Author, humorist, and master of satire, David Sedaris returns to Raue Center 

<Crystal Lake>, IL – October 4, 2022 – Best-selling author David Sedaris returns to Raue Center on November 4th at 8 pm. David Sedaris is the bestselling author of the books Calypso, Theft By Finding, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Holidays on Ice, Naked, and Barrel Fever. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and BBC Radio 4.

 

With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America’s preeminent humor writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that Sedaris is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.

 

David Sedaris, the “champion storyteller,” (Los Angeles Times) returns with his first new collection of personal essays since the bestselling Calypso.

 

Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask—or not—was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. As Happy-Go-Lucky opens, he is learning to shoot guns with his sister, visiting muddy flea markets in Serbia, buying gummy worms to feed to ants, and telling his nonagenarian father wheelchair jokes.

 

But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he’s stuck in lockdown, unable to tour and read for audiences, the part of his work he loves most. To cope, he walks for miles through a nearly deserted city, smelling only his own breath. He vacuums his apartment twice a day, fails to hoard anything, and contemplates how sex workers and acupuncturists might be getting by during quarantine.

 

As the world gradually settles into a new reality, Sedaris too finds himself changed. His offer to fix a stranger’s teeth rebuffed, he straightens his own, and ventures into the world with new confidence. Newly orphaned, he considers what it means, in his seventh decade, no longer to be someone’s son. And back on the road, he discovers a battle-scarred America: people weary, storefronts empty or festooned with Help Wanted signs, walls painted with graffiti reflecting the contradictory messages of our time: Eat the Rich. Trump 2024. Black Lives Matter.

 

In Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris once again captures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about these recent upheavals, personal and public, and expresses in precise language both the misanthropy and desire for connection that drive us all. If we must live in interesting times, there is no one better to chronicle them than the incomparable David Sedaris.

 

David Sedaris will deliver a 60-minute reading followed by 20-30 minutes of audience questions. There will be a book signing in the lobby area before & following the event no photography or videography of any kind will be permitted. Additionally, there will be no beverage service during this event. 

Tickets start at $50 ($35 for RaueNOW Members)  and may be purchased online at rauecenter.org or via the Box Office at 815.356.9212 or 26 N. Williams Street in downtown Crystal Lake. 

 For more information visit rauecenter.org or contact our Box Office at 815-356-9212.

 

About Raue Center For The Arts

Raue Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of all through the arts. For 20 years, they have provided quality programming – striving to make it pertinent, available, and affordable to all. As a painstakingly restored, 1920s regional showcase theatre named for its benefactor—Lucile Raue—Raue Center has attracted the finest stars, Broadway shows, musicians and artists. Named on the League of Historic American Theatres, Raue Center is one of the finest examples of restored art and decor in the nation. The 750-seat theatre, located in historic downtown Crystal Lake, Illinois, is a gathering place for our region’s citizens and has become a true destination. 

For additional information, visit rauecenter.org, facebook.com/RaueCenter, and twitter.com/RaueCenter.

Author and anthropologist Rich Benjamin to speak at Raue Center

<Crystal Lake>, IL – September 6, 2022 – Celebrated author, speaker, and cultural anthropologist, Rich Benjamin, joins Raue Center on October 14, 2022, at 7 pm for “The Divided States of America: Big National Transformations, Small Towns” a special presentation and moderated Q&A discussing his personal experiences engaging with communities in small-town America and his deft observations of modern society, culture, and politics with a goal toward building understanding and openness.

” It’s important for us to have honest conversations on Race,” Raue Center’s executive director, Richard Kuranda. “It helps us move forward. Over the last 5 years, we have opened our eyes to the power of a community wanting to confront the ugly truth that racism does exist here. Hopefully, this discussion will help further that conversation in McHenry County.”

Rich Benjamin is a political analyst, a cultural anthropologist, a speaker, an author. Benjamin’s cultural and political analysis appears regularly in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The New York Times Sunday Book Review, and National Public Radio (NPR). His scholarly research has received support from Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, Brown University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Benjamin was recently a Fellow in the literary arts at the Bellagio Center (Italia), Rockefeller Foundation. Rich has a BA in English and political science from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University. He sits on the Board of Trustees of the Authors Guild, the national union of writers that has been protecting authors’ rights and free speech since 1912.

He is the author of “Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America” selected as an Editor’s Choice by Booklist and The American Library Association (2009). This groundbreaking study is one of few to have illuminated in advance the rise of white anxiety and white nationalism in contemporary public US life. Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed, calls Searching for Whitopia, “A daring feat of the 21st Century exploration that will have you laughing and shuddering at the same time.” The book is now in its second printing. He is currently at work on a new book, Talk to Me.

“I believe that adaptation requires openness. It requires a willingness to understand others, a willingness to understand oneself. And I believe in that willingness comes an openness to change.” – Rich Benjamin

Don’t miss this timely discussion, “The Divided States of America: Big National Transformations, Small Towns,” with one of America’s finest scholars. Moderated by James Knight. Tickets are $20. Student discount is available. For tickets or more information visit rauecenter.org or call Raue Box Office at 815.356.9212.

About Raue Center For The Arts
Raue Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of all through the arts. For 20 years, they have provided quality programming – striving to make it pertinent, available, and affordable to all. As a painstakingly restored, 1920s regional showcase theatre named for its benefactor—Lucile Raue—Raue Center has attracted the finest stars, Broadway shows, musicians and artists. Named on the League of Historic American Theatres, Raue Center is one of the nation’s finest examples of restored art and decor. The 750-seat theatre, located in historic downtown Crystal Lake, Illinois, is a gathering place for our region’s citizens and has become a true destination.

For additional information, visit rauecenter.org, facebook.com/RaueCenter, and twitter.com/RaueCenter.

Celebrated Author Rich Benjamin at Raue Center

Rich Benjamin, a celebrated author, speaker, political analyst, and cultural anthropologist, will visit Raue Center on May 22, 2022 at 3 p.m. to present The Divided States of America: Big National Transformations, Small Towns. This special presentation and Q&A moderated by James Knight will discuss Benjamin’s personal experiences engaging with communities in small-town America and his deft observations of modern society, culture, and politics with the goal of building understanding and openness.

“I believe that adaptation requires openness,” said Benjamin. “It requires a willingness to understand others, a willingness to understand oneself. And I believe in that willingness comes an openness to change.”

Benjamin’s cultural and political analyses appear regularly in the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and on National Public Radio. His scholarly research has received support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Brown University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Benjamin has a B.A. in English and Political Science from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University. He sits on the Board of Trustees of the Authors Guild, the national union of writers that has been protecting authors’ rights and free speech since 1912.

Benjamin is the author of Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America, which was selected as an Editor’s Choice by Booklist and the American Library Association. This groundbreaking study is one of few to have illuminated in advance the rise of white anxiety and white nationalism in contemporary public U.S. life. Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed, calls Searching for Whitopia “a daring feat of the 21st-century exploration that will have you laughing and shuddering at the same time.” The book is now in its second printing. Benjamin is currently working on a new book, Talk to Me.

Don’t miss this timely discussion with one of America’s finest scholars. For tickets click here.

Raue Center For The Arts
26 N. Williams St.
Crystal Lake, IL 60014

815-356-9212

www.rauecenter.org