The Bryan Series®

Bryan Series Event Featuring Anthony Bourdain in Durham Feb. 19 is Sold Out

The Bryan Series event featuring Anthony Bourdain at the Durham Performing Arts Center Thursday, Feb. 19, is sold out. Nearly 2,200 tickets were purchased by the general public and nearly 500 were claimed by Guilford College friends, alumni, students and faculty.

"No Reservations: An Evening with Anthony Bourdain" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. at the center, which opened in November. It is the first Bryan Series event to be held outside of Greensboro, and is a bonus to this year's four-event subscription series at War Memorial Auditorium.

Bourdain is the popular chef, author and host of an Emmy-nominated program on the Travel Channel. His bestselling memoir, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, has been translated into more than 28 languages.

Amanpour Receives The Fourth Estate Award from National Press Club

Christiane Amanpour, who appeared in the Bryan Series Nov. 18, received the National Press Club's highest honor for excellence in journalism, The Fourth Estate Award, Nov. 21 in Washington, D.C.

The award is given annually to an individual who has achieved distinction for a lifetime of contributions to American journalism. Amanpour is the 36th recipient of the award. She is only the fourth female honoree and, at 50, one of the youngest ever to receive the award.

C-SPAN broadcast the award ceremony, which included a "roast" of Amanpour featuring former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (2001 Bryan Series), Amanpour's CNN colleague Wolf Blitzer and others.

To view the program, click here.

North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC to Air Amanpour-Rubin Program on Jan. 2

The "America and the World" prorgram featuring Christiane Amanpour and James Rubin, presented in the Bryan Series Nov. 18, is scheduled to be aired by North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC on Friday, Jan. 2, at Noon.

The broadcast will be a special presentation of The State of Things, the weekday public affairs program hosted by Frank Stasio. Stasio was the moderator for the Q&A portion of the Nov. 18 program at War Memorial Auditorium.

Amanpour is the chief international correspondent for CNN and Rubin, her husband, as a deputy to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in the Clinton Administration. They made a joint presentation to 2,000 attendees in the Bryan Series.

North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC (91.5), is heard from central North Carolina to the coast. The station has been a media partner for the Bryan Series since 2004.

Listen online at www.wunc.org.

Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" to be Motion Picture

Acclaimed director Deepa Mehta (Water) will turn Sir Salman Rushdie's novel about India's independence, Midnight's Children, into a feature film, slated for a 2010 completion.

"In literature," Mehta says, "there are only a handful of characters that remain indelible in my mind. On top of my list is Saleem, the protagonist of … Midnight's Children."

In July of this year, Midnight's Children was voted by fans around the world as the best book to win the Booker in the prize's first 40 years.

"Two thirds of the voters were very, very young," notes Rushdie, who published the book in 1981. "They were under 30 and they still found the book relevant to their times."

Rushie is scheduled to speak in the Bryan Series Feb. 10.

Nearly 800 Tickets Sold for Anthony Bourdain Event Feb. 19 in Durham

After one month of sales, nearly 800 tickets have been purchased for the Bryan Series program featuring chef and author Anthony Bourdain at the new Durham (N.C.) Performing Arts Center.

Bourdain, host of the Travel Channel's "No Reservations" and author of the best-selling book Kitchen Confidential, will speak about his life and work at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19.

Tickets are $35 for orchestra and grand tier seats and $20 for balcony seats and are on sale online and by phone at 919-680-ARTS (2787). A limited number of VIP packages remain. The program is not part of the 2008-09 Greensboro subscription package, which is sold out.

More information is available here.

Friends of the Library to Host Seminar on How Election Results Affect Foreign Policy Nov. 16

The Friends of the Library will host a seminar entitled "What do the Election Results Mean for U.S. Foreign Policy" Sunday, Nov. 16, at 3 p.m. in the Guilford College Art Gallery in Hege Library. The program is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served.

This seminar is being presented in advance of the Nov. 18 Bryan Series event featuring CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour and former Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin. Professors Ken Gilmore and Kyle Dell of the Political Science Department will provide a scholarly framework for ideas expected to be presented in the series event.

This is the second in a series of seminars presented by the Friends of the Library.

Bryan Series is Sold Out for 2008-09, with a Record 1,853 Season Pass Holders

The 2008-09 Bryan Series is sold out at 2,400-seat War Memorial Auditorium, including a record 1,853 season passes sold.

"We are very excited about the unprecedented response to our season pass campaign that resulted in a season sellout nearly three months before the first event," said Ty Buckner, senior director of communications and marketing.

Season pass tickets will be mailed to subscribers in September. Guilford will distribute tickets to its students and employees three weeks prior to each event.

Subscribers who cannot attend a particular event are encouraged to return their tickets to the college as a tax-deductible, non-cash gift. Ticket donations received no later than three weeks prior to the event will be acknowledged for tax purposes.

Unused tickets from subscribers or the college, if any, will be placed on sale to the public approximately two weeks prior to each event. Single-event sales are handled by the Greensboro Coliseum Advance Box Office and Ticketmaster.

Persons who are interested in receiving updates on single-event ticket availability should e-mail a request to thebryanseries@guilford.edu.

Fewer Than 50 Seats Remain for Upcoming Season as Subscriptions Top 1,800 Mark

As of July 18, 1,823 subscriptions have been sold to the 2008-09 Bryan Series, meaning there are fewer than 50 seats available for public sale and a season sell-out is likely.

Included in the subscription total are 744 renewals and 1,079 new subscriptions. Last season there were 1,008 subscriptions. The previous record was 1,300 in 2005-06.

New subscriptions are $80 and are available at the Greensboro Coliseum Advance Box Office, online at www.guilford.edu/bryanseries or by calling 336-218-5550.

2008-09 Season Subscriptions Approach 1,800 Mark

As of July 9, 1,780 subscriptions have been sold to the 2008-09 Bryan Series, meaning there are fewer than 100 seats available for public sale and a season sell-out is likely.

Included in the subscription total are 744 renewals and 1,036 new subscriptions. Last season there were 1,008 subscriptions. The previous record was 1,300 in 2005-06.

New subscriptions are $80 and are available at the Greensboro Coliseum Advance Box Office, online at http://www.guilford.edu/bryanseries or by calling 336-218-5550.

CNN’s Amanpour to Replace Russert in Bryan Series on Nov. 18

Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent, will replace the late Tim Russert in this year’s Bryan Series. She will present a program entitled “America and the World” with her husband, former Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin, on Tuesday, Nov. 18, at 7:30 p.m. at War Memorial Auditorium.  Russert died suddenly on June 13.

Amanpour is best known for her reporting from war zones and hot spots around the world, ranging from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Balkans to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. Her work, the cornerstone for CNN’s coverage of major international events, includes exclusive interviews with figures such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Yasser Arafat, Tony Blair and Pervez Musharraf, among other world leaders

Her recent work has focused on the production of a series of highly acclaimed long-form programs that have aired across the CNN networks. In 2007, she presented a six-hour series on the world’s three leading monotheistic religions and their defenders, “God’s Warriors.”

Amanpour is the recipient of numerous honors, including two George Foster Peabody Awards and nine Emmy Awards. A native of London who lived in Iran as a child, Amanpour’s family left that country after  the 1979 coup. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

As assistant secretary of state and chief spokesman for the State Department, Rubin served as top adviser to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and oversaw efforts to communicate with the public regarding foreign policy. Since leaving the State Department, he has been a visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Columbia University, and is a regular commentator for the Financial Times, the BBC and CNN.  He is a graduate of Columbia.

The 2008-09 Bryan Series opens with author Khaled Hosseini on Friday, Oct. 24. Following the Amanpour-Rubin program, the series continues with Salman Rushdie (Feb. 10) and Anna Quindlen (April 14).

Season passes are now on sale at the Greensboro Coliseum Advance Box Office, online at www.guilford.edu/bryanseries or by calling 336-218-5550.  Passes for new subscribers are $80. Single-event tickets are scheduled to be sold beginning Sept. 15.