Comedy and the Constitution: The Legacy of Lenny Bruce

Sarah Shoemaker Discussion
Type: 
Conference
Date: 
October 27, 2016 to October 28, 2016
Location: 
Massachusetts, United States
Subject Fields: 
American History / Studies, Jewish History / Studies, Law and Legal History, Popular Culture Studies, Theatre & Performance History / Studies

Comedian Lenny Bruce’s legacy is the focus of a two-day conference this fall at Brandeis University. 

Sessions include Ancestors and Descendants, Censorship and Law, Religion and Reason, Jewish Humor and the Holocaust, Engendering Comedy, Postwar Popular Culture, and The Language of Comedy.

Keynote speaker: Christie Hefner, Trustee of the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation, founder of Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards, member of board of directors of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, former chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises, Inc., former Brandeis University Trustee, Brandeis University alumna

"Comedy and the Constitution" will mark the formal opening of the collection of archival material that the university acquired from Bruce’s daughter, Kitty Bruce, with a generous grant from the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation.

The conference will be held Oct. 27-28, 2016, in Goldfarb Library, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.

For more information and to register, visit the conference website.

 

“Comedy and the Constitution” is generously sponsored by
The Hugh M. Hefner Foundation
Arlan Ettinger, Guernsey's
American Studies Program, Brandeis University
Louis D. Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice
Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department, Brandeis University
Office of the Provost, Brandeis University
and
The ACLU Foundation of Massachusetts

and the following units of Brandeis University:
Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences
Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Department of English
Department of History
Department of Sociology
Journalism Program

Contact Info: 

Sarah Shoemaker, Associate University Librarian for Archives & Special Collections