Tickets for Spike Lee Conversation on Sale to Public

Tickets for A Conversation with Spike Lee, to be held Tuesday, February 12 at 7 pm in the Wexner Center’s Mershon Auditorium as part of the Wexner Prize events, went on sale to the public this week. This event features a discussion about Lee’s career and ideas with author James McBride (whose 2002 novel Miracle at St. Anna, about black American “Buffalo Soldiers” in a Tuscan village in World War II, is the basis for Lee’s next film).

Lee, one of the most important figures in American cinema, will be in Columbus to accept the $50,000 Wexner Prize in a private ceremony and to participate in the February 12 conversation as well as events for college students, teens, and members. Author and composer McBride first gained fame for The Color of Water (1996), his memoir about growing up in a biracial Brooklyn family, and was invited by Lee to engage in this conversation.

Members of the U.S. Army’s segregated, all-black 92nd Division—the division written about in McBride’s aforementioned Miracle at St. Anna—are expected to be in attendance as well.

Tickets to the conversation are $12 for the public and $6 for Wexner Center members, available at the Wexner Center Ticket Office (292-3535) or at www.ticketmaster.com. A limited number of free tickets for Ohio State students remain. New and upgrading members (who join by phone or at wexarts.org/join) are eligible to receive two free tickets to the conversation; members at the Sponsor ($250) level and above are invited to a reception following the conversation.

Notes Wexner Center Director Sherri Geldin, “With every Wexner Prize, the center aims to orchestrate a dynamic array of educational events for the public. This year, we’re delighted that Spike Lee will meet with approximately 300 OSU students on Monday afternoon, and the next morning will join BET personality Jeff Johnson to engage 1,200 teens in conversation following the screening of Lee’s documentary about Katrina, When the Levees Broke. And we’re thrilled that author/composer James McBride will join Spike for our public program Tuesday evening, which will accommodate 2,500 guests in Mershon Auditorium. We would especially like to thank Abercrombie & Fitch for its generous support of the Prize events this year, and for recognizing that such community events enrich the Wexner Prize presentation and make it an even more remarkable opportunity for the citizens of Columbus.”

Prize events are presented with generous support from Abigail and Leslie Wexner and Abercrombie & Fitch.