Event: The Harry Ransom Center hosts free public programs.
When: Various dates throughout December.
Where: Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin, 21st and Guadalupe streets.
Background: The Harry Ransom Center presents public programs related to its exhibitions “The Mystique of the Archive” and “A Cabinet of Drawings” and the Center’s holdings. The events are free and open to the public. Seating is first-come, first-serve, and doors open 30 minutes prior to the start of events.
Poetry on the Plaza: “Winter Landscapes”
Wednesday, Dec. 3, noon, at the Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center presents the free Poetry on the Plaza event “Winter Landscapes.” Find relief from an unseasonably warm December with poetry that evokes winter landscapes. Hear poetry by E. E. Cummings, Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton from the Ransom Center’s manuscript collections and winter classics by Emily Dickinson, James Russell Lowell, John Greenleaf Wittier and Robert Frost from the Center’s rare book collection.
“A Child’s Christmas in Wales”
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 7 p.m., at the Ransom Center
Enjoy an original jazz version of Dylan Thomas’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” performed by Alex Coke, Suzy Stern, Buddy Mohmed and Rich Harney. The project began two years ago at the Ransom Center as a live reading of Thomas’s beloved short story interwoven with music and blossomed into a studio recording project. This holiday season the Austin-based jazz quartet will again perform the piece, which mixes original jazz compositions, improvisation and sound effects with the classic prose. A CD recording of the piece will be available for purchase at the performance. This program will be webcast.
Archives Film Series: “The Name of the Rose”
Monday, Dec. 15, 7 p.m., at the Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center concludes the Archives Film Series with Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “The Name of the Rose.” Adapted from Umberto Eco’s novel of the same name, the film stars Sean Connery and Christian Slater as a Franciscan friar and his apprentice, who are called upon to solve a deadly mystery in a medieval abbey.
