Thursday, May 1, 2025
7:30pm
Saban Theatre
8440 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Hosted by Writers Bloc Presents with Book Soup
Event Description
THE ALCHEMY TOUR with Suleika Jaouad, hosted by Jon Batiste
To celebrate the debut of her new book, THE BOOK OF ALCHEMY, join Suleika Jaouad for an evening of transformative storytelling and special performances. Hosted by Jon Batiste, this melding of conversation, music, and community will leave you less world-weary, more filled with wonder—and brimming with ideas for how to live a more inspired life. All tickets will include a copy of the book.
Bios
Suleika Jaouad
Suleika Jaouad is the author of THE BOOK OF ALCHEMY, as well as the New York Times bestselling memoir BETWEEN TWO KINGDOMS, which has been translated into more than twenty languages. She wrote the Emmy Award-winning New York Times column and video series “Life, Interrupted,” and her essays and feature stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and Vogue, among others. She is also the subject, along with husband Jon Batiste, of the Oscar-nominated documentary American Symphony—a portrait of two artists during a year of extreme highs and lows. A visual artist, her large-scale watercolors are the focus of several upcoming exhibitions. She is also the creator of the Isolation Journals, a weekly newsletter and global community that harnesses creativity as a tool to navigate life’s interruptions.
Jon Batiste
Jon Batiste is a seven-time Grammy and Academy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and composer. His eighth studio album, Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1), released in November 2024, reimagines Beethoven’s iconic works through a blues-infused lens, embracing a broad genre spectrum. This album follows World Music Radio (2023), which received five Grammy nominations, including ‘Album of the Year.’ In 2021, his album We Are earned 11 Grammy nominations and won five, including Album of the Year. In 2024, Batiste launched his first-ever headlining tour, Uneasy Tour: Purifying the Airwaves for the People. On the film side, Batiste most recently composed the innovative score for SATURDAY NIGHT, Jason Reitman’s film about the chaotic moments before the first SNL broadcast in 1975, blending jazz, classical, and contemporary styles. In 2023, Batiste was the subject of AMERICAN SYMPHONY, a documentary by Matthew Heineman on Netflix, which earned him an Oscar nomination for the song “It Never Went Away.” Batiste also composed the score for Pixar’s SOUL, winning an Academy Award and several other honors. From 2015-2022, he was the bandleader for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Suleika Jaouad Photo Credit: Nadia Albano
Jon Batiste Photo Credit: Jonny Marlow