Why It Matters: Hilton Als in Conversation with Karen R. Lawrence

Celebrating The Huntington’s unparalleled opportunities for cross-disciplinary exploration of human culture and history, the Why It Matters series features Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence in conversation with distinguished guests about the enduring relevance of the arts and humanities.

About the Featured Guest

Critic and curator Hilton Als has been a writer for The New Yorker since 1989, where he is currently the lead theater critic. Als is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among numerous other awards, he has received a Guggenheim for creative writing, the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, the Lambda Literary’s Trustee Award for Excellence in Literature, the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, and the Langston Hughes Medal for his provocative contributions to the discourse on theatre, race, class, sexuality, and identity in America.

Als is a teaching professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Als has taught at Yale University, Columbia University, Wesleyan University, and Smith College. As a curator, his exhibitions include “Joan Didion: What She Means” for the Hammer Museum in October 2022 and three successive solo exhibitions at the Yale Centre for British Art and The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, where he is currently the inaugural Hannah and Russel Kully Distinguished Fellow in American Art.

This event will be livestreamed and also recorded to be viewed later.

View previous Why It Matters and President’s Office programs.