Tuesday, May 28, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Following in the footsteps of Christopher Hitchens, Roger Penrose, and even Stephen Hawking, Jim Holt—author of Why Does the World Exist? (a New York Times notable book of 2012)—offers an engrossing narrative that traces our latest efforts to grasp the origins of the universe.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013, 2:00 – 4:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. Free.
This free public session on the EPA’s proposed $305 million cleanup plan for the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund Site begins with an open house followed by a presentation, Q&A, and audience members’ oral comments.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013, 6:00 – 8:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. Free.
This free public session on the EPA’s proposed $305 million cleanup plan for the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund Site begins with an open house followed by a presentation, Q&A, and audience members’ oral comments.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Great Hall; enter on Eighth Avenue. $5.
This exploration of the relationship between stable families, growing brains, and a child’s ability to learn features Seattle molecular biologist John Medina, author of the bestselling Brain Rules for Baby; William Bell, president and CEO of Casey Family Programs; and moderator Jack Faris, a member of Seattle Children’s Research Institute Advisory Board.
Thursday, May 30, 2013, 6:00 – 7:30pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5. Double feature!
In this double feature, UW researcher Makrand Sinha explores the P vs. NP question, one of computer science’s biggest unsolved mysteries, which asks whether every problem whose solution can be quickly verified by a computer also can be quickly solved by a computer, and Jingda Wu explains how NCQD could let us print our own solar cells.
Thursday, May 30, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5. Double feature!
In explaining why digital efficiencies haven’t made us all rich, Virtual Reality research pioneer Jaron Lanier, author of Who Owns the Future?, presents paths to getting us back on track, advocating revolutionary concepts such as monetizing data now treated as cost-free, an idea that just might save our economy—and our human dignity.
Friday, May 31, 2013, 7:00 – 8:30pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $10-$18.
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Gianna Angelopoulos, a former member of the Greek parliament, discusses how she headed Greece’s successful bid to host the 2004 Olympic Games, an achievement that led to her appointment, in 1998, as Ambassador at Large.
Saturday, June 1, 2013, 9:00am – 12:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. Free.
The Washington News Council holds a public hearing on a formal complaint against The Seattle Times by Dr. Richard Wollert, a Vancouver psychologist.
Saturday, June 1, 2013, 7:30 – 9:30pm
Great Hall; enter on Eighth Avenue. $18-$25.
Seattle Peace Chorus’ spring concert features music from Canto General, the epic work for which Chilean poet Pablo Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Sunday, June 2, 2013, 7:00 – 9:00pm
Great Hall; enter on Eighth Avenue. $16-$20.
Seattle Jewish Chorale concerts always present stories of encouragement and signs of hope: This year, the choir sings of travel, and of the courage, persistence, and grace it requires.
Monday, June 3, 2013, 6:00 – 7:30pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Dick Falkenbury, writer of the initiative approved by Seattle voters in 1996 to “build, operate, and maintain” a 40-mile, citywide monorail and author of Rise Above It All, tells the story of the movement behind the failed monorail project.
Monday, June 3, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Great Hall; enter on Eighth Avenue. Free, but reservations suggested.
KUOW Weekday host Steve Scher moderates an in-depth discussion among seven of Seattle’s 2013 mayoral candidates on Seattle’s cultural community, and how its health relates to our city’s economic vitality.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013, 7:00 – 9:00pm
Great Hall; enter on Eighth Avenue. Free.
Internationally bestselling author Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns) has worked for six years on his new novel, And the Mountains Echoed—and this time, the writer called “a storyteller of dizzying power” by Evening Standard adds a whole new dimension to his work.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Gallup Senior Scientist Shane Lopez, a leading authority on the psychology of hope and author of Making Hope Happen, shows how to mobilize the power of hope to improve our lives—and our children’s, and our neighbors’.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
In her wittily illustrated memoir of making a family, One Good Egg, Suzy Becker chronicles her travels through a maze of fertility treatments, considering and reconsidering how far she was willing to go to have a child.
Thursday, June 6, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Historian Kate Brown, author of Plutopia, explores the segregated communities created by American and Soviet leaders to contain secrets in Richland, Wash., and Ozersk, Russia.
Friday, June 7, 2013, 6:00 – 7:30pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5. Double feature!
Understanding how cancerous cells differ from normal cells is key to improving our ability to design smarter drugs, says UW researcher Ethan Ahler. One such difference is their diet, and by understanding such differences, Ahler says, we can potentially develop therapies to exploit them.
Friday, June 7, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5. Double feature!
Jessica Wapner, author of The Philadelphia Chromosome, tells the epic tale that arose from the first glimpse of a genetic mutation, dubbed the Philadelphia chromosome, in 1959; its role in causing chronic myeloid leukemia; and the development of Gleevec, a groundbreaking drug that made this once-fatal cancer treatable with a single daily pill.
Saturday, June 8, 2013, 8:00 – 10:00pm
Great Hall; enter on Eighth Avenue. Free-$18.
The orchestra closes its season at Town Hall with a program including Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80; Berlioz’s Nuits d’Ete, Op. 7, featuring soprano Kimberly Giordano; and selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet.
Charlie Staadecker for Mayor Benefit Concert featuring Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg and a Conversation with Gerard Schwarz
Tuesday, May 28, 2013, 7:30 – 9:30pm
Great Hall; enter on Eighth Avenue. $50-$700.*
In this benefit for the Charlie Staadecker for Mayor campaign, internationally acclaimed violinist Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg and pianist Kimberly Russ of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra perform a recital introduced by SSO Conductor Emeritus Gerard Schwarz, who also talks with Sonnenberg regarding her repertoire.