Thu, November 2, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $32.00 auditorium; $24.00 simulcast
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EVENT COMPLETELY SOLD OUT! Ta-Nehisi Coates won the 2015 National Book Award for Between the World and Me , a “searing meditation on what it means to be black in America today” ( New York Times ). Covering culture, politics, and social issues as a national correspondent for  The…

Fri, November 3, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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The host of MSNBC’s popular news and commentary program Hardball , Chris Matthews is one of America’s most familiar media faces. A former longtime syndicated print media columnist, staffer for several Democratic members of Congress, and speechwriter during the Carter administration,…

Mon, November 6, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

“One of the finest poets of our time” ( Ebony ), Nikki Giovanni is the author of nearly 30 books, including the collections Acolytes; Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgment; Those Who Ride the Night Winds ; and  Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea . A renowned activist and educator…

Wed, November 8, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $45/$30 couple + book/single + book
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Event completely sold out!  Auditorium ticket includes a book. Couple ticket includes one book and admission for two people. In conversation with longtime broadcaster and journalist, Tracey Matisak One of the most decorated and popular journalists of all time, Dan Rather was anchor of…

Thu, November 9, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $47/$32/$24 couple + book/single + book/simulcast + book
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Auditorium ticket includes a book. Couple ticket includes one book and admission for two people. “Wise and passionate” ( The New York Times Book Review ), religion scholar Reza Aslan is the no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth .…

Fri, November 10, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $47/$32 Allende—couple + book/single + book
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Auditorium ticket includes a book. Couple ticket includes one book and admission for two people. In conversation with Janet Benton, author of the debut novel Lilli de Jong . “Poignant, powerful” and “timeless” ( Boston Globe ), Isabel Allende’s acclaimed historical…

Mon, November 13, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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Acclaimed for synthesizing historical insight with wit and exuberance, Gordon S. Wood won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award for The Radicalism of the American Revolution , a rollicking and watershed study of the struggle for U.S. independence. His many other books…

Tue, November 14, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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John Banville won the Man Booker Prize for The Sea , a story of loss and the fickle power of memory celebrated for its “power and strangeness and piercing beauty” ( The Washington Post Book World ). His other fiction—including The Book of Evidence, Ancient Light , and The…

Thu, November 16, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Russell Shorto is the author of the bestselling The Island at the Center of World , “a masterpiece of storytelling and first-rate intellectual history” ( Wall Street Journal ) of the forgotten and mythologized Dutch colony of Manhattan. His other books include Descartes’ Bones,…

Fri, November 17, 2017 12:00 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00

EVENT POSTPONED UNTIL JANUARY. ALL TICKETS TO THE EVENT ON 11/17/17 WILL BE HONORED ON THE NEW DATE. Tucker Carlson is the host of Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight , one of cable’s most watched primetime news and commentary programs. The former co-host of CNN’s…

Tue, November 21, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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“By turns grim and absurd, deeply poignant and laugh-out-loud funny” ( New York Times ), Roz Chast has published more than 800 cartoons in The New Yorker since 1978. Chast has written or illustrated more than a dozen books, including several collected volumes of her published…

Tue, November 28, 2017 6:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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Auditorium sold out! In-house simulcast tickets still available. Lawrence O’Donnell is the host of MSNBC’s The Last Word , one of cable television’s most watched news and political commentary programs. In addition to writing for a variety of periodicals, including The New York…

Wed, November 29, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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Auditorium sold out! In-house simulcast tickets available. Released just weeks after the tech guru’s death, Walter Isaacson’s “staggering” ( The New York Times ) portrait of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs instantly became an international bestseller. Isaacson has also penned…

Thu, November 30, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Bill McKibben gave one of the earliest cautions about global warming with his 1989 book  The End of Nature . His myriad other bestselling books about the environment include Deep Economy, Eaarth , and Oil and Honey , a call to arms in the fight for a sustainable planet. Recipient of the…

Mon, December 4, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Following a viral 2016 Buzzfeed article featuring the assorted musings of his four daughters—the oldest is 7 years old—comedy writer James Breakwell’s jokes have appeared in USA Today, US Magazine , and Huffington Post , among other places. In addition to his near-million…

Tue, December 5, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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“Few people write about art as beautifully” ( Wall Street Journal ) as Jed Perl, a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books and the former 20-year art critic for The New Republic . A longtime contributing editor at Vogue , he has received fellowships from the Guggenheim…

Thu, December 7, 2017 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

“Extraordinary and wonderful” ( New York Times ), Ntozake Shange wrote the Broadway-staged Obie Award-winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf , the groundbreaking prose poem/theater piece hybrid that since 1975 has helped reveal what it is to be…

Mon, February 5, 2018 6:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Room 108, 1st Floor, 6:30-8:30 p.m.   Yolanda Wisher is the Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. The author of Monk Eats an Afro , Wisher performs a unique blend of poetry and song with her band The Afroeaters. She is currently working on her second book of poems, a recording of original songs,…

Mon, March 5, 2018 6:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Room 108, 1st Floor, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Catherine Staples is the author of The Rattling Window and Never a Note Forfeit . Her poems and reviews have appeared in Poetry , Kenyon Review, Gettysburg Review, The Southern Review, and The Massachusetts Review . Honors include the McGovern Prize, a…

Mon, April 9, 2018 6:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Room 108, 1st Floor, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Olga Dugan is a Cave Canem poet and Lindback Professor of English at Community College of Philadelphia. Her award-winning poems appear or are forthcoming in Typehouse Literary Magazine , Kweli , The Southern Quarterly , Pirene’s Fountain , Tipton Poetry…