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Fahrenheit All Night

Author Ray Bradbury reportedly attributes his lifelong daily writing habit to the day in 1932 when a carnival entertainer, Mr. Electrico, touched him with an electrified sword, made his hair stand on end and shouted, “Live forever!” Reportedly. Whether that’s true or not, the 85-year-old Bradbury certainly seems destined to live on forever through his expansive body of work, which includes more than 500 published novels, short stories, plays, screenplays and essays. Just Buffalo has chosen Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a timeless work valued as much for its literary merit as for its penetrating criticisms of censorship, as the focus for its month-long Big Read event. That series reaches its apex this Friday with “Fahrenheit All Night” at the Albright-Knox, part of its Gusto at the Gallery series.

The event kicks off at 3pm with the screening of two films based on works by Bradbury, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and It Came from Outer Space. A special science fiction tour commences at 7pm, followed by a lecture by acclaimed Bradbury biographer Sam Weller. Weller, the author of The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury, hails from Chicago, where he is a professor at Columbia College Chicago and a regular contributor to several publications, including the Chicago Tribune Magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times and Publishers Weekly. To highlight the night, Ray Bradbury himself will join the lecture via live telecast. Weller will round out the night with a booksigning at 9:30pm.

Friday, May 19 from 3-10pm. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1285 Elmwood Ave. (270-8292) Free.