Boston Public Library Lowell Lecture Series

The Boston Public Library has announced a schedule for the Lowell Lecture Series, which celebrates the city and some of its most distinguished contributors in the arts, journalism, cuisine, literature, and business. Each speaker will discuss their experiences as a ground-breaker in their field while looking at how Boston has shaped – and has been shaped by – their contributions.

These lectures, all of which are free, take place at the in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street. The series features questions from the audience and includes book sales and signings. The Lowell Lecture series has a dedicated page on the Boston Public Library website at www.bpl.org/news/lowell.htm.

The schedule is as follows:

• Thursday, Jan. 13, at 6 p.m. in Rabb Lecture Hall: Keith Lockhart, Boston Pops conductor. Keith Lockhart became the 20^th conductor of the Boston Pops in 1995, adding his artistic vision to the Pops tradition established by his predecessors John Williams and Arthur Fiedler. During his 15-year tenure, he has conducted the Boston Pops in more than 1,300 concerts and introduced the innovative JazzFest and EdgeFest series, which feature the Pops performing with some of today’s most prominent jazz and indie artists. One of Mr. Lockhart’s favorite events is the annual Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular, broadcast nationally and watched by approximately 10 million viewers each year.

• Wednesday, March 9, at 6:00 p.m. in Rabb Lecture Hall: Jim Koch, Boston Beer Company founder. In 1984, Jim Koch brewed his first batch of beer in his kitchen using his great-great grandfather’s original recipe. At the time, Koch was working at Boston Consulting Group after receiving BA, MBA and JD degrees from Harvard University. Koch chose the name Samuel Adams in honor of the Boston patriot, and he introduced Sam Adams Boston Lager on Patriots’ Day in 1985. Six weeks after the introduction, Samuel Adams was picked as “The Best Beer in America” at The Great American Beer Festival; the beer has won more awards in international beer tasting competitions in the past twenty years than any other lager in the world. Sam Adams has a .

• Thursday, March 24, at 6 p.m. in Rabb Lecture Hall: Ellen Goodman, Boston Globe columnist. Ellen Goodman is one of the most influential journalists in the United States. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning column appears in over 400 newspapers, making her the second most widely read columnist in the country. Her column first appeared in 1974, and Goodman has spent much of her career chronicling social change and its impact on American life. Her first book, Turning Points (1979), detailed the effect of the changing roles of women on the family. Six collections of her columns have been published and she most recently co-authored “I Know Just What You Mean: The Power of Friendship in Women’s Lives” (2000).

• Wednesday, April 6, at 6 p.m. in Rabb Lecture Hall: Jonathan Kozol, educator, author, and advocate for social justice. Jonathan Kozol has devoted over four decades to the issues of education and social justice in America. In the mid-1960s, Kozol moved from Harvard Square into a poor black neighborhood of Boston and became a fourth grade teacher in the Boston public schools. His Death at an Early Age, a description of his first year as a teacher, was published in 1967 and received the 1968 National Book Award in Science, Philosophy, and Religion. Among the other highly honored books that he has written are Rachel and Her Children, a study of homeless mothers and their children, and Savage Inequalities. In his most recent work, Letters to a Young Teacher (2007), Kozol draws upon four decades of experience to guide the newest generation of our nation’s teachers into the ethically complicated challenges as well as “the sheer joy and passionate rewards” of what he calls “a beautiful profession.”

• Tuesday, May 24, at 6 p.m. in Rabb Lecture Hall: Chefs’ Panel with Barbara Lynch, Lydia Shire, and Jody Adams and Alison Arnett, moderator. The Boston Public Library will welcome three enormously talented chefs – Jody Adams, Barbara Lynch, and Lydia Shire – for a roundtable discussion moderated by former Boston Globe dining critic Alison Arnett. These culinary experts will explore the evolution of their extraordinary careers, the launching of their groundbreaking restaurants, and the transformation of Boston dining scene.

• Fall 2011 (Date TBD) at 6 p.m. in Rabb Lecture Hall: Malcolm Rogers, Museum of Fine Arts Director. Malcolm Rogers assumed the role of Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1994. During the past 16 years, he has expanded the Museum’s collection, presented a variety of innovative exhibitions, enhanced arts education programs, significantly enlarged the MFA’s campus, and welcomed new audiences. Under his leadership, the MFA has renovated and reopened both historic entrances and undergone a transformative building expansion and renovation, including the new wing for the Art of the Americas collections and the glass-enclosed Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard.