Monday, April 5 / 4 pm / Campbell Hall / Free

Eye of a journalist, heart of a poet. —Ruben Martinez

Award-winning poet and best-selling novelist Luis Rodriguez has chronicled the devastation of gang violence (The Republic of East L.A.) and is an activist fighting for change, for which the Dalai Lama named him one of 50 worldwide “Unsung Heroes of Compassion.”

Monday, April 12 / 8 pm / Campbell Hall

Esteemed wildlife photographer Nichols will present the tale of his 2,000-mile walk to chronicle what the African forest is like before human incursions alter it forever.
Co-presented by Brooks Institute of Photography

General public $15 / UCSB and Brooks students & youth 18 and under $10

Saturday, April 24 / 8 pm / Campbell Hall

A cranky stylist with talent to burn —Newsweek

Shrewdly comic social observer and author Sarah Vowell is one of the highlights of public radio’s This American Life. Author of the bestsellers Take the Cannoli and The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Vowell makes it possible to both love and laugh at our country.

General public $25 / UCSB students $15

Sunday, April 25 / 3 pm / Campbell Hall

The most influential woman presidential advisor in American history —Newsweek

Karen Hughes worked as a much-valued Counselor to the President during George W. Bush’s first 18 months in office. She has just released Ten Minutes from Normal, a fascinating memoir about her life in politics.

General public $10 / UCSB students $8

Wednesday, April 28 / 8 pm / Campbell Hall

Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation was a publishing sensation, leading countless readers to reconsider what they eat. In his recent book Reefer Madness—the basis for this lecture—he examines underground economies of the worlds of pot, porn and illegal immigration.

General public $10 / UCSB students $8

Wednesday, May 5 / 8 pm / Campbell Hall

MacArthur “Genius” Award-winning composer, singer, dancer and director Meredith Monk will discuss ideas of home, the other, creativity and the global soul in a conversation with acclaimed writer and part-time SB resident Pico Iyer (Abandon). Co-presented with the College of Creative Studies

General public $10 / UCSB students $8

Sunday, May 9 / 3 pm / Campbell Hall / Free

A powerful voice for global environmental justice and cultural and ecological diversity, Vandana Shiva is the author of Stolen Harvest: The Highjacking of the Global Food Supply. She is a Regent’s Lecturer in the Women, Culture and Development Program.

Monday, May 17 / 8 pm / Campbell Hall

Shirin Ebadi is the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. An Iranian lawyer and human rights activist who served in the 1970s as one of the first female judges in her country, Ebadi won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work on the behalf of democracy and the rights of women and children in Iran. Her talk will be in Farsi, with English translation.
Co-presented by the UCSB Center for Middle East Studies, the Office of the Chancellor and Direct Relief International

General public $15 / UCSB students $10

Suzan-Lori Parks, Pulitzer Prize winning author of the play Topdog/Underdog, will make a presentation including reading, singing and story telling.
Presented with the UCSB Davidson Library

Wednesday, June 2 / 8 pm / Campbell Hall / Free

Danticat’s calm clarity of vision takes on the resonance of folk art. —The New York Times

Featured in The New Yorker’s special “The Future of American Fiction Issue,” Haiti-born Edwidge Danticat, a Regents’ Lecturer in the Department of Black Studies, is the prodigiously talented author of The Farming of Bones; Krik? Krak!; Breath, Eyes, Memory; and the just released The Dew Breaker.