For immediate release — March 2, 2012
(DALLAS) — The Dallas County Community College District, one of several community partners in 2012 for the 21st season of the Arts and Letters Live series offered by the Dallas Museum of Art, will co-sponsor a number of authors’ visits in March. DCCCD also will present popular children’s writer Judy Blume in April and will serve as one of several co-sponsors for the second annual BooksmART Festival in June.
The free, one-day BooksmART Festival will offer families and children of all ages a chance to celebrate literature and the arts. The day will feature authors, artists, illustrators, workshops, music, gallery tours, story time, games and other activities at the Dallas Museum of Art. For details, visit http://DallasMuseumofArt.org/ALL.
Arts and Letters Live presentations in March include:
- Monday, March 5, 7:30 p.m., Horchow Auditorium —
“Selected Shorts: Behaving Badly” — This program features readings by three noted actors: Jane Kaczmarek will share writings from “Adults Alone” by A.M. Homes; Isaiah Sheffer will read from Lewis Robinson’s “The Diver”; and Michael Imperioli will read from Stephen King’s “Popsy”. Kaczmarek is best known for her role on the television series “Malcolm in the Middle,” for which she has received nominations for Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG awards. Sheffer is the founder of Symphony Space; he also serves as host and director of “Selected Shorts,” which airs on public radio every Saturday at 7 p.m. Imperioli has appeared in more than 30 films, including “Goodfellas,” “Jungle Fever” and “The Lovely Bones”; he also was a writer and executive producer for Spike Lee’s film “Summer of Sam.”
- Friday, March 16, 7 p.m., Horchow Auditorium —
Laura Numeroff — Growing up, Laura Numeroff’s favorite possessions included a microscope, a box of 64 crayons and her library card. Today, the author of the New York Times best-selling series “If You Give ...” has sold more than 4.5 million copies that have been printed in 14 languages and has won the prestigious Quill Award. The series includes works titled “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” and “If You Give a Pig a Pancake.” Numeroff will discuss her latest book, “The Jellybeans and the Big Art Adventure.” “I have no idea sometimes how I come up with ideas, but that’s the most fun of being a writer,” she says. The book is Numeroff’s fourth work in the bestselling Jellybeans series.
- Tuesday, March 20, 7:30 p.m., First Presbyterian Church of Dallas, 408 Park Ave. —
Sarah Vowell — In partnership with KERA, the Arts and Letters Live series presents Sarah Vowell, who explores her latest book, “Unfamiliar Fishes.” Vowell — described by best-selling author David Sedaris as the pioneer of a new category called “funny historian” — examines the connections between the American past and present in her previous books, “The Wordy Shipmates,” “Take the Cannoli” and “Assassination Vacation.” She frequently contributes to “This American Life” on Public Radio International; she served as a contributing editor for the program from 1996 to 2008. She explains her perspective: “It’s not that I try to make history entertaining, although I do. It’s that I see it as inherently entertaining, and part of the fun of my job is sharing that with other people.”
- Friday, March 23, 7:30 p.m., Horchow Auditorium —
Jonah Lehrer — Hailed as “an important new thinker” by the Los Angeles Times, Jonah Lehrer challenges readers to look at the convergence of art and science in new ways. A Rhodes scholar, he began his career working in the laboratory of Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel, where the seeds were planted for his groundbreaking 2007 book “Proust Was a Neuroscientist.” His next book, “How We Decide,” was an immediate best-seller. During the program, Lehrer will discuss his forthcoming book, “Imagine: How Creativity Works,” which is available in March. The new text examines the new science of creativity.
- Saturday, March 24, 1 to 4 p.m., Center for Creative Connections Studio —
Young Writers Workshop — Offered in conjunction with the exhibit
Mark Manders: Parallel Occurrences/Documented Assignments, young writers will explore the works with Thomas Feulmer, director of educational programming at The Rachofsky House. Then, using Manders’ work and process as inspiration, Farid Matuk will encourage the writers to create their own poetry. Matuk is the author of three poetry collections and is the recipient of Ford and Fulbright Fellowships.
- Thursday, March 29, 7:30 p.m., Horchow Auditorium —
Madeline Miller — Madeline Miller’s debut novel, “The Song of Achilles,” has been 10 years in the making ... a fresh take on the Trojan War and its heroes. Miller’s love of ancient Greece was ignited at age 5 when her mother began reading the Greek myths to her young daughter. The new author currently teaches Latin and Greek at Brown University; she also studied at the Yale School of Drama, where she specialized in adapting classical tales for a modern audience and also worked on an archaeological dig in Greece. Author Ann Patchett says the new book is “... at once a scholar’s homage to ‘The Illiad’ and a startlingly original work of art by an incredibly talented new novelist.”
Prices vary by event. For tickets, register online at https://www.dma.org/visit/tickets.
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Press contact: Ann Hatch
214-378-1819;
ahatch@dcccd.edu