SPECIAL EVENTS

Society for the Performing Arts, bringing the World’s Best to Houston, 15th Annual Luncheon will feature guest speaker Amy Chua (pictured). This year’s luncheon is being chaired by Karen Pulaski Tyrell and will take place on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 on the Jones Hall Stage, beginning at 11:00 am. Another highlight of the luncheon will be the presentation of the 2011 Ann Sakowitz Performing Arts Advocate Award to Patsy Fourticq.

Guest Speaker Amy Chua’s current book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, is an awe-inspiring, often hilarious, and unerringly honest story of one mother’s exercise in extreme parenting. Her personal account reveals the rewards, and the costs of raising her children as her parents raised her, the Chinese way. Dr. Chua is a dynamic and respected author with global insights into parenting, world powers, and economics. A departure from her usual writing, Yale Law Professor Amy Chua’s third book is a parenting memoir that espouses Chinese traditions of child rearing and raising her children for success.

The proceeds from the luncheon provide the necessary funds needed for SPA’s Education and Outreach Program, Beyond the Stage that takes the performing arts into the community to present unique learning experiences enriching the lives of more than 120,000 underserved children and adolescents in the greater Houston area annually. SPA’s educational programming includes Master Classes, Residencies, Teacher Workshops, Lecture/Demonstrations, Creative Writing/Choreography Programs, Student Matinees and Transportation Funding, plus performance tickets free of charge to Houston’s most underserved students. Research shows that academic performance improves and dropout rates go down when students are involved in the arts.