Before your first visit, please read our Parking requirements. Also check our WORKSHOPS for writers for even more events! Unless noted, no RSVP required. ALL ARE WELCOME!
SATURDAY, OCT 19, 4-6: DIANE ROMAINE NOVEL
Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Sonoma State University, Diane Romaine retired to live in In Guanajuato, Mexico. She enjoys teaching beginning Lindy Hop, taming the four scaredy-cats that scramble over her garden wall, and walking hillside goat trails. Even more, she has used her experiences to write her novel, The Trumpet Lesson," just published. Kirkus Reviews deems it “An arresting novel about tightly wound secrets and the art of letting go of them.”
Let's give her a special welcome as she returns to Sonoma County to discuss her book and the process of creating it.
Let's give her a special welcome as she returns to Sonoma County to discuss her book and the process of creating it.
SUNDAY, OCT 20, 2-4: GODDEN'S MONASTIC WRITINGS SALON
Meredith Sabini will help us understand Godden’s fascination with women’s monastic orders. Interested in the Catholic Church, and eventually converting, many of her later novels portray clergymen and women favorably. Like Black Narcissus, Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy and In This House of Brede focus on women in religious communities.
Diana Rigg starred in a multi-part TV call In This House of Brede for the BBC.
THURSDAY, OCT 24, 6-9: TRAVEL TALES POTLUCK
What travelers these Sitting Room denizens are! More tales, some told with the aid of photos and some not, each teller allotted about 15 minutes each. We’ve already signed up two or three, (two of them who went to Japan on very different trips,) and would welcome another three or four even if to less exotic places. Email J.J. Wilson at boxcar@sonic.net, if you want to come prepared to present or if you want to be part of the audience. First at 6 p.m. we eat, of course, international dishes featured; stories begin 7p.m.
SATURDAY, OCT 26, 1-5: OBITUARY WORKSHOP
Write your own obituary! It's fun and easy when you remember your story, organize its chapters, and communicate what makes you wonderful. Learn the form, then forget it if you like—or—make the whole thing up and imagine a life as yet undiscovered. More seriously, this is also a practical occasion to prepare for the inevitable. In time for All Hallows and Dia de los Muertos meditations, The Sitting Room's annual Obituary Workshop will unfold Saturday, October 26, from 1 to 5 p.m. Led by Marie Thomas McNaughton. FREE! To reserve your space, email J.J. Wilson at boxcar@sonic.net before Oct. 15, 2019.
Oct 25 and 27, SONOMA FILM INSTITUTE, BLACK NARCISSUS
The Sonoma Film Institute at SSU features the movie based on Rumer Godden's haunting novel. She was not pleased with the results, but cinema critics disagreed. The noted team of Powell and Pressburger use Technicolor and cinematography to great effect. Details of the showing to follow. Terry Ebinger will introduce the film and lead a discussion after both showings.
Friday showing is at 7, Sunday at 4.
For location and parking, go to: https://sfi.sonoma.edu/
NOV 1 AND 3, SONOMA FILM INSTITUTE, THE RIVER
Jean Renoir's movie of the Rumer Godden novel was very influential and considered one of his greatest works. Godden worked with Renoir and was very pleased with the results. It won the Venice Film Festival in 1951. Eleanor Nichols will introduce the Friday showing only.
Friday showing is at 7, Sunday at 4.
For location and parking, go to: https://sfi.sonoma.edu/
Friday showing is at 7, Sunday at 4.
For location and parking, go to: https://sfi.sonoma.edu/
friday, Nov 8, 6 pm: annual harvest dinner and fundraiser for the living room in santa rosa
This year features Karen Fitzgerald’s famous enchiladas on the menu. For the After Dinner Treat, Rim and Rassan Zahra will read from their newly published translations from the Arabic of Ghada Samman, described by Etel Adnan as turning to poetry “in order to follow the thread of her life, to seek light in chaos.” Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing.
Cindy Pasko, from the Living Room, will update us on some of their new developments. Checks made out to the Living Room are requested. Do consult http://www.thelivingroomsc.org/ for pressing needs such as motel cosmetics, diapers, socks, etc. Space is limited even though the Living Room needs are not — so sign up right away and make a donation even if you don’t get to come to dinner. Please RSVP to J.J., boxcar@sonic.net or 707.795.9028 to reserve your place at the table.
Cindy Pasko, from the Living Room, will update us on some of their new developments. Checks made out to the Living Room are requested. Do consult http://www.thelivingroomsc.org/ for pressing needs such as motel cosmetics, diapers, socks, etc. Space is limited even though the Living Room needs are not — so sign up right away and make a donation even if you don’t get to come to dinner. Please RSVP to J.J., boxcar@sonic.net or 707.795.9028 to reserve your place at the table.
saturday, nov 16, 2-4: beyond the fires, maya khosla
Maya's presentation features excerpts from her new writing about wildfire, a new 10-minute clip from Firewise, and a rough cut that is developing into one of the Legacy Project films that is a part of her poet laureate project. Firewise is led by scientists and retired firefighters Tim Ingalsbee and Rich Fairbanks, organic farmer Lisa Bjorn, scientist Chad Hanson, and others. The clip will reveal the story of fires across the west through the current science and the personal narratives of the main characters, the world of fire as seen through their eyes and the real dos and don’ts in an age of climate change.