First Friday Reading Series Presents D.B. Grady

The Arts & Humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana will present a free fiction reading by Louisiana author D.B. Grady on Friday, March 2^nd, 2012, at 7 p.m. at the Porch Coffee House & Café in Lake Charles. The reading is part of the First Friday Reading Series which is co-sponsored by the Council and the Porch, and it offers another reading platform for area writers and poets, both published and unpublished.

D.B. Grady, a former U.S. Army paratrooper and a veteran of Afghanistan, is a freelance writer and novelist. His debut novel, Red Planet Noir, won the 2010 Indie Book Award for Science Fiction, and his newest book The Command: Deep Inside the President’s Secret Army (co-authored by Marc Ambinder), which is now available on eBook and will be released in print in October, examines the role of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command in foreign policy and the war on terror. Grady is a correspondent for The Atlantic and has written for American Thinker, National Journal, and Real Clear World, among other periodicals and journals.

The Porch is located at 4710 Common Street in Lake Charles, and the reading will be followed by live music. For more information on D.B. Grady, visit his website at www.dbgrady.com, and for details on the First Friday Reading Series, call the Arts Council at 439-2787 or visit www.artsandhumanitiesswla.org.

Calcasieu Cinema International Screening

“The Hell of ’63,” a 2009 Dutch film generously provided by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, will be presented free at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, in the auditorium of the Central School Arts and Humanities Center.  Calcasieu Cinema International, a branch of the Council for International Concerns, will present the film in partnership with McNeese State University’s Banners Cultural Series and Office of Diversity, Lake Area Psychiatry, The Arts and Humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana, Common Ground/Culture Fest Louisiana, and CocaCola. 

The film, produced by Klaas and Steven de Jong, centers on the Netherland’s famed skating marathon – the Elfstedentocht – and the historical event in 1963 when unusually severe conditions resulted in unprecedented injuries  and other upsets.  This film explores the race’s impact on the lives of a few of the racers and their loved ones, as well as the after effects.  According to producer/director Steven de Jong, “This is a classic Dutch film, in which a number of things which symbolize our culture come together.”  The agony of the race and the euphoria of the few who finish the course:  “The Hell of ’63” is an action-packed “disaster” movie with a Dutch twist!

Charlotte McCallum will host a discussion afterward, and free drinks and popcorn will be served. For more information, call Corliss Badeaux, secretary of the Council for International Concerns, at 475-5310.