Scripps Presents Announces Fall 2018 Events Lineup Featuring Abbi...

Scripps College is pleased to announce the lineup of notable speakers and performers for the fall 2018 season of Scripps Presents, its signature public event series. The College will play host to diverse voices in critical conversation about relevant and riveting topics, as well as present dynamic performances by some of today's most original artists.

The season is headlined by Broad City's Abbi Jacobson, who will discuss her highly anticipated new collection, I Might Regret This: Essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities, and Other Stuff. The marquee of groundbreaking women also includes entrepreneur, rocket scientist, and CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA Sylvia Avecedo; Emmy Award-winning screenwriter Lena Waithe; and television comedy writer Nell Scovell, who will discuss her book Just the Funny Parts, a behind-the-scenes account of the gender politics of the entertainment industry.

The season will also feature several prominent culture critics who are engaging the vexing topics of our time. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who made headlines in 2011 when he revealed his undocumented status in the New York Times, will discuss his memoir, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, with Southern California Public Radio's Leslie Berestein Rojas. Jabari Asim, a leading voice on the black experience in America, will discuss his essay collection, We Can't Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival, and Rebecca Traister will discuss Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger, her account of female fury and its cultural significance.

Innovative music and performance engagements include the Los Angeles-based Afro-Peruvian band Chacombo, and Guggenheim Fellows Art Bridgeman and Myrna Packer of Bridgman|Packer Dance, whose performance, TRUCK, explores the intersection between technology and the body.

"We are dedicated to complementing the contemporary humanities curriculum at Scripps College, which is founded on the ideals of groundbreaking women, culture critics, literary voices, and the arts," said Corrina Lesser, artistic director of Scripps Presents. "We have the chance with this series to redefine what people think about the humanities."

Scripps Presents is also a Southern California hub for the national book tour circuit. This season's literary voices, at the forefront of inventive fiction, include Gary Shteyngart, Charles Baxter, and Nathan Englander. Glory Edim joins the lineup with Well-Read Black Girl, the latest in her larger project celebrating black women's writing.

Scholars and journalists will also elaborate on the timely theme of "Ignorance in the Age of Information," exploring the complex and problematic digital and social media landscapes, focusing on topics such as fake news and filter bubbles. This speaker series, organized by the Scripps College Humanities Institute, will welcome Radiolab's Latif Nassir, Manoush Zomorodi, host of the podcast ZigZag, and techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufikci, who will discuss the social implications of technology and the politics of privacy and surveillance.

"We bring speakers who are driven by passion, by research, and by great commitment to connect the world of ideas to people's everyday lives," continued Lesser. "We are initiating vital conversations, and inviting the public to join us."

For more information, visit scrippscollege.edu/events/scrippspresents or call (909) 607-8508.

September 7: Levitt on the Lawn: Chacombo
September 11: Gary Shteyngart (At Skirball Cultural Center)
September 13: Lena Waithe in Conversation
September 15: Path to the Stars: Sylvia Acevedo
September 20: Charles Baxter
September 26: Dear America: Jose Antonio Vargas in Conversation
September 27: Eric Klinenberg: Palaces for the People

October 4: TRUCK: Bridgman|Packer Dance
October 9: Radiolab's Latif Nasser
October 11: Good and Mad: Rebecca Traister in Conversation
October 15: Ignorance in the Age of Information: Zeynep Tufekci
October 16: On Community: Liz Lerman and Kevin Williamson in Conversation
October 24: Translating The Odyssey
October 24: ZigZag: Manoush Zomorodi in Conversation
October 30: We Can't Breathe: Jabari Asim in Conversation

November 4: Abbi Jacobson
November 7: Well-Read Black Girl: Glory Edim
November 8: Just the Funny Parts: Nell Scovell
November 11: Engineering Origami (At Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden)
November 14: Nathan Englander: A Reading and Conversation

Scripps College was founded in 1926 by Ellen Browning Scripps, a pioneering philanthropist and influential figure in the worlds of education, publishing, and women's rights. Today, Scripps is a nationally top-ranked liberal arts college and women's college with approximately 950 students, and is a member of The Claremont Colleges in Southern California. The mission of Scripps College is to educate women to develop their intellects and talents through active participation in a community of scholars, so that as graduates they may contribute to society through public and private lives of leadership, service, integrity, and creativity.

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