Get to Know Our Sister Cities

The Sonoma Community Center and the Sonoma Sister Cities Association are jointly launching a seven part lecture series titled “Windows to the World” starting in October of 2012.

This series will offer a variety of perspectives on the seven countries where Sonoma’s Sister Cities are found: Hungary (where the sister city is Tokaj), Italy (Greve), Mexico (Patzcuaro), China (Penglai), France, Ukraine (Kaniv) and Egypt (Aswan). This series has been designed to bring an in depth look into these regions as well as entertaining.

This partnership between Sonoma Community Center and Sonoma Sister Cities Association was formed many months ago. Bill Boerum, president of Sister Cities, recalled: “When I first proposed this concept months ago to the Community Center they immediately went for this idea and saw it very much as fulfillment of the centers intent to bring more steeply intellectual lectures to the center.”

Working together, the organizations have brought together a very high caliber of speaker, ranging from international wine entrepreneur Jean-Charles Boisset to journalist Lynne Joiner, a published China-watcher and consultant.

Other speakers will include academic authorities in their fields: Dr. Anthony White on Mexico’s acclaimed muralist and artistic revolutionary David Alfaro Sequeiros; Dr. Ken Albala on “Italianita in America"; Hoover Institution Fellow Dr. Paul Gregory on Ukraine; and former president of the Association of Egyptian American Scholars, Dr. Amir El-Ahraf on the Ecology of the Nile.

The series begins on October 10 with the Consul General of Hungary, Dr. Lazlo Kalman. Sharing the duties of being moderator for different events will be David Bolling, Publisher of the Sonoma Index-Tribune, and Mayor Pro Tem Ken Brown, also of of KSVY’s Mornings in Sonoma. Lectures will be held at 7 p.m. at the Community Center, 276 East Napa Street.

Liz Treacy, Education and Program Manager at the Community Center, worked to make the series fit Sonoma: “We aimed to attract high caliber, authoritative speakers and create an opportunity for public discourse on these special cities, with whom Sonoma is closely aligned.”

Tickets to an individual lecture are $15 and $80 for the series. Tickets will be available at the Community Center’s Box Office either by in-person purchase, phone (938-4626 x 1) or online at svbo.org.

Sonoma Community Center enriches the lives of the people of Sonoma Valley by fostering a broad range of cultural, educational and community services, and by ensuring the preservation and restoration of its historic building.