ALOUD @ Los Angeles Public Library

The bestselling author and director of the world-famous Hayden Planetarium chronicles America's irrational love affair with Pluto, man's best celestial friend

A renowned sociologist challenges the still-prevailing and anachronistic images of aging, tracing the ways in which wisdom, experience, and new learning inspire individual growth and cultural transformation.

The author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative overcame polio to become one of the world's leaders in the development of creativity in business, education and human resources. Hear him hold forth on the potential and capacity of truly \"human\" resources.

A distinguished panel explores the legacy of one of the West's most influential writers, who fought for protection of the region's delicate environment as well as recognition of a Western regional base and influenced generations of environmental writers.

In his newest book, the Thurber-prize winning author interviews elder celebrities (among them Norman Mailer and LSD pioneer Ram Dass), reads deathbed confessions, Lao Tzu, William Burroughs' diaries, and considers the latest medical research on the brain as part of his quest to glean wisdom from the old (and wise) among us.

It's been 15 years since the 1994 quake. Is L.A. more prepared for the next one? Are WE? A panel of experts air their views: Mariana Amatullo, director, The L.A. Earthquake: Get Ready project at Art Center College of Design; Michael Dear, Professor of Geography and Urban Planning at USC; Lucy Jones, Caltech and USGS seismologist; Dennis Mileti, Director of the University of Colorado Natural Hazards Center; David Ulin, author, The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith.

A female boxer, a madwoman stuck in Purgatory, and an irreverent angel meet across space and time to explore redemption and forgiveness in this concert reading of a work-in-progress adapted from Wolverton's novel-in-poems. Cherry plays keyboards and conducts a jazz quartet to accompany the actors who will bring to life the poetry and song. Performed by: D'Lo, Marisol de Jesus, O-Lan Jones, Phil Meyer, Cesili Williams and David Ornette Cherry with Organic Roots: Justo Almario, reeds; Ollie Elder Jr., bass; Don Littleton, drums, percussion.

The author of Reading Lolita in Tehran uses her life to transform the way we see the world and to \"remind us of why we read in the first place.\"

Combining two fascinating and contentious disciplines -- art and evolutionary science -- a philosopher, professor and founder/editor of the popular Arts & Letter Daily, argues that human tastes in art are shaped by Darwinian selection.