Back to All Events

In Conversation With The Rosenbach: Nathaniel Popkin

We're sorry, but all tickets sales have ended because the event is expired.

Date / Time

  • March 28, 2019
    6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Location

2008-2010 Delancey Place, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19103, United States

To Reach The Spring: The Banality of Evil and the Climate Crisis

Nathaniel Popkin will read and discuss a new work, To Reach the Spring, which asks, what do we owe our children and grandchildren if the greenhouse gases we contributed to global warming cause extreme suffering or death? Should we someday be held morally accountable? Popkin’s work draws on his own experience as an environmental organizer as well as the work of Hannah Arendt and Primo Levi, and contemporary ecologists and scientists. To Reach the Spring is a literary essay in the spirit of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, meant to place a new lens on a paralyzing problem in human society.

Nathaniel Popkin’s interlocutor for the evening will be Dr. Bethany Wiggin, Founding Director, Penn Program in Environmental Humanities.

About the Speaker

Nathaniel Popkin is the author of five books, including the recent novel Everything is Borrowed, and co-editor of the anthology Who Will Speak for America? He is the co-founder of the web magazine HiddenCity Daily and writer of the 2018 documentary film Sisters in Freedom.

Bethany Wiggin joined the faculty at Penn in 2003 where, with her students, she founded the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities (PPEH) in 2015. She is also an Associate Professor of German and a member of the Graduate Groups in Comparative Literature and English. Under her leadership, PPEH received a $1.5 million award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Wiggin has also received grants and awards from the National Geographic Foundation, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Whiting Foundation.

Join the Conversation

A series of informal, intimate talks given by literary and cultural luminaries, In Conversation With The Rosenbach delves into fascinating histories, intellectual curiosities, and inspiring ideas. Each program offers audience members a chance to join the conversation after the talk and share their own thoughts and questions. In Conversation With The Rosenbach is supported by a grant from the Christian R. & Mary F. Lindback Foundation.

Seating is limited; advance registration is strongly recommended.