To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prizes, we, and other state humanities councils partnered with the Pulitzer Prizes to launch a series of “Campfires” across the nation. These events brought more than 200 Pulitzer Prize-winning individuals in person to more than 700 public events, with hundreds of thousands more tuning in digitally. We, through our On the Road with California Humanities series featured Pulitzer Prize winners in dialogue with notable thinkers and the community, examining contemporary issues to guide California along the path to a vibrant future. Click on the tabs below to access video, media and other resources from the series’ events.
On the Importance of Historical Literacy: What Good is History?
Huntington Library, Los Angeles
Two of America’s most talented historians, Alan Taylor and Elizabeth “Lil” Fenn joined us in conversation about the relevance of history and the humanities in today’s times, and we should listen to them. Why? Because history matters, because history is the fragile tether that not only connects us to what and who came before us, it is by way of history that “then” has become “now.” Asking questions of history brings perspective, knowledge, maybe even lessons.
Food Futures @ Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
USC Campus Town & Gown
Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold, renowned chef and food champion Alice Waters, and Sarah Smith from the Institute for the Future discuss the future of food in this land that includes both plenty and need with author and Central Valley peach grower Mas Masumoto.
Journalism and Democracy in California
San Jose State University Student Union
Pulitzer Prize winner Héctor Tobar led a discussion with fellow Pulitzer Prize winner Rob Kuznia and authors and journalists Frances Dinkelspiel and Mark Arax to discuss the evolution and future of journalism in the state that’s been part of the information revolution.
California’s Water: Rivers, Oceans, and Our Future
CSUMB @Salinas City Center/ National Steinbeck Center, Salinas
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bettina Boxall joined Felicia Marcus, Chair of California’s State Water Resources Control Board, Abby Taylor-Silva, Vice President of Policy and Communications at the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, and Bruny Mora, alumni of University of California – Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Aquarium Teen Programs to discuss what we know and what we don’t know, and what we must learn about how to manage a future in which water is going to become all the more precious.
The Farmworker Movement in California: From Chavez Onwards
Fresno Art Museum
Noted director and playwright Luis Valdez, founder of El Teatro Campesino led a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winner Miriam Pawel on how the farmworker movement of the past can help inform the future of agriculture, along with Dawn Mabalon, Associate Professor of History at San Francisco State University and Samuel Orozco, author and National News and Information Director of Radio Bilingüe.
In Tune: The Arts and Humanities in the Golden State
Oakland Museum of California
During National Arts and Humanities Month, in partnership with the California Arts Council, we offered a celebration of the arts and humanities at the center of California life, and a conversation about the importance of providing access to educational opportunities that include both. Artist and educator Marc Bamuthi Joseph of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, led a conversation with electronic music pioneer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Morton Subotnick, together with Sarah Crowell, Artistic Director at Destiny Arts Center and Jordan Simmons, Artistic Director at East Bay Center for the Performing Arts. The evening included spoken word artist Donté Clark and youth music and dance performances.
All forums were free and open to the public.
California Humanities gratefully acknowledges support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the following:
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORICAL LITERACY: WHAT GOOD IS HISTORY?
MARCH 25, 2016 – 7:30PM – HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES
Two of America’s most talented historians, Alan Taylor and Elizabeth “Lil” Fenn joined in conversation about the relevance of history and the humanities in today’s times, and we should listen to them. Why? Because history matters, because history is the fragile tether that not only connects us to what and who came before us, it is by way of history that “then” has become “now.” Asking questions of history brings perspective, knowledge, maybe even lessons.
Alan Taylor
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner
Thomas Jefferson Chair in American History at the University of Virginia is the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes. A renowned scholar of early America, his historical research ranges across questions of belonging, of racial politics and identity in the colonial era, and the politics and economics of the infant American republic.
Elizabeth “Lil” Fenn
Pulitzer Prize Winner
The Walter and Lucienne Driskill Professor of Western American History and Chair of the History Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her innovative history of the Mandan people of the northern Great Plains, and she is also the author of a penetrating study of the role of smallpox in the history of North America.
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