The Commonwealth Club presents Peter Coyote and Peter Finch

SPEAKER:        Peter Coyote, Actor; Narrator; Author, Sleeping Where I Fall; Zen Buddhist Priest

                                Peter Finch, Anchor/Reporter, KGO Radio – Moderator

TITLE:                 The End of Intelligence with Peter Coyote

DATE:                  Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

TIME:                   6 p.m. Check-in | 6:30 p.m. Program

PLACE:                Lafayette Library, 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Lafayette

PRICE:                 $22 for non- members | $12 members | $7 students (with valid ID)

CONTACT:         Riki Rafner, Public Relations Director, 415/597-6712

Bay Area, writer, Emmy-award winning actor and film narrator Peter Coyote will tell us how his ordination as a Zen Buddhist priest has led him to an examination of the limits of human intelligence. Though our applied intelligence has resulted in incredible innovations (tools, technology, science), Coyote is concerned with the unintended consequences of advancement: violence, war and destruction. Coyote will be discussing the power of intelligence to address social ills.

In addition to his former roles on both TV (as “Nora Walker’s” Sally Field’s professor beau in “Brothers and Sisters” and “Ned Quinn” in “NCIS”) and in film, Coyote has also leant his voice to a number of projects, including ABC’s popular hit TV series “Lost.”  In 2002, with actress Glenn Close, he was selected to narrate the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

Coyote moved to the West Coast in the 1960’s, and quickly found work as an actor, writer and director with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. He acted in and directed the first cross-country tour of the Minstrel Show, and his play “Olive Pits” won the Troupe an Obie Award from the Village Voice. Coyote became a member, and later chairman, of the California Arts Council from 1975 to 1983.

In 1962, while an English Literature major  at Grinell College, Coyote was one of the organizers of a group of twelve students who traveled to Washington, D.C. during the Cuban Missile Crisis supporting U.S. President John F. Kennedy‘s “peace race.” Kennedy invited the group into the White House, and they met for several hours with McGeorge Bundy, Kennedy’s National Security Advisor. Coyote completed his Master’s program at San Francisco State University, where he studied Creative Writing.