11/18 in NYC: Examine Your Life with Astra and Sunaura Taylor

Come join us for an evening’s stroll in the world of ideas!

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009, 6:30 – 9:00 pm
Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture
53 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, New York
$10 donation at-the-door appreciated
Cash bar

Examined LifeWhat happens when you take today’s leading philosophers out of their books and lecture halls and into the streets? That’s what filmmaker Astra Taylor did in Examined Life, a film of daring interviews with thinkers including Cornel West, Judith Butler, Slavoj Žižek, Peter Singer, Martha Nussbaum, and others. On Wednesday, November 18th at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, she’ll be joined by her sister, Sunaura—an artist and activist who appears in the film—for a screening and discussion. The event is hosted by Brooklyn Ethical’s Brooklyn Forum for Ethics and Justice and Killing the Buddha.

The conversation will be moderated by KtB contributor Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, fellow-in-residence at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture and co-chair of the Brooklyn Forum of Ethics and Justice.

In addition to the film, The New Press released a book of Taylor’s unique interviews, Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers last summer. According to Publishers Weekly, the book “takes philosophy out of the academy and restores it to its peripatetic origins by allowing the field’s brightest minds to publicly ruminate on such classic themes as truth and ethics.” Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Before Examined Life, Astra Taylor directed the acclaimed film Žižek! about Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. She has also produced videos for The Nation, and her writing has appeared in numerous magazines. A lifelong autodidact, she was raised in Athens, Georgia with almost no formal schooling.

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