City Arts & Lectures

In January of 2022, after more than three decades on the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen G. Breyer announced that he’ll retire at the end of the current term, once his successor has been confirmed. Born in San Francisco, Breyer received a BA in philosophy from Stanford, attended Oxford as a Marshall Scholar, and earned his law degree from Harvard University. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1994 by President Clinton. Breyer is known for his pragmatic approach to constitutional law, urging judges to consider both the purpose of statutory and constitutional text, as well as the potential consequences of specific rulings when deciding cases.  His optimistic viewpoint, well-articulated in his books, describes judges as essential in building “productive working relationships with other institutions,” especially Congress and the Executive branches. His latest book, The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics (2021), is a reflection on the authority of the Supreme Court—both how that authority was gained, and how measures to restructure it could undermine the Court itself as well as the constitutional system of checks and balances that depends on it. Stephen Breyer has been a guest on City Arts & Lectures several times.  In this conversation, recorded on September 25, 2015, he talked with Marcia Coyle about his recently published book “The Court and the World”. Coyle is a lawyer, journalist, and the Chief Washington Correspondent for The National Law Journal, covering the U.S. Supreme Court and national legal issues.

Wajahat Ali is a playwright and lawyer who writes and speaks on race, religion, politics, and social justice with insight and humor. He is the author of The Domestic Crusaders, the first major play about Muslim Americans post-9/11. In his new memoir, Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American, Ali shares stories, both hilarious and poignant, of his experience growing up a Muslim Pakistani-American in an effort to inspire a new vision of America’s multicultural identity.  Ali served as a national correspondent for Al Jazeera America, where he told stories of communities and individuals often marginalized or under-reported in mainstream media. His writing also appears regularly in the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. On February 1, 2022, Wajahat Ali talked to Dave Eggers, the author of many books, including Zeitoun, What Is the What, You Shall Know Our Velocity, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. 

Tongo Eisen-Martin is the current poet laureate of San Francisco. He is the author of Heaven Is All Goodbyes, published as part of City Lights’ Pocket Poet series, and someone’s dead already. Eisen-Martin is also an educator and organizer whose work centers on issues of mass incarceration, extrajudicial killings of Black people, and human rights. He has taught at detention centers around the country and at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, and is the founder of Black Freighter Press. His most recent collection, Blood on the Fog, further explores themes of love and loss, family and faith, refracted through the lens of the Black experience.  On December 15, 2021, he came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk with journalist and music critic Jeff Chang.

Billy Collins is one of the most popular contemporary poets.  His 12 collections include “The Trouble With Poetry” and “The Rain in Portugal”.  He’s known for conversational poems that welcome readers with humor, but often slip in profound observations on the everyday, reading and writing, and poetry itself.  Collins served two terms as the US Poet Laureate, from 2001 to 2003, and was New York State Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006.   On October 23, 2021, Billy Collins spoke with Steven Winn about his newest collection, “Whale Day”.  

Temple Grandin is an author and speaker on both autism and animal behavior. She is a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, and consults on both livestock handling equipment design and animal welfare. She is the author of many books on animal science and autistic experience, including the bestsellers Thinking in Pictures and Animals in Translation. Her new book, Navigating Autism: 9 Mindsets For Helping Kids on the Spectrum, presents nine strengths-based mindsets necessary to successfully work with young people on the autism spectrum. Grandin shares her own personal experience, as well as anecdotes from parents and professionals who have sought her advice, providing parents and caretakers of autistic children with new, empowering mindsets they can apply to develop the full potential of every child. On October 18, 2021, Temple Grandin came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater for an onstage conversation with Indre Viskontas, a cognitive neuroscientist at UC San Francisco and co-host of the podcast Inquiring Minds.

This week, we reach into the City Arts & Lectures archives for a conversation with E. O. Wilson.   The biologist and author was the world’s leading authority on ants – but he was also often referred to as “the father of biodiversity”.  In addition to significant scientific research, Wilson made major contributions to the public’s understanding of larger issues of science, nature, and conservation.  He won the Pulitzer Price twice, for his books “The Ants” and “On Human Nature”.  His other popular works include “Letters to a Young Scientist” and “The Meaning of Human Existence”. Wilson was a professor at Harvard University and also taught at Duke University, which houses the E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.  E. O. Wilson died on December 26, 2021, at the age of 92.  In this program, recorded on October 10, 2006, he talks with Roy Eisenhardt about his newly published book “The Creation: A Meeting of Science and Religion”.   In it, Wilson appeals for the combined efforts of scientific, political, and religious leaders to help prevent species extinction, save biological diversity, and be good stewards of the Earth.  

