Town Hall series looks forward to next year

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The Yakima Town Hall Lecture Series closed out its 36th year of "bringing the outside world to Yakima," on Wednesday, but tickets are already on sale for the 2009-10 season. The speakers are:

* Sept. 17 -- Well-known political columnist and social commentator David Brooks will present "The Spirit of Our Times."

Brooks writes an Op-Ed
column in The New York Times and has been a senior editor at The Weekly Standard and a contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly. An author and regular commentator on National Public Radio, CNN's "Late Edition" and PBS's "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer," Brooks examines American society through the lens of pop sociology.

* Oct. 21 -- Dan Buettner, a National Geographic explorer, author, Emmy Award winner and long distance cyclist, will present "Blue Zones -- Living Longer and Better -- What Really Works!"

Buettner will talk about his travels and discoveries of "blue zones," or specific locations where high percentages of the population live remarkably long and full lives.

* March 17, 2010 --
Spend A Morning With Naomi Judd, the six-time Grammy Award winner who will share the struggles she faced as a single mother and a victim of domestic abuse, and the strength it took to become a successful country singer and mother of two accomplished daughters.

* April 14, 2010 -- Geoffrey Canada, an expert on family and children's issues, will present "Improving the Lives of Children, One Poor Child at a Time."

Canada, who grew up in the South Bronx, earned his master's degree from Harvard's Graduate School of Education and is the president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone in New York, an organization whose goal is to increase high school and college graduation rates among students in Harlem.

All Town Hall lectures start at 11 a.m. at the Capitol Theatre and tickets are sold only as a package deal. Tickets for next season cost $75 through
the Allied ArtsCenter. Call 509-966-0930.

For more information on the lecture series, visit www.yakimatownhall.com.