Senior Obama Advisors, Axelrod, Plouffe, Favreau to Visit UAlbany

The University at Albany will host the architects of Barack Obama's two successful presidential campaigns.

On Saturday, Sept. 28, the school's "World Within Reach" speaker series will host David Axelrod [pictured here], David Plouffe and Jon Favreau for a night "Inside the Obama Campaign." Axelrod is Obama's former senior advisor, Plouffe was his campaign manager and Favreau is former director of speechwriting for the president.

Students are allowed to ask questions, but they will be filtered through the school's Student Association, which is now gathering them ahead of time.

The event will be held on the same day Robert Jones will be installed as the school's 19th president.

8:00pm

World Within Reach Speaker Series SEFCU Arena Hosted by the Student Association, University Auxiliary Services, and UAlbany Alumni Association. Free and Open to UA faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends (not the general public).                     Registration required. Contact: Student Association

Read More......

Insight into How We Pick Our Visiting Writers

A couple of years ago we were approached at an event by James Mann's mother (an Albany resident who is now 92 years old). She told us in no uncertain terms that we needed to feature her son in our series.

Since that time, we have been trying to work out a suitable date with Mann, who was born and raised in Albany, and who attended the Albany Academy.

Mann visits this coming Tuesday. His mother plans to attend both events.

James Mann, journalist and nonfiction writer
October 9 (Tuesday)
Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus
Reading — 8:00 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus
Born and raised in Albany, NY, journalist James Mann is a sought-after authority on the behind-the-scenes deliberations over foreign policy within recent American presidential administrations. His newest book is The Obamians: The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power (2012), an insider’s guide to the events, ideas, personalities, and conflicts that have defined Barack Obama’s foreign policy. In a New York Times review Michiko Kakutani said, “Drawing upon some 125 interviews…Mr. Mann writes with shrewdness and insight about the evolution of the president’s thinking, tensions among his staff…and contrasts and continuities between his conduct of foreign policy and that of the previous two presidents.” Mann achieved international renown with Rise of the Vulcans (2004), a revelatory and much-cited study of George W. Bush’s war cabinet. A former Beijing Bureau Chief for the L. A. Times, Mann is also the author of three award-winning books on America’s evolving relationship with China.

Read More......

An Army of Storytellers

"...[Storytelling] is important for the very idea of understanding -- for people to understand each other, other countries, other languages, maybe even themselves a little better. Fulbright wasn't founded in 1946 to send people on vacation; it was founded to bridge communities, to build ties, to share knowledge, to solve some of our pressing global challenges, and to work for peace."

Poet Tom Healy, who shares the stage with Mary Gaitskill tonight in Saratoga, was appointed Chairman of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board by President Obama in 2011. He wrote earlier this month in the Huffington Post of his mission to encourage Fulbright scholars to take storytelling seriously.

Read more in the Huffington Post.

Healy grew up on a dairy farm in Mount Vision, NY. His 2009 poetry collection, What the Right Hand Knows was a finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Lambda Literary Award in Poetry He will share the stage with fiction writer Mary Gaitskill, tonight, Wednesday, July 25th, 8PM, Davis Audiorium, Palamountain Hall, 815 North Broadway, Saratoga. Free.

Click here for more events in the series. All are free and open to the general public.

Read More......

The Obamians Reviewed in NY Times

James Mann, child of Albany, has a new book on President Obama's foreign policy team.

Leslie Gelb reviews it in the New York Times:  "Like the best reporters, Mann lets his subjects speak for themselves, then checks their fancies against the facts. He has given us a very good first cut at history."

Read more.

Read More......