APPLETON, WIS. — New York Times Op-Ed columnist Frank Rich shares his view of the nation’s political and cultural landscape in the wake of the recent historic presidential election Tuesday, Dec. 2 in a Lawrence University convocation.
Rich presents “The Post-Bush Era Begins” at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 510 E. College Ave., Appleton. The address is free and open to the public.
Since 2005, Rich has penned essays for the New York Times‘ Sunday Week in Review section, drawing upon his 13 years as the paper’s former drama critic to provide a culturally-tinged view of politics.
Following Barack Obama’s barrier-breaking election as the United States’ first African-American president, Rich noted that the country had clearly turned a page.
“If there were any doubts the 1960s are over, they were put to rest when our new first family won the hearts of the world as it emerged to join the celebration in Chicago’s Grant Park,” Rich wrote in his Nov. 9 column. “The bloody skirmishes that took place on that same spot during the Democratic convention 40 years ago seemed as remote as the moon. This is another America, hardly a perfect or prejudice-free America, but a union that can change and does, aspiring to perfection even if it can never achieve it.”
A native of Washington, D.C. and a 1971 graduate of Harvard University, Rich spent time writing for the New York Post and Time magazine before joining the New York Times in 1980 as the paper’s theatre critic. He earned the nickname “The Butcher of Broadway” from those who didn’t incur favor in his influential production reviews.
He moved to the Op-Ed page in 1994 and later spent four years also writing for The New York Times Magazine, becoming the first person to handle both roles. In 2005, he was recognized with Long Island University’s George Polk Awards in Journalism for commentary.
Rich is the author of four books, including the 2006 bestseller “The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina,” which took a critical view of the Bush administration and the methods it used to pursue the president’s agenda. In his autobiographical “Ghost Light: A Memoir,” published in 2000, he discusses his fascination with the theatre growing up as child in the nation’s capital.
Earlier this year, Rich joined HBO as a creative consultant to help develop new programming for the pay-TV network.
