More Events This Week!

Things don’t appear to be slowing down around here any time soon.

Last Friday we welcomed over A THOUSAND trick-or-treaters through our doors as part of the District’s Not-So-Scary trick-or-treat Halloween event. What a blast that was - and lovely to see many new faces who had not been into the shop before. (We hope you’ll come back again without the scary costumes.)

This week we have two more great events we wanted to tell you about.

On Friday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. we’ll be hosting writer and scholar Meena Nayak, in partnership with the MU South Asian Studies Program, the Religious Studies Department, and the University of Missouri Lectures Committee. Professor Nayak’s new book Evil in the Mahabharata offers a compelling reinterpretation of the epic that presents a nuanced analysis of the characters, away from the dominant noise of the grand narrative. She is also the author of the novel Endless Rain, a deeply moving story of daily life in Kashmir, which looks at how family life is constantly transformed by religious matters, political issues and other forces from outside the home, often with tragic results. Professor Nayak has a PhD in Philosophy with a focus on Hindu mythology and an MFA in Creative Writing.  She is a professor of English at Northern Virginian Community College.

Then, on Saturday at 1:00 p.m., we’re thrilled to present - as part of the always fabulous Citizen Jane Film Festival and with the support of the Unbound Book Festival - a reading and discussion based on WHEN WOMEN WROTE HOLLYWOOD, a collection of 23 new essays that focuses on the lives of female screenwriters of Golden Age Hollywood. These women's work helped create those unforgettable stories and characters beloved by audiences, but their names have been left out of most film histories. The contributors trace the careers of such writers as Anita Loos, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Lillian Hellman, Gene Gauntier, Eve Unsell and Ida May Park, and explore themes of their writing in classics like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Ben Hur, and It's a Wonderful Life.

Some of the authors whose work appears in this collection will appear at Skylark to read from their work and discuss the role of women writers in the early days of film. It promises to be a fascinating discussion. Books will be available for purchase and signing after the event. This event is free and open to the public and does not require a ticket or pass to the Citizen Jane Film Festival.