ACTING ADVICE Actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith reads from and signs her book “Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-Up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts – for Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind” (Knopf). Tonight, 6:30 p.m., CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave. at 34th Street, 212-817-8215, $10 general, free for students.

TWO DECADES OF PHOTOGRAPHY Artist and photographer Andres Serrano surveys and discusses his photographic works, spanning 20 years. Tonight, 7-9 p.m., Long Island University Brooklyn Campus, Media Arts Department’s Spike Lee Screening Room, LLC 122, Flatbush and DeKalb avenues, Brooklyn, 718-488-3491, free.

GALLERY PHILOSOPHY French philosopher Alain Badiou presents an evening of discussion at the Jack Tilton Gallery. Tonight, 7 p.m., the Jack Tilton Gallery, 8 E. 76th St., between Madison and Fifth avenues, 212-737-2221, free.

HER PARTY, TOO A former New Jersey governor and Environmental Protection Agency director, Christine Todd Whitman,addresses the role of women in politics and other public affairs as part of the Women in Public and International Affairs series of lectures. She also discusses her new book, “It’s My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America” (Penguin). Tonight, 5:30 p.m., Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women, Schottenstein Cultural Center, 215 Lexington Ave., between 32nd and 33rd streets, 212-960-5488, free.

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