OKPOLICY.ORG
On Thursday, September 27, Oklahoma Policy Institute and Booksmart Tulsa will host an evening with author and blogger Matthew Yglesias. The event will be at the Dilly Deli, 402 East 2nd Street, Tulsa, OK 74120, beginning with refreshments at 7 pm and the program at 7:30 pm. It is free and open to the public.
Matthew Yglesias is one of America’s most widely-read and respected bloggers and columnists. He is a business and economics correspondent for Slate in Washington, DC, where he writes the Moneybox blog. Previously he was a fellow at the Center for American Progress, an associate editor at The Atlantic, and a staff writer for the American Prospect.
Yglesias frequently writes about foreign policy, health care, technology, politics, and more. He is the namesake for popular blogger Andrew Sullivan’s Yglesias Award, given to “writers, politicians, columnists or pundits who actually criticize their own side, make enemies among political allies, and generally risk something for the sake of saying what they believe.”
Yglesias will discuss his e-book original, “The Rent Is Too Damn High,” published by Simon & Schuster in March. From the publisher’s description:
From prominent political thinker and widely followed Slate columnist, a polemic on high rents and housing costs—and how these costs are hollowing out communities, thwarting economic development, and rendering personal success and fulfillment increasingly difficult to achieve. Rent is an issue that affects nearly everyone. High rent is a problem for all of us, extending beyond personal financial strain. High rent drags on our country’s overall rate of economic growth, damages the environment, and promotes long commutes, traffic jams, misery, and smog. Yet instead of a serious focus on the issue, America’s cities feature niche conversations about the availability of “affordable housing” for poor people. Yglesias’s book changes the conversation for the first time, presenting newfound context for the issue and real-time, practical solutions for the problem.
Oklahoma poet Lauren Zuniga will kick off the event with a poetry reading. Recently voted Best Local Author by Oklahoma Gazette’s Best of OKC 2012, Lauren Zuniga is a nationally touring poet, teaching artist and activist. She is one of the top 5 ranked female poets in the world, the 2012 Activist-in-Residence at the OU Center for Social Justice, and the founder of Oklahoma Young Writers.
Her new book is “The Smell of Good Mud” from Write Bloody Publishing. You can see Zuniga performing one of her poems here.
Sounds like a Tulsa Road Trip!