Symphony Space Convenes Leading Actors, Authors, and Thinkers to Honor the Work of Barbara Ehrenreich

Luminaries in various fields will take the stage of Symphony Space's Peter Jay Sharp Theater on Tuesday, February 20, at 7pm for a one-night-only event honoring the late activist and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich. Hosted by Maria Hinojosa, host of NPR's Latino USA, and featuring Caroline Aaron, Danny Burstein, Nancy Giles, Annabelle Gurwitch, Jessica Hecht, Lizz Winstead, and others, Celebrating Barbara Ehrenreich will showcase readings of and reflections on Ehrenreich's works, including the national bestseller Nickel and Dimed. Symphony Space, Annabelle Gurwitch, and Alissa Quart, Executive Director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project—founded by Barbara Ehrenreich to support independent reporters and writing on inequality—are selecting the readings.

Tickets for the event are available at symphonyspace.org. They are priced on a sliding scale, in an effort to remove price as a barrier for entry.

Barbara Ehrenreich (1941-2022) was a bestselling author and political activist whose more than a dozen seminal books tackled topics such as the labor market, women's rights, health care, science, love, and communal joy. These include Natural Causes, Living with a Wild God, the award winning essay collection Had I Known, and Nickel and Dimed, which the The New York Times described as “a classic in social justice literature.” An award-winning journalist, Ehrenreich frequently contributed to Harper's, The Nation, The New York Times, and TIME magazine. She was born in Butte, Montana, when it was still a bustling mining town. She studied physics at Reed College and earned a Ph.D. in cell biology from Rockefeller University. Rather than going into laboratory work, she got involved in activism, and soon devoted herself to writing her innovative journalism