2012 Fall Festival Program Guide: America

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600 Emerson Street

2 Ethel M. Barber Theater
30 Arts Circle Drive

3 Harris Hall
1881 Sheridan Road

4 McCormick Auditorium
Norris University Center
1999 Campus Drive

Free Parking
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festival day in evanston www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
6 | 7
Sunday, October 14
Second Annual Festival Day in Evanston
Weekend days of the Festival are known for their robust schedule
of rich programming, and for the second year in a row one of those
days—Sunday, October 14—will take place at various venues on
the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston. Parking is
available in the university parking lots just off Sheridan Road and
Campus Drive. Parking is free on weekends, and a permit is not
required. For more information, please refer to the map on pages 8–9
or visit chicagohumanities.org.
CHF members may purchase day passes for Festival Day in Evan-
ston. Day passes are $50 each and grant access to all the Festival’s
events on Sunday, October 14. Day passes must be purchased in
advance—online or by phone—and are redeemed for tickets at
each event. Passes will be on sale beginning September 4.
Festival Day in Evanston is presented in partnership with The Alice
Kaplan Institute for the Humanities at Northwestern University.
Southwest Airlines Program 100
1492: Before and After
12–1 pm
Cahn Auditorium
$10/Free
No name seems more inextricably linked to the grand hemispheric
experiment of “America” than Christopher Columbus. Seen alternately
as explorer and conqueror, hero and villain, Columbus endures as
an essential character in America’s national story: his “discovery”
of America in 1492 changed the course of history. Who better to
interpret this undeniable infuence than author Charles C. Mann?
A correspondent for The Atlantic, Science, and Wired, Mann authored
1491, an award-winning study of the pre-Columbian Americas, and
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. Both of these books
take a riveting look at the earliest days of globalization, introducing a
new generation to the conundrum of the “New World.” Mann shares
an expansive and compelling vision of the “ecological convulsion” of
European trade practices that continues to shape our world.
This program is generously underwritten by Southwest Airlines.

