Armada of Golden Dreams

June 13, 2011

Beneath San Francisco’s streets lie the skeletons of ships… detritus of a mid-19th century “Armada of Golden Dreams” Hear from writer-contributors to the new Invisible City Audio Tour, with guest Jim Nelson previewing his upcoming “Everywhere Man” tour. Thursday, June 16, 7 pm Hundreds of vessels sailed for San Francisco in the mid-1800s, bringing countless…

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POETS! WWW? WORLDWIDE READING – 3/20/11

March 16, 2011

PEOPLE POWER! language & voice! BIG EASY PIANISTICS! 3 EVENTS: SUNDAY, MARCH 20th 1:30 pm- A worldwide reading in solidarity with jailed dissident poet Liu Xiaobo, 2010 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. 3 pm- POET! Mary Winegarden reads from “The Translator’s Sister” 3/20 – 4:30 & 5:30 (2 sets) – which way west? concert Macy Blackman…

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Pramoedya Ananta Toer

March 7, 2011

The Buru Quartet read it! Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925-2006) The sequence of novels comprising This Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps and House of Glass were composed orally while Pramoedya was imprisoned on the Indonesian island Buru,  in the Malay Archipelago, where the Suharto regime held thousands of political prisoners.  Denied writing materials,…

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books, ideas, insights: North Africa

February 9, 2011

Thinking about North Africa Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian author of dozens of important and compulsively readable books and Nobel prize winner in 1988, is known for his masterwork, the three-volume Cairo Trilogy, completed in the 1950s; however, after a hiatus of several years, numerous books followed until his death in 2006. Bird & Beckett patrons are…

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Scholars of the Arab Empire

January 13, 2011

Scholars of the Arab Empire Dr. Wajih Ibrahim Saadeh has synthesized his knowledge of the development of Arab thought, its roots and its influence on Western ideas in a series of books.  His lecture on Sunday, Jan. 16, at 1 pm will set forth an overview of Arab philosophy and its effect on the European…

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