Music at the Library: Baroque to the Future
2017-02-15 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | SC
The Library Society will go back in time to offer a very special evening of Baroque music featuring Yuriy Bekker and friends, with a special guest appearance by Natalia Khoma. The music of the Baroque era will be followed by a reception, giving patrons the opportunity to mingle with these gifted musicians.
Tickets are a flat rate of $35 for this special evening. To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
Players
Yuriy Bekker and Micah Gangwer, Violins
Jan-Marie Joyce, Viola
Norbert Lewandowski and Natalia Khoma, Cellos
Thomas Bresnick, Bass
Julia Harlow, Harpsichord
Yuriy Bekker, Conductor

A Evening with David McCullough
2017-02-21 18:00 - 20:00
An Evening with David McCullough-
As you’ve never seen or heard him before.
Accompanied by pianist, Ed Wise
Tuesday, February 21st, 2017
6:00PM
The Dock Street Theatre – 135 Church Street
Ticket cost- $200 Premium & $100 General
(Premium tickets ~ $100 tax deductible & General tickets ~ $50 tax deductible)
To purchase tickets, please call 843-723-9912 or click here.
David McCullough has been widely acclaimed as a “master of the art of narrative history,” and “a matchless writer.” He is twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, twice winner of the National Book Award, and has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.
Ed Wise has been a professional musician for over 50 years, and a piano and music theory teacher for 30 years. In addition to his many concerts, Mr. Wise has performed on the Tonight Show, the Letterman Show.
The Program:
Mr. McCullough and Mr. Wise have graciously offered to reprise a special “show” they have performed at the White House, at the 100th anniversary celebration of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, at the New York Historical Society, and at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.
It all began in the 1980s, when Mr. McCullough learned that the Martha’s Vineyard High School Library was about to lose its accreditation for lack of funds. He jumped in and decided to present a benefit concert. He asked his friend, Ed Wise to help him adapt Mornings on Horseback, about Theodore Roosevelt, into a stage presentation with music. It was so warmly received and gave them so much personal enjoyment to perform, that they began presenting it at many of Mr. McCullough’s speaking engagements.
On February 21, 2017, the two men will reprise their magical evening at the Dock Street Theater, with stories about American history – punctuated by the music of George Gershwin and Scott Joplin.

Speaker Series: Christopher Dickey
2017-03-02 18:00 - 19:00
Our Men in Charleston: A British Secret Agent and the Slave Who Stole the Rebel Codes in the Civil War South
Thursday, March 2nd ~ 6:00PM
Come enjoy Christopher Dickey as he discusses his most recent book Our Man in Charleston: Britain’s Secret Agent in the Civil War South, while also diving deeper and going farther than the book goes with additional stories and lecture topics!
Join as we go beyond the book, which is based on what we know for sure, to look at what we might surmise about Bunch and his circle in Charleston, including Robert Smalls, the slave harbor pilot who stole the CSS Planter and turned it over the blockading fleet.
This free event is and open to the public! We do ask that you RSVP, to do so please call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org.
Christopher Dickey is a war correspondent, historian, and thriller writer, an authority on terrorism, and a memoirist. He is the Paris-based foreign editor of The Daily Beast, and is a contributor to NBC/MSNBC News. Chris also has been a frequent commentator on CNN, the BBC, and NPR. He was formerly a bureau chief for Newsweek in Paris and Cairo, and for The Washington Post in Central America and the Middle East.
Chris’s most recent work of non-fiction is Our Man in Charleston: Britain’s Secret Agent in the Civil War South, published in 2015. It was a New York Times best-seller, and was published in paperback in July 2016. Pulitzer prize-winning historian James M. McPherson described it as “an engrossing account of diplomatic derring-do,” and Kirkus, in a starred review, called it, flatly, “a great book.” The many, many editorial reviews and the enthusiastic reports by Amazon readers speak for themselves.

Music at the Library: Good Foot Band
2017-03-09 19:00 - 20:00
Celebrate the approach of St. Patrick’s Day with the Good Foot Band, featuring Karin McQuade, Susan Conant and Bart Saylor in a lively concert of Celtic music. Good Foot is named after an old Oklahoma expression describing someone who is “feelin’ fine” because “looks like you’re dancin’ on your good foot.” It’s an apt description for the Charleston area Celtic band whose joyful groove makes you want to get up and dance.
Good Foot offers up a quirky, fun variety of powerful ballads, hoppin’ tunes and jazzy improvisations showcasing Karin McQuade’s sparkling voice and fiddle, Susan Conant’s many flutes and whistles and Bart Saylor’s energetic groove on guitar and bouzouki.
You’ll be able to enjoy the mix of fiddle, flute, bodhran, banjo, guitar and vocal renditions of traditional and original songs for this incredibly fun evening.
Tickets are $20 for members, $30 for nonmembers. To purchase, please call 843-723-9912 or click here

Charleston Fashion Week Speaker: Fern Mallis
2017-03-14 18:00 - 20:00
The JCC WOW Bookfest proudly presents:
Fern Mallis: Creator of New York Fashion Week, Lead Judge at Charleston Fashion Week & Author of Fashion Lives.
Join us as the legendary Fern Mallis, internationally known fashion consultant, creator of New York Fashion Week, lead judge at Charleston Fashion Week and author of Fashion Lives: Icons with Fern Mallis, discusses her book, a compilation of interviews with movers and shakers in the fashion industry.
Books will be sold and signed by Fern Mallis at the event.
Click here to purchase your tickets.
For more information, contact Marylyn Haspel at marylynh@charlestonjcc.org or (843) 571-6565.
This program is sponsored in part by a generous allocation from the Charleston Jewish Federation.

