Danny Lyon - "This Is My Life I'm Talking About" - Bill Ayers

DANNY LYON will discuss his memoir This Is My Life I'm Talking About. Danny will be joined in conversation with Bill Ayers. A Q&A and signing will follow the event. Only books purchased at the event will be signed.

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At the Co-op

About the book: This picaresque memoir dives into the heart of the revolutionary 20th century through the lens of one of its most crucial witnesses, American photographer and filmmaker Danny Lyon. His story begins in the Czar-ruled Russia of 1905, when Lyon’s uncle Abram fled to Brooklyn after his involvement in the murder of a policeman during a pogrom. A few decades later, amid the upheaval of World War II, Lyon was born.

Presaged by this beginning, Lyon’s life has overseen adventures and tragedies of world-historical proportions. This Is My Life I’m Talking About recounts them in generous detail, from Lyon’s friendship with the great American civil rights hero John Lewis—who is best known for his chairmanship of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—to his involvement with the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club, upon which his famous photojournalist work The Bikeriders (1968) was based. Throughout, Lyon writes with tremendous feeling and humor, and his text is accompanied by a selection of unpublished and unseen photographs.

About the Author: Danny Lyon, pictured above with his dog Trip, the canine star of his film Wanderer, is a photo-journalist, writer, and filmmaker. His website is bleakbeauty.com where you can read his blog, and you can view his films for free on Vimeo. You can also find him on Instagram at @dannylyonphotos2. His films are also currently available for viewing on Vimeo.

Among his many books are The Bikeriders and Conversations with the Dead. Daniel Joseph Lyon was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 16, 1942. Roosevelt was President. World War Two was on going in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Segregation was the law of the land in 13 southern states. Native Americans were not allowed to purchase alcohol in New Mexico. Lyon attended NYC public schools in Kew Gardens and Forest Hills, Queens, and in 1959 bought his first camera, an Exa SLR, in Munich, Germany, during a summer trip. He entered the University of Chicago, where he eventually majored in philosophy and ancient history. In 1963 he became the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) first photographer. Danny Lyon’s photographs are in museums and collections through out the world. His most recent one-man show was at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Danny Lyon is represented by Obscura Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

About the interlocutor: Bill Ayers is a social justice activist, teacher, Distinguished Professor of Education (retired) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and author of two memoirs, Fugitive Days and Public Enemy.