Opening ‘Windows’ to Sonoma’s sister cities

The Sonoma Community Center and the Sonoma Sister Cities Association launch the seven-part lecture series “Windows in the World” on Wednesday, Oct. 10, with the Consul General of Hungary, Dr. Lazlo Kalman.

Kalman, joined by Honorable Eva E. Voisin, Honorary Consul General of Hungary in San Francisco, will share the progress their country has made since the 1990 transition from communism to a free and stable democracy. They will also discuss the opportunities and challenges Hungary faces in today’s worldwide economic climate.

In the upcoming months, the lecture series will continue with perspectives on the six other sister cities: Mexico, Italy, China, France, Ukraine and Egypt.

International wine entrepreneur Jean-Charles Boisset and journalist Lynne Joiner, a published China-watcher and consultant will be featured. 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”.

Bill Boerum, president of the Sonoma Sister Cities organization, presented the idea to the SCC several months ago. “They immediately went for this idea and saw it very much as fulfillment of an intent to bring more steeply intellectual lectures to the center,” he said.

Liz Tracey, education and program manager of 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,” she said.

Tickets to an individual 7 p.m. lecture are $15, of $80 for the series, Contact 938-4626 x1 or Svbo.org.