The Beautiful Art of Failure with Anthony Doerr

Anthony Doerr
All the Light We Cannot See

February 7, 2017, 7:30pm
Cemex Auditorium
Ticket reservations are sold out.

If you have a ticket:
Doors will open for Stanford University ID holders at 7:00 pm. Doors will open for the public at 7:10 pm. Please arrive at least 10 minutes before the event starts. Your ticket may be released to the standby line if you do not arrive by 7:20 pm.

If you don’t have a ticket:
We set aside some additional seats, which will be available right before the event starts on a first-come first-served basis. There will be a separate standby line for SUID holders – who will receive extra seats first – then the public – who will receive any remaining seats.

Anthony Doerr was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He is the author of the story collections The Shell Collector and Memory Wall, the memoir Four Seasons in Rome, and the novels About Grace and All the Light We Cannot See, which was awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.


The Graphic Novel as Narrative History: GB Tran on “Vietnamerica”

GB Tran

Jan 25th
12 pm
A3C, Stanford University
Lunch Served | RSVP required | Stanford undergraduates only

Come hear Eisner nominated cartoonist GB Tran discuss his graphic memoir, “Vietnamerica.” Randomly selected attendees will receive a free copy of Tran’s book to read prior to the talk. Sponsored by the Program in Asian American Studies and the Stanford Storytelling Project. 


The Pilgrim Way: The Contemplative Foundations of a Future Life with David Whyte

David Whyte
The Sea in You

November 10, 2016, 7:00pm
Memorial Church
Free tickets reservable here

Join poet David Whyte for an evening looking at the great questions of human life through the eyes of the pilgrim: someone passing through relatively quickly, someone looking for the biggest context they can find or imagine, and someone subject to the vagaries of wind and weather along the way. David will explore the theme of internal resilience, the necessity for following a certain star not seen or perceived by anyone else, an internal migration, a path running parallel to the outer road keeping any outward journey in the world relevant and true. He will look at the necessity for hardiness, for shelter, for risk, for companionship, for vulnerability; for creating a more beautiful mind and the absolute need to ask for help at transition points combined with an ability to recognize when it is being offered and the humor, humility and open hands necessary to receive it.

David Whyte is the author of eight books of poetry and four books of prose. He is an Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Neumann College, Pennsylvania. David brings his poetry to large audiences around the world, and is one of the few poets to bring his work into the field of organizational development.

This event is part of the week-long Contemplation by Design series in early November and is co-sponsored Stanford’s BeWell program.  Whyte will give two other talks on the same day: “What to Remember When Waking: The Disciplines of Everyday Life” at 12 noon and “Solace: The Art of Asking the Beautiful Question” at 4pm. See the Contemplation By Design website for more information.


Open Mic Night

Open Mic Night

Thursday, October 27
6 – 8 pm
Hume Center, Stanford University

On Thursday, October 27, from 6-8PM in the Hume Center lounge, The Stanford Storytelling Project and the Spoken Word Collective invite you to join them for an Open Mic on the theme of “navigating.” Whether it’s navigating a trip or adventure, navigating a new place, or even navigating memories, we want to hear your thoughts and stories! Hot chocolate and homemade brownies will be provided.


Anna Deavere Smith

Anna Deveare Smith

Tuesday, October 27, 2016
7:30pm
Memorial Auditorium, Stanford University
Free and open to the public, but seating is limited
Doors Open at 6:30

For more than three decades Anna Deavere Smith has brought to life the voices of America, in all their complexity, contradiction, and beauty and in doing so she has helped pioneer an art form that has profoundly affected audiences across the country. In this special conversation, Smith will discuss her process, her search for the “other” in the American landscape, and how her work relates to health and the healing process—the way it invites us to begin making things whole. She will also reflect on and answer questions about her three performances for Stanford Live in the month of October: Twilight Los Angeles 1992, Letter from Birmingham Jail, and The Pipeline Project.

Anna Deavere Smith is an actress, playwright, and author, who has created a unique form of social theater, described as “a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism, and intimate reverie.” Looking at controversial events from multiple points of view, Ms. Smith’s plays combine the journalistic technique of interviewing her subjects with the art of interpreting their words through her performance. She typically conducts hundreds of interviews while creating a play, then using verbatim excerpts of the interviews, she performs dozens of voices in the course of an evening. Ms. Smith is University Professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. From 1990 to 2000, she was Ann O’Day Maples Professor of the Arts at Stanford. She has won numerous awards for her work including two TONY nominations and the MacArthur Award. In 2006, she was granted the Fletcher Fellowship for the way her work advances the legacy of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.

This program is co-sponsored by The Stanford Storytelling Project and Stanford Continuing Studies and is supported by Stanford Live and the Office of Religious Life.


Making HELLBOY: Mike Mignola in Conversation with Scott Bukatman

Mike Mignola
Hellboy

October 13, 2016
7:30pm
Jordan Hall
*Seating is Limited*. Doors open for Students and Stanford Affiliates at 7:10pm;  General Admission is at 7:20pm

Join us for a special evening with renowned comic artist and writer Mike Mignola who discuss his magnum opus, HELLBOY (Dark Horse Comics) and other works. Mignola has written and illustrated HELLBOY from the series’ beginnings in 1993, and has also collaborated on other comics series set in the same fictional universe — what is called the Mignola-verse. Mignola has challenged the superhero franchises of DC and Marvel comics and helped loosen their control over the comics industry by developing a startlingly rich and coherent creator-owned universe; one that has been adapted to film, animation, and video games. His work has won numerous industry awards, including the Eisner, Harvey, Eagle, Inkpot and Inkwell awards.