Irish Georgian Society- Abbey Leix: An Irish Home and its Demesne
2017-03-16 18:00 - 20:00
The Irish Georgian Society requests the pleasure of your company for a lecture and reception with guest speakers Sir David Davies, IGS President, and Mr. William Laffan, author and curator of:
Abbey Leix: An Irish Home and Its Demesne
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Please contact Michael Kerrigan, Executive Director, at 312-961-3860 or email him at info@irishgeorigansociety.com for more information.
Books will be available for purchase and to be signed.
To RSVP, please call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
Sir David Davies, the President of the Society, is a long-time member of the Irish Georgian Society, and a former board member of the Irish Georgian Foundation. He is active in the charitable field, and as well as serving as the President of the IGS, he currently serves as President of the Wexford Festival Opera Trust. In 2003, Sir David co-commissioned, with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, a government report: A future for Irish historic houses?, authored by Dr. Terence Dooley (NUIM).
He was educated at Winchester College, New College Oxford and Harvard Business School. Sir David’s Irish home is Abbey Leix Estate in Co. Laois, which he has spent many years extensively restoring to become one of the great stately homes of Ireland.
William Laffan is an author and curator, He has written extensively on Irish art and the country house and acted as advisor to the exhibition Ireland 1690-1840: Crossroad of Art and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago (2015). He has served on the board of the Irish Georgian Society and for five years was editor of its journal Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies. Abbey Leix: An Irish Home and Its Demesne, by William Laffan, published by Churchill House Press is lavishly illustrated volume exploring the architectural history and landscape of Abbey Leix, one of the most notable Irish houses.

Speaker Series: Webb Hubbell
2017-03-30 18:00 - 19:00
Join us as the Library Society welcomes Webb Hubbell as he discusses his recent release A Game of Inches. To RSVP, please call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
Does trouble follow Jack or does he come looking for it? In Webb Hubbell’s third legal thriller, A Game of Inches (Beaufort Books, June 2016), DC attorney Jack Patterson tackles the NFL, fantasy sports, and the power of information in our nation’s capitol.
NFL Rookie of the Year, Billy ‘Glide’ Hopper, has been charged with the gruesome murder of a young mystery woman in his locked hotel room at the Mayflower hotel in Washington, DC. Trouble is, Billy has no memory of the events of the night. Drawn in by his friend Judge Marshall Fitzgerald’s unshakable belief in Billy, Jack is determined to establish Billy’s innocence and get to the bottom of the murder. As the mystery deepens, he calls on old friends and colleagues to help him solve the puzzle. They find themselves at war with a powerful and sinister force, and both Jack and those closest to him are literally in the line of fire. In A Game of Inches Hubbell illustrates the role big money information, and influence have on DC politics and how fantasy sports is changing the NFL and the game of football itself. Murder is just the tip of the iceberg.
Hubbell’s first Jack Patterson novel, When Men Betray is an IndieFab winner, and the second, Ginger Snaps, won the IPPY Gold Medal in the suspense/thriller category.
Webb Hubbell is an award-winning author, lecturer, and consultant. As a former Mayor of Little Rock, Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, and Associate Attorney General of the United States appointed by former President Bill Clinton, he is well-versed in the intricacies of the U.S. government and our criminal justice system, and he bring his first-hand experience and unique knowledge to every page. As a former Razorback football star and Chicago Bears draftee, he brings his special insight into the current state of the game of football.

Rock and Rondo Redux
2017-04-06 19:00 - 20:00
Rock and Rondo Redux returns – this time with the winds taking over!
CMC musicians Regina Helcher Yost (flute), Kari Kistler (oboe), Charles Messersmith (clarinet), Sandra Nikolajevs (bassoon), Debra Sherrill Ward (horn) and Irina Pevzner (piano) perform an eclectic program including Barber’s “Summer Music” and Freddie Mercury’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” along with some Beatles and Francaix thrown in for good measure!
Tickets are $20 for members and $30 for nonmembers. To purchase tickets, please call 843-723-9912 or click here.

CLS Book Sale
2017-04-08 10:00 - 2017-04-10 15:00
Come visit us the weekend of April 8th for the CLS Book Sale! Browse a wide selection featuring best-selling fiction, noteworthy non-fiction, beautiful coffee table books, and rare finds. You never know what you’ll go home with!
Schedule:
Saturday: 10:00am-2:00pm
Sunday: 12:00pm-3:00pm

Speaker Series: Kat Imhoff
2017-04-13 18:00 - 19:00
James Madison, the Constitution, and America’s Ongoing Revolution
A conversation with Montpelier Foundation President and CEO Kat Imhoff about how James Madison framed our country’s conversations about rights and freedom
Hardly a week passes when the U.S. Constitution is not driving headlines, and yet, many Americans still don’t know the story of how our nation’s social contract came into existence at a moment that has been described by scholars as a “hinge point” in world history. Montpelier Foundation President and CEO Kat Imhoff will discuss how her team is creating a new kind of historic site at James Madison’s historic 2,650-acre plantation, designed to put the past in conversation with the present through a range of place-based experiences. Connecting the stories of the Foundation’s leading work on the interpretation of slavery and its work training Constitutional practitioners at the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution to the dramatic three-year period from 1786-1789 during which Madison created the framework for the U.S. Constitution and drafted the Bill of Rights, Imhoff will explain Montpelier’s methods of engaging citizens with the nation’s biggest idea: government by the people. Join us for an intriguing and far-reaching journey into the past that cannot help but refresh your view of government, politics, and American identity.
To RSVP, call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
Kat Imhoff, Montpelier President and CEO
As President and CEO of James Madison’s Montpelier, Kat Imhoff is among the first generation of women to oversee all aspects of a national historic site. Under her leadership, Montpelier has become a leader in the research of slavery in the Early Republic and garnered the attention of patriotic philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, whose $10 million gift in 2014 jumpstarted efforts to reconstruct the landscape of slavery at Montpelier and fully furnish James Madison’s historic home.
Montpelier also operates The Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution whose mission is to improve the public’s understanding of the founding principles of the United States and inspire civic engagement. Kat’s fresh, visionary leadership of the Center has repositioned Montpelier as a cultural organization with an innovative instinct for connecting history to present day challenges through its civic education programs for constitutional practitioners.
Prior to joining Montpelier in January 2013, Kat enjoyed a five-year tenure as State Director for The Nature Conservancy in Montana, where she led a successful $90 million effort to conserve an ecologically intact unit of 310,000 acres of land in the Northern Rockies that serves as an environmentally-protected migratory corridor extending from Wyoming across Montana to Canada.
Before her leadership role at The Nature Conservancy, Kat served as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF) which owns and operates Monticello, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
She has served as the Executive Director of the Preservation Alliance of Virginia, Vice President for Conservation and Development of the Piedmont Environmental Council, and the Executive Director of the Commission on Population Growth and Development, a 33-member legislative study commission established by the Virginia General Assembly to promote growth management legislation.

SOLD OUT- Speaker Series: John Avlon
2017-04-17 18:00 - 19:00
The Library Society is excited to host John Avlon, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Beast & CNN Political Analyst, to discuss his Kirkus-starred book Washington’s Farewell: The Founding Father’s Warning to Future Generations.
To RSVP, call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
George Washington’s Farewell Address was a prophetic letter from a “parting friend” to his fellow citizens about the forces he feared could destroy our democracy: hyper-partisanship, excessive debt, and foreign wars.
Once celebrated as civic scripture, more widely reprinted than the Declaration of Independence, the Farewell Address is now almost forgotten. Its message remains starkly relevant. In Washington’s Farewell, John Avlon offers a stunning portrait of our first president and his battle to save America from self-destruction.
At the end of his second term, Washington surprised Americans by publishing his Farewell message in a newspaper. The President called for unity among “citizens by birth or choice,” advocated moderation, defended religious pluralism, proposed a foreign policy of independence (not isolation), and proposed that education is essential to democracy. He established the precedent for the peaceful transfer of power.
Washington’s urgent message was adopted by Jefferson after years of opposition and quoted by Lincoln in defense of the Union. Woodrow Wilson invoked it for nation-building; Eisenhower for Cold War; Reagan for religion. Now the Farewell Address may inspire a new generation to re-center our politics and reunite our nation through the lessons rooted in Washington’s experience.
As John Avlon describes the perilous state of the new nation that Washington was preparing to leave as its leader, with enduring wisdom, he reveals him to be the indispensable Founding Father.

CLS Book Club: The Underground Railroad
2017-04-19 10:00 - 11:30
CLS Book Club is ready for spring!
CLS Book Club’s success depends on the dedication of our wonderful volunteers and patrons. So, please RSVP if you are planning on attending. To RSVP, call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
This meeting’s selection is the 2016 National Book Award Winner, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. A magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South.
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.
In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor—engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.
Like the protagonist of Gulliver’s Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey—hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre–Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman’s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.

Special Family Concert: Mark Mason
2017-04-22 14:00 - 15:00
Join the Charleston Library Society for a Special Family Concert!
Saturday, April 22nd
2:00PM
Mark Mason, a folk singer-songwriter from Summerville, SC, will perform songs from his album Charleston- Musical Portrait in a concert that is fun for all ages.
To RSVP to this free event, please call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
Published songwriter and folksinger/performer artist Mark Mason has taken some of the vast history of “The Holy City,” Charleston, SC and written 10 original songs that encompass her past as well as her legends and folklore. And with the production of Rick Haynes, (Gordon Lightfoot’s Bass Player), has come up with a unique and beautiful body of work. Mason’s haunting and charming melodies and lyrics are accompanied by Haynes on Bass, Mike Heffernan, (another Lightfoot band member) on Keyboards, Warren “Wiggy” Toll on Guitar, Dobro and Spoons, Mark DeCarlo on Flute and Michael DiGiorgio on Banjo bringing each and every one of these songs to life. In sort of a Jimmy Driftwood fashion Mason weaves us back in time learning history’s dates, places and events in a serious, yet lighthearted way as a teaching tool for young and old alike! The 8 page booklet comes with History Notes and lyrics making this an “experience” that we used to get when we’d bring home a new album and appreciate everything from the artwork to the adventure of growing with the music.

Wide Angle Lunch: Leah Suarez
2017-05-04 12:30 - 13:30
Wide Angle Lunches- Season XII: Making Community
12:30pm – 1:30pm
Individual Tickets: $20 members, $25 nonmembers
Season Pass: $75 members, $95 nonmembers (To purchase Season Pass, call 843-723-9912)
Editor’s Note— What is a community without creativity? The arts are thriving in Charleston, but it would be folly to assume that they will continue to flourish in these uncertain political times. Too often, whether in word or deed, the arts are relegated to the fringe of what is considered essential to healthy human communities. Many of us feel in some visceral way that this is backwards, but how many of us can articulate exactly how, or why?
In Season XII of Wide Angle Lunches, you will hear from five speakers, each a champion of creativity and community, whose lives and work are distinctly dedicated to the making of community through creativity. Whether through music or architecture, poetry or “artivism”, they are tackling society’s ills in profoundly inspirational ways. We invite you to join us for one or all lunches, and promise that you will leave both sated and hungry: armed with examples and a deepened understanding of how the arts are integral to the health and sustainability of peaceful and prosperous communities, and eager to go out into your community and make it stronger through your own creativity. ~Ceara Donnelley
Leah Suárez
Sacred Ground: The Call of Humanity and Art of Bearing Witness
To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
Almost two years ago, Charleston musician Leah Suárez found herself in Hundisburg, Germany, at the bucolic new home of Wide Angle founder Caroline von Nathusius. The timing of her visit was fortuitous; the tragic shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston had just occurred, and what began as a bit of respite turned into the genesis of her deeply personal and creative witness bearing to commemorate the lives of the Emanuel Nine. One year later, in May 2016, Suárez returned to Germany, joined by collaborating composer/musician, Alex Collier, for the world premiere of the first phase of Sacred Ground. It was held in the Schinkel double-church at the dedication of an outdoor structure, Charleston Place, which was built by students of the American College of the Building Arts and named in solidarity with the Holy City.
This year, Sacred Ground makes its Charleston debut at the Circular Church on 6 May 2017. Two days before what promises to be a moving concert, Wide Anglers have the privilege of hearing directly from Suárez on the story of how the piece came to be, and the role and responsibility of the artist and citizen to bear witness. As an accomplished musician (multilingual singer, valve trombonist, composer and bandleader blazing her own cool alloy genre that’s jazz tempered with a range of other roots traditions), arts entrepreneur (founder of arts production company De La Luz, co-founder and former executive director of Jazz Artists of Charleston and co-producer of the Charleston Jazz Orchestra), and recent seeker of her own Mexican roots and heritage, few are poised to speak as powerfully to the intersection of creativity and community, both in Charleston and around the world.
*Photo provided by Alice Keerey

A Conversation with Tessa Tennant
2017-05-09 18:00 - 19:00
Join us for a conversation with Tessa Tennant; an evening filled with stimulating conversations about a wide variety of topics. For her entire career Tessa Tennant has worked to ‘green’ the financial services industry. She co-founded the United Kingdom’s first green investment fund, the Jupiter Ecology Fund in 1988 and is on the board of the country’s Green Investment Bank. She has been centrally involved in developing the industry in the UK and overseas especially in Asia. In recognition of her work she has won several awards and was the first non-US citizen to be given the Joan Bavaria Award in 2012. She thinks and ‘does’ global, while also acting very local with her husband, running an upland farm and property enterprise in the Scottish Borders.
Tessa will be interviewed by a special guest of the Library Society and will answer interesting questions in a conversation format.
To RSVP, call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org

Wide Angle Lunch: Marcus Amaker
2017-05-11 12:30 - 13:30
Wide Angle Lunches- Season XII: Making Community
12:30pm – 1:30pm
Individual Tickets: $20 members, $25 nonmembers
Season Pass: $75 members, $95 nonmembers (To purchase Season Pass, call 843-723-9912)
Editor’s Note— What is a community without creativity? The arts are thriving in Charleston, but it would be folly to assume that they will continue to flourish in these uncertain political times. Too often, whether in word or deed, the arts are relegated to the fringe of what is considered essential to healthy human communities. Many of us feel in some visceral way that this is backwards, but how many of us can articulate exactly how, or why?
In Season XII of Wide Angle Lunches, you will hear from five speakers, each a champion of creativity and community, whose lives and work are distinctly dedicated to the making of community through creativity. Whether through music or architecture, poetry or “artivism”, they are tackling society’s ills in profoundly inspirational ways. We invite you to join us for one or all lunches, and promise that you will leave both sated and hungry: armed with examples and a deepened understanding of how the arts are integral to the health and sustainability of peaceful and prosperous communities, and eager to go out into your community and make it stronger through your own creativity. ~Ceara Donnelley
Marcus Amaker
Poetry and Passion
To buy tickets please call 843-723-9912 or click here.
Charleston’s first Poet Laureate Marcus Amaker is as close as it comes to 21st century Renaissance man: on a given day, he may write a poem, compose a piece of music, design a logo or a website, write a book, or create an app. He is equally adept at all of these pursuits, and within five minutes of talking to him, one gets the sense that he has achieved the elusive feat of living a cohesive life, rich in complexity and diversity of endeavors and yet unified by a common purpose — which is to live a creative life that makes the world better. In his Wide Angle debut, Amaker will explore his vision for Charleston’s first Poetry Festival, and explore how poetry has the power to transform people and the communities they create together.
Amaker’s poetry has been featured on TEDx, the PBS Newshour, A&E, the Huffington Post, several journals and poetry collections. His latest book, Mantra, is also an app for iPhone and Android devices. He’s also a well-known graphic/web designer and videographer, producing award-winning work for many nonprofits and organizations. He’s also the lead graphic designer for a national music magazine. This year, he was named one of Charleston’s 50 Most Influential people by Charleston Business Magazine. Marcus has released more than twenty albums of music since 1986.
*Photo provided by Reese Moore

A Royal Oak Foundation Event: Sally Bedell Smith
2017-05-11 18:00 - 19:00
The Royal Oak Foundation presents
Sally Bedell Smith ~ Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life
To purchase tickets click here or call 800-913-6565, x. 201
If you a member of the Charleston Library Society, use the co-sponsor code to get the discounted member price. The code is 17SCHLIB
Sally Bedell Smith is the author of bestselling biographies of Queen Elizabeth II; William S. Paley; Pamela Harriman; Diana, Princess of Wales; John and Jacqueline Kennedy; and Bill and Hillary Clinton. A contributing editor at Vanity Fair since 1996, she previously worked at Time and The New York Times, where she was a cultural news reporter. She is the mother of three children and lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Stephen G. Smith.
Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life
Drawing on her extensive access to the Royal Family’s inner circle, New York Times bestselling author Sally Bedell Smith presents the first major biography of Prince Charles in more than two decades.
In this illustrated lecture, based on her new book Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life (April, 2017), Ms. Smith will give unprecedented insights into Prince Charles, a man who possesses a fiercely independent spirit, and yet has spent his life in waiting for the ultimate role of monarch.
Beginning with his childhood, Smith will detail his intellectual quests, his entrepreneurial pursuits, and his love affairs—from the tragedy of his marriage to Diana to his eventual reunion with Camilla.
She will also describe his relationship with the next generation of royals, including William, Katherine, Harry, and his beloved grandchildren. Ms. Smith captures a man who has been described as an 18th-century gentleman with a 21st-century mission—a life filled with contradictions and convictions.
This is a lecture not just about a man who would be king, but also about the duties that come with privilege.

Afternoon Speaker Series: Candice Shy Hooper
2017-05-16 15:00 - 17:00
Come enjoy this special afternoon Speaker Series lecture by Candice Shy Hooper about her book, Lincoln’s Generals’ Wives: Four Women Who Influenced the Civil War – For Better and for Worse
To RSVP, please call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
The story of the American Civil War is not complete without examining the extraordinary lives of Jessie Frémont, Nelly McClellan, Ellen Sherman, and Julia Grant, wives of Abraham Lincoln’s top generals. They were their husbands’ closest confidantes and had a profound impact on the generals. Once shots were fired on Fort Sumter, their relationships with their husbands and their personal opinions of Abraham Lincoln had national and historical consequences. Relying on letters and memoirs —and, for the first time, mapping the women’s wartime travels—Hooper explores the very different ways in which these remarkable women responded to the unique challenges of being Lincoln’s generals’ wives.
Candice Shy Hooper was born on Guam to a U. S. Navy Hospital Corpsman and his intrepid Hoosier wife. With an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Illinois and a law degree from Georgetown University, it was only after a career on Capitol Hill as aide to the late Congressman Charlie Wilson (“Charlie Wilson’s War”) and as a lobbyist with her husband that she “discovered” her true intellectual passion. In 2008, she earned an MA in history, with a concentration in military history, from George Washington University.
Hooper’s work has appeared in the New York Times, The Journal of Military History, and The Michigan War Studies Review, and she has lectured at the U. S. Naval Academy.
Candice is a Member of the Board of Directors of President Lincoln’s Cottage at the National Soldiers’ Home in Washington, DC. She is also a member of the Ulysses S. and Julia D. Grant Historical Home Advisory Board in Detroit, Michigan. Hooper is currently president of the Johann Fust Library Foundation in Boca Grande, Florida, where she spends half the year with her husband Lindsay. The rest is divided between Arlington, Virginia, and Wilson, Wyoming.

Wide Angle Lunch: Ruby Lerner & KJ Kearney
2017-05-18 12:30 - 13:30
Wide Angle Lunches- Season XII: Making Community
12:30pm-1:30pm
Individual Tickets: $20 members, $25 nonmembers
Season Pass: $75 members, $95 nonmembers ( To purchase season pass, call 843-723-9912)
Editor’s Note: What is a community without creativity? The arts are thriving in Charleston, but it would be folly to assume that they will continue to flourish in these uncertain political times. Too often, whether in word or deed, the arts are relegated to the fringe of what is considered essential to healthy human communities. Many of us feel in some visceral way that this is backwards, but how many of us can articulate exactly how, or why?
In Season XII of Wide Angle Lunches, you will hear from five speakers, each a champion of creativity and community, whose lives and work are distinctly dedicated to the making of community through creativity. Whether through music or architecture, poetry or “artivism”, they are tackling society’s ills in profoundly inspirational ways. We invite you to join us for one or all lunches, and promise that you will leave both sated and hungry: armed with examples and a deepened understanding of how the arts are integral to the health and sustainability of peaceful and prosperous communities, and eager to go out into your community and make it stronger through your own creativity. -Ceara Donnelley
Ruby Lerner and KJ Kearney
Artists Collide With the World: Both Thrive
To buy tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
For many Charlestonians, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about community and creativity is Enough Pie, the organization dedicated to using creativity to connect and empower the community of Charleston’s Upper Peninsula – or its visionary founder, Kate Nevin. In this Wide Angle first, Nevin will moderate a conversation with two people whose ideas about creativity and community promise to spark a lively exploration about how art intersects with urban planning, politics and social justice, or, in Nevin’s own words, “artivism.”
Ruby Lerner and KJ Kearney are both visionaries and practitioners in the art of creative community-making. Lerner is the founding Executive Director of Creative Capital, an innovative arts foundation that adapts venture capital concepts to support individual artists. Under her leadership, Creative Capital committed $40 million in financial and advisory support to 511 projects representing 642 artists. She stepped down from the organization in June 2016 to pursue consulting work and independent research, and beginning in January 2017 she will be the inaugural Herberger Institute Policy Fellow at Arizona State University and Senior Advisor to the Patty Disney Center for Life and Work at CalArts.
You may have read KJ Kearney’s name in the byline of his former column for Charleston City Paper, or in the news when he ran for South Carolina House District 15. A native of North Charleston, Kearney is committed to keeping Charleston conscious of its complicated cultural heritage and often-precarious present. He recently launched Charleston Sticks Together, in the words of the City Paper a “platform for reminding the city of its imperfections” – it sells pins that remind us all of the ugliness that lurks beneath and within the beauty of Charleston, urging us to take off our “Rainbow Row-colored glasses” and confront the challenges that bedevil true unity in this community.
Photos provided by Ruby Lerner & Elizabeth Ervin

Wide Angle Lunch: Barry Svigals
2017-05-25 12:30 - 13:30
Wide Angle Lunches- Season XII: Making Community
12:30pm – 1:30pm
Individual Tickets: $20 members, $25 nonmembers
Season Pass: $75 members, $95 nonmembers (To purchase season passes, please call 843-723-9912)
Editor’s Note: What is a community without creativity? The arts are thriving in Charleston, but it would be folly to assume that they will continue to flourish in these uncertain political times. Too often, whether in word or deed, the arts are relegated to the fringe of what is considered essential to healthy human communities. Many of us feel in some visceral way that this is backwards, but how many of us can articulate exactly how, or why?
In Season XII of Wide Angle Lunches, you will hear from five speakers, each a champion of creativity and community, whose lives and work are distinctly dedicated to the making of community through creativity. Whether through music or architecture, poetry or “artivism”, they are tackling society’s ills in profoundly inspirational ways. We invite you to join us for one or all lunches, and promise that you will leave both sated and hungry: armed with examples and a deepened understanding of how the arts are integral to the health and sustainability of peaceful and prosperous communities, and eager to go out into your community and make it stronger through your own creativity. -Ceara Donnelley
Barry Svigals
Re-Membering Community: Inspiring a Process of Creative Participation
To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
Artist, architect, writer and public speaker, Barry Svigals is the founder of Svigals+Partners, an architecture and art firm whose mission is to nurture and inspire prosperous, compassionate communities. He believes we are all creative and that capacity needs to find expression in how we live and work together. Awakening creativity, we can participate in bringing to life our communities and more fully contribute to the world we inhabit. It can remind us that our struggles, our joys and sorrows, are shared. They are what bind us as a community.
Trained as an architect at the Yale School of Architecture, Svigals also studied sculpture at the Ecole Nationale Superiere in Paris. Encompassing a wide range of clients, his firm’s architectural designs include projects for Yale University, Boston College and the University of Connecticut, as well as numerous public schools, including most recently, the new elementary school for Sandy Hook in Newtown, Connecticut.
Over the last 35 years, Svigals has taught and lectured at a number of academic institutions including the Yale School of Architecture, the Harvard School of Business, and Stanford University. His love of sculpture and figurative art led to its integration into the architecture of his firm, bringing back an historical tradition and providing a dimension which could give it deeper meaning. For this contribution to the practice of architecture, he was awarded the Fellowship to the American Institute of Architects.

Speaker Series: Eva Dillon
2017-06-12 18:00 - 19:00
We are delighted to host Eva Dillon to discuss her new, Kirkus starred review memoir, Spies in the Family. This event is free for CLS members and $5 for nonmembers. To RSVP or purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
Spies in the Family is a true-life thriller and revealing memoir from the daughter of an American intelligence officer. At the height of Cold War tensions between the US and the USSR, the Americans had a secret weapon—a Soviet double agent who rose to the rank of general and passed intelligence which most likely averted a nuclear showdown. And yet this crucial historical chapter has remained hidden in the shadows…until now. Reporting from the inside, Eva Dillon breaks the incredible story of her CIA officer father, his GRU asset, and their remarkable relationship in SPIES IN THE FAMILY: An American Spymaster, His Russian Crown Jewel, and the Friendship That Helped End the Cold War. Dillon delivers a riveting account that is part nail-biting spy thriller, part intimate family memoir. With concerns about Vladimir Putin’s intentions and aggressions making headlines daily, this stunning page-turner brims with chilling contemporary relevance.
Eva Dillon spent twenty-five years in the magazine publishing business, including stints at Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, The New Yorker, and as president of Reader’s Digest, U.S. Dillon and her six siblings grew up moving around the world for her father’s CIA assignments from Berlin to Mexico City to Rome to New Delhi. A transplanted New Yorker now living in Charleston, she holds a bachelor’s in Music from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Andrew Carroll- The Million Letters Campaign
2017-06-14 14:00 - 16:00
Historian Andrew Carroll’s Million Letters Campaign Comes to Charleston Library Society
To RSVP, call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org.
On June 14, 2017, at 2:00 p.m., Chapman University Historian Andrew Carroll will bring his Million Letters Campaign to the Charleston Library Society. On a multi-state tour throughout the country, Carroll seeks to collect and preserve at least one million war-related correspondences from every conflict in U.S. History, from handwritten missives penned during the American Revolution to emails sent from Iraq and Afghanistan. Local officials such as Mayor John Tecklenberg will be on hand to read from Carroll’s collection of letters, sharing the poignant words of soldiers, sailors and loved ones throughout American history. Staff will also be available to collect donated letters. Letters pertaining to the Lowcountry or South Carolina as a whole may be donated to the Charleston Library Society, with content to be shared with the Million Letters Campaign. Any other letters can be donated directly to the campaign. Donors are encouraged to copy any letters they wish to save ahead of time; copies will also be accepted by the Million Letters Campaign. A light reception will follow Carroll’s presentation.
For questions about donating or scanning letters and correspondences, call 843-723-9912 or email Leah Rhyne at lrhyne@charlestonlibrarysociety.org.
Andrew Carroll is the founding director of the Center for American War Letters (CAWL) at Chapman University in California. He’s made it his life’s mission to raise public awareness about the need to find and preserve war letters and similar writings to honor and remember veterans, troops, and their families. The Million Letters Campaign began in April 2017 and will travel to libraries, schools, historical societies, veterans organizations, etc. to spread the word about why these writings are so important and to encourage people to donate their correspondences to CAWL so they will be preserved forever. For more information, watch Carroll discuss his campaign on ABC News.

Book Signing with Arthur Ravenel, Jr.
2017-06-22 18:00 - 19:00
Join us as Arthur Ravenel, Jr. speaks about his new release, Pastor Stat. Pastor Stat chronicles the journey of Vedder Oberstat, a Huguenot pastor en route to Charleston ready to take his place at the pulpit—but nobody said it was going to be easy. Set at the start of the Civil War, the colorful cast of characters is taken on a death-defying ride as the budding tensions between North and South manifest. A thrilling story of determination and an insightful glimpse into the plight of war, this debut novel by Arthur Ravenel, Jr. is an instant classic. Books will be for sale and Ravenel, Jr. will be signing after the event.
To RSVP, call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org.

Friends of Coastal SC Benefit with Patrick McMillan
2017-06-24 17:00 - 19:00
Saturday, June 24th from 5pm to 7pm:
The work of human hands: Shaping our landscape past, present and future.
Friends of Coastal South Carolina hosts a thought provoking evening with Patrick McMillan. Renowned naturalists and host of the award winning PBS series, Expeditions, Patrick McMillan brings a unique perspective to the challenges of conservation in our time and imparts an equally unique understanding of how we shape our world. The evening is a benefit to support loggerhead sea turtle conservation efforts on Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. Cape Romain is the most important breeding ground for loggerhead sea turtles north of Florida. The nest protection work this benefit supports results in hundreds of thousands of hatchling turtles, who would not otherwise survive, making it to the sea.
Lecture, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres with Patrick McMillan. $50 per person.
To Purchase Tickets Click Here
Sunday June 25:
Tour Bulls Island in Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge with Patrick McMillan.
$40 per person. Trips sponsored by Coastal Expeditions with departures at 10:00 am and 11:15 am. To Purchase Tickets Click on One of the Links Below:
10:00 am departure
11:15 am departure
Patrick McMillan is the host, co-creator and writer of the popular, Emmy Award-winning ETV nature program Expeditions with Patrick McMillan. For over 25 years, Patrick has worked as a professional naturalist, biologist and educator. Patrick is the Glenn and Heather Hilliard Professor of Environmental Sustainability at Clemson University, where he is also a faculty member in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation. He is the director of the South Carolina Botanical Garden, the Bob Campbell Geology Museum and the Clemson Experimental Forest. He has also been inducted as an honorary member of the legendary Class of ’39 at Clemson. Patrick is a dynamic speaker with a passion for engaging the general public and youth in conservation issues and science. This is evidenced by the fact that, in addition to filming Expeditions and his responsibilities at Clemson, he has done over 400 invited presentations since 2008.
For more detailswww.sccoastalfriends.org 843-697-7535.

Lowcountry Freedom Reigns Festival
2017-09-08 09:30 - 10:45
he Charleston Library Society is excited to host three symposiums for the Lowcountry Freedom Reigns Festival. For more information, please visit http://freedomreignsfestival.com/
Discussions of Challenges in a Highly Publicized Trial for a Fair Jury Trial
Friday, September 8th: 9:30am-12:30pm
Join Honorable Costa Pleicones, Chief Justice, SC Supreme Court (Retired) to discuss the challenges in a highly publicized trial for a fair jury trial. You will also hear from a panel including Hon. William Howard, SC Court of Appeals (Retired), Andy Savage, Wallace Lightsey and Jay Richardson. CLE certification (pending) will be available. To register, please click here.
The Trial of Lt. Gov. Tillman; Murder or Self Defense
Friday, September 8th: 1:30pm-5:30pm
Join Honorable Joseph F. Anderson, U.S. District Judge, to discuss the challenges in a highly publicized trial for a fair jury trial. You will also hear from a panel including: Debbie Barbier, Ron Stanley, Dawes Cooke, Ronnie Crosby, Morgan Martin, Jack Swerling and Johnny Linton. Reception to follow. To register, please
Reflections of the Life of Pat Conroy
Saturday, September 9th: 10:00am-10:45am
John Warley, Esq., Author of A Southern Girl and Pat Conroy’s closest friend will lead this symposium through reflection. To register, click here.

Speaker Series: James Rosebush
2017-09-21 18:00 - 19:00
We are excited to host James Rosebush for insightful and dynamic lecture on his book, True Reagan.
What Was Ronald Reagan Really Like?
Peeling back layers of Reagan to explore his outsized values and character, Rosebush relies on what Reagan revealed to him personally, and observations while working and traveling the world with him. True Reagan shows readers the roots of Reagan’s leadership and astounding communication skills, so that we might apply them to global challenges confronting our world today.
JAMES ROSEBUSH – Senior Advisor to Ronald Reagan and Chief of Staff to Nancy Reagan, James Rosebush had unique access to the 40th President. Now he shares his observations to reveal the heart of the man–the thinking, beliefs, and character many have declared “mysterious and unknowable.”
Tickets are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.

Speaker Series: Wolf Burchard
2017-09-26 18:00 - 19:00
Join us for an evening of art and intrigue as Wolf Burchard discusses his new book The Sovereign Artist – Charles Le Brun and the Image of Louis XIV!
To RSVP, call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
Wolf Burchard is an art and architectural historian, and specialist on 17th and 18th century royal patronage. He is the National Trust’s Furniture Research Curator and was Curatorial Assistant at the Royal Collection Trust from 2009 to 2014 where he assisted Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of The Queen’s Pictures, in curating “The First Georgians: Art & Monarchy, 1714-1760” at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, commemorating the tercentenary of George I’s accession to the British Throne. He studied history of art and architecture at the universities of Tübingen, Vienna and the Courtauld Institute of Art, from which he holds an MA and PhD. He publishes and regularly lectures on the art and architectural patronage at the British, French and German courts; he is a Trustee of the Georgian Group, a member of the Events Committee and Editorial Panel of the Furniture History Society, and a member of the Committee of the Society for Court Studies.
“This is the best book on this “universal man”, as some contemporaries called him, in English. Wolf Burchard brings to this labour of love the knowledge that comes from a lifelong fascination with Versailles and the reign of Louis XIV…. The Sovereign Artist is a fascinating, readable account of a supreme moment of French and court art. … This wonderful book proves, yet again, the vital importance of courts and monarchs for the arts.” Dr Philip Mansel, Literary Review, July 2017

Music at the Library: The Return of Porto Seguro
2017-09-28 19:00 - 20:00
The Return of Porto Seguro
7:00PM
$20 members / $30 nonmembers
Back by popular demand, especially after Hurricane Mathew prevented their performance last season, Porto Seguro will kick off the Music at the Library Series with the rhythms of Brazil! Porto Seguro is a local band that specializes in samba and Brazilian bahia music. While the music will have you moving, the knowledgeable performers will give you background on these lively and interesting genres. Come enjoy the sounds, and sights, of Brazilian music as we begin our festival of music season.
Tickets are $20 for members and $30 for nonmembers. To purchase tickets, please call 843-723-9912 or click here.

MUSC Health Care Series: Dr. Mark Scheurer
2017-10-03 17:30 - 18:30
MUSC Health Series at the Charleston Library Society
Fall series topic: Coopetition in the Health Care Industry: How do competitors work together to improve patient care?
Dr. Mark Scheurer, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of MUSC Children’s Health
MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital: How one facility can help meet statewide children’s healthcare needs
To RSVP, call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
Now under construction, MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital is a $385 million project which will be open to patients in 2019. The facility will be one of just a few of its kind in the country. How will it serve the entire state, while connecting with other health systems for a comprehensive approach to children’s health care in SC?
Originally from Tennessee, Dr. Scheurer earned his medical degree at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He traveled to Duke University Medical Center to complete his residency in internal medicine, subsequently arriving in Charleston in 2002, where he completed a fellowship in pediatric cardiology. He then completed a senior fellowship as a pediatric cardiac intensivist at the children’s hospital in Boston before coming back to Charleston. In 2014, Dr. Scheurer was appointed to the role of chief medical officer of the children’s hospital, and in 2016 as the chief of the integrated clinical center of excellence for both children’s and women’s health. In that role, he is overseeing the construction of the new MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital.

Speaker Series: Temple St. Clair
2017-10-05 18:00 - 19:00
Join us as we partner with Croghan’s Jewel Box to host jewelry maker, Temple St. Clair, as she discusses her journey and her most recent book The Golden Menagerie.
To RSVP, call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
TEMPLE ST CLAIR found her passion for creative expression in gold and precious gemstones 30 years ago. St. Clair founded her company in Florence, Italy, beginning her partnership with the world’s finest goldsmiths – the centuries-old Florentine jewelers’ guild. Barneys New York inaugurated their fine jewellery department with St. Clair’s first collection in 1986. In 2016, Temple St. Clair was awarded the GEM Award for Jewelry Design, the jewelry industry’s most prestigious honor.
With an artist’s eye and explorer’s heart, St. Clair fashions rare colored gems with distinctive gold work to illustrate universal narratives of the earth and cosmos.
Temple’s Fine Jewellery collection is recognized for iconic rock crystal amulets, signature triple granulation and archer’s granule; all are signature brand elements with a nod to the designer’s classical foundation.
With her High Jewellery collection, St. Clair celebrates a connoisseur level of gemstones with one-of-a-kind pieces born out of an ongoing quest for the rarest stones in the world – richly patterned Lightening Ridge Australian Black Opal, electric blue Brazilian Paraiba Tourmaline, Classic Colombian Emerald, fiery African Tsavorite and Mandarin Garnet, and the finest Royal Blue Moonstone.
Finally, the Haute Couture work of Temple St. Clair represents artistry at its most collectible. Uncompromising in her choice of materials and execution, St. Clair explores themes that are meaningful to her through a delightful lens of whimsy and discovery. Her critically acclaimed nine-piece collection of Haute Couture, Mythical Creatures from the Golden Menagerie, made its début at the Louvre Museum in Paris in January 2015. Among her publications are The Golden Menagerie (2016), celebrating her Haute Couture collection, and Alchemy: A Passion for Jewels (2008).
In June 2017, Temple’s 18K Eight Ring Tolomeo Pendant, the central masterpiece of her renowned Celestial collection, will be adopted into the permanent collection of Les Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre in Paris, France.
