Tuesday night the UW NextCity lecture series will feature Geoffrey Canada speaking on “Leveling the Playing Field: Helping Poor Children Succeed.” For 20 years Canada has led Harlem Children’s Zone, described in The New York Times Magazine as "one of the most ambitious social experiments of our time." The work has convinced him that the lives of impoverished, at-risk inner-city kids can be changed — if their schools, families, and neighborhoods all change at once.

Canada’s acclaimed Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America draws on a childhood in the South Bronx that did not keep him from later earning an MA from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is a vibrant speaker who inspires and teaches with his vision of how at-risk youth can build productive lives in healthy communities free of violence.

Tuesday, Feb. 9, 6:30pm. UW Kane Hall, Room 120. Free and open to the public. Reservations have reached capacity, but walk-ups will be added on a first-come, first-served basis; arrive well before 6 pm.