LFPL's At the Library Series

Chinese gender equality & LGBTQ activist Li Maizi will lead the discussion. Presented by the World Affairs Council, the U of L Center for Asian Democracy, The Louisville Free Public Library and the Asia Institute Crane House.

A world-leading expert and pioneer in countering violent extremism, author and foreign policy strategist Farah Pandith has served under Presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. In 2009, she was appointed the first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In her latest book, How We Win: How Cutting-Edge Entrepreneurs, Political Visionaries, Enlightened Business Leaders and Social Media Mavens Can Defeat the Extremist Threat, Pandith explains how government, the private sector, and civil society can help Muslim youth solve their identity crisis and in turn build a safer, more stable world.

This Fast Class panel discussion is presented by LFPL’s Kentucky History Room in honor of LGBTQ+ pride month. Moderator Jaison Gardner (co-host of Louisville Public Media’s Strange Fruit podcast) will lead panelists in a discussion of the public and private gathering places that have been important in the social, political, and personal lives of Louisville’s LGBTQ+ communities. Night clubs, bars, public spaces, private homes and more will be recalled and celebrated by members of the community.

How has political reporting changed since the Nixon administration and the political turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s? Did the Gonzo style ever reach Kentucky newsrooms? Panelists will reflect on covering Washington, Frankfort, and City Hall, the interactions between various administrations and the press, and personal experiences on the campaign trail and political beat.Moderator - Timothy DeneviPanelists - Margaret Harrell; Ryland Barton (WFPL); Olivia Krauth (Insider Louisville)

Gonzo journalism didn’t spring fully-formed from under Hunter S. Thompson’s bucket hat. Throughout the 1960s, journalism was being pushed ahead by a group of writers including Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, and Thompson himself. William McKeen, chair of the department of journalism at Boston University, will set Thompson’s signature style in the journalistic context from which it emerged.Speaker - William McKeen

Ed McClanahan, a 2019 inductee into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame, returns to GonzoFest for a reading, interview, and Q&A. McClanahan emerged from Kentucky as a leading young writer of the 1960s, spending time at Stanford and in the company of Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters before returning to Kentucky in the 1970s. Over a long career as a novelist, essayist, memoirist, and educator, McClanahan has earned a dedicated following in the literary world. He will read from his work, and speak with Professor Paul Griner of the University of Louisville about his career, his Kentucky origins, and his relationships with Hunter S. Thompson, Ralph Steadman, and Gonzo journalism.Speaker – Ed McClanahanInterviewer – Paul Griner

Matt Taibbi, contributing editor at Rolling Stone and author of many volumes of incisive political writing, returns to speak about his work at LFPL for the first time since 2014. If Hunter S. Thompson’s times called for a critical and creative journalistic response, surely our times do as well. has often been described as an inheritor of the Gonzo style. As he catalogs our nation’s political and social ills, Taibbi echoes Thompson by combining outraged observation with thoughtful – and often humorous – critique.

In the aftermath of a flood that washes away much of a small Tennessee town, evangelical preacher Asher Sharp offers shelter to two gay men. In doing so, he starts to see his life anew--and risks losing everything: his wife, locked into her religious prejudices; his congregation, which shuns Asher after he delivers a passionate sermon in defense of tolerance; and his young son, Justin, caught in the middle of what turns into a bitter custody battle.In this stunning literary page-turner about judgment, courage, heartbreak, and change, bestselling author Silas House wrestles with the limits of belief, and with love and its consequences.

Fans of New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank’s Carolina Lowcountry will delight in her twentieth novel, Queen Bee. An evocative tale that returns readers to her beloved Sullivan’s Island, Queen Bee tells an unforgettable story where the Lowcountry magic of the natural world collides with the beat of the human heart.

Susan Crawford is the John A. Reilly Clinical Professor at Harvard Law School and an expert in tech, public policy, and how these affect our lives. She is a contributor to WIRED and the author of three books on technology, including her latest: Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution—and Why America Might Miss It. The book seamlessly combines policy expertise and on-the-ground reporting to reveal how giant cable and internet corporations use their tremendous lobbying power to tilt the playing field against competition, and hold back the infrastructure improvements necessary for the U.S. to move forward.Professor Crawford served as Special Assistant to President Obama for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (2009) and co-led the FCC transition team between the Bush and Obama administrations. She also served as a member of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Advisory Council on Technology and Innovation and is now a member of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Broadband Task Force.

Celeste Ng is the New York Times bestselling author of two novels, Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere. Just released in paperback, Little Fires Everywhere was Amazon’s #2 best book and best fiction book of 2017, and was named a best book of the year by over 25 publications. This complex suburban saga was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick and is currently being adapted for an eight-episode series on Hulu, starring Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.

Former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu with Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, moderated by Rev. Dr. Alton B. Pollard III, president, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Hunter S. Thompson is often misremembered as a wise-cracking, drug-addled cartoon character. In the new book Freak Kingdom: Hunter S. Thompson's Manic Ten-Year Crusade Against American Fascism, professor and author Timothy Denevi attempts to reclaim Thompson for what he truly was: a fearless opponent of corruption and fascism, one who sacrificed his future well-being to fight against it, rewriting the rules of journalism and political satire in the process. Freak Kingdom tells the dramatic account of how Thompson saw the danger of Richard Nixon early and embarked on a life-defining campaign to stop it—and the devastating price he paid for it.Freak Kingdom is the second book from George Mason professor Timothy Denevi. His essays on politics, sport, and religion have appeared in The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Salon, and Literary Hub, where he serves as the nonfiction editor.

In her new book, award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean (Rin Tin Tin and The Orchid Thief) reopens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history, and delivers a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution—our libraries. Weaving her life-long love of books and reading with the fascinating history of libraries and the sometimes-eccentric characters who run them, Orlean investigates the legendary Los Angeles Public Library fire to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives. She also delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from a metropolitan charitable initiative to a cornerstone of national identity. She reflects on her childhood experiences in libraries; studies arson and the long history of library fires; and she re-examines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the library over thirty years ago. Along the way, she reveals how

Presented in partnership with Phi Beta Kappa, Dr. John Hale, archaeologist and Director of Liberal Studies at the University of Louisville presents Time Machine at Antikythera: The World's Oldest Analog Computer. Learn how the world's oldest analog computer was discovered on an ancient Greek shipwreck!

Join Kentucky Opera librettist Nahma Sandrow and composer Ben Moore to learn more about this darkly funny and deeply moving tale of hope, guilt, and despair. Can a man who has learned to hide truly come out of hiding? Can survivors love again?

Chinese president Xi Jinping is transforming China at home and abroad. Over the past five years, he has taken unprecedented steps to consolidate his authority; expand the Communist Party's role in China; and control more closely the exchange of ideas and capital between China and the outside world. Beyond its borders, Beijing has recast itself as a great power, seeking to reclaim its past glory and to create a system of international norms that better serves its more ambitious geostrategic objectives.Presented in partnership with the University of Louisville Center for Asian Democracy, the World Affairs Council of Kentucky and Southern Indiana, and Asia Institute - Crane House, join Elizabeth Economy, senior fellow and director for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, for the 2018 Annual Lecture in Asian Democracy.

Join Kentucky Opera and acclaimed lecturer, Dr. John Hale, as he explores the historical and mythological background of Mozart's beloved The Magic Flute. We go into the woods with Prince Tamino and his irreverent bird catcher pal, Papageno, in search of the perfect girl to marry. But not before being saved from a dragon, outsmarting the duplicitous Queen of the Night, and proving himself worthy through an epic set of challenges set forth by the mysterious high priest Sarastro!While most baroque and classical operas are based on Greek or Roman mythology, Mozart ventured into less explored territory by setting The Magic Flute in ancient Egypt. The gods Isis and Osiris dominate the world of Sarastro and his fellow priests, and the ancient world's emphasis on the supernatural power of music lies behind the use of the magic flute itself as the opera's most important symbol.

Love. Exile. Redemption. A perfect combination for a summer beach read. New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams' latest novel, The Summer Wives, is a postwar fable of love, class, power, and redemption set among the inhabitants of an island off of the New England coast, and a satisfying follow-up to her Schuyler Sisters series. Named a Best Book of Summer by Goodreads, BuzzFeed, and PopSugar, The Summer Wives will be in bookstores July 10.Beatriz Williams is the bestselling historical fiction author of A Certain Age, The Secret Life of Violet Grant, A Hundred Summers, and others. A graduate of Stanford University, with an MBA in Finance from Columbia University, Beatriz worked as a communications and corporate strategy consultant in New York and London before she turned her attention to writing novels that combine her passion for history with an obsessive devotion to voice and characterization. Internationally acclaimed, her books have won numerous awards and have been translated into more tha

The Craig Buthod Author Series is pleased to welcome veteran U.S. Foreign Service officer Louis Sell to the Main Library for a discussion of his new book From Washington to Moscow, which tells the history of U.S.-Soviet relations between 1972 and 1991 and explains why the Cold War came to an abrupt end. Drawing heavily on archival sources and memoirs, as well as his own experiences, Sell vividly describes events from the perspectives of American and Soviet participants. He attributes the USSR's fall not to one specific cause, but to a combination of the Soviet system's inherent weaknesses, mistakes by Mikhail Gorbachev, and challenges by Ronald Reagan and other U.S. leaders. He shows how the U.S.S.R.'s rapid and humiliating collapse, and the inability of the West and Russia to find a way to cooperate respectfully, helped set the foundation for Vladimir Putin's rise to power.A retired Foreign Service Officer, Louis Sell worked for six years at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and eight years in Y