Harker Speaker Series Logo
The Harker Speaker Series Proudly Presents
Two Distinguished Artists
Artist Connie Zheng | Wed., Dec. 4
Poet Nikki Giovanni | Fri., Jan. 24
Rothschild Performing Arts Center
The Harker School | Upper School Campus
500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose

Attendance is free but ticket is required.

Connie Zheng
Mapping Our Way Home: A Conversation with Connie Zheng
Wed., Dec. 4 | 6-7 p.m.
This year’s Dickinson Artist-in-Residence is Connie Zheng. Zheng will be interviewed by Nidhi Gandhi ’11, curatorial and programs associate at San José Museum of Art. A Q&A will follow their chat, and a reception will be held afterwards.
Reserve Your Seat for Connie Zheng Today!
Connie Zheng is a Chinese-born artist, writer and experimental filmmaker based out of the East Bay. She works with maps, seeds, food, environmental histories, speculative fiction, field recordings and hand-drawn animation. Her work has been exhibited and screened internationally, including at the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, Mass.), the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Sa Sa Art Projects (Phnom Penh), Framer Framed (Amsterdam) and Salt Beyoğlu (Istanbul). She has received fellowships and awards from the Headlands Center for the Arts, the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, and the Puffin Foundation, among other organizations, and was a 2023 YBCA 100 awardee. Zheng’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Kadist Foundation and the David Rumsey Map Center at Stanford University, and has received press from Artforum, MUBI Notebook, Hyperallergic, The San Francisco Examiner, and KQED Arts. In 2021 she published a chapter in the Routledge Companion to Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, and Climate Change, and her essays have appeared in The Back Room at Small Press Traffic, SFMOMA’s Open Space and Errant Journal.

Learn more about Connie Zheng.
Nikki Giovanni
Grit, Grace, and Glow: An Evening with Nikki Giovanni
Fri., Jan. 24, 2025 | 7-8:30 p.m.
We are thrilled to host acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni at our annual Martin Luther King celebration. Giovanni will be interviewed on stage by Harker history teacher Triston Brown and the evening will include a performance by The Harker School Orchestra and an audience Q&A. A reception will be held afterwards.
Reserve Your Seat for Nikki Giovanni Today!
Nikki Giovanni is one of this country’s most widely read poets and one of America’s most renowned poets worldwide. Her poem “Knoxville, Tennessee” is arguably the single literary work most often associated with that city. She has received numerous awards in the course of her career, including seven Image Awards from the NAACP, more than two dozen honorary degrees, the first Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award, the Langston Hughes Medal for Poetry, and the Carl Sandburg Literary Award. Oprah Winfrey recognized her in 2005 as one of 25 “Living Legends.” She continues to teach, write and publish books. Her latest collection, “Poems: 1968-2020,” was released in March 2024.

Learn more about Nikki Giovanni.
The Harker Speaker Series launched in 2008 to bring leaders and visionaries from a wide variety of fields to share their expertise or unique experiences with the community.

The Harker Concert Series launched in 2010-11 as part of the school’s ongoing commitment to share thoughtful, entertaining and engaging events with the greater Bay Area community.
Copyright © The Harker School 2024. All Rights Reserved.