The Last Word: Legacy and Light at Kepler’s
Recap from Our Spring Salon Series
On June 7th, benton buckley books took to Menlo Park, California — beneath the storied rafters of Kepler’s Bookstore, a venue where presidents and poets, folk singers and stateswomen have all once stood. To conclude our spring salon series here — in this sanctum of intellect and expression — was nothing short of hallowed.
With warm wood shelves rising around us like literary sentinels, the atmosphere was hushed but expectant. And when Beth Buckley took the moderator’s seat, joined by an exceptional panel — Neal Schwartz, Antonina Markoff, Kari McIntosh Dawdy, and Kelly Hohla — the room exhaled into conversation.
What unfolded was less a panel and more a passage — through design, through impact, through the personal and the philosophical. Modernism danced with mindfulness. Aesthetics met ethics. From urban renewal to soulful interiors, the designers shared how built environments become vessels for change.
It was beauty with purpose. Elegance with edge. Ideas that were not merely spoken but carved — carefully, profoundly — into the shared consciousness of everyone present.
As the afternoon faded into evening, laughter lingered. Insights settled gently. And in a space where the echoes of Joan Baez once mingled with the musings of Jimmy Carter, benton buckley books added its voice — clear, compassionate, and enduring.
This wasn’t just the end of a tour. It was the beginning of a dialogue that continues — wherever beauty lives, and wherever books dare to speak.