Kristen R. Ghodsee in conversation with Emefa Addo Agawu

08/16/23 • 53 min

City Lights LIVE presents Kirsten R. Ghodsee discussing her new book "Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life," published by Simon and Schuster. "Everyday Utopia" is an exploration throughout the world and history where varying communities challenge the conventional ways in which we live our lives, raise our families, and interact with those around us. Ghodsee introduces readers to these communities who reimagine life as we know it. From Danish cohousing communities that nourish neighborly bonds to Colombian ecovillages who grow their own food, Ghodsee takes readers through the worlds of those who live in their own utopia. "Everyday Utopia" offers radical hope for what our future could look like if community and connectedness is prioritized. Kristen R. Ghodsee is a Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the critically acclaimed author of "Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence." Her writing has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Le Monde Diplomatique, and Jacobin, among other publications. She lives outside of Philadelphia. You can purchase copies of "Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/everyday-utopia/. This was a virtual event hosted by Peter Maravelis and made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation.

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Mircea Cărtărescu in conversation with Mauro Javier Cardenas

LIVE! From City Lights celebrates author Mircea Cărtărescu and his latest publication, “Solenoid.” Grounded in the reality of late 1970s/early 1980s Communist Romania, Solenoid ruminates on the exchange possible between the alternate dimensions of life and art, as various, monstrous dimensions erupt within the Communist present. Mircea Cărtărescu is a Romanian novelist, poet, short-story writer, literary critic, and essayist. He has published more than twenty-five books. His work has received the Formentor Prize (2018), the Thomas Mann Prize (2018), the Austrian State Prize for Literature (2015), and the Vilenica Prize (2011), among many others. His work has been translated in twenty-three languages. His novels include “Blinding” (published by Archipelago Books,) “Nostalgia” (published by New Directions) and “Solenoid” (published by Deep Vellum.) You can purchase copies of “Solenoid” directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/solenoid-tr-sean-cotter/ This was a virtual event hosted by Peter Maravelis, in conjunction with Deep Vellum and the Romanian Cultural Institute, and made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation.

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Jane Smiley in conversation with Steve Wasserman

City Lights, in conjunction with Heyday Books, presents Jane Smiley in conversation with Steve Wasserman to celebrate the publication of "The Questions that Matter Most: Reading, Writing, and the Exercise of Freedom" by Jane Smiley, published by Heyday Books. Smiley’s new book offers essays on some of the aesthetic and cultural issues that mark any serious engagement with reading and writing. She dives into the complexities of character and history and how she is inspired by literature of all kinds in her own writing. She shares her analysis and research on the works of classic authors such as Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, and many others. Smiley shares her personal journey as a writer moving from Iowa to California and reflects on her findings within the diverse literature of the state, which often highlights issues of race, class, and sex. Jane Smiley is a novelist and essayist. She has won various awards for her work, including the Pulitzer Prize for her novel "A Thousand Acres." She has written for numerous magazines and newspapers such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s, and the Nation. Her most recent novel, "A Dangerous Business," was published in 2022. Steve Wasserman is the publisher of Heyday Books. He is a former editor-at-large for Yale University Press, editorial director of Times Books/Random House and publisher of Hill & Wang and The Noonday Press at Farrar, Straus & Giroux. He has written for numerous publications, including The Village Voice, Threepenny Review, The Progressive, and many others. You can purchase copies of "The Questions that Matter Most: Reading, Writing, and the Exercise of Freedom" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/questions-that-matter-most-reading-wr/. This was a virtual event hosted by Peter Maravelis and made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation.