Sara Bareilles, Aaron Sorkin, Jeff Daniels And More To Join TimesTalks This Spring

TimesTalks, The New York Times live conversation and performance series has announced its Spring 2019 Program, featuring intimate conversations that pair Times journalists with today's most creative and influential voices in the fields of film, television, theater, dance, music, literature and politics.

The TimesTalks Spring Program will unpack cultural relevance and themes of upcoming films, books, albums, plays and politics. Talks include a night of music and conversation with musician Sara Bareilles; an advance screening and discussion of "The Best of Enemies" with Academy Award-nominated actor Taraji P. Henson, Academy Award-winning actor Sam Rockwell and writer-director-producer Robin Bissell; a discussion with American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland; a conversation with media personality and sex therapist Dr. Ruth; and a discussion with two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Caro. Select events will be livestreamed on Twitter and all programs will be available on the TimesTalks YouTube channel. Full program below.

Participants include Sara Bareilles, David McCraw, Dean Baquet, Taraji P. Henson, Sam Rockwell, Robin Bissell, Misty Copeland, Robert Caro, T Bone Burnett, Joel Coen, Terrence McNally, Audra McDonald, Michael Shannon, Bret Easton Ellis, Aaron Sorkin, Jeff Daniels and Dr. Ruth.

New York Times moderators include Monica Drake, Philip Galanes, Tina Jordan, Jon Pareles, Pamela Paul, Carolyn Ryan, Melena Ryzik, Parul Sehgal and Jennifer Senior.

TimesTalks is known for providing a platform for engaging and spirited discourse between the most iconic and culturally relevant creative voices of our time, now for over two decades. The program also includes the ScreenTimes series, presented by HBO, which showcases pre-release screenings of the best in upcoming films and television. After each screening, The New York Times will host intimate conversations with the creative artists and stars who are defining this enthralling generation of art and entertainment. Spring ScreenTimes features an advance screening of "The Best of Enemies." The film centers on the extraordinary relationship between Ann Atwater (Taraji P. Henson), a fearless and outspoken civil rights activist who faced off against C.P. Ellis (Sam Rockwell), a local Ku Klux Klan leader, to blaze the way for school desegregation in Durham, N.C., in 1971.

SPRING SCHEDULE

MONDAY, APRIL 1 | Sara Bareilles
TheTimesCenter, NY
The New York Times chief pop music critic Jon Pareles will host an evening of music and conversation with Sara Bareilles, Grammy, Tony and Emmy nominated singer, songwriter, and actress. The two will explore Bareilles' creative process and latest collaboration with legendary Academy Award-winning producer T Bone Burnett. Her upcoming album, entitled "Amidst The Chaos" (out on April 5th) spotlights Bareilles' voice as a singer and storyteller, making her one of today's most prolific and multidimensional stage, screen and musical artists today.

TUESDAY, APRIL 2 | David McCraw and Dean Baquet
TheTimesCenter, NY
Carolyn Ryan, assistant managing editor of The New York Times, will moderate a wide-ranging and candid discussion on press freedom in an age of alternative facts with Dean Baquet, executive editor for The New York Times, and David E. McCraw, the paper's top newsroom lawyer. McCraw's new book, "Truth in Our Times," recounts his experiences since the George W. Bush administration leading the paper's fight for freedom of information, defending it against libel suits and providing legal counsel to the reporters breaking the biggest stories of the year. The duo will discuss the hard legal decisions behind the most impactful stories of the last decade, from Chelsea Manning's leaks to Trump's tax returns.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3 | ScreenTimes: "The Best of Enemies" with Taraji P. Henson, Sam Rockwell and writer-director-producer Robin Bissell
FIAF Florence Gould Hall, NY
Melena Ryzik, New York Times culture reporter, hosts an advance screening of the new drama "The Best of Enemies," followed by a Q&A with Academy Award-nominated actor Taraji P. Henson, Academy Award-winning actor Sam Rockwell, and writer-director-producer Robin Bissell. Based on a true story, "The Best of Enemies" centers on the extraordinary relationship between Ann Atwater (Henson), a fearless and outspoken civil rights activist who faced off against C.P. Ellis (Rockwell), a local Ku Klux Klan leader, to blaze the way for school desegregation in Durham, N.C., in 1971. They will discuss Bissell's directorial debut and the timely relevance of this pivotal moment in civil rights history and the improbable story of how these two people - with very different views and backgrounds - formed an unexpected friendship that ultimately led to large-scale social change.

Rated PG-13 for thematic material, racial epithets, some violence and a suggestive reference.

MONDAY, APRIL 8 | Misty Copeland
FIAF Florence Gould Hall, NY
Misty Copeland, the first African-American female principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, will join Monica Drake, assistant managing editor of The New York Times, for an intimate and inspiring conversation on her career. One of the most famous dancers in the world, Misty is credited with both broadening the audience for classical ballet and imbuing the art form with a renewed energy. This talk is a prelude to ABT's spring season as well as a celebration of a special section of New York Times dance photography that spans more than a hundred years. Through archival images going back more than 100 years, they'll reflect on images of professional dancers, nightclub revelers, New Yorkers dancing (literally) in the streets - and people moving their bodies to music in countless other ways.

TUESDAY, APRIL 9 | Robert Caro
TheTimesCenter, NY
Parul Sehgal, book critic for The New York Times, will moderate a conversation with Robert Caro, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Power Broker" and "The Years of Lyndon Johnson." The two will discuss why Caro writes not just about the men who wield power, but about the people and the politics that are shaped by that power. His upcoming book "Working" (out on April 9th) is an unprecedented gathering of vivid, candid, and deeply revealing recollections about his experiences researching and writing his acclaimed books.

FRIDAY, APRIL 12 | T Bone Burnett & Joel Coen
TheTimesCenter, NY
Grammy and Academy Award-winning producer T Bone Burnett and Academy and Golden Globe-winning filmmaker Joel Coen will join Times chief pop music critic Jon Pareles for an evening of conversation and musical performance. Burnett's upcoming album "Acoustic Space" is the first full-length installment in "The Invisible Light Trilogy." The albums explore the idea that society has been subject to over a century of electronic programming, which is causing us to lose our ability to differentiate fact from fiction. The two will discuss their creative partnership and process, Burnett's latest project, and the importance of music in film.

MONDAY, APRIL 15 | TimesTalks X T Magazine: Terrence McNally
FIAF Florence Gould Hall, NY
In celebration of his 80th birthday, the four-time Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally talks with Philip Galanes, New York Times "Table for Three" and "Social Q's" columnist. The prolific playwright, whose career spans six decades, is joined by Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon, starring in a new Broadway production of his 1987 play "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" opening May 30.

This TimesTalks event is produced in collaboration with T: The New York Times Style Magazine in conjunction with its Culture issue published Sunday, April 14.

THURSDAY, APRIL 18 | Bret Easton Ellis
TheTimesCenter, NY
Bret Easton Ellis, the critically acclaimed author of "Less Than Zero" and "American Psycho," will join Tina Jordan, editor and columnist at The New York Times Book Review, in a discussion of Ellis's first work of nonfiction, "White." Described as an incendiary polemic about this young century's failings, e-driven and otherwise, "White" serves as an example, definition and defense of what "freedom of speech" truly means. In "White," Ellis eviscerates the perceived good that the social media age has wrought, starting with the dangerous cult of likeability.

MONDAY, APRIL 22 | Aaron Sorkin and Jeff Daniels
FIAF Florence Gould Hall, NY
Six-time Emmy winner and Academy Award-winning playwright and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, and two-time Emmy Award-winning actor Jeff Daniels, will discuss the record-breaking Broadway production of "To Kill a Mockingbird" with Pamela Paul, editor of The New York Times Book Review. Mr. Sorkin's acclaimed adaptation of Harper Lee's enduring story of racial injustice and childhood innocence offers audiences a fresh and thoughtfully-rendered portrait of one of literature's most beloved characters, Atticus Finch (Mr. Daniels).

MONDAY, APRIL 29 | Dr. Ruth
Merkin Concert Hall, NY
Jennifer Senior, Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, will moderate a conversation with iconic media personality, author and America's most famous sex therapist, Dr. Ruth Westheimer. The Holocaust survivor and host of multiple television series and the wildly popular radio show "Sexually Speaking" will discuss her upcoming documentary "Ask Dr. Ruth." With her diminutive frame, thick German accent and uninhibited approach to sex therapy and education, Dr. Ruth has transformed the discussion around sexuality.