Arlene and Alan Alda Visit SJC as part of our Brooklyn Voices Series

March 16, 2015 BK

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – March 16, 2015 – St. Joseph’s College (SJC), in partnership with Greenlight Bookstore, is pleased to announce that Arlene and Alan Alda will discuss Ms. Alda's new book, Just Kids From the Bronx: Telling it the Way it Was: An Oral History, in conversation with Maira Kalman, on Monday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m. in the Tuohy Hall Auditorium, located on the College’s Brooklyn Campus.

The parks, the schools, the friends, the politics, the gangs, the mentors—for people who grew up in the Bronx, childhood recollections are fresh. For her new book, Just Kids From the Bronx, Alda, an award-winning photographer and author, interviewed more than 60 Bronx natives that have gone on to make important contributions in nearly every field of endeavor. Carl Reiner talks about being a Jewish boy during the Great Depression, Neil deGrasse Tyson tells of using his telescope at age 12 on the roof of his building, and Grandmaster Melle Mel reminisces about learning to rhyme and entertain, eventually changing the music world forever. This film-like portrait of the Bronx spans six decades and reveals that the Bronx experience is the quintessential American experience.

“Here in Brooklyn, we always welcome authors and folks from all over the world,” said Ted Hamm, chair of the journalism and new media studies program at SJC. “We're all very excited to hear these authors share enchanting tales of that faraway place known as the Bronx." 

Alda graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Hunter College in New York before receiving a Fulbright Scholarship and becoming a professional clarinetist, playing in the Houston Symphony under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. She switched careers when her children were young and became an award-winning photographer and author who has written 19 books. Alda and her husband, Alan, have three daughters and eight grandchildren. The couple lives in New York City and Long Island.

This event is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow the lecture. For any questions regarding this event, contact Michael Banach at 718.940.5584 or [email protected].

ABOUT BROOKLYN VOICES
Created in collaboration with Greenlight Bookstore, the aim of the Brooklyn Voices series is to promote and enhance the creative vitality of our home neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill by providing local writers, artists, and intellectuals with a forum in which to discuss and present their works to our neighbors, patrons, and students. Through lectures, forums, performances, and public discussion, Brooklyn Voices seeks to make a meaningful contribution to the thriving intellectual culture of the neighborhood and ensure that our community remains a stimulating place in which to live, learn, and do business.

ABOUT ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE
St. Joseph’s College has been dedicated to providing a diverse population of students in the New York metropolitan area with an affordable education rooted in the liberal arts tradition since 1916. Independent and coeducational, the College provides a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, aiming to prepare each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual and spiritual values, social responsibility, and service. With campuses located in the Clinton Hill area of Brooklyn and in Patchogue, Long Island, the College offers degrees in more than 35 majors, special course offerings and certificates, affiliated and pre-professional programs through its School of Arts and Sciences and its School of Professional and Graduate Studies.