Pete Buttigieg | Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future

Tue, February 19, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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In conversation with Tamala Edwards , anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition The multifaceted, 36-year-old progressive mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg is a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard graduate. Nearly a decade ago he left a successful career in business to return to his…

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Through this Lens: African American Photographers

Now through Fri, March 15, 2019 10:00 A.M.
Art Department at Parkway Central Library

This exhibition of books and other materials from the collections of the Art Department offers a look at the camera work of African American artists from the earliest days of photography to today. In addition to photographers like Augustus Washington, Gordon Parks and Lorna Simpson, this…

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Lidia Bastianich | My American Dream: A Life of Love, Family, and Food

Mon, March 18, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $41/$26-couple + book/single + book
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Couples Ticket Renowned chef and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich is the owner and co-owner of celebrated Italian restaurants in Manhattan, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City. The author of a baker’s dozen cookbooks, a judge on Masterchef Jr. Italy , and a regular contributor to television cooking…

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Carolyn Forché | What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance

Tue, March 19, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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In conversation with Beth Kephart, the award-winning author of twenty-four books, including Going Over , Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir , and Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River . “An unflinching witness and eloquent mourner” ( The New…

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Albert Woodfox | Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades in Solitary Confinement. My Story of Transformation and Hope

Tue, March 26, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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In conversation with award-winning journalist Tracey Matisak. Falsely accused and convicted of a 1972 robbery in which a white guard was killed, Albert Woodfox served more than four decades in solitary confinement in Louisiana’s notoriously brutal Angola prison. Finding solidarity and…

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Cecile Richards | Make Trouble: Stand Up, Speak Out, and Find the Courage to Lead—My Life Story

Thu, March 28, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $41/$26 couple + book/single + book
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Couples Ticket In conversation with Tamala Edwards , anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition A “heroine of the resistance” ( Vogue ), Cecile Richards was the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund from 2006 to 2018. The daughter…

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Valerie Jarrett | Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward

Wed, April 3, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $50/$35 couple + book/single + book
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AUDITORIUM SOLD OUT. IN-HOUSE SIMULCAST TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE. Couples Ticket “The ultimate Obama insider” ( New York Times ), Valerie Jarrett was the longest serving advisor in the 44th President’s administration. Born in Iran and raised in 1960s Chicago, Jarrett originally…

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Robert A. Caro | Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing

Mon, April 8, 2019 12:00 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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In conversation with Dick Polman , "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania, national political columnist at WHYY News and contributor to The Atlantic Standing at “the summit of American historical writing” ( Washington Post ), Robert Caro is the author of…

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Dave Barry | Lessons from Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog

Mon, April 8, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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A 30-year writer at the Miami Herald whose column was syndicated in more than 500 newspapers, humorist Dave Barry won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1988. His more than 30 New York Times bestselling books include I’ll Mature When I’m Dead , Insane City , You Can Date When…

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Richard Blanco | How to Love a Country: Poems

Tue, April 9, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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Richard Blanco made history four times at Barack Obama’s second presidential inauguration: He was the first immigrant, the first Latino, the youngest person, and the first openly gay person to be the U.S. inaugural poet. Exploring heritage and identity, his poetry collections include City…

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Kwame Onwuachi | Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir

Wed, April 10, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

A former Top Chef star, the executive chef at Washington D.C.’s popular Kith and Kin, and a Forbes and Zagat’s 30 Under 30 honoree, Kwame Onwuachi  is one of America’s most acclaimed young culinary personalities. Raised in the Bronx and Nigeria, he started a catering…

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Patricia Marx and Roz Chast | Why Don't You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It?: A Mother's Suggestions

Thu, April 11, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $43/$28 couple + book/single + book
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Couples Ticket A 30-year contributor to The New Yorker , Patricia Marx is the author of several books including Starting From Happy and Him Her Him Again the End of Him , both of which were Thurber Prize finalists. A former writer for Saturday Night Live and Rugrats , she has taught…

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Mary Norris | Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen

Mon, April 15, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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“A rollicking adventure into the origins of the apostrophe, the proliferation of profanity in American culture, and everything in between” ( San Francisco Chronicle ), Mary Norris’s bestselling Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen was a raucous, cheery memoir about…

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Janny Scott | The Beneficiary: Fortune, Misfortune, and the Story of My Father

Mon, April 22, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Janny Scott, a 15-year reporter for The New York Times , was part of a team that won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. She is also the author of the “meticulous” ( Washington Post ) biography A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother . She is the…

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Mark Bowden | The Last Stone: A Masterpiece of Criminal Interrogation

Wed, April 24, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

“One of the most intense, visceral” ( Philadelphia Inquirer ) writers of our time, Mark Bowden is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and Vanity Fair and is the author of numerous New York Times bestselling books of investigative journalism, including Black Hawk Down . His…

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Melinda Gates | The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World

Thu, April 25, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $47/$32 couple + book/single + book; $30/$24 simulcast—couple + book/single + book
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AUDITORIUM SOLD OUT; SIMULCAST SEATS AVAILABLE Couples Ticket Ranked by  Forbes  as the third most powerful woman in the world, Melinda Gates has been on a 20-year mission to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. Through her work as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda…

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Nicole Weisensee Egan | Chasing Cosby: The Downfall of America’s Dad

Tue, April 30, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

A 14-year veteran crime reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News , Nicole Weisensee Egan was the first journalist to delve into Andrea Constand’s 2005 sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby. As other news organizations lost interest, she dug deeper, developing sources and…

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Lorene Cary | Ladysitting: My Year with Nana at the End of Her Century

Tue, May 7, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

“A powerful storyteller, frankly sensual [and] mortally funny" ( New York Times ), Lorene Cary is the author of the novels Pride , The Price of a Child , If Sons, Then Heirs , and the memoir Black Ice . A senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and the…

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George Packer | Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century

Tue, May 14, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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George Packer won the 2013 National Book Award for The Unwinding , a biographical examination of the seismic shifts in economics and politics over the past three decades that have brought the United States to the brink. A longtime New Yorker staff writer possessed of a “far more coherent…

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At These Crossroads: The Legacies of Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois

Now through Sat, August 3, 2019 6:51 P.M.
First Floor Gallery West at Parkway Central Library

Like others of their generations, and ours, Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. Du Bois found themselves at the crossroads of belonging and not, of loving their nation and feeling rejected by it, of being both black and American. This special exhibition, on display in the West Gallery, invites you…

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