We hope you enjoy this month’s Humanities Broadsheet — a compilation of events organized by or featuring members of the Washington University community, as well as our colleagues in the greater humanities community in the St. Louis area.
Click through each event to see the organizer’s complete listing. As you’ll see below, there’s always something going on!
Sign up to receive the monthly Humanities Broadsheet in your inbox by subscribing to the mailing list!
Humanities Broadcast
2 APRIL | 4 PM The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market
NAOMI ORESKES, the Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University. Oreskes will explore how a century-long propaganda campaign transformed America’s view on government and markets. In the 19th century, the U.S. government actively shaped the economy through regulation and infrastructure. But by the 20th century, a powerful business-driven narrative shifted public opinion, framing government intervention as a threat to economic growth. This shift has had significant impacts on American society, including a housing crisis, the opioid scourge, climate destruction and a baleful response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Oreskes is an internationally renowned earth scientist, historian and author of both scholarly and popular books and articles on the history of earth and environmental science. She recently published Why Trust Science? (2019) and Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know about the Ocean (2021), which was awarded the Patrick Suppes Prize in the History of Science by the American Philosophical Society. RSVP for webinar link. Arts & Sciences.
Washington University, Hillman Hall, Clark-Fox Forum and Virtual
21 APRIL | 3 PM Stanley and Joan Elkin Celebration
Join WashU Libraries and the Department of English in celebrating the literary legacy of Stanley Elkin and the artistic achievements of Joan Elkin. Jan Garden Castro will speak about the art of Joan Elkin. Castro, as co-founder of River Styx and a WU alum, showcased the work of Stanley, Joan and WU faculty a half century ago. Adam Ross, author of Playworld (Penguin Random House, 2025), among other books of fiction, and editor of The Sewanee Review, will talk about his apprenticeship under Stanley Elkin while a graduate student at Washington University. Benjamin Taylor, an award-winning novelist, biographer and memoirist, will talk about his close friendship with Stanley and Joan Elkin during his time as a graduate student and instructor at Washington University. In addition, visual/performance artist Tim Youd will be retyping Stanley Elkin’s novel, The Dick Gibson Show, live on KWUR 90.3 FM during the week. WashU Libraries.
Washington University, Olin Library, Room 142 and Virtual
30 APRIL | 3 PM Virtual Book Club: Ink Blood Sister Scribe
Join us for a special Preservation Week book club with guest host Danielle Creech, head of Preservation, Processing and Exhibitions. We will discuss Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs. The story follows the Kalotay family, which has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books for generations. Books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect. Each use of a magic book depletes it, so secrecy is the primary tool they use to keep their collection safe, at least until their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before. Book club will begin with a presentation on the ethics and dangers of preservation and how we balance care of our valuable collections against the needs of our patrons to access them. WashU Libraries.
Virtual
WashU Events
1 APRIL | 5 PM Creative Writing Workshop with María José Navia
Navia will lead a creative writing workshop in English, primarily for WashU graduate students, exploring narrative techniques and storytelling in the digital age. Community members may be considered for participation based on seat availability.
Washington University, Olin Library, Room 142
3 APRIL | 5:30 PM Gregory Volk Lecture
In the past few months, Gregory Volk has written several texts on Ukrainian artists and exhibitions for Hyperallergic, Aperture and ArtsLooker. He spent much of the June 2024 in Kyiv and Lviv, meeting with artists, curators, filmmakers, museum directors and others while Ukraine was attacked daily and nightly by Russia. He frequented artists’ studios and bomb shelters, galleries and cemeteries, museums and memorial services. He familiarized himself with how exemplary Ukrainian artists are finding novel and compelling ways of responding to war, brutal imperialism and would-be genocide. In this lecture, Volk will discuss his engagement with Ukraine — which currently includes curating an online exhibition of Ukrainian artists for the excellent organization Art at a Time Like this — and discuss several Ukrainian artists and artworks that are of exceptional importance for him. Sam Fox School.
Washington University, Givens Hall, Kemp Auditorium
4–5 APRIL Deciphering Globalization: Making and Knowing the World Through Things
The experience of living in a world constantly shaped by strangers, foreign customs and unfamiliar objects dates back to the beginning of human history. This interconnectedness and interdependence among different value systems and cultures — what we now call globalization — has long served as both an inspiration and a challenge to individuals, communities and political entities. This workshop aims to explore the diverse historical processes of globalization through the lenses of things. It focuses on the adaption, friction and transformation caused by things, both natural and human-made, when they enter new social environments. Center for the Humanities-sponsored studiolab “The World of an Antique Wedding Bed: Material Culture and Digital Humanities” and Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.
Washington University, McMillan Café and Lewis Collaborative
4–5 APRIL WashU Dance Collective: Transcendence Transcendence explores the ability to push past the norm and, through our own efforts or a nudge from something outside of ourselves, heighten our mundane experience beyond usual comforts. Through a blend of contemporary and avant-garde choreography, Transcendence pushes boundaries, questions limits, and reaches beyond the expected. Join us for an evening of performance where movement breaks through the margins of the physical world as we ask: How do you respond to limits? Compliance or rebellion? Performing Arts Department.
Washington University, Mallinckrodt Center, Edison Theater
4 APRIL | 3 PM ¡Habla! Embodied Code-Switching and Listening to Our Dances
JADE POWER-SOTOMAYOR, assistant professor, Department of Theatre and Dance, University of California, San Diego. Power-Sotomayor is a Cali-Rican educator, scholar and performer. Her forthcoming monograph from NYU Press, “¡Habla!:Speaking Bodies and Dancing Our América,” theorizes the concept of “embodied code-switching” across distinct social dance spaces, examining how relationships between dancing and sounding indexes counter-histories rooted in Latinidad’s blackness that continue to challenge the violent afterlives of the colonial encounter. Performing Arts Department.
Washington University, Umrath Hall, Room 140
4 APRIL | 3 PM What Is (and Is Not) Racist in Our Healthcare System
The past decade has brought with it increased attention to racial health disparities (RHDs) and the ways in which racism is implicated in these disparities. Contemporary work in philosophy and bioethics presupposes racism to be essentially structural or polysemous. While racism does manifest itself in various ways and at various levels (one of which is structural), Ian Peebles, assistant professor of philosophy in Arizona State University, believes the current theories of racism predominant in the literature have limitations in the context of clinical care and research. In this talk, he will discuss what those limitations are, then offer a novel theory of racism — a virtue-based account of racism — as an alternative that is able to overcome these limitations while still highlighting the features most important in research related to RHDs and racism’s role in RHDs. Department of Philosophy.
Washington University, Cupples II, Room 203
4 APRIL | 3 PM The Architecture of Xenakis’s Persepolis: Sound, Spatiotemporality, and Ontology
KHASHAYAR SHAHRIYARI, PhD student in music theory, Washington University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music composition from Tehran University of Art. Iannis Xenakis’ polytopes are immersive, multisensory works that integrate music, architecture and light. Conceived as a compositional form that extends beyond sound, polytopes incorporate visual and spatiotemporal elements while maintaining a distinctly musical framework through the application of formal techniques such as probability calculations, logical structures and group theory. Polytope of Persepolis (1971) marks a shift in Xenakis’s approach, transitioning from earlier polytopes that engaged with modern architecture to site-specific polytopes created in historical locations. Persepolis became controversial due to misunderstandings surrounding its symbolism, compositional structure and sociopolitical context. While previous scholarship has addressed the political and cultural debates surrounding Persepolis, its compositional structure remains underexplored. Department of Music.
Washington University, Music Classroom Building, Room 102
4 APRIL | 5 PM Who Owns the Future? From Artificial Intelligence to Abundant Imagination
From automated decision systems in healthcare, policing, education and more, technologies have the potential to deepen discrimination while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to harmful practices of a previous era. In this talk, Ruha Benjamin takes a transdisciplinary approach to public scholarship, inviting us into the world of biased bots, altruistic algorithms, and their many entanglements, and providing conceptual tools to decode tech predictions with historical and sociological insight. When it comes to AI, Benjamin shifts our focus from the dystopian and utopian narratives we are sold, to a sober reckoning with the way these tools are already a part of our lives. Whereas dystopias are the stuff of nightmares, and utopias the stuff of dreams… ustopias are what we create together when we are wide awake. Ruha Benjamin is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab and an award-winning author. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship in 2024. Office of Public Scholarship.
Washington University, Knight Hall, Emerson Auditorium
7 APRIL | 5:30 PM Americanist Dinner Forum with GB Tran
Cartoonist GB Tran was born in South Carolina after his family fled Vietnam in the final days of the war. His graphic memoir, Vietnamerica, was selected by Time Entertainment as one of the “Top 10 Graphic Memoirs of All Time,” awarded the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal in Sequential Art and was an Eisner Award nominee for “Best Reality Based Work.” During his cartooning career, he’s been awarded a Nonfiction Literature Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, an artist fellowship from Civitella Ranieri and, most recently, an AAPI Civic Engagement Fund grant for his 2024 project VotingTogether.com. Program in American Culture Studies.
Washington University, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
8 APRIL | 8 PM Craft Talk with Melissa Febos
MELISSA FEBOS is the author of four books, including the national best-selling essay collection, GIRLHOOD, which has been translated into eight languages and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, and named a notable book of 2021 by NPR, Time and The Washington Post. Her craft book, BODY WORK (2022), was also a national bestseller, an LA Times Bestseller and an Indie Next Pick. Her fifth book, “The Dry Season,” is forthcoming from Alfred. A. Knopf in June 2025. The recipient of a 2022 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, and the Jeanne Córdova Nonfiction Award from Lambda Literary, Febos’ work has appeared in publications including The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The Sun, The Kenyon Review, Tin House, Granta, The Believer, McSweeney’s, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Elle and Vogue. Visiting Hurst Professorship, Department of English.
Washington University, Duncker Hall, Hurst Lounge
10 APRIL | 4 PM Arab Brazil: Ternary Orientalism and the Question of South-South Comparison
WAÏL S. HASSAN, professor and head, Department of Comparative & World Literature, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Center for the Humanities. Arabs have left a permanent imprint on Brazil: from the Moorish legacy of Muslim Iberia, transmitted by Portuguese settlers; to waves of Arab immigrants since the late 19th century; to the prominence today of Brazilians of Arab descent in politics, the economy, literature and culture. The first book of its kind, Hassan’s Arab Brazil: Fictions of Ternary Orientalism argues that representations of Arab and Muslim immigrants in Brazilian literature and popular culture since the early 20th century reveal anxieties and contradictions in the country’s ideologies of national identity. The book shows how the Arab world works paradoxically as a site of otherness (different language, culture and religion) and solidarity (with cultural, historical, demographic and geopolitical ties). What explains this contradiction is a Brazilian variety of Orientalism that is distinct from the British, French and U.S. varieties analyzed by Edward Said, and which problematizes the idealized image of Brazil as a country built on mistura (ethnic and racial mixing) and “cultural anthropophagy,” or the digestion and incorporation of diverse cultural influences.
Washington University, Duncker Hall, Hurst Lounge
10 APRIL | 4 PM Classical Slave Names and Container Theory: An African American History
EMILY GREENWOOD is the James M. Rothenberg Professor of the Classics and of Comparative Literature at Harvard University. The phenomenon of classical slave naming in the Americas is a rich site of study. In her iconic article “Venus in Two Acts”, Saidiya Hartman emphasized the extent to which recovering the history of those so named can be an exercise in “writing the impossible” since the classical names through which enslaved individuals enter the records are part of the apparatus of control. The last decade has seen important work in the study of classical slave names in the Americas and slave naming in classical antiquity. Greenwood will consider these names as containers, focusing on the classical slave names in free Black communities to pose new questions about the dynamics of classical slave naming and how these names could become repurposed as containers for new identities. Biggs Family Residency in Classics, Department of Classics.
Washington University, Steinberg Auditorium
10 APRIL | 8 PM Reading with Melissa Febos
MELISSA FEBOS is the author of four books, including the national best-selling essay collection, GIRLHOOD, which has been translated into eight languages and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, and named a notable book of 2021 by NPR, Time and The Washington Post. Her craft book, BODY WORK (2022), was also a national bestseller, an LA Times Bestseller and an Indie Next Pick. Her fifth book, “The Dry Season,” is forthcoming from Alfred. A. Knopf in June 2025. The recipient of a 2022 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, and the Jeanne Córdova Nonfiction Award from Lambda Literary, Febos’ work has appeared in publications including The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The Sun, The Kenyon Review, Tin House, Granta, The Believer, McSweeney’s, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Elle and Vogue. Visiting Hurst Professorship, Department of English.
Washington University, Duncker Hall, Hurst Lounge
11 APRIL Luster & Sheen: Baroque Materialities
Conference organizer Claudia Swan, the Mark S. Weil Professor of Art History and Archaeology, delivers opening remarks, “Notes on An Early Modern Aesthetics of Iridescence,” to kick off a full day of talks on baroque artworks. Department of Art History and Archaeology.
Washington University, Brown Hall, Brown Lounge
11 APRIL | 3 PM Luminous Striations: Composing with Justly Tuned Unison Canons
CONNOR ELIAS WAY, visiting lecturer in electronic music and composition, Washington University. In this talk, Way will show some recent compositional work in which he has sought to create gradually morphing clouds of resonant harmony through densely layered, justly tuned unison canons and heterophonic counterpoint. Department of Music.
Washington University, Music Classroom Building, Room 102
12 APRIL 35th Annual Powwow
Annual celebration of Native American culture. Dance categories include Men’s and Women’s Fancy, Men’s Traditional and Women’s Jingle. Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies.
Washington University, Athletic Field House
10 APRIL | 12 PM The Pluralistic Majority
LILLIANA MASON is an SNF Agora Institute Professor of Political Science at John Hopkins University. She is co-author, with Nathan P. Kalmoe, of Radical American Partisanship: Mapping Violent Hostility, Its Causes, and the Consequences for Democracy and author of Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity. Barbara & Michael Newmark Endowed Sociology Lecture, Department of Sociology.
Washington University, Danforth University Center, Goldberg Lounge
12 APRIL | 2 PM Public Tour: Seeds: Containers of a World to Come
Student educators lead interactive tours of this season’s exhibition Seeds: Containers of a Worldto Come. Learn about the work of ten contemporary artists from a range of geographical and cultural contexts whose practices explore plant–human–land relations.
For artists such as Juan William Chávez, Jumana Manna, Cecilia Vicuña and Emmi Whitehorse, among others, the seed is the kernel, literally and metaphorically, of their investigations into issues of fragility, preservation, and possibility in the face of the global climate crisis. Please check in at the welcome desk. Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.
Washington University, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
14 APRIL | 5:30 PM Criminal Violence and The Future of Democracy in Mexico
SANDRA LEY, distinguished professor at the School of Social Science and Government in Tecnológico de Monterrey, Santa Fe, Mexico City. Crisis & Conflict in Historical Perspective, Department of History.
Washington University, Umrath Hall, Umrath Lounge
15 APRIL | 4:30 PM A Wonder to Behold: Jesus’ Miracles and Late Ancient Receptions of the Story of the Woman Taken in Adultery
JENNIFER KNUST, professor of religious studies, Duke University. As Jesus’ own materiality illustrated to late ancient Christians, flesh can change quality, degrees of corruption can be altered and carnal weakness can be overcome. Miracle scenes were therefore sources of physics and metaphysics as well as invitations to faith, with the raising of Lazarus, the healing of the paralytic, the casting out of demons and other Gospel wonders taken as evidence of the malleability of bodily nature. Featured among other Johannine signs and carved on late ancient ivory boxes, the forgiven adulteress also played a role in Christian reflections on the physical world. If virtue was written on bodies and in bodies, as the physiognomists insisted, then the restoration of a weak woman or, even worse, an adulteress, truly was a wonder to behold. Weltin Lecture, Program in Religious Studies.
Washington University, Umrath Hall, Umrath Lounge
16 APRIL | 10 AM Sex, Love, and Life: A Conversation with Acclaimed Author and Sociologist Dr. Pepper Schwartz
Join us to hear Dr. Pepper Schwartz discuss her research, writing and expertise in intimacy and sexuality in a conversation with Adia Harvey Wingfield, assistant vice provost, professor of sociology and the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Arts & Sciences. Schwartz earned a bachelor of arts and master of arts in sociology from Washington University and a PhD in sociology from Yale University. A professor at the University of Washington for 50 years, she has received numerous awards, including the Panhellenic teaching award and the American Sociological Association’s Public Understanding of Sociology Award. Schwartz has authored 26 books and more than 50 academic articles, with her work on sexuality influencing key legal cases. Known for her public engagement, she has written columns for various magazines and appeared on television, including as a relationship expert on Married at First Sight. She is currently researching AI-powered dating and marital happiness. Arts & Sciences.
Washington University, Graham Chapel
16 APRIL | 4 PM Lynn Nottage – Washington University International Humanities Prize
LYNN NOTTAGE is a MacArthur “Genius” and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sweat and Ruined. Join us for a special event honoring playwright Nottage as she receives the prestigious Washington University International Humanities Prize for her outstanding contributions to the world of theater. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear from Nottage herself and celebrate her remarkable work. The Washington University International Humanities Prize honors a person who has contributed significantly to the humanities through a body of work that has dramatically impacted how we understand the human condition. Nottage brings the power of theater to new spaces and underserved communities, addressing complex issues at the intersection of race, gender and labor relations. Her creations include widely acclaimed productions such as Intimate Apparel (playwright), MJ the Musical (book writer), The Secret Life of Bees (musical adaptation book writer) and She’s Gotta Have It (TV adaptation producer). Reception to follow. Center for the Humanities.
Washington University, Mallinckrodt Center, Edison Theatre
17–20 APRIL The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
It's time for the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and six contestants are poised to out-spell the rest. These six adolescents are the brightest and best, and the only thing they fear is the “ding” of the bell ... and maybe some other things too. With four audience participant spots to fill, you might even get the chance to prove yourself as Putnam County’s champion speller. $15–$20; free for WashU students. Performing Arts Department.
Washington University, Mallinckrodt Center, A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre
17 APRIL | 11:30 AM 80s Thrift, Salle and Sherman, Artist Connoisseurs
CHRIS REITZ is director and chair of the Hite Institute of Art + Design and associate professor of critical and curatorial studies. During the recession of the 1970s, and in response to limited commercial outlets for advanced art, David Salle and Cindy Sherman developed “thrifty” compositional strategies. They were derived from middle-class consumer habits that aggregated vintage cultural material to evidence one’s taste and powers of connoisseurship (one’s ability to make a “look”). As it turned out, their rather fashionable aggregation of cultural material mirrored the curated aggregation of objects by the growing network of art fairs where Salle and Sherman’s work was eventually distributed. In this talk, Reitz argues that the artists and art fairs of the 1980s took up tactics of “thrift” as they also took on the role of cultural connoisseur, a role that had been abandoned by art critics and historians in the 1970s. Sam Fox School.
Washington University, Givens Hall, Kemp Auditorium
17 APRIL | 4 PM The Ministry for the Future
How do we confront the planetary crises of our time with imagination, urgency, and justice? Acclaimed science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson joins us for a thought-provoking discussion of his 2020 novel The Ministry for the Future, a gripping exploration of the climate catastrophe, political struggle and collective resilience. Robinson’s speculative storytelling provides the opportunity to contemplate interdisciplinary approaches for understanding our interconnected world and addressing the upheavals of the 21st century, including climate change, forced migration, global inequalities and technological revolutions — and, moreover, to envision a more humane future. Program in Global Studies.
Washington University, Graham Chapel
17 APRIL | 5:30 PM Reciprocity: On the Co-Evolution of Seeds, Plants, and People
Cultivating seeds is an ancient cultural practice based on the reciprocal relations between humans, plants, and the land. Yet how exactly does this reciprocity work? Natalie Mueller, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, will speak on the co-evolutionary relationship between humans and plants with a focus on Indigenous North American worldviews in which particular plants are conceived of as kin, with associated expectations of mutual care. Following the talk, Mueller and Meredith Malone, curator, Kemper Art Museum, will discuss how selected artworks in the exhibition Seeds: Containers of a World to Come illuminate such reciprocity. Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.
Washington University, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
18 APRIL | 4 PM Translating and Teaching Capital in the 21st Century
In times of the global rise of right-wing authoritarianism, it becomes ever more urgent to rethink major works of critical theory. Karl Marx’s three-volume critique of political economy, Capital, ranks undoubtedly among the most impactful works of the long 19th century. Paul Reitter’s new translation of the first volume of Capital (Princeton University Press, 2024), the only one published during Marx’s lifetime, shines a light on aspects of Marx’s critique that have long remained obscured to its readers in English. Reitter’s translation highlights the contradictions immanent to the enduring substance of capital — value — and thus points us toward the continuing relevance of Marx’s work as we confront the mounting crises of the 21st century. Reitter is professor of Germanic languages and literatures and former director of the Humanities Institute at the Ohio State University. Department of Comparative Literature.
Washington University, Umrath Hall, Umrath Lounge
21 APRIL | 5 PM Ten’ja Screening & Discussion
Nordine, the son of a Moroccan miner, has grown up in Sallaumines in Northern France. His father wishes to be buried in his native village in the Atlas Mountains. In order to respect the elderly man’s wishes, Nordine accompanies him on his final journey home, thereby following the path of his roots back to a country that he’s never known. Along the way, memories rise to the surface. His encounters with Mimoun, a slightly crazy man from Tangiers, and Nora, a young woman searching for new horizons, allow him to discover more about his father, about whom he knows next to nothing, and the palpable reality of a country that he’s only caught glimpses of via a few family tales. Viewing facilitated by Younasse Tarbouni, teaching professor of Arabic in the Department of Jewish, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. Middle East/North Africa Film Series, Department of Jewish, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.
Washington University, Busch Hall, Room 100
23 APRIL Culture and Identity in Upper Louisiana: Defining the “Creole Corridor”
This interdisciplinary and transatlantic event seeks to explore the newly emerging concept of the “Creole Corridor” — a vast and dynamic cultural nexus extending from Quebec to New Orleans along the Mississippi River. The corridor reflects the complex interplay between French settlers, Native American nations, people of African descent and Spanish colonial agents, along with their environmental, economic and cultural legacies. French Connexions Center of Excellence, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
Washington University, Holmes Lounge
24 APRIL | 7 PM From Morning in America to American Carnage: The Role of the Religious Imaginary in American Politics
DIANE WINSTON is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, author and columnist. Her most recent book, Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan’s Evangelical Vision, explores how the news media normalized religiously wrapped neoliberalism. Winston will be joined for a discussion of her work by Mark Oppenheimer, professor of practice at Washington University’s Danforth Center on Religion and Politics and executive editor of the center’s online journal, Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics.
Washington University, Knight Hall, Emerson Auditorium
24 APRIL | 7:30 PM Retina Burn
The Performing Arts Department invites you to join the students of the Lighting Technology and Digital Media for the Stage classes as they put on a full concert in the Edison Theatre. The concert, which we lovingly call Retina Burn, is the culmination of a semester-long process of learning the craft of designing a concert lighting and projection rig. Prepare to be dazzled as the students showcase their abilities with a mesmerizing light and projection show that they have expertly programmed and rehearsed through computer visualization, all leading up to this live performance by Uncle Albert, a popular Illinois-based blues roots band. Performing Arts Department.
Washington University, Mallinckrodt Center, Edison Theatre
25 APRIL | 1 PM Community-Activated Design and Foundry Field: Creating a Place for Play, Story, and Community
Underrepresented histories and voices are often overlooked in shaping our built environments and shared cultural narratives. Community-activated design is an approach that seeks to address this gap by using participatory, generative design methods to engage communities in shaping their own spaces, stories and futures. By designing for, with and through communities, Foundry Field — a public-access baseball field for children and adults located in South Bend, Indiana’s urban core — seeks to foster dialogue around race, access and representation while strengthening local ownership and awareness of our rich histories. Clinton Carlson, a designer, educator and researcher, will explore community-activated design strategies to create more inclusive, representative and community-driven outcomes. Program in American Culture Studies.
Washington University, McMillan Hall, Room 150
St. Louis Community Events
THROUGH 13 APRIL Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood
Join the Merry Rebellion! Ken Ludwig’s Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood is a riotous romp through the enchanted forest, where Robin and his lively band of outlaws plot to outwit a greedy prince. Filled with daring escapades, mischievous humor, and a dash of romance, this timeless tale of justice and camaraderie is a swashbuckling adventure the whole family will cheer for! $40+. Talkbacks after the performance on Wed., April 2. Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.
Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Rd., Webster Groves, 63119
1 APRIL | 11 AM The Music of Black St. Louis
St. Louis has been a pivotal city for remarkable Black musicians who have influenced genres, introduced innovative styles, and established benchmarks for musical excellence. Hip-hop historian DJ G. Wiz will present an exploration of the rich musical heritage of Black history in St. Louis, from ragtime to blues to jazz to rock ’n’ roll to rap. Missouri Historical Society.
Missouri History Museum, Lee Auditorium, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112
1 APRIL | 7 PM Sarah Kendzior, The Last American Road Trip (Author Talk)
It is one thing to study the fall of democracy, another to have it hit your homeland — and yet another to raise children as it happens. The Last American Road Trip is one family’s journey to the most beautiful, fascinating and bizarre places in the U.S. during one of its most tumultuous eras. As Sarah Kendzior works as a journalist chronicling political turmoil, she becomes determined that her young children see America before it’s too late. So Kendzior, her husband and the kids hit the road — again and again. Starting from Missouri, the family drives across America in every direction as cataclysmic events — the rise of autocracy, political and technological chaos and the pandemic — reshape American life. They explore Route 66, national parks, historical sites and Americana icons as Kendzior contemplates love for country in a broken heartland. Together, the family watches the landscape of the United States — physical, environmental, social, political — transform through the car window. Left Bank Books.
Hi-Pointe Theatre, 1005 McCausland Ave., St. Louis, 63117
2 APRIL–21 MAY Creative Writing Workshop
An eight-week workshop where writers and aspiring writers examine basic principles of good writing and share and critique personal work. Essays, short stories, memoirs, novel chapters. All are welcome; registration required. St. Louis County Library.
St. Louis County Library – Daniel Boone Branch, Program Room, 300 Clarkson Rd., Ellisville, 63011
2 APRIL | 6 PM Tom Mitchell, Early Stories by Tennessee Williams (Author Talk) Early Stories by Tennessee Williams is an edited collection of 30 previously unpublished short stories written in the 1930s, when Tennessee Williams was living in the Midwest during a tumultuous period for the nation and himself. The stories highlight aspects of the writer’s biography relative to his young adult years in St. Louis, Columbia and the Missouri Ozarks, offering insight into the relationships between the author, his family and close friends. The influence of proletarian fiction and leftist ideas are evident in Williams’ stories of the Great Depression, as are themes of sexual turmoil and inner passions inspired by authors like D. H. Lawrence. Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis and Left Bank Books.
Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid Ave., St. Louis, 63108 and virtual
2 APRIL | 7 PM Robert Fitterman & Safa Khatib
To inaugurate Left Bank Books’ National Poetry Month series of events, join us for a reading with Robert Fitterman and Safa Khatib, two poets with ties to St. Louis whose work innovates across histories, geographies and languages. Robert Fitterman is the author of 16 books of poetry; his most is Creve Coeur (2024). He has collaborated with several visual artists, including Serkan Ozkaya, Nayland Blake, Sabine Herrmann, Natalie Czech, Tim Davis and Klaus Killisch. Safa Khatib is a poet, translator, teacher and daughter of South Indian immigrants. She is the author of the forthcoming collection “A Dress of Locusts” (Bloomsbury, 2025). Her current projects include a book of collages provisionally titled return service and “smoke,” a text written in collaboration with WashU choreographer Cecil Slaughter. Left Bank Books.
High Low Listening Room, 3301 Washington Ave., St. Louis, 63103
3–4 APRIL Mapping Spaces, Embodying Territories: Spatial Humanities and GIScience Across the Disciplines
By forefronting the crossroads of design, public policy, surveillance, disinvestment and lived experience, this conference seeks to bring together scholars from across the humanities, social sciences, critical GIS, urban design, architecture, art and adjacent fields to examine questions of visual representation, symbolic appropriation, space and place. Keynote talk by Keller Easterling, Yale University School of Architecture. Center on Lived Religion and CREST Research Center, Saint Louis University.
Saint Louis University, various locations
3 APRIL | 6 PM Ellen Barker, The Breaks (Author Talk)
Waking up in the emergency room with a broken arm is not one of the ways Marianne imagined her first date with Carl, if it is a date, ending up. Nor was driving up to the entrance of a women’s prison a few weeks later anywhere on her radar. But here she is. “At least I’m on this side of the gate.” She picks up newly released Stephanie, as a favor to a nun she barely knows, returns to her East of Troost home and finds herself immersed in a whole new drama. East of Troost is Marianne’s childhood neighborhood, downtrodden by decades of redlining and a wide swath of destruction to make way for an expressway. Marianne moves back after a reversal of fortune limits her options. She repairs the house and deals with a couple of “incidents” — hence her acquaintance with Officer Carl. Meanwhile, Sister Colette bought the house behind her and is taking in women who, in her words, need to learn to “just live.” As Stephanie helps Marianne cope with her broken arm, she gradually comes out of her shell and teaches Marianne a thing or two about just living. Subterranean Books.
Subterranean Books, 6271 Delmar Blvd., University City, 63130
3 APRIL | 6:30 PM Sharon G. Flake, The Family I’m In (Author Talk)
Coretta Scott King Honor Award-winning author Sharon G. Flake’s groundbreaking novel The Skin I’m In ushered in a new voice that lit up the literary landscape. John-John and Caleb, friends since childhood, have come face-to-face with the struggles and triumphs of growing into young men. They’re living in a world where many Black boys are up against generational expectations, fears of the future and how to navigate being “nice” kids who just want to be seen for who they are. Together, the friends work through family illness, divorced parents, teachers who ask hard questions and girls who think they have all the answers. St. Louis County Library.
St. Louis County Library – Clark Family Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, 63131
4 & 5 APRIL | 1 PM Drop-in Collection Tour: Poetry in the Galleries
In celebration of National Poetry Month, join this guided tour to explore how literature is a source of inspiration for artworks in the Saint Louis Art Museum’s collection. Tours begin at the welcome desk in Sculpture Hall and are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Saint Louis Art Museum. Fri., April 4 Sat., April 5
Saint Louis Art Museum, 1 Fine Arts Way, St. Louis, 63110
4 APRIL | 2 PM International Slow Art Day
Celebrate International Slow Art Day at the Saint Louis Art Museum with a facilitated Slow Looking workshop. Slow Art Day is a global experience with a simple mission: Focus on art and the art of seeing. Every year on this day, people all over the world visit local museums to look at art slowly and make new discoveries. The program begins at the welcome desk in Sculpture Hall on a first-come, first-served basis. Saint Louis Art Museum.
Saint Louis Art Museum, 1 Fine Arts Way, St. Louis, 63110
5–27 APRIL See STL Walking Tours
See STL’s fun and creative tours mix engaging storytelling and a deep well of historical knowledge with an infectious enthusiasm for the exciting changes the city is currently undergoing. Tours are two hours in length and are wheelchair accessible. $15–$20. Tour starting/ending points are included in your booking details. Missouri Historical Society.
April 5: Urban Renewal, Downtown Origins; April 12: Gay Liberation in the Gateway City; April 13: The Hill; April 15: Downtown Origins; April 19: Lafayette Square, Old North & St. Louis Place, Laclede’s Landing; April 20: Dogtown, Tower Grove; March 26: Downtown Design, Cherokee Street; April 27: Benton Park
Various locations
5 APRIL | 5 PM The Weimar Republic and the Rise of Hitler
Have a conversation with Helen Turner, education director for the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, as she presents information about the Weimar Republic and the real-life historical events that provide the backdrop for Cabaret. Cabaret is on stage at the J’s Wool Studio Theatre through April 13. Reservations required. New Jewish Theatre.
Wool Studio Theatre, 2 Millstone Campus Dr., St. Louis, 63146
7 APRIL | 1:30 PM A Sephardic Marco Polo? Benjamin of Tudela’s Medieval Visions of the Middle and Far East
MARTIN JACOBS, professor of Rabbinic studies, Department of Jewish, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and faculty affiliate, Department of History and Program in Religious Studies, Washington University. Silk Roads Lecture Series, Center for Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Saint Louis University.
Saint Louis University, Adorjan Hall, Room 142 and virtual
7 APRIL | 5:30 PM Lit Lovers Festival
Celebrate National Library Week with an inside scoop on upcoming titles from library experts. Enjoy literary activities and refreshments starting at 5:30 pm. The presentation begins at 6:30 pm. St. Louis County Library.
St. Louis County Library – Clark Family Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, 63131
8 APRIL | 5 PM Birthing Justice Screening & Discussion
Join us for a screening of Birthing Justice, a powerful documentary exploring the challenges and triumphs of Black maternal health. After the film, engage in a meaningful discussion with local prenatal, postnatal and maternal health providers and advocates. St. Louis Public Library.
St. Louis Public Library – Central Library, 1301 Olive St., St. Louis, 63103
9 APRIL | 5:30 PM Poetry Unfolded
Join us for an exciting and enriching poetry workshop designed for beginner poets, hosted by Scott Berzon, esteemed St. Louis poet. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your poetic voice, this workshop offers a welcoming space to explore the art of poetry, experiment with language, and find inspiration in both your surroundings and inner world.
The J Creve Coeur, Performing Arts Center, Upper East Entrance, Arts and Education Building, 2 Millstone Campus Dr., St. Louis, 63146
9 APRIL | 7 PM 2025 St. Louis Literary Award: Colson Whitehead
COLSON WHITEHEAD is the author of the novels The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, Sag Harbor, The Underground Railroad, The Nickel Boys and Harlem Shuffle, among others. He also penned a book of essays about New York City, The Colossus of New York. Whitehead graduated from Harvard College and worked as a reviewer of television, books and music at the Village Voice. In addition to the Pulitzer, The Underground Railroad won the National Book Award and the Carnegie Medal for Fiction. The Nickel Boys won the Pulitzer Prize, the Kirkus Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. Whitehead has been a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway, PEN/Faulkner, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, Los Angeles Times Fiction Award and has received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. $15. Saint Louis University.
Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 63108 and virtual
10 APRIL | 12 PM Craft Talk with Colson Whitehead
COLSON WHITEHEAD, recipient of the St. Louis Literary Award, will participate in a discussion about the craft of writing and his long and distinguished career. Moderated by Ron Austin. Registration required. Saint Louis University.
Saint Louis University, Busch Student Center, Wool Ballroom, 20 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, 63103 and virtual
10 APRIL | 5 PM Finding Our Past: Studying LGBTQIA+ History
In the last 50 years, LGBTQIA+ history has grown from a nonexistent field of study into one that is rich and widely diverse. Join John D’Emilio, a pioneer in the field, as he traces that evolution and the growth of community-based archives that sustain this research and writing. D’Emilio’s book Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago’s LGBTQ Archives will be available for purchase. Annual James Neal Primm Lecture in History, Missouri Historical Society.
Missouri History Museum, Lee Auditorium, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112
10 APRIL | 5:30 PM Artist Talk: Cheryl Wassenaar and Stephanie Schlaifer
Join artist Cheryl Wassenaar and poet Stephanie Schlaifer as they talk about their latest artistic collaboration, a unique, mixed-media/poetry sculptural installation, Lesser Animals: The Thicket and the Clearing, now on view at Central Library. St. Louis Public Library.
St. Louis Public Library – Central Library, 1301 Olive St., St. Louis, 63103
10 APRIL | 6 PM Matt Kindt and Margie Kraft Kindt, Gilt Frame (Author Talk)
Sam, who is in his early 20s, is an orphan, taken in when he was younger by his well-off Aunt Merry, who has an eccentric taste for antiques and travel. Together, Sam and Merry have solved some of the most notorious murders in the world. And true to form, their Parisian vacation is cut short when they stumble upon a murder scene so bizarre that only a raging psychopath could have produced it. But to solve the crime, they have to wrestle with jewel thieves, art forgers, gun-runners, a lost puppy and a master French detective who may just solve the crime before they do. Left Bank Books.
Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid Ave., St. Louis, 63108 and virtual
10 APRIL | 7 PM Jennifer Weiner, The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits (Author Talk)
Sisters Cassie and Zoe Grossberg could not have been more different. Zoe, blessed with charm and beauty, yearned for fame. Cassie was a musical prodigy who preferred the safety of the shadows. On the brink of adulthood in the early 2000s, destiny intervened, catapulting the sisters into the spotlight as the pop sensation the Griffin Sisters. But after a whirlwind year in the public eye, the band abruptly broke up. Two decades later, the real reason for the Griffin Sisters’ breakup is still a mystery. $38–50, includes book copy. St. Louis County Library.
St. Louis County Library – Clark Family Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, 63131
11 & 12 APRIL Drop-in Collection Tour: Poetry in the Galleries
In celebration of National Poetry Month, join this guided tour to explore how literature is a source of inspiration for artworks in the Saint Louis Art Museum’s collection. Tours begin at the welcome desk in Sculpture Hall and are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Saint Louis Art Museum. 1 pm, Fri., April 11 – Special guests! Poets will discuss artworks in the collection that inspire their own practice. 3 pm, Fri., April 11 – Audio description tour 1 pm, Sat., April 12
Saint Louis Art Museum, 1 Fine Arts Way, St. Louis, 63110
11 APRIL | 2:30 PM Wet Ink: Open Rehearsal
Get inside a newly composed piece of music for in a dynamic rehearsal format. Fun and interactive afternoon with the Webster University composition program.
Webster University, Thompson Music Building Recital Hall, 8282 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 63119
11 APRIL | 4 PM Jean Luc Enyegue, S.J., Competing Catholicisms: The Jesuits, The Vatican and the Making of Postcolonial French Africa (Author Talk)
JEAN LUC ENYEGUE, S.J., is director of the Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa. His research focuses on the history of Christianity, hermeneutics and Jesuit activities in Africa, particularly the history of the Society in French and Spanish Africa and the process of Africanization of Christianity. Spring Book Symposium, Center for Research on Global Catholicism, Saint Louis University.
Saint Louis University, Pere Marquette Gallery, DuBourg Hall 240 and virtual
11 APRIL | 6 PM Opening Program: Roaring: Art, Fashion, and the Automobile in France, 1918–1939
Enjoy an overview of the exhibition Roaring: Art, Fashion, and the Automobile in France, 1918–1939 with Genevieve Cortinovis, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Associate Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, followed by a conversation with exhibition contributor and automotive historian Ken Gross. Gross is a writer, automotive historian and former director of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Reserve tickets at the welcome desk or via MetroTix.com. Saint Louis Art Museum.
Saint Louis Art Museum, Farrell Auditorium,1 Fine Arts Way, St. Louis, 63110
11 APRIL | 7 PM Vicky Nguyen, Boat Baby (Author Talk)
In a memoir where heroism meets humor, NBC News anchor Vicky Nguyen tells the story of her family’s daring escape from communist Vietnam and her unlikely journey from refugee to reporter. Starting in 1975, Vietnam’s “boat people” fled the violence in their country any way they could, usually by boat across the South China Sea. Vicky Nguyen and her family were among them. But deciding to leave and start a new life in a new country is half the story … figuring out how to be American is the other. Boat Baby is a testament to the messy glue that bonds a family and illuminates the promise of what America can be. Very Asian Foundation.
St. Louis County Library – Clark Family Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, 63131
12 APRIL | 10 AM The Great Big STL Architecture Tour
Are you a fan of flounder houses? A maniac for mansard roofs? An ardent arch admirer? Or maybe you just want to learn more about the buildings around you. Either way, this super-size See STL tour is the place to discover St. Louis architecture across history — and maybe even take a glimpse at what the future holds. Attendees will meet and learn from local architecture experts and enjoy exclusive behind-the-scenes access to some of our city’s most stunning landmarks. This 5-hour bus tour includes a 1-hour lunch break at City Foundry (lunch purchased separately). $40–$45. Missouri Historical Society.
Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112
12 APRIL | 10 AM Widowhood in French St. Louis
Presented by Sharon Person and sponsored by the St. Louis Genealogical Society. The Coutume de Paris was the customary law that governed domestic life in the new village of St. Louis emerged in the 1760s. The rules of the Coutume allowed future spouses to draw up marriage contracts that would regulate certain terms of combining property into a community and of inheritance after the death of one of the spouses. Two widows from the first decade of St. Louis’ existence, one who remarried briefly and one who did not remarry, illuminate the paths that widows might follow. The presentation draws from the manuscript records of the St. Louis French and Spanish Archives and the 1766 census of St. Louis as well as the Kaskaskia Manuscripts and sacramental records from several locations. St. Louis County Library.
St. Louis County Library – Clark Family Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, 63131 and virtual
15 APRIL | 11 AM A Trip to the Pike
The Pike was one of the major features of the 1904 World’s Fair, especially coming alive after the exhibit palaces closed in the evenings. The mile-long Pike featured more than 50 attractions that included exhibits about science, travel, animals and other cultures. Join the 1904 World’s Fair Society’s Mike Truax for “A Trip to the Pike,” shared through the eyes of a family of visitors to the fair in 1904. Missouri Historical Society.
Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112
15 APRIL | 7 PM Karen Russell, The Antidote (Author Talk)
Pulitzer Prize-nominated novelist Karen Russell presents a gripping Dust Bowl epic. The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing — not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl drought but beneath its own violent histories. Following the storm, the fates of five characters — a “Prairie Witch,” a Polish wheat farmer, an orphaned basketball star, a talking scarecrow and a New Deal photographer with a time-traveling camera — become wondrously entangled into a heartbreaking vision of what might have been, and what still could be. St. Louis County Library.
St. Louis County Library – Clark Family Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, 63131
16 APRIL | 6 PM John Bicknell, The Pathfinder and the President: John C. Frémont, Abraham Lincoln, and the Battle for Emancipation (Author Talk)
In 1856, John C. Frémont — the famed “Pathfinder” of the American West — became the Republican Party's first presidential nominee on an anti-slavery platform. Five years later, now a Union general under President Lincoln, he sparked a national crisis by unilaterally declaring emancipation in Missouri. Drawing from extensive research, author John Bicknell masterfully chronicles the volatile relationship between these two leaders as they grappled with slavery, military strategy and the future of the nation. Left Bank Books.
Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid Ave., St. Louis, 63108 and virtual
17 APRIL | 6 PM BJ Soloy, Birth Center in Corporate Woods (Author Talk)
The poems in BJ Soloy’s Birth Center in Corporate Woods use long, contorting lines and elliptical connections to wade through the collisions of love, eros, loss, irony, pop culture and late capitalism. From city to city and year to year, these poems trace landscapes personal, cultural and physical as they, in turn, burn down before our eyes and then desperately, haltingly, try to return. At its galloping heart, BJ Soloy’s collection is an overheard intimate conversation. Sure, there are TVs and jukeboxes and increasingly frantic bickering jibes in the background — and the tour guide cinematographer is in a fugue state, dragging the reader from emergency room to hotel room, then behind the wheel of a limping Ford, then inside a dive bar, cradling an infant, writing a dirty letter, never quite falling asleep — but they eventually deliver us to a way station where honest elegy and Guy Fieri cannot only coexist but snuggle. Subterranean Books.
Subterranean Books, 6271 Delmar Blvd., University City, 63130
17 APRIL | 7 PM Veronica Ryan in Conversation with Dr. Courtney J. Martin
Artist Veronica Ryan will join Dr. Courtney J. Martin, executive director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, for a conversation on the shifting relationship of form, material and meaning throughout Ryan’s decades-long artistic practice. Veronica Ryan: Unruly Objects is the first survey of the Montserrat-born British artist Veronica Ryan, OBE (b. 1956). The exhibition presents four decades of Ryan’s groundbreaking practice with over 100 sculptures, textiles and works on paper. Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 3716 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 63108
17 APRIL | 7 PM Viola Shipman, The Page Turner (Author Talk)
Viola Shipman is the pen name for award-winning author Wade Rouse, who writes fiction under his grandmother’s name to honor the woman who inspired his writing. Bursting with memorable characters, the latest Viola Shipman novel follows a young romance writer’s journey of self-discovery. Emma Page grew up the black sheep in a bookish household. Her parents, self-proclaimed “serious” authors, mingle in highbrow social circles that look down on anything too popular or mainstream. Hiding her own romance manuscript from her disapproving parents, Emma finds inspiration at the family cottage among the “fluff” they despise: the juicy summer romances that belonged to her late grandmother. St. Louis County Library.
St. Louis County Library – Clark Family Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, 63131
18 & 19 APRIL | 1 PM Drop-in Collection Tour: Poetry in the Galleries
In celebration of National Poetry Month, join this guided tour to explore how literature is a source of inspiration for artworks in the Saint Louis Art Museum’s collection. Tours begin at the welcome desk in Sculpture Hall and are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Saint Louis Art Museum. Fri., April 18 Sat., April 19
Saint Louis Art Museum, 1 Fine Arts Way, St. Louis, 63110
19 APRIL | 1 PM & 7 PM Peace in the Prairie: Peace of Mind
Saint Louis Story Stitchers’ Peace in the Prairie is an original body of work exploring the concepts of peace and violence, juxtaposing urban life as experienced by African American people living in the city of St. Louis, Missouri and the state’s endangered prairie lands. Is the path towards peace through Missouri’s native prairies? Artists will perform a 1 pm matinee (free, all ages) and 7 pm evening show ($10/ticket, ages 16 and older). Saint Louis Story Stitchers.
.ZACK, 3224 Locust St., St. Louis, 63103
22 APRIL | 6:30 PM Jessica Jacobs
Join us for a special author event with acclaimed poet Jessica Jacobs, as she reads from her deeply personal and thought-provoking collection, unalone. Drawing on the Book of Genesis as a living document, Jacobs explores its stories, wisdom and ethical dilemmas, offering universal truths that resonate with readers across all religious traditions and spiritual beliefs. In this intimate event, Jacobs will discuss the themes of connection, isolation and faith that run throughout the book, showing how the ancient text can engage us more fully with our own lives. Jewish Community Center.
The J Creve Coeur, Performing Arts Center, Upper East Entrance, Arts and Education Building, 2 Millstone Campus Dr., St. Louis, 63146
23 APRIL | 2 PM Nicki Jacobsmeyer, Images of America: Kentucky’s Packhorse Librarians (Author Talk)
Marking the ridgelines and hearts of the Appalachians during the Great Depression, packhorse librarians delivered hope, one book at a time through President Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1933. Local author Nicki Jacobsmeyer brings these courageous women and the community they served to life. St. Louis County Library.
St. Louis County Library – Samuel C. Sachs Branch, 16400 Burkhardt Pl., Chesterfield, 63017
23 APRIL | 6 PM Mathew Goldberg, Night Watch (Author Talk)
Winner of the 2025 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction, Night Watch is a haunting symphony of longing and unease. Richly atmospheric and unsettlingly intimate, this collection explores the fragility of trust, the allure of hidden lives and the darkness that shapes us. Left Bank Books.
Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid Ave., St. Louis, 63108 and virtual
24 APRIL | 5 PM American Delivery Screening & Discussion
Amid a growing maternal health crisis in the U.S. — especially for women of color — nurses are at the core of systemic efforts to catch new mothers before they fall through the broken maternal health safety net. Join us for a screening of the poignant documentary American Delivery, followed by a discussion with filmmaker Carolyn Jones and local healthcare professionals about their efforts to raise awareness and make positive changes in St. Louis and beyond. Missouri Historical Society.
Missouri History Museum, Lee Auditorium, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112
24 APRIL | 6 PM The Art of Conversation: Featuring Tara Betts and Lyah B. LeFlore
The Art of Conversation is an evening of insightful dialogue, poetry and music, presented in collaboration with the Shirley Bradley LeFlore Foundation. This event will feature Tara Betts — celebrated poet, former National Poetry Slam Champion, professor and performer — in conversation with Lyah B. LeFlore, New York Times best-selling author, producer and co-founder of the Shirley Bradley LeFlore Foundation, named in honor of the renowned late St. Louis poet laureate emerita. The event will also include a special reading by Betts, followed by a musical performance to complement the evening’s literary discussions. Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 3716 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 63108
24 APRIL | 6 PM Jeff Copeland, Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn: A Walk on the Wild Side with Andy Warhol's Most Fabulous Superstar (Author Talk)
By the mid 1980s, Holly Woodlawn, once lauded by George Cukor for her performance in the 1970 Warhol production and Paul Morrissey directed Trash, was washed up. Over. Kaput. She was living in a squalid Hollywood apartment with her dog and bottles of Chardonnay. A chance meeting with starry-eyed corn-fed Missouri-born Jeff Copeland, who moved to Hollywood with dreams of “making it” as a television writer, changed the course of both of their lives forever. Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn is a story of how an unlikely friendship with a young gay writer and an, ahem, mature trans actress and performer created the bestselling autobiography of 1991, A Low Life in High Heels. This book about writing a book is a celebration of chutzpa and love as Holly, the embodiment of Auntie Mame, introduces Jeff to the glamorous (and sometimes larcenous) world of a Warhol Superstar. In turn, Jeff uses his writing (and typing) talent to give Holly the second chance at fame she craved. Left Bank Books.
Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid Ave., St. Louis, 63108 and virtual
26 APRIL | 9:30 AM The Marquis de Lafayette Comes to St. Louis
In 1825 the Marquis de Lafayette visited St. Louis during a 15-month tour of the United States. Missouri Historical Society staff will discuss his visit and highlight documents and objects from the MHS Collections connecting Lafayette and St. Louis. While you’re here, check out a banner exhibit on the life of Lafayette, sponsored by the American Friends of Lafayette and the Missouri Humanities Council, on display in the lobby of the Library & Research Center. Missouri Historical Society.
Library & Research Center, 225 S Skinker Blvd., St. Louis, 63105
27 APRIL | 11 AM Tour Público en Español: Celebración de St. Louis Latinx Arts Week
SLAM invita a todos los hispanohablantes de la región a conectarse con el Museo en su idioma. Ya sea revisitando nuestra colección o descubriendo futuras exhibiciones, los tours en español son un espacio guiado para compartir memorias, conocer miembros de nuestra comunidad, e interactuar con obras de arte de una forma más íntima. Saint Louis Art Museum.
Saint Louis Art Museum, Farrell Auditorium,1 Fine Arts Way, St. Louis, 63110
27 APRIL | 2 PM Rick Beyer, The Ghost Army of World War II (Author Talk)
RICK BEYER, award-winning writer and director of the PBS documentary The Ghost Army and author of The Ghost Army of World War II, returns to Soldiers Memorial to present the history of the Ghost Army and sign copies of his classic book. Missouri Historical Society.
Soldiers Memorial, 1315 Chestnut St., St. Louis, 63103
28 APRIL | 6 PM Dorothy Lazard, What You Don’t Know Will Make a Whole New World: A Memoir (Author Talk)
DOROTHY LAZARD grew up in the Bay Area of the 1960s and ’70s, surrounded by an expansive network of family and hungry for knowledge. Here in her first book, she vividly tells the story of her journey to becoming “queen of my own nerdy domain.” Today Lazard is celebrated for her distinguished career as a librarian and public historian, and in these pages she connects her early intellectual pursuits — including a formative encounter with Alex Haley — to the career that made her a community pillar. As she traces her trajectory to adulthood, she also explores her personal experiences connected to the Summer of Love, the murder of Emmett Till, the flourishing of the Black Arts Movement and the redevelopment of Oakland. As she writes with honesty about the tragedies she faced in her youth — including the loss of both parents — Lazard’s memoir remains triumphant, animated by curiosity, careful reflection and deep enthusiasm for life. Left Bank Books.
Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid Ave., St. Louis, 63108 and virtual
29 APRIL | 11 AM Underground Ingenuity: The Eads Bridge Tunnel
The story of the Eads Bridge’s groundbreaking engineering usually focuses only on the impressive span across the river and its underwater piers. But few know the drama, intrigue, and ingenuity of the bridge’s tunnel. Join MHS Public Historian Amanda Clark to dive deep into the story below the surface. Missouri Historical Society.
Soldiers Memorial, 1315 Chestnut St., St. Louis, 63103
30 APRIL | 10 AM Extra, Extra: A Century of Newspaper Front Pages
Memorable newspaper covers have been the translator for impactful news events for over a century. Using our newspaper databases, we will view and discuss the biggest news stories which have impacted generations of Americans. St. Louis County Library.
St. Louis County Library – Oak Bend Branch, 842 S. Holmes Ave., St. Louis, 63122
