FPR Conference Program. Register Now.

Here is the program for our upcoming conference titled “City People, Country People: Being a Localist in the Megalopolis.” It will be held at Pomona College in Claremont, California. We’ll start on the evening of September 20 with a screening of the recent Ron Maxwell film Copperhead. The film’s screen writer, Bill Kauffman, will be on hand for a Q&A. On Saturday, September 21, we have a full day planned. We’ll hear a keynote address from the poet Dana Gioia as well as talks by an assortment of FPR regulars as well as writers and thinkers who reside in the Los Angeles area. It’s going to be a great time.

You can register here. I hope you can make it.

Friday, September 20

7:30 p.m.         Screening of Copperhead followed by Q&A with screenwriter Bill Kauffman (Rose Hills Theater)

Saturday, September 21

8:30 a.m.         Continental Breakfast (Rose Hills Theater Lobby)

9:00 a.m.         Introduction (Rose Hills Theater)

Susan McWilliams, Pomona College

9:15 a.m.         “The Good Twenty-First-Century City” (Rose Hills Theater)

Chair: Lily Geismer, Claremont McKenna College

Panelists: Phillip Bess, University of Notre Dame School of Architecture; Peter Dreier, Occidental College; Ted McAllister, Pepperdine University

10:45 a.m.       “The Possibilities of Work in the New World” (Rose Hills Theater)

Chair: John Seery, Pomona College

Panelists: Susan McWilliams, Pomona College; Andrew Yuengert, Pepperdine University; Victor Silverman, Pomona College

12:15 p.m.       Lunch and Keynote Address  (Rose Hills Theater and Lobby)

“I Can’t Believe You’re From L.A.: Los Angeles as a Cultural Center”

Speaker: Dana Gioia, author and former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts

2:00 p.m.         “Food in the Megalopolis” (Rose Hills Theater)

Chair: Jeff Polet, Hope College

Panelists: Nancy Neiman Auerbach, Scripps College; William Barndt, Pitzer College; Jason Peters, Augustana College

3:30                 “Philanthropy, Localism, and Hypermobility” (Rose Hills Theater)

Chair: William Schambra, Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal

Panelists: Jeremy Beer, American Philanthropic; David Bosworth, University of Washington; Alicia Manning, Bradley Foundation;

4:45 p.m.         Closing Remarks (Rose Hills Theater)

Mark T. Mitchell, Patrick Henry College

5:30 p.m.         Informal Reception