1 Photo
Want to give your mind a treat? Feeling curious about ecology, writing, literature or education? Do you have an hour?
If the answers are yes, then BookHampton early on Saturday night might be the solution. The East Hampton branch of the bookstore has launched a winter lecture series that’s bound to entertain while providing intellectual stimulation. And, as an added bonus, the lectures are free.
Topics in the four-month series delve into the environment, scientific investigation, poetry, writing, black history, climate change and educating children. The series launched two weeks ago with “The Rise and Fall of the Aztec Empire,” and continued last Saturday with “Biodiversity in the Ocean: Consumer Culture vs. Marine Life.”
Coming up on Saturday, January 30, “Climate Change and the Long Island Seascape” will be the lecture topic. “Exuberance: Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson” will be discussed in the February 6 installment.
With all the topics comes professional expertise: Each lecture is presented by a college professor who’s well-versed in the subject and in methods to keep audiences attentive and involved.
“I hope people will take advantage of the series,” BookHampton co-owner Charline Spektor said in a recent interview. “We have people who are talking about things they are really passionate about. I think it’s going to be great.”
For each lecture, BookHampton puts together a station filled with books geared to the topic so learning doesn’t have to end when the lecture is over. A suggested reading list for the entire series is available at the bookstore.
“It’s an opportunity for people to check out something they’re interested in,” said winter lecture series coordinator Laurie Newburger. “The series lets people find a topic that they might have an interest in or be curious about. Not everyone is going to sign up for a 12-week course at a college, but they have an hour to learn about something new, and we have books in the store, in case anyone is interested in learning more.”
The first lecture, on the Aztec empire, was presented by Dr. Elizabeth Newman, who’s a professor of anthropology at Stony Brook Southampton (SBS) and an expert in Mesoamerican studies. “Biodiversity in the Ocean” was presented by Dr. Kurt Bretsch, who is a marine community ecology researcher and also teaches at SBS.
Nearly all of the presenters teach at SBS. The exceptions include two professors at New York University and a researcher with the American Museum of Natural History and former professor at City University of New York.
The fact that most of the speakers teach at SBS is no accident. Ms. Newburger explained that the intention was to design a series with relevant topics that might be of interest to East End residents, delivered by professors at the campus in Southampton or New York University educators. The topics are also designed to tap into two of the academic strengths of SBS, marine science and writing, Ms. Newburger said.
The idea for a BookHampton winter lecture series was hatched several years ago by Ms. Spektor, who co-owns the bookstores with her husband, Jeremy Nussbaum. When Ms. Newburger became part of the BookHampton family, it became apparent the former college professor was the perfect person to transform the winter lecture series from concept to reality.
“Laurie has a very unique skill: she knows how to talk professor,” said Ms. Spektor. “We’ve been wanting to do this for some time ... The bookstore is a vibrant part of the community and, in this economic downturn, we wanted to find ways to reach out to our community.”
The full lineup of lectures can be found at www.bookhampton.com. All are offered at the East Hampton store at 41 Main Street.
Future installments include: Oekologie to Oecology to Ecology: The History & Essence of a Young Science; February 13; Writing Your Own Story, February 20; The Economics of Education: Teaching for All our Children, February 27; True Stories: Finding Freedom at the Crossroads of Cultural and Persona Myths, March 6; Environmental Design: Homes in Harmony with the Landscape, March 13; Montaigne: The Pleasure of Books and Conversation, March 20; and The Hudson River: Its History and Its Resources, March 27.
Wrapping up the series will be Not Fiction: How Others’ Lives Help Us Understand Our Own on April 3 and A Journey across Three Centuries: A Narrative Overview of Black History from the book, “Letters of Black America” on April 10.
For those looking to engage the intellect with European and American short story classics, BookHampton has another program. Every Tuesday at 12:15 p.m., the store’s Rowdy Readers book club meets at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton. Writers whose work will be discussed include Anton Chekov, Edith Wharton, Gustav Flaubert and others. The reading list can be found at the East Hampton store, and the group is led by Mary Braverman of BookHampton.
A similar book club will be forming shortly at BookHampton in Southampton. Plans call for the Sag Harbor store to start a book club focusing on the novel.
on Jan 26, 2010