January 25, 2005
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@ sa.ucsb.edu

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents journalist Bill Moyers, winner of over 30 Emmy Awards and 10 Peabody Awards, in an on-stage conversation with poet Naomi Shihab Nye at UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• Bill Moyers
• In a fascinating conversation with poet/essayist Naomi Shihab Nye
• Moyers is one of the most respected journalists on television
• This appearance is one of Moyers’ first since retiring from PBS
• The major fundraiser for UCSB Arts & Lectures’ 2004-05 season
• Tuesday, March 1 / 8 pm
• UCSB Campbell Hall
• General public: $50 / UCSB students: $20 (limited availability)
• $250 ticket includes VIP seating and post-event reception with Mr. Moyers
• Tickets/Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535

Bill Moyers, the most esteemed journalist on television, will engage in a fascinating discussion about journalism and the state of the world with award-winning poet and essayist Naomi Shihab Nye on Tuesday, March 1 at 8 pm at UCSB Campbell Hall. This event, UCSB Arts & Lectures’ major fundraiser for the 2004-05 season, will be one of Moyers’ first public appearances since he retired from hosting and producing PBS’ NOW in December. When reviewing that final episode, media critic Tom Shales of the Washington Post wrote, “Moyers represented reason, deliberation, serious questioning of the status quo and, especially, standing as firmly as possible against government encroachment into Americans’ private lives....On NOW and his other broadcast efforts over a three-decade career, Moyers has investigated subjects that mainstream media ignore, whether out of indifference or fear. We should have watched more often. We should have paid more attention. But Moyers can still leave NOW with satisfaction and pride. He played by dignified and gentlemanly rules—rules that now, alas, may be dangerously out of date.”

Reporter and commentator on contemporary American history and culture, Bill Moyers brilliantly reveals the nuanced textures in the fabric of American life. A gifted storyteller through words and images, Moyers reveals to us the spiritual, emotional and historical sides of our culture through his award-winning films and best-selling books.

Moyers has received more than 30 Emmy Awards and 10 Peabody Awards for his work and was elected into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995. He was named as one of the 10 journalists who have had the most significant influence on television news by a survey of critics published in Television Quarterly, the official journal of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Best known as a broadcast journalist, Moyers’ career also includes service as the Deputy Director of the Peace Corps in the Kennedy administration and two years as White House Press Secretary for President Lyndon Johnson. He left the White House in 1967 to become the publisher of the New York daily Newsday, eventually moving to CBS as a senior analyst for the Evening News and chief correspondent for the acclaimed documentary series CBS Reports. In 1986 he co-founded Public Affairs Television, Inc. with his wife and partner Judith Davidson, where he produced the famous series Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, among other lauded broadcasts.

When Moyers received the 2004 Global Environmental Citizen Award from the Harvard Medical School, presenter Meryl Streep asserted, “I took it as a natural disaster of the first order, an act of God of the magnitude 8.1 on the Richter scale, when I heard Bill Moyers was retiring from NOW on PBS. Many people like me have counted on Bill for what often seemed his voice crying in the wilderness—on behalf of the wilderness—for decades.”

Naomi Shihab Nye describes herself as a “wandering poet.” She has spent the last 30 years criss-crossing the country—and the world—to lead writing workshops and inspiring students of all ages. Drawing on her Palestinian-American heritage, the cultural diversity of her home in Texas, and her experiences traveling in many parts of the world including Asia and the Middle East, Nye uses her writing to attest to our shared humanity.

Nye is the author and/or editor of more than twenty volumes. She has received, among other honors, a Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, four Pushcart Prizes and numerous awards and citations for her children’s literature including two Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards. Her collection 19 Varieties of Gazelle was nominated for the National Book Award. She is a regular columnist for Organica, and her work has been presented on National Public Radio on such shows as A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer’s Almanac. She has been featured on two PBS poetry specials The Language of Life with Bill Moyers and The United States of Poetry.

Courtesy of Borders, pre-signed copies of books by Bill Moyers and Naomi Shihab Nye will be available for purchase at the event.

Bill Moyers is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures with major funding from Jon & Lillian Lovelace and additional support provided by Larry Koppelman and Nancy Walker Koppelman. This Arts & Lectures fundraiser is sponsored by Au Bon Climat Winery and Borders. Tickets for the event are $50 for the general public and $20, but in limited availability, for UCSB students, who must show valid ID when purchasing tickets and at the door. A $250 ticket includes VIP seating and a post-event reception with Mr. Moyers. Tickets are on sale now and can also be purchased at the door, if still available.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.