, AUGUST 21st
Award-Winning Literary Journalist & Producer of a Netflix Series Based on His Books
 
Jeff Sharlet is an award-winning literary journalist and author of seven books including New York Times bestseller, THE FAMILY: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power and C STREET: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy. He is also the executive producer of the top-rated Netflix documentary series based on the books.
 
Jeff’s new book is THIS BRILLIANT DARKNESS: A Book of Strangers. In this masterful collection of images and reflections, he invites us to see his subjects – the people, moments and things we actively ignore or take no notice of. “The book ingeniously reminds us that all of our lives — our struggles, desires, grief — happen concurrently with everyone else’s, and this awareness helps dissolve the boundaries between us” (New York Times).
 
This is a book of other people’s lives, lives that became, for a moment— the duration of a snapshot— my life, too. – Jeff Sharlet

Jeff is the Frederick Sessions Beebe ’35 Professor in the Art of Writing, a member of the Society of Fellows, and Director of Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. He is an editor-at-large for Virginia Quarterly Review and a contributing editor for Harper’s and Rolling Stone. He has also contributed to The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, GQ, Esquire, Mother Jones, and more.

His work has earned numerous awards, including the National Magazine Award, the Outspoken Award, the MOLLY National Journalism Prize, the University of Virginia’s Staige D. Blackford Prize for Nonfiction, and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s Thomas Jefferson Award, and he has been the recipient of numerous fellowships from the MacDowell Colony.

He has been a frequent guest on The Rachel Maddow Show, Fresh Air, All In with Chris Hayes, CNN, and many other television and radio programs, and a speaker at  colleges and universities including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke, Penn, UVA, USC, University of Iowa, the Naval War College, and many others. He has been a Visiting Academic at Trinity College Dublin and a Visiting Research Scholar at NYU.
 
The Tory Hill Authors Series is an annual summer event sponsored by the Warner Historical Society showcasing locally and nationally known authors reading and talking about their books and personal experiences.  The audience will be able to interact with the author online.  The readings begin at 7:00 p.m.  Tickets are five dollars and may be purchased online at www.toryhillauthorsseries.com.  A zoom link will be sent upon purchase.
 
The Warner Historical Society formed over 50 years ago to preserve, educate about and keep alive Warner’s heritage.  The Society has yearly exhibits and programs in the Upton Chandler House Museum on Main Street and maintains the Lower Warner Meeting House which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Mobility is essential to freedom." Dr. Gretchen Sorin
 
August 20 – Portsmouth  The Black Heritage Trail of NH is proud to partner with the Prescott Park Arts Festival to bring this evocative and compelling PBS documentary, Driving While Black, to the Seacoast on August 20 at dusk at the Prescott Park stage.
In addition to the film, join BHTNH for the unveiling of our new Greenbook Tour on August 22 at 2pm. On this tour you will see the places and hear the stories of the local people whose homes served as safe vacation spots for African American travelers. Registration on our website.
BHTNH will host a talk-back via zoom with author Gretchin Sorin and filmmaker Ric Burns on Monday, August 23 at 6pm. Registration required.
 
Chronicling the riveting history and personal experiences – at once liberating and challenging, harrowing and inspiring, deeply revealing and profoundly transforming – of African Americans on the road from the advent of the automobile through the seismic changes of the 1960s and beyond – "Driving While Black" explores the deep background of a recent phrase rooted in realities that have been an indelible part of the African American experience for hundreds of years – told in large part through the stories of the men, women and children who lived through it.
Drawing on a wealth of recent scholarship – and based on and inspired in large part by Dr. Gretchen Sorin’s recently published study of the way the automobile and highways transformed African American life across the 20th century ("Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights" (W.W. Norton, 2020)) – the film examines the history of African Americans on the road from the depths of the Depression to the height of the Civil Rights movement and beyond, exploring along the way the deeply embedded dynamics of race, space and mobility in America during one of the most turbulent and transformative periods in American history.

Watch the extended trailer now!

​THE MOONMATES ARE READY TO BLAST OFF
The original comedy “Moonmates: Roommates on the Moon” will run at the Hatbox Theatre from August 20th through the 29th.  Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 2:00pm. Tickets are $22 for adults, $19 for members, seniors and students and $16 for senior members. Tickets may be reserved by calling 603-715-2315 or purchased online at www.hatboxnh.com.
“Moonmates” tells the story of two bumbling astronauts working on a decrepit, for-profit lunar base. They must overcome their frustrations with one another in order to complete their two-year contract. Melding slapstick, sitcom, and farce, the play is stuffed with dubious science and plenty of laughs.
Brian Paul and Bretton Reis, two veteran New Hampshire-based theatre artists, wrote and premiered “Moonmates” back in 2018. Their initial performance run proved the show to be a hit.
Seacoast Online called it, “A hilarious blast. It’s a blend of humor styles, stupid-smart, and above all deftly performed and written.”
Reis, who also designed a functional sci-fi set for the piece, mused, “After the last year, audiences are ready to laugh, and to get away. Far away. Like to the moon.”
“Moonmates” is fun for most ages, with mild references to adult situations and substances.


ABOUT HATBOX THEATRE: Hatbox Theatre is a dynamic live performance arts space with a mission to service and foster a cooperative community to develop unique, intimate experiences for audiences and artists. Hatbox Theatre is located at the Steeplegate Mall, 270 Loudon Road, Concord, NH.