Wednesday, September 19, 2007, 6:30 pm, an evening about Friendship, with CHRISTOPHER ZINN and BILL RAY, live music by GAY DECEIVERS, food by Bertha Mendoza. Podkrepa Hall, 2116 North Killingsworth Street, 705-9450. Tickets $45.
A friend is a second self.
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
-- Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384-22 BCE)
What is more titillating than the romance of a new friendship, or more heart-breaking
than losing the confidence of a beloved friend? A pervasive nostalgia has deflated public
expression of this astonishingly important aspect of our lives. Friendships transform
regularly, shifting and morphing and often leading to erotic desire and dreams of
jealousy and revenge. For this very special evening, the back room has invited two
distinguished minds and dear friends--Christopher Zinn and Bill Ray--to share a public
conversation on the nature of Friendship, perhaps the most precious and precarious of
social relations.
Christopher Zinn grew up in Pine City, NY, and was educated at Georgetown University and
at New York University, where he received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature.
He taught Humanities and American literature at Reed College, directed the college's
American Studies program, and was Fulbright Senior lecturer in Turkey in 1993-94. In May
1997, he was appointed Executive Director of the Oregon Council for the Humanities, and
continued in that position until 2006. He has also taught cultural history at the Oregon
College of Art and Craft, and he lectures and writes frequently on American literature
and culture. Currently, he teaches humanities at the Portland Waldorf High School.
Bill Ray teaches French, Literary Theory, and the Humanities at Reed College, where he
holds the John B. and Elizabeth M. Yeon Chair in French and the Humanities. In addition
to books on contemporary literary theory, the history of the French and English novel,
and, most recently, the concept of culture, Bill has written articles on literary theory
and the literature of the eighteenth century. A graduate of Wabash College and the
University of Chicago, Bill has also taught at the State University of New York and the
University of Oregon.
The evening will commence and conclude with the exquisite sounds of Gay Deceivers. Fresh
off their PICA TBA performance, and about to release their debut album, Gay Deceivers
(who are Haley Weiner and Sarah Gottesdiener) have known each other since they were five
years old in Hartford, CT, and been a band in various incarnations since they were
sixteen years old. They will play songs they wrote six months ago, and songs they wrote
nine years ago.
Bertha Mendoza, of North Portland's Taqueria Chiquita, will serve a sit-down meal of her specialty, birria (goat stew), hand-made tortillas, barbacoa (spicy beef), pollo verde, a suite of home-made salsas, and rice and beans. Wine, beer, soda, and El Presidente brandy (and tips) all included.