Painter Wayne Thiebaud is best known for his carefully studied still lifes of ordinary objects such as hot dogs, sweets, and lipsticks. It’s his cherry-topped cakes, lush with frosting, and brightly hued slices of pie that first come to mind for many of his fans. The pleasures of diners and dessert carts, rendered in thick paint, evoke a bygone era. But what could be misinterpreted as saccharine nostalgia is often cut through by a sort of sadness. The blue shadow around a plate … the downward gaze of a pair of swimmers.  Thiebaud’s landscapes, showcasing the steep streets of San Francisco, and the golden hills of California, feature an intensity of light and color, as well as his distinctive brushwork and lush paint. Thiebaud lived in California for most of his long life, settling in Sacramento and teaching at UC Davis. Wayne Thiebaud died on December 25, 2021 at the age of 101. The artist worked until the end of his life — he was 100 years old in August of 2020 when The New Yorker magazine featured one of his iconic ice cream cones as its cover image.  We’re celebrating Thiebaud’s life with a rebroadcast of his 2005 appearance at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco where he spoke to Wendy Lesser, founding editor of the Threepenny Review. He talks about his early career, the artists he most admires, and his approach to teaching.

This week, we present an archival City Arts & Lectures program recorded in 2010 with the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter, the Reverend Mpho Tutu, in conversation with Roy Eisenhardt. Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu dedicated his life to fighting for basic civil and human rights for all. Born a teacher’s son in South Africa, Tutu followed his father’s path and taught for several years before studying theology.  From there, he became the first Black general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, and then the Archbishop of Cape Town.  In 1997, Nelson Mandela asked him to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the abolition of apartheid.   Archbishop Tutu presided over the ordination of his daughter Mpho Tutu into the Anglican priesthood in 2004.  This program, recorded at Davies Symphony Hall on March 17, 2010, was just after the publication of a book they wrote together, “Made for Goodness, And Why This Makes All the Difference”.   Desmond Tutu died on December 26, 2021, at the age of 90.

This week, we reach into the City Arts & Lectures archives for a conversation with Joan Didion. One of the most influential writers of our time, Didion both chronicled and shaped American culture with a sharp, witty, and distinctively Californian sensibility.   The Sacramento native graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. Her novels include “Play it as it Lays”, “A Book of Common Prayer”, and “The Last Thing He Wanted”.  With her husband John Gregory Dunne, she co-wrote screenplays including “True Confessions”, “Up Close and Personal”, and “The Panic in Needle Park”.  Didion’s nonfiction, beginning with the 1968 “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”, exemplifies the New Journalism movement – a subjective approach to reporting that employs literary techniques. Didion’s inimitable voice was brought even more to the foreground in her memoirs “The Year of Magical Thinking”, and “Blue Nights”, which describe the loss of her husband and daughter and her anxieties about parenting and aging.  Joan Didion died in Manhattan on December 23, 2021, at the age of 87. Joan Didion appeared on City Arts & Lectures six times between 1996 and 2011.  In her last visit, recorded on November 15, 2011, she spoke with novelist Vendela Vida, shortly after the publication of “Blue Nights” at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco.  The program was a benefit for the 826 Valencia College Scholarship program. 

This week, we celebrate the life and work of trailblazing poet, feminist, and cultural critic, bell hooks. bell hooks changed the course of feminism, demanding that the voices of women of color, queer women, and working-class women be included at a time when feminism was seen as a white middle-class movement. Her more than three dozen books, include collections of poetry and essays, and her groundbreaking 1981 book Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. bell hooks died at her home in Kentucky on Wednesday, December 15, 2021. She was 69 years old.  In this wide-ranging conversation recorded in San Francisco in 1995, bell hooks spoke to Walter Mosley––novelist best known for his historically based crime and mystery fiction including Devil in a Blue Dress, Black Betty, and White Butterfly––about the power of language, about racism and sexism in America, the importance of discourse and more.