Tuesday, Sept. 24, noon: Kathleen Belew. Author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America,” Belew has been featured on “PBS News Hour,” “Fresh Air,” “Weekend Edition” and more, and in the PBS “Frontline” documentary “Documenting Hate: New American Nazis.”
Tuesday, Oct. 22, noon: Jim Sciutto. CNN’s chief national security correspondent and co-anchor of “CNN Newsroom,” Sciutto is an award-winning journalist who reports and provides analysis on all aspects of U.S. national security. He is the author of “The Shadow War: Inside Russia’s and China’s Secret Operations to Defeat America.”
Saturday, Nov. 16, 11 a.m.: Parker Palmer. An educator, spiritual leader, activist, recipient of 13 honorary doctorates, founder of the Center for Courage & Renewal and Carleton graduate, Palmer is a prolific author whose best sellers include “The Courage to Teach: Healing the Heart of Democracy” and “On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity & Getting Old.” His Forum topic – in conversation with Sondra Samuels, president of the Northside Achievement Zone – will be “We the People: A Time to Act.”
Forums are an hour long and include a speaker presentation and a Q&A. Most take place at noon on weekdays. (Parker Palmer is the exception this season.) Local musicians perform a half-hour before each forum, and a public reception, often with a book signing, follows. Forums are always free and open to all. If you can’t be there, you can listen in to the live broadcast on MPR or catch the podcast later. Audio recordings are available for most programs from the start (more than 300 to date). Video recordings are available for those after 2004. Access all through the smartly organized, user-friendly archive.
The picks
Tonight (Tuesday, Aug. 27) at the Lagoon: “Deconstructing the Beatles: Abbey Road Side 2.” Beatleologist Scott Freiman explains the whys, hows and wherefores of side 2 of the final album the Beatles recorded together at EMI Studios. It’s the side that starts with “You Never Give Me Your Money,” goes gorgeous in “Sun King,” gallops through the short, rather silly songs “Mean Mr. Mustard,” “Polythene Pam” (thanks a lot for that one, John and Paul) and “She Came in through the Bathroom Window,” resolves into the lullabye “Golden Slumbers,” and transitions through “Carry That Weight” into “The End” with its great closing line, “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” One night, one screening. 7 p.m. FMI including trailer and tickets ($15).
Wednesday at the Parkway: Mixed Company: Composition, Improvisation and Place: Bill Cottman, Davu Seru & No Territory Band. Seru’s No Territory Band is like a big sonic playground with a formidable horn and woodwinds section: Scott Fultz on saxophones, JC Sanford on trombone, Pat O’Keefe on clarinets, Jake Baldwin on trumpet and Nathan Hanson on saxophones. With Seru on drums and Levi Schwartzberg on vibraphone, they perform Seru’s original compositions and their own improvisations. Add Bill Cottman’s projections – images collected around a north Minneapois narrative – and this will be an evening of unexpected sounds and visuals, mixed live on the spot. Doors at 6:30 p.m., show at 7. FMI and tickets ($10 advance, $15 door).
Wednesday and Thursday at the Trylon: 6th Annual Altered Aesthetics Film Festival. A program of avant-garde and experimental shorts created by local and international filmmakers. Tip: If you go the first night, you can help create a film by animator Maret Davies Polzine that will screen the second night. 7 p.m. FMI and tickets ($10 advance, $5-15 sliding scale at the door).
