Upcoming Featured Events

Building Leadership in the 21st Century with Dr. Jackson Katz

Join The Advocates and The Community Library for an evening with Dr. Jackson Katz.

Dr. Katz is an educator, author, and filmmaker, who is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in the field of gender violence prevention and media literacy. Dr. Katz  explores why we need “more than a few good men” to end the epidemic of violence against women. To quote Liz Plank, “Katz delivers a convincing case for a small fix that could fundamentally change our society in more ways than we can imagine.”

Dr. Katz delivers keynote addresses at numerous state, federal, and international organizations, agencies and conferences, including those at the United Nations and Peace Corps.

He is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How all Men Can Help. He is creator, lead writer, and narrator of the award-winning Tough Guise documentaries, and is featured in the film The Bystander Moment: Transforming Rape Culture at its Roots.

More/register here.

…with James Risen

The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys—and One Senator’s Fight to Save Democracy is a new book out in 2023 from journalist James Risen centering on Frank Church, a senator from Idaho from 1957-1980.

Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community. The dark truths that Church exposed—from assassination plots by the CIA, to links between the Kennedy dynasty and the mafia, to the surveillance of civil rights activists by the NSA and FBI—would shake the nation to its core, and forever change the way that Americans thought about not only their government but also their ability to hold it accountable.

Drawing upon hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and reams of unpublished letters, notes, and memoirs, some of which remain sensitive today, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter James Risen tells the gripping, untold story of truth and integrity standing against unchecked power—and winning—in The Last Honest Man.

In partnership with the Frank Church Institute at Boise State University. A book signing will follow.

Risen will be a keynote at the 39th Annual Frank Church Conference on October 19th in Boise. Click here to learn more.

James Risen is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author. Throughout his career, Risen’s explosive investigative reporting has triggered a series of political firestorms. Among his best-selling books are State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration and Pay Any Price: Greed, Power and Endless War. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area.

More/register here.

(Panel de jóvenes líderes latinos)

Friday, October 13, 2023
5:00pm – 6:00pm
John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall

As part of National Hispanic Heritage Month, and in partnership with ProjecTooluccess and the Crisis Hotline, The Community Library will host the 3rd annual panel discussion celebrating and hearing from young Latino leaders in our community. Panelists to be announced.

The conversation will highlight the incredible work of high school students, recent graduates, and other young leaders, inviting them to share with us their visions for the Wood River Valley. The event will be livestreamed and recorded for later viewing.

More/register here.

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Como parte del Mes Nacional de la Herencia Hispana, y en asociación con ProjecToolSuccess y Crisis Hotline, The Community Library será la anfitriona de la tercera mesa redonda anual que celebra y escucha a los jóvenes líderes latinos de nuestra comunidad. Los panelistas serán anunciados.

La conversación destacará el increíble trabajo de los estudiantes de secundaria, recién graduados y otros jóvenes líderes, invitándolos a compartir con nosotros sus visiones para el valle de Wood River. El evento será transmitido en vivo y grabado para su posterior visualización. Próximo enlace.

with Doug Chadwick

Thursday, October 12, 2023
5:30pm – 6:30pm
ohn A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall

Veteran environmental writer Douglas Chadwick will present ideas from his most recent book Four-Fifths A Grizzly:  A New Perspective on Nature that Just Might Save Us All.  He will explore the amazing interconnectedness of nature, advocating that the path toward conservation begins with how we see our place in the world. In the book Chadwick explores how our genetic identity and similarity with every other species challenges us to consider whether we are separate from or part of nature. Answering the question of how we can change this era’s trajectory, Chadwick presents examples of successful recoveries of species and habitats, with the thought that “we really can save a whole lot in a hurry.”

More/register here.

Doug will be introduced by Ryan Lutey from The Vital Ground Foundation, a land trust working to protect and connect wildlife habitat in the West. Vital Ground offers a model for large landscape connectivity and letting a single species – grizzly bears – guide us to conserving biodiversity.

Doug Chadwick is an American wildlife biologist, author, photographer and frequent National Geographic contributor. He is the author of fourteen books and more than 200 articles on wildlife and wild places. Chadwick is a past officer and current member of the board of The Vital Ground Foundation, and chairman of that organization’s Lands Committee, responsible for choosing acquisition properties as part of Vital Ground’s One Landscape wildlife corridor system. He is also a director of the Gobi Bear Fund, part of the Gobi Bear Initiative, which attempts to restore the world’s least known and most endangered population of grizzly bears. Since 2013 he has served on the advisory board of the Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation, a New York-based non-profit that supports wildlife research and collaborative, community-based conservation projects around the world.

Chadwick graduated from the University of Washington, Seattle, with a B.S. in Zoology. He then earned an M.S. in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana, Missoula. After graduating, he worked as a research wildlife biologist studying mountain goats and grizzly bears in northwestern Montana. 

Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time Obie Award winner Rajiv Joseph will be in conversation with Martha Williams, The Community Library’s Programs and Education Director.

Monday, October 9, 2023
5:00pm – 6:00pm
John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall

Joseph is the third annual Sun Valley Playwright’s Resident, a residency that fosters new relationships between theatremakers and Idaho’s Wood River Valley community and offers creative support to foster a new project over the course of a year. The residency is hosted at The Community Library’s historic Ernest and Mary Hemingway House, and programs are presented in partnership with SVPR, the Library, and The Argyros Performing Arts Center.

More/register here.

During his residency, a reading of Joseph’s 2009 play Gruesome Playground Injuries will be read at The Argyros on October 14, 2023. Learn more here.

Rajiv Joseph’s play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama and also awarded a grant for Outstanding New American Play by the National Endowment for the Arts. He has twice won the Obie Award for Best New American Play, first in 2016 with Guards at the Taj( also a 2016 Lortel Winner for Best Play) and then in 2018 with Describe the Night.  Other plays include King James, Letters of Suresh, Archduke, The North Pool, Gruesome Playground Injuries and Animals Out of Paper.  He wrote the book and co-wrote lyrics for the musical Fly, based on Peter Pan, and he wrote the libretto for the opera Shalimar the Clown, based on the novel by Salman Rushdie.  He has written for TV and film and has been awarded artistic grants from the Whiting Foundation, United States Artists and the Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.  He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal.

Wednesday, December 6, 2023  
5:30pm – 6:30pm
Library Programs Studio

December’s pick for The Community Library Book Club is Living Untethered by Michael A. Singer. The discussion will be led by communications manager Kyla Merwin.

More/register here.

A New York Times bestseller, this transformative and highly anticipated guide will be your compass on an exciting new journey toward self-realization and unconditional happiness. The luminary author of The Untethered Soul takes us even deeper into the quest for inner peace and an energetic flow. Living Untethered offers powerful, practical guidance to understand and transform ourselves, our relationships, and our lives.

Please come in or talk to our librarians about reserving a copy to read. 

The Community Library Book Club is hosted the first Wednesday of every other month and led by a diverse range of library staff. Books cover all genres from new fiction to classics to nonfiction, young adult, graphic novels, and everything in between.

Click here to learn about more upcoming book club dates.