Charles C. Mann
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sunday, october 14 10 | 11 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Transforming American TV: Alias and the Serial Drama 101
1:30–2:30 pm
Ethel M. Barber Theater
$10/Free
Jeff Pinkner is a creative powerhouse. In the past decade, he has
written and produced some of the most gripping television ever
aired: Alias, Lost, and most recently, Fringe. Shows like Alias exposed
audiences to complex, multinarrative storytelling, which was not
often used in prime time television at the time but has become a
mainstay of the genre. The television is compelling, but the risks
and rewards of producing it are no less fascinating. Pinkner gives
us an insider’s view.
This program is presented in partnership with Northwestern University
School of Communication’s MFA in Writing for Screen+Stage.
The American Revolutions 102
1:30–2:30 pm
Harris Hall
Room 107
$5/Free
The War of 1776 was not the only American Revolution. In the early
decades of the 19th century, buoyed by the example of the United
States, most colonies in Latin America broke away from Spain
and Portugal and emerged as the independent countries we know
today. How was this development received in the United States?
Northwestern University historian Caitlin Fitz, an expert on early
America’s place in the world at large, is writing a book on the topic.
Her research, and the insights that ensue, show us that the revo-
lutions in Latin America were greeted with a tremendous wave of
enthusiasm, and, even more remarkably, that the developments in
South America directly affected US politics, from the fght against
slavery to the debate on the meaning of republicanism. Fitz intro-
duces us to an early United States that was much more American
(and less European) than we think.
The Middle East Looks at America 103
1:30–2:30 pm
McCormick Auditorium
Norris University Center
$5/Free
We have entered a time of decisive shifts in the meanings attached to
the United States in the world. In the Middle East and North Africa,
there is widespread distrust of American imperial intentions. But
many Arabs and Iranians, among others, have also been attracted
to the charisma of American ideals as they accompany our cultural
products and forms: movies, fction, hip hop, comic books, American
models of higher education, and social networking sites, among many
others. What do these apparently conficting responses to America
and American culture tell us about the new Middle East? What do they
tell us about the United States and the global reach of its culture in
the 21st century? Northwestern University professor of English Brian
Edwards discusses his work and research in US literature and culture
in its international context.
The Whipping Man 104
3:30–4:30 pm
Ethel M. Barber Theater
$5/Free
Emerging playwright Matthew Lopez and Northwestern University
professor E. Patrick Johnson tackle the subject of the Civil War and
Jewish slave owners in 19th-century America in this conversation.
Lopez’s play The Whipping Man, for which the writer earned the John
Gassner Playwriting Award from the Outer Critics Circle, receives its
Chicago premiere at Northlight Theatre in January 2013. When Caleb,
a wounded Confederate soldier returns to his family’s home at the
end of the Civil War, he fnds it in ruins and abandoned by all but two
former slaves. United by their Jewish faith, the three men celebrate
a Seder while wrestling with a shared past they can’t escape—and
secrets they can no longer hide. Slavery and war, they discover, warp
even good men’s souls.
This program is presented in partnership with Northlight Theatre.
sunday, october 14 12 | 13 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Bette Davis Eyes American History 105
3:30–4:30 pm
Harris Hall
Room 107
$5/Free
Have we ever had a more iconic American flm star than Bette Davis?
Northwestern University English professor Julia Stern doesn’t think
so. She is writing a much-anticipated book that examines 20th-
century American history through the lens of Davis’s flms. Of Human
Bondage, Jezebel, The Letter, The Great Lie, In This Our Life, and What-
ever Happened to Baby Jane? play the role of textbooks. Baby Jane’s
lacey white dress and lush blonde curls, the heavy powder cosmetics
Davis donned for the role, and the raging jealousies of sister actresses
may seem like superfcial Hollywood fare, but they speak directly to
such issues as slavery and race. Join Stern for this fresh approach
to American cultural history.
Thanks to the generosity of Lorraine and Jay Jaffe, Julia Stern will also
visit a Chicago-area classroom and lead an interactive experience with
the students.
Digging Up Plantations 106
3:30–4:30 pm
McCormick Auditorium
Norris University Center
$5/Free
What are the material remains of slavery? And what can these
sites and artifacts tell us about the lives of ordinary people caught
in extraordinary circumstances of inequality? As archaeologists
excavate plantations and estate houses in the American South and
the Caribbean, they learn from discarded or forgotten objects how
slaves shaped the world around them in meaningful ways. North-
western University professor Mark Hauser shares the fascinating
stories these objects tell us, shedding new light on the social and
intellectual contributions of Africans in the New World.
John Hodgman: That is All 107
5–6 pm
Cahn Auditorium
$15/5
Is fact stranger than fction? Certainly John Hodgman’s “truth telling”
passes that test. The Daily Show’s “Resident Expert,” minor televi-
sion celebrity, and deranged millionaire, Hodgman returns to CHF
with the latest and fnal volume of his Complete World Knowledge
trilogy, That is All. Beginning on page 596 (where the second book,
More Information Than You Require, left off), Hodgman instructs us
on how to make wine in a toilet, recounts the infamous unicorn inci-
dent of 1978, and gives a day-by-day report of American life in 2012
(let’s just say that President Morgan Freeman plays a role). From a
guy who has been the humor editor for the New York Times Magazine,
advice columnist for McSweeney’s, and rubbed elbows with Ira Glass
on This American Life, it’s hard to believe that is even close to all.
Yo-Yo Ma and Damian Woetzel: 108
A Conversation About the Arts and Citizenship
7:30–8:30 pm
Cahn Auditorium
$20/5
Music and citizenship go together. That’s the vision of Yo-Yo Ma,
one of the great musicians of our time and the Judson and Joyce
Green Creative Consultant for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
As members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the
Humanities, Ma and ballet star Damian Woetzel have engaged in
an ongoing conversation about how artists practice their citizen-
ship as individuals and through institutions—and how the arts
fulfll a fundamental human need by forging and strengthening
community. Join Ma, Woetzel, and a group of citizen musicians from
the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as they discuss and demonstrate
this vision on the Festival stage.
This program is presented in partnership with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra.
festival day in hyde park
east 50th street
hyde park boulevard
east 52nd street
east 53rd street
east 54th street
east 55th street
east 56th street
east 57th street
east 48th street
east 49th street
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1111 East 60th Street

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915 East 60th Street

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Leopold and Loeb:
Walking Tour
East 49th Street &
South Ellis Avenue

Free Parking
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sunday, october 21 16 | 17 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Sunday, October 21
Sixth Annual Festival Day in Hyde Park
On Sunday, October 21, the Festival travels once again to Hyde
Park—to venues on and close to the University of Chicago campus.
Enjoy prominent lecturers and unforgettable performances through-
out the day and into the evening. On weekends, University of Chicago
campus parking lots offer free parking. CHF attendees do not need a
permit to park in these lots. Street parking is available where signage
permits. For more information, please refer to the map on page 16
or visit chicagohumanities.org.
CHF members may purchase day passes for Festival Day in Hyde
Park. Day passes are $45 each and grant access to all the Festival’s
events on Sunday, October 21. Day passes must be purchased in
advance—online or by phone—and are redeemed for tickets at each
event. Passes will be on sale beginning September 4. Please note:
the Leopold and Loeb Walking Tours are not eligible for the pass and
require a separate ticket.
This day of programs is presented in partnership with the University of
Chicago and The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.
Adam Gopnik: The Table Comes First 200
12–1 pm
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
Performance Hall
$10/Free
New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik offers robust, wide-ranging
commentary that brims with rich perspective and humor. From his
incisive, hilarious snapshot of the contemporary urban child’s pre-
occupation with technology (his daughter Olivia and her imaginary
cell phone friend “Mr. Ravioli”) to his indelible Parisian portraits
(Paris to the Moon), Gopnik’s writing intertwines history and family
stories in illuminating and compulsively readable ways. These sen-
sibilities merge again in The Table Comes First: Family, France, and
the Meaning of Food. Join Gopnik and Chicago Sun-Times columnist
Neil Steinberg for a fascinating look at the evolution of eating—
from 18th-century French restaurant culture to our very American,
21st-century farm-to-table obsessions—and everything in between.
This program is generously underwritten in part by Esther S. Saks and is
presented in partnership with TimeOut Chicago.

Adam Gopnik
Retracing the Steps of Leopold and Loeb: Walking Tour 201
12–1 pm
Ticketholders should meet their tour guide at the
northeast corner of South Ellis Avenue and East 49th Street
at least 10 minutes prior to the start time of the tour.
$15/5
It was called “The Trial of the Century,” a media circus before we even
had the term. In 1924, two University of Chicago students kidnapped
and murdered a young schoolboy in Kenwood, just north of Hyde Park
on Chicago’s South Side. America was riveted by details of the grisly
crime; the lawyerly maneuverings of celebrity attorney Clarence Darrow
were a source of daily discussion and distraction. Your tour guide and
fellow time-traveler is University of Chicago scholar and noted story-
teller Paul Durica, who reveals how a collection of artifacts—a pair
of glasses, an Underwood typewriter, a green touring car, a length
of rope, a chisel with a taped handle, a checkered stocking—helped
disprove the alibi given by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Had
these young men of wealth and education turned to murder, as
they later claimed, for the “thrill of it?” This walking tour will begin
at the corner of 49th Street and South Ellis Avenue and will require
ticketholders to walk a total of eight blocks, with the opportunity for
at least one rest stop.
Please note: advance tickets sales are required for this program. Tickets
to these tours are not included in the Hyde Park day pass and must
be purchased separately.
Women and the Word in Early America 202
1:30–2:30 pm
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
Performance Penthouse
Ninth Floor
$5/Free
America’s religious history is full of surprises. One of them is the
often-overlooked phenomenon of female preaching in 18th- and
early 19th-century evangelical communities. University of Chicago
professor Catherine Brekus is the foremost authority on this extraor-
dinary group of women, which includes such fgures as Margaret
Meuse Clay, the ex-slave “Old Elizabeth,” Harriet Livermore, and, most
famously, Sojourner Truth. Brekus refects on their lives and teachings,
which ranged from impassioned pleas for a return to morality to some
of the most infuential statements of the abolitionist movement.
18 | 19 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
High Rise Stories 203
2–3 pm
The Law School
Glen A. Lloyd Auditorium
$10/Free
Narcotics, violence, and the perpetuation of poverty—for many of
us, these are the lingering images of the Chicago housing projects
Cabrini-Green and Robert Taylor Homes. But what was life in the
homes actually like? University of Illinois professor Audrey Petty
interviewed former residents for their frsthand accounts of Chicago
public housing. Her oral history, which also includes such housing
complexes as Stateway Gardens and the Henry Horner Homes, offers
a revealing collective story of community, displacement, removal, and
relocation. Forthcoming in McSweeney’s Voice of Witness book series,
High Rise Stories is both a crucial addition to Chicago’s social history
and a portal to a meaningful conversation about poverty, housing
reform, and urban renewal in the United States. Sara Levine, author
of Treasure Island!!! and a member of the faculty at the School of the
Art Institute of Chicago, will interview Petty.
This program is generously underwritten in part by the Richard H.
Driehaus Foundation.
Anita and Prabha Sinha Program
Little America: The War within the War in Afghanistan 204
2–3 pm
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
Performance Hall
$10/Free
America’s involvement in the Middle East has defned the frst decade
of foreign relations in the 21st century. Headline-making moments
include the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s government, the ongoing
war in Afghanistan, and the death of Osama bin Laden. Few jour-
nalists have been better positioned to share these complicated and
challenging stories with American readers than Rajiv Chandrasekaran,
senior correspondent and associate editor of the Washington Post and
author of the award-winning book Imperial Life in the Emerald City.
Chandrasekaran has spent much of the past 12 years in the Middle
East. His insightful, front-line reporting on America’s efforts to rebuild
Iraq and the resulting movie, The Green Zone, offered an important if
problematic vision of the American military. Join him as he turns his
reportorial eye to the behind-the-scenes struggle between President
Obama and the military to reconstruct Afghanistan in his new book
Little America: The War within the War in Afghanistan.
This program is generously underwritten by Anita and Prabha Sinha.
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For group lnqulrles, please contact:
[email protected]
(312) 325-7180
sunday, october 21 20 | 21 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Retracing the Steps of Leopold and Loeb: Walking Tour 205
2–3 pm
Ticketholders should meet their tour guide at the
northeast corner of South Ellis Avenue and East 49th Street
at least 10 minutes prior to the start time of the tour.
$15/5
See program 201 for more information. Tickets to these tours are not
included in the Hyde Park day pass and must be purchased separately.
Advance ticket sales are required for this program.
Poetic Outrider: A Performance with Anne Waldman 206
3:30–4:30 pm
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
Performance Penthouse
Ninth Floor
$10/Free
Anne Waldman defes categorization. Poet, performance artist, literary
theorist, feminist, and cultural activist, she inherited poetry’s Outrider
lineage frsthand from the Beats and, as its steward, has proved her-
self a defning force. Deemed a “countercultural giant” by Publishers
Weekly, for nearly half a century she has channeled her wildly dispa-
rate passions and experiences into poetry so moving and forceful
that it urges us toward civic and political responsibility. A recipient of
the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America and
a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, she connects her
breadth of experience with the content of 40 poetry collections (The
Iovis Trilogy: Colors in the Mechanism of Concealment, Fast Speaking
Woman, Manatee/Humanity, Marriage: A Sentence), in performances
that become rallying cries for justice, action, and the ideals of the
human condition.
This program is presented in partnership with Poem Present at the
University of Chicago.
The Lady Gagas of the 19th Century 207
4–5 pm
The Law School
Glen A. Lloyd Auditorium
$5/Free
Americans have always loved celebrities, since before Hollywood and
the advent of the popular music industry. As University of Chicago
historian Amy Lippert argues, it all started in the 19th century with
the rise of mass-produced images. Those images created a world
suddenly flled with interchangeable copies of strangers, some of
whom became the frst generation of American stars. Lippert uncovers
the historical meaning of celebrity and introduces us to the celebs
who set 19th-century hearts afutter.
Beyond Hollywood: The Ascendant Israeli Film Scene 208
4–5 pm
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
Screening Room 201
$10/Free
Over the last 10 years, Israel’s flm scene has come into its own,
with widely acclaimed work by such fgures as Ari Folman, Eytan
Fox, Amos Gitai, Etgar Keret, and Eran Riklis. Joseph Cedar is
among the most successful members of this group. Cedar directed
the award-winning Campfre (2004), Beaufort (2007), and the 2011
feature Footnote, nominated for this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign
Language Film. He discusses his work, the Israeli movie industry,
and what it means to make global cinema far away from Hollywood
with University of Illinois scholar of Israeli culture Rachel S. Harris.
This program is presented in partnership with the Chicago Center for
Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago, the Chicago International
Film Festival, the Israel Studies Project of the Jewish United Fund/
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, and the Offce of the Chan-
cellor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
sunday, october 21
Retracing the Steps of Leopold and Loeb: Walking Tour 209
4–5 pm
Ticket holders should meet their tour guide at the
northeast corner of South Ellis Avenue and East 49th Street
at least 10 minutes prior to the start time of the tour.
$15/5
See program 201 for more information. Tickets to these tours are not
included in the Hyde Park day pass and must be purchased separately.
Advance ticket sales are required for this program.
Fred Hersch: Leaves of Grass 210
6–7 pm
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
Performance Hall
$20/5
Jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch has been a key fgure in the
downtown New York music scene since the late 1970s. He was the
frst artist in the 75-year history of the legendary Village Vanguard
to play week-long solo engagements, and his students are among
the hottest and most sought-after young piano players. In 2005,
Hersch took a leap into large-scale composition when he embraced
poet Walt Whitman’s sprawling opus Leaves of Grass, with a suite for
piano, two vocalists, and instrumental ensemble. Hersch’s setting
brings the poetry to life in surprising and soaring musical turns of
phrase in what the Washington Post called “an eloquently orches-
trated celebration of Walt Whitman’s poetry, vision and, above all
else, humanity.” The Festival is delighted to present Hersch on piano
along with a top-fight lineup of East Coast and Chicago musicians,
including Jim Gailloreto and Kate McGarry, for the Midwest premiere
of this remarkable musical work.
The Robert R. McCormick
Foundation is proud to
support the 2012 Chicago
Humanities Festival.
thursday, november 1 24 | 25 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Thursday, November 1
The Power of Words: Writing and Editing for an America in Crisis 300
6–7 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$10/5
Adam Hochschild and Tom Engelhardt have enjoyed the most rewarding
and most challenging relationship any wordsmith can have—that of a
well matched writer and editor. Hochschild, a founder of Mother Jones
magazine, is the author of seven books, including King Leopold’s Ghost,
a history of Belgian colonialism in Congo, and To End All Wars: A Story
of Loyalty and Rebellion, which chronicled British war resisters—and war
fghters—during World War I. Engelhardt is an editor at Metropolitan
Books and the creator of Tomdispatch, a blog and newsletter that began
as a mailing to friends and associates in 2001 and has morphed into a
wildly popular online publishing venture. They’ll talk with Mother Jones
coeditor Monika Bauerlein about what it means to write carefully and
edit thoughtfully at a time when both crafts seem out of fashion, and
they’ll grapple with the question of whether the power of carefully chosen
words can survive in an era of instant communication—and if so, how.
This program is presented in partnership with Mother Jones and Facing
History and Ourselves.
American Utopias 301
7:30 pm
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Edlis Neeson Theater
$28/22/10
CHF members may purchase $22 tickets.
Free tickets are not available for Charter Humanist Circle members.
Teachers must purchase regular price tickets to all performances. A
limited number of $10 student tickets are available for this performance.
Mike Daisey exposes a distinctly American vision of utopia—how
we struggle to create spaces in which we can act out our dreams of
a better world. With American Utopias, Daisey takes us everywhere to
pursue the story: from Disney World and its theme park perfection to
the drug-fueled anarchic excesses of Burning Man, from the Masonic
underpinnings of our nation’s capitol to Zuccotti Park, where in the
unlikeliest place a new movement gets born. Gunplay, giant glittery dildos,
police actions, and secret Freemason underwear come together to
tell the history of our American dream. Daisey’s past work includes
topics such as Nikola Tesla, the Department of Homeland Security,
the history of the New York transit system, 9/11, Walmart, and the
much-discussed show The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.
This program is generously underwritten by Susan and Lewis Manilow and
is presented in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Friday, November 2
The Wilmore Report 302
7:30–8:30 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$15/5
Known to TV audiences as the “Senior Black Correspondent” for
The Daily Show, Larry Wilmore is a cultural commentator, actor,
producer, and award-winning television writer. His writing credits
include episodes of In Living Color, The Bernie Mac Show, and The
Offce. With his wit, levity, and subversively approachable persona,
Wilmore opens the door to an honest conversation about race
and diversity. His book I’d Rather We Got Casinos: And Other Black
Thoughts was lauded for its clever and outrageously funny musings
on the current state of race relations in this country. Join Wilmore
for his wise yet jocular perspective on where we stand today.
This program is generously underwritten by Carol Rosofsky and Robert
B. Lifton.

Larry Wilmore
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saturday, november 3 28 | 29 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Saturday, November 3
Karla Scherer Endowed Lecture Series 400
for the University of Chicago
Mr. Capra Goes to Washington
10:30–11:30 am
Chicago Cultural Center
Claudia Cassidy Theater
$5/Free
After Frank Capra’s flm Mr. Smith Goes to Washington premiered at
the National Press Club in October 1939, Alben Barkley, then majority
leader of the US Senate, roundly condemned it. John F. Kennedy’s
father, Joseph Kennedy, actually offered Columbia Pictures two million
dollars to keep it out of theaters. Undeterred, Capra persuaded
Columbia to release the flm and to market it with the motto “Liberty
is too precious to get buried in books,” a line spoken by James
Stewart in the flm. Capra thought American ideals were uniquely
well served by the medium of flm, even as his motion pictures were
being labeled “Capra-corn.” But just how was sentimental cinema
supposed to advance American ideals? And how did Capra come to
believe it could? These are two of the key questions James Chandler
attempts to answer in a forthcoming book on Capra and the legacy
of literary sentimentalism.
This program is presented as part of the annual Karla Scherer Endowed
Lecture Series for the University of Chicago.
Dorothy Allison: The Power of the Writer’s Voice 401
10:30–11:30 am
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
$10/5
Dorothy Allison has left her mark on generations of readers and
helped redefne Southern storytelling in the 20th century. With
tough heroines (Bone in Bastard Out of Carolina and Cavedweller’s
Delia Byrd among them) and the vivid worlds they inhabit—visceral,
violent, challenging, but marked by poignancy and love—she has
established herself as a force in literature. Allison’s frank examina-
tions of class, gender, and sexuality have earned her critical praise
as well as popularity. Bastard Out of Carolina received an ALA Award
for Lesbian and Gay Writing and was a fnalist for the National Book
Award, and Cavedweller became a New York Times bestseller and
then a flm. Join her and Booklist senior editor Donna Seaman for a
conversation about the power and infuence of the writer’s voice in
current American culture.
This program is generously underwritten in part by Esther S. Saks.
Walt Whitman’s Moment: Poetry and Time in the Civil War 402
10:30–11:30 am
The Newberry Library
Ruggles Hall
$5/Free
Alexander Nemerov, the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial professor
in the Arts and Humanities at Stanford, is among the most innovative
humanists working today. In his celebrated book Acting in the Night:
Macbeth and the Places of the Civil War, Nemerov focuses on a single
performance of Macbeth at Grover’s National Theatre on October 17,
1863—a night when Abraham Lincoln was in attendance—to rethink
not only the Civil War but the entire cultural iconography of 19th-cen-
tury America through the president’s favorite play. But what did the
treachery, violence, and guilt of Macbeth mean in the midst of war?
And where does Walt Whitman ft in all of this? Join Nemerov as he
shares his unique brand of cultural criticism that borders on poetry
and dissolves the boundaries between America’s theaters of art, lit-
erature, and war.
This program is presented in partnership with The Newberry Library
and the Karla Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture at the
University of Chicago.
Marketing with Philip Kotler 403
11 am–12 pm
Northwestern University School of Law
Thorne Auditorium
$10/5
America knows how to market itself, its products, and its ideas. For
better or for worse, for richer or poorer, American marketing creativity,
power, and prestige infuence consumers the world over. Philip Kotler,
best known for the marketing principle of the four Ps—product, price,
promotion, and place—takes us on a guided tour of American mar-
keting, including its origins and trends, its relationship to economics,
and its criticisms. His talk will include examples of exemplary mar-
keting. Kotler is professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s
Kellogg School of Management, and his textbooks serve as the basis
for graduate business programs worldwide.
This program is generously underwritten by the Aon Corporation.
saturday, november 3 30 | 31 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
America and the Cold War 404
12–1 pm
UIC Forum
Main Hall AB
$10/5
The reverberations of the Cold War strategy of containment have
echoed through American policy, culture, identity, and relation-
ships with the rest of the world. These lasting effects have made it
arguably the most signifcant political strategy of the 20th century.
The mastermind behind this policy, which defned US policy toward
the Soviet Union for four decades, was diplomat George F. Kennan.
Yale University historian John Lewis Gaddis’s portrait George Kennan:
An American Life won the Pulitzer Prize in Biography this year and
was more than 30 years in the making. Hailed as the “dean of Cold
War historians” by the New York Times, Gaddis shares his unparalleled
perspective on Kennan’s titanic infuence on American foreign policy.
Richard Gray Visual Art Series 405
The Global American Artist
12:30–1:30 pm
Chicago Cultural Center
Claudia Cassidy Theater
$5/Free
Michael Rakowitz has pushed the boundaries of art for his entire
career. He frst gained prominence for his paraSITES, infatable
homeless shelters that make serendipitous use of warm air emit-
ted by HVAC systems. More recently, he has refected on Ameri-
ca’s role in the world, creating work in response to the war in Iraq.
These works of contemporary art have included the reopening of his
Iraqi grandfather’s import-export business, the deployment of food
trucks serving Middle Eastern delicacies, and the re-creation in papi-
er-mâché of every object looted from the National Museum of Iraq
in Baghdad. Rakowitz’s work has gained tremendous national and
international recognition. He participated in the 2012 Documenta,
the