City Arts & Lectures

The concept of de-growth - purposefully moving away from an ever-growing gross domestic product as the definition of a successful economy - may seem like a tough sell to Americans.  But Japanese philosopher Kohei Saito sees de-growth as part of a new and sustainable way of living that consumes less of the planet’s resources. His new book Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto, points an urgent, yet gentle path toward a more equal and less harmful society.  On April 20, 2024, Saito talked to Astra Taylor about what a more sustainable economy and culture might look like.

Activists and organizers Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix have co-written a new book that presents a detailed examination of solidarity, and its potential for creating lasting change. They spoke with Kate Schatz about their book Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea at the KQED studios on April 17, 2024.

Beloved for her enchanting, lyrical writing, Anne Lamott takes on the most complex, intimate parts of life with grace and precision. Lamott’s novels and memoirs have be awarded some of the most sought-after literary prizes, and her collection of essays on writing, Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, has become required reading for all authors. Her new book, Somehow: Thoughts on Love, delves into the struggles of love with her trademark honesty and humor, finding the transformative power of intimate relationships. Lamott’s faith and candor, perfected across her long career in literature, are on display as she discusses finding love late in life, the changing ways we love our children, and the ways love can keep us going in a painful world.  On April 13, 2024, Anne Lamott came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to be interviewed on stage by Barbara Lane, the book columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle and the current director of events at Copperfield Books.

Since his 2016 debut poetry collection The Crown Ain’t Worth Much, Hanif Abdurraqib’s writing has earned him numerous accolades as a poet, essayist, and music critic. Easily moving from emotionally riveting examinations of Black identities to academic explorations of punk scenes to analyses of contemporary popular artists, Abdurraqib’s work is full of uninhibited curiosity, revolutionary honesty, and a singular intelligence. His first essay collection, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, was named a best book of 2017 by NPR, Pitchfork, the Los Angeles Review, and Esquire. His new memoir, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, traces his relationship with basketball while uncovering how we decide who is deserving of success.

On April 3, 2024, Hanif Abdurraqib came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk with Shereen Marisol Meraji. Meraji is a professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Journalism, and a founder of NPR’s award-winning podcast Code Switch.

Matthew Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University and the principal investigator at The Eviction Lab, a research group that published the first-ever dataset of evictions in America, going back to 2000.  His Pulitzer-Prize-winner book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City quickly made Desmond one of America’s most important thinkers and activists. His new book, Poverty, By America, broadens the scope of his research, demonstrating how wealthy Americans keep poor people poor. On March 27, 2024, Matthew Desmond came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco for an on-stage conversation with Bernice Yeung, the managing editor of Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program. Her first book, In a Day’s Work: The Fight to End Sexual Violence Against America’s Most Vulnerable Workers, was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize.