Widely published writer Ann Tashi Slater comes to the Institute from Tokyo, where she is Professor of American Literature at Japan Women’s University. She will read from her work and discuss the history of her Tibetan family, whose world included “East and West, old Tibet and British India; butter tea with the Thirteenth Dalai Lama at his summer palace in Lhasa and a pink gin at Firpo’s, a Calcutta Raj-era hotspot.” Through photos, film clips, and readings, Prof. Slater will share family stories ranging from turn-of-the-century Tibet to present-day Darjeeling, and talk about the friendship between her great-grandfather and the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. The evening will be a look at family and cultural legacy, individual and collective memory, and vanishing traditions.