Sunday, August 23, 2026, 2:00-3:00 pm
David Giffels: The 80s, Music and Story of Devo in Ohio
Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach (ORMACO) and the Wadsworth Public Library continue Live at the Library with David Giffels on Sunday, August 23, 2026, at 2 pm at the Wadsworth Public Library, 132 Broad Street, Wadsworth, OH 44281.
Live at the Library continues its celebration of 250 years of American music by revisiting the decades each month. David Giffels takes us to the 80s with a behind the scenes look at the Akron centric band, Devo. Using “The Beginning Was the End: Devo in Ohio,” a book he co-authored with Jade Dellinger, he will tell us about the band members’ early days in Kent and Akron, and play some of their music along the way.
This program is free. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, call 419-853-6016.
About David Giffels
David Giffels is an award-winning author, essayist, and journalist whose work chronicles the American Midwest and its Rust-Belt culture. He has been characterized as “the bard of Akron, Ohio,” by the New York Times Book Review,” “a voice of the Midwest” by Library Journal, and “essential” by the Los Angeles Review of Books.
His 2020 book Barnstorming Ohio: To Understand America (Hachette Books), was described by Publishers Weekly as a “trenchant mix of memoir, reportage, and political analysis,” and selected as one of Library Journal’s Best Books of 2020. His other books include the memoirs Furnishing Eternity (Scribner), a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and winner of the Ohioana Book Award and All the Way Home (William Morrow), also winner of the Ohioana Book Award and an Oprah “Fantastic Summer Read.” His essay collection The Hard Way on Purpose (Scribner), was a New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice” and longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. He has coauthored, with Jade Dellinger, two biographies of the rock band Devo.
A former columnist at the Akron Beacon Journal, his writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Parade, Grantland, The Iowa Review, Esquire, and many other publications. He also wrote for the MTV animated series Beavis and Butt-Head. He is a professor of English at the University of Akron, where he serves on the faculty of the NEOMFA creative writing program.