We're already MARCHing into APRIL

"Is it that time already?"

This is the question I feel I ask myself all too frequently. Just when I've gotten into the groove of one season of public programs in Edmond J. Safra Hall, it's time to start thinking about another. What can we say? With great programming comes great responsibility.

And so, without further ado, it is my pleasure to present

the

March/April 2009 Public Programs Calendar

• Spell Your Name - This powerful film follows Ukrainian journalism students who learn about the Holocaust through the personal accounts of local residents. A screening will take place on Monday, March 2 at 7 p.m.

• Novelists and 9/11 - Contemporary writers Claire Messud and Deborah Eisenberg will discuss the challenges of writing about 9/11 without the benefit of hindsight on Wednesday, March 4 at 7 p.m.

• A Hidden Life: A Memoir of August 1969 - Newberry Honor award winning author Johanna Reiss will discuss her new book on Sunday, March 8 at 2:30 p.m.

• Feminism and Faith - Three women of different religions, Blu Greenberg, Rev. Jane Holmes Dixon, and Asra Q. Nomani will discuss their struggle to reconcile their feminism and religious beliefs with moderator Rachel Zoll on Wednesday, March 11 at 7 p.m.

• The Jews of Mumbai -India, a country that values religious and ethnic diversity, has long been home to a Jewish community and has remained largely free of anti-Semitic prejudice. Journey to Jewish Calcutta, Mumbai, and Cochin, and find out how the recent attacks in Mumbai is affecting that small but thriving community on Sunday, March 15 at 2 p.m.

• Resurrecting Hebrew - Author Ilan Stavans will discuss his book with Nextbook's Gabriel Sanders on Wednesday, March 18 at 7 p.m.

• Punishing Blow - Seth Duerr stars and directs New York Times columnist Randy Cohen's play about a college professor's punishment following an anti-Semitic tirade on Wednesday, March 25 at 7 p.m.

• My Neighbor, My Killer - Director Anne Aghion will screen and discuss her important film about Rwanda's efforts to rebuild itself after the genocide on Sunday, March 29 at 1 p.m.

• Manischewitz: The Matzo Family - Cookbook author Joan Nathan will interview Laura Manischewitz Alpern about her book. Audience members will receive a free box of matzo on Wednesday, April 1 at 7 p.m.

• The World in a City: Traveling the Globe Through the Neighborhoods of the "New" New York - New York Times veterans Arthur Gelb and Joe Berger will discuss Berger's book about NYC's vibrant neighborhoods on Sunday, April 19 at 2:30 p.m.

• Blooming Through the Ashes: An International Anthology on Violence and the Human Spirit - This program featuring Clifford Chanin, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Dori Laub, and others, will explore through art and staged readings how societies rebuild and heal through remembrance on Wednesday, April 22 at 7 p.m.