  Huerta is co-founder of the United Farm Workers Association, and one of the most influential labor activists of our time. Waters is a chef and owner of Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California. A proponent of organic produce, and farm to table cuisine, Waters has brought a sustainable food curriculum -- and free, organic lunch -- to numerous schools through the Edible Schoolyard program.  On April 1, 2020 Dolores Huerta and Alice Waters talked to Davia Nelson of the Kitchen Sisters via video conference at their respective homes, under orders to shelter-in-place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our guest is Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, and Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley.  Contrary to what many politicians are saying, Reich believes that the global pandemic is a public health emergency - but not necessarily an economic crisis. And he believes that in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, we must halt the economy, and assist the poor. On March 23, 2020, Reich talked to filmmaker and activist Astra Taylor. Under shelter-in-place orders, the two spoke from their respective homes via video conference.

Our guest is poet Ocean Vuong. His debut novel "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" takes the form of a letter written to the narrator's mother. The details closely mirror Vuong's own life. Vuong was raised by his mother and grandmother in Hartford, Connecticut. Born in Viet Nam, he was two years old when they left a refugee camp in the Philippines to immigrate to the United States. Ocean Vuong came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco on February 3, 2020, to talk with fellow writer Tommy Orange about making art, the power of language, and what it means to be an American.

Ottessa Moshfegh is the author of the novels "My Year of Rest and Relaxation", and "Eileen", and the novella "McGlue". Moshfegh is known for writing characters wracked with depression and neurosis - and for the care with which she tends to them. Dark subject matter like grief and alcoholism are tempered by Moshfegh's keen sense of humor. On January 13, 2020, Ottessa Noshfegh came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk with Isabel Duffy.

Dan Pfeiffer was one of the first people to volunteer on Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency in 2008. He was one of the last people to leave, in 2015. Over those eight years, Pfeiffer served in the Obama Administration in a number of key roles, including White House Communications Director and Senior Advisor. Today Pfeiffer co-hosts the podcast “Pod Save America” with fellow Obama administration alumni. On February 27, 2020, Dan Pfeiffer came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk to Lara Bazelon about the Democratic primaries and his just-published book “un-trumping America.”

Not yet thirty years old, the Irish novelist Sally Rooney has quickly amassed an international following. In “Conversations with Friends” and “Normal People”, Rooney’s nuanced depictions of complex characters confront structures of intimacy, friendship, and class. On February 12, 2020, Sally Rooney and fellow writer Heidi Julavits had a conversation - originally scheduled before an audience at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in January, but postponed due to Rooney’s illness, the program was recorded in a New York studio.

Adam Mansbach is a screenwriter and cultural critic whose books include “Angry Black White Boy,” and “The End of the Jews.” But he achieved his greatest commercial success with his first adult parody of children’s books, “Go the Fuck to Sleep”. He’s joined by political comedian Kamau Bell, host and executive producer of the CNN docu-series United Shades of America. On January 6, 2020,  Mansbach and Bell, friends and collaborators, came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk about writing, raising daughters, getting vasectomies. and more.

This week our guest is Raphael Bob-Waksberg, creator of the darkly funny animated series “BoJack Horseman,” now in its final season on Netflix.  The show has received wide acclaim for its concurrent hilarity and exploration of more serious themes like depression, failure, and alcoholism.  His new book, *Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory, *is a collection of short stories about love. On December 16, 2019, Rafael Bob-Waksberg came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk with television critic Emily Nussbaum.