AT&T Performing Arts Center Speaker Series Tickets on Sale Friday
Single tickets for the 2019/2020 season of AT&T Performing Arts Center distinctive speaker series hearhere will go on sale Friday, Aug. 30, at 10 a.m.
From the White House to stage and screen; and through space and time – with this series, attendees will hear the imaginations, passion, humor, and knowledge of iconic personalities who shape the way we experience our world and each other.
The series begins Sept. 26 with an evening with former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Tickets can be purchased online, by telephone at 214-880-0202 or in person at the AT&T Performing Arts Center Winspear Opera House Box Office at 2403 Flora Street.
Performances Include
An Evening with Former First Lady Michelle Obama
When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 26
Ticket range: $39 – $500
Michelle Robinson Obama served as First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017.
As a transformative First Lady, Mrs. Obama launched and led four key initiatives: Let’s Move!, to address the challenge of childhood obesity; Joining Forces, to support veterans, service members and their families; Reach Higher, to inspire young people to seek higher education; and Let Girls Learn, to help adolescent girls around the world go to school.
Before becoming First Lady, Michelle Obama attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School. She started her career as an attorney at the Chicago law firm, Sidley & Austin, where she met her future husband, Barack Obama. She later worked in the Chicago mayor’s office, the University of Chicago, and the University of Chicago Medical Center. Mrs. Obama also founded the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an organization that prepares young people for careers in public service.
In 2018, Michelle Obama published her memoir, “Becoming,” which sold more copies than any other book published in the United States in 2018, achieving that status in just 15 days and instantly rising to the #1 slot on the New York Times Best Sellers list.
Spike Lee
When: 8 p.m. Dec. 14
Ticket range: $49.50 – $99.50
Oscar award-winning Spike Lee is a Director, Writer, Actor, Producer, Author, and NYU Grad Film Tenured Professor whose body of work continues to grow over the last three decades. Recent projects include BLACKkKLANSMAN, based on a true story by Ron Stallworth, an African-American police officer who infiltrates the local Ku Klux Klan during the 1970s.
Lee’s filming of the play “Pass Over,” premiered at Sundance. He also directed all ten episodes of the hit Netflix series “She’s Gotta Have It,” which will be returning for a second season.
Lee has directed and produced over 30 films since his first feature film, the independently produced “She’s Gotta Have It,” which also premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986 and received the esteemed Prix de la Jeunesse Award.
Lee continues to produce Cinematic works of Art that display his skill and ability to showcase outspoken and provocative socio-political critiques that challenge cultural assumptions about Race, Class, and Gender identity.
In addition to his prolific film career, Lee has directed and produced numerous music videos, and he began commercial work in 1988 with his Nike Air Jordan campaign.
Lee has also authored several books, including “Five For Five,” a pictorial reflection of his first five features, “Best Seat in the House,” with Ralph Wiley, and two children’s books “Please, Baby, Please” and “Please, Puppy, Please,” co-authored with Tonya Lewis Lee, his Wife.
Captain Scott Kelly
When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 23, 2020
Ticket range: $39 – $69
Captain Scott Kelly’s epic “Year In Space,” now a New York Times best-selling book, solidified his status as one of the greatest pioneers in history. In his acclaimed speech appearances, he now brings audiences to the edge of their seats with transcendent insights that inspire and challenge them to dream big, test the status quo, and “choose to do the hard things.”
One of a select group of Americans who embody a defining moment in the nation’s history, he captivated the world and seized the imagination of millions during his record-breaking voyage—proving that the sky is not the limit when it comes to the potential of the human spirit.
On his trip, Kelly, together with his identical twin brother Mark on Earth, paved the way for the future of space travel and exploration as the subjects of an unprecedented NASA study on how space affects the human body.
Scott’s New York Times best-selling memoir, “Endurance: My Year In Space” and “Our Journey to Mars,” is now available everywhere and has been optioned as a Hollywood film by Sony Pictures.
Samin Nosrat
When: 8 p.m. June 13, 2020
Ticket range: $39 – $59
As an undergraduate studying English at UC Berkeley, Samin Nosrat took a detour into the kitchen at Chez Panisse restaurant that happily determined the course of her life and career. Since 2000, she pursued her twin passions of food and words with equal vigor, aiming to create work that inspires, creates community, and raises cultural, social, and environmental awareness.
Nosrat learned to cook at Chez Panisse, in Italy alongside Benedetta Vitali and Dario Cecchini, and at (the no longer existing) Eccolo in Berkeley.
She studied poetry with Robert Hass, Shakespeare with Stephen Booth, and journalism with Michael Pollan. She has said that Alice Waters and farmer Bob Cannard taught her more about land stewardship than anyone else.
Her book, “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking” was illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton. It is a New York Times bestseller, and also 2018 James Beard General Cookbook of the Year, 2018 Fortnum & Mason Debut Cookbook, 2018 IACP Cookbook of the Year, 2018 IACP Julia Child First Book Award, and Sunday Times Food Book of the Year 2017.
A documentary series based on the book is now streaming on Netflix.
Neil deGrasse Tyson – “Delusions of Space Enthusiasts.”
When: 7:30 p.m. June 22
Ticket range: $45 – $125
Neil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his Ph.D. in astrophysics from Columbia.
Tyson’s professional research interests are broad but include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Milky Way.
In 2001, Tyson was appointed by President Bush to serve on a 12-member commission that studied the Future of the US Aerospace Industry. The final report was published in 2002 and contained recommendations (for Congress and for the major agencies of the government) that would promote a thriving future of transportation, space exploration, and national security.
In 2004, Tyson was once again appointed by President Bush to serve on a 9-member commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy, dubbed the Moon, Mars, and Beyond commission.
This group navigated a path by which the new space vision can become a successful part of the American agenda. And in 2006, the head of NASA appointed Tyson to serve on its prestigious Advisory Council, which will help guide NASA through its perennial need to fit its ambitious vision into its restricted budget.
In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written and continues to write for the public.
From 1995 to 2005, he was a monthly essayist for Natural History magazine under the title Universe. And among Tyson’s ten books is his memoir “The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist;” and “Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution,” co-written with Donald Goldsmith.