The LA Review of Books writes that Mignola’s HELLBOY offers “a blend of raw cartooning, elegant design, pulp revivalism, superhero action, Lovecraftian weirdness, and oddly personal forays into folklore, mythology, and legend.” The LA Times writes that “few creators have the ability to conjure up whole worlds at the mention of their name, but the fantasy world of the Mignola-verse is a very real place with a style and host of characters uniquely its own.”

Mignola will be in conversation with Stanford Professor of Film and Media Studies, Scott Bukatman, who recently published HELLBOY’S WORLD: Comics and Monsters on the Margins (UC Press, 2016) which Junot Diaz calls “a revelation . . . as complex, challenging and ‘monstrous’ as the comics it explores.”

This event is jointly sponsored with  the Graphic Narrative Project, with generous support from Film and Media Studies in the Department of Art and Art History, The Program in Modern Thought and Literature, and the English Department. 


Billy Collins and Aimee Mann

Billy Collins and Aimee Mann

Saturday, April 23, 2016
8:00pm
Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford University
Doors will open at 7:30PM
Free & open to the public but reservations required, preference to Stanford undergraduates and Stanford ID holders

Former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins and singer-songwriter Aimee Mann met in 2011 at a Poetry Night event at the White House. From that initial encounter grew an idea to create a single evening of poetry, song, and conversation about their respective art forms. In this very special joint appearance, Collins and Mann will trade poems and songs, even try out their work in each other’s form, and discuss their respective forms and creative processes, offering insight into surprising differences and similarities, Join us for a rare evening with this unlikely pair of masters and discover something new about two of the oldest forms of storytelling.

Author of 15 books of poetry, Billy Collins has opened the door to poetry for many modern readers through his conversational, humorous but profound renderings of everyday loves and losses. A former U. S. Poet Laureate, Guggenheim Fellow, and NEA Fellow, he has also received many prizes, including Norman Mailer Prize and the Poetry Foundation’s Mark Twain Award for Humor in Poetry.

Indie rocker Aimee Mann leapt to fame in the 1980s as part of the band ‘Til Tuesday and since then has won over audiences with her literate and often and haunting songwriting on 8 solo albums, soundtracks for films like Paul Thomas Anderson’s film Magnolia, and recent collaboration with Ted Leo, The Both. She has also appeared in the Coen brothers’ film The Big Lebowski and made cameo appearances on The West Wing and Portlandia.

“[Aimee Mann is] one of the finest songwriters of her generation.”—The New York Times

“Collins shows us the spirit inherent in our daily lives.”—San Francisco Chronicle

This is event is being cosponsored by the Stanford Speakers Bureau. 


Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad

Jad Abumrad

Friday, January 29, 2016 
8:00pm
Memorial Auditorium, Stanford University
Advanced tickets are sold out but a limited number of tickets will be available at door
Doors open for student ticket holders at 7:00 PM.
Doors open for public ticket holders at 7:30 PM.

In 2002, Jad Abumrad began to develop a new kind of radio experience, an on-air laboratory that explores the most intriguing mysteries in science, the natural world, and human experience. Over the next few years he and co-host Robert Krulwich created Radiolab, one of the most innovative radio shows on the dial—a sonically-rich, rollicking hour of largely scientific sleuthing, aptly sloganed “curiosity on a bender.”

Since then, Radiolab has not only become one of the most popular radio shows/podcasts in the country, but also helped create a wave of new, creative work in science and audio storytelling, and Abumrad has created, as Ira Glass has put it, “the rarest thing you can create in any medium: a new aesthetic.” Today, Radiolab is broadcast on more than 500 radio stations each week and downloaded more than 9 million times each month and it has received numerous awards, including two Peabodys. In 2011, Abumrad was awarded the MacArthur “Genuis” grant.

In this special, multimedia event, Abumrad will mix music, sound, interviews, and stories to produce an immersive experience that explores the creative process, uncertainty, and the nature of innovation. Join us for a night with one of America’s most inventive and influential storytellers.

This program is co-sponsored by The Stanford Storytelling Project and Stanford Speakers Bureau, with media support from KALW.


Cameron Esposito: Purveyor of Fine Jokes

Cameron Esposito

Wednesday, January 6, 2016
8:00pm
CEMEX Auditorium, Stanford University
Free admission; limited public seating
Doors will open for SUID holders at 7:30pm, doors for Public at 7:45pm

“Comedy’s next breakout star. She fuses the plucky charm of Amy Poehler with the assured storytelling of Louis C.K.”

—Chicago Magazine

Join us for an evening with standup comic, actor, and writer Cameron Esposito as she shares her “gift for plugging punch lines into personal stories” (New York Times). A regular guest on comedy podcasts including Comedy Bang Bang and Nerdist, Esposito is also creator and host of Put Your Hands Together, a weekly standup podcast recorded live at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and recently named to Rolling Stones’ “Best of Comedy Podcasts.” She has appeared on a number of television shows, most notably on Late Late with Craig Ferguson, an appearance that was deemed “the most memorable first time on a late night show for any comedian in recent history” (Splitsider). As a writer, she has been published by VICE, The Advocate, and THE AV CLUB, and has been featured in the publications such as the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Her standup album, SAME SEX SYMBOL, was named to multiple “Best of” lists, and her performances have been enjoyed at festivals like Just for Laughs, Bonnaroo, Outsidelands, and SF Sketchfest.

This program is co-sponsored by The Stanford Storytelling Project and Immersion in the Arts: Living in Culture (ITALIC).