MONDAY:
Ori Z. Soltes, an art and religion historian and lecturer at Georgetown University, will be at the Washington DCJCC to discuss The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust. The event is sponsored by Nextbook’s Public Programs on Jewish Literature, Culture and Ideas. 7:30 p.m.

Chris Hedges has a bone to pick with what the folks he calls “new atheists,” such as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and literary critic Christopher Hitchens. Hedges will be at Politics and Prose to talk about his new book, I Don’t Believe in Atheists. 7 p.m.

Institute for Policy Studies Fellow Phyllis Bennis will be at Busboys and Poets in D.C. to sign and discuss her new book, Iran in the Crosshairs: How to Prevent Washington’s Next War. 6 p.m.

TUESDAY:
The Mary Pickford Theater hosts the Spring 2008 Poetry at Noon readings, showcasing poems about fathers and daughters, names and nicknames and William Shakespeare. This Tuesday’s theme is “Family Names and Nicknames,” with poets Mary Buchinger, James L. Foy and Sheppard Ranbom.

Former U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland will appear at Politics and Prose to discuss his new book, A Billion Lives, which looks at his journeys to areas plagued by
war, famine and natural disasters and his prescription for ending global suffering. 7 p.m.