Lewis Hyde
In conversation with Peter Sellars
Hyde--MacArthur Fellow and author of the ground breaking study of art and commerce The Gift--offers a stirring defense of our cultural commons, that vast store of art and ideas we inherited from the past which continues to enrich the present.
Lewis Hyde is a poet, essayist, translator, and cultural critic with a particular interest in the public life of the imagination. He is author of The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property and Trickster Makes This World. A MacArthur Fellow and former director of creative writing at Harvard, he is currently Richard L. Thomas Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College and fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Peter Sellars is a renowned theater, opera, and festival director known for his innovative interpretations of classic works which range from Mozart, Handel, Shakespeare, and Sophocles, to the 16th-century Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu.
Recent projects have included a staging of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex/Symphony of Psalms for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; a production of Shakespeare’s Othello; and a critically acclaimed staging of Bach's Saint Matthew Passion for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. He is the recipient of many awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship, and the Sundance Institute Risk-Takers Award. He is currently a professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA and Resident Curator of the Telluride Film Festival.
Unless otherwise indicated, ALOUD programs take place at the Los Angeles Central Library's Mark Taper Auditorium, 630 W. Fifth Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071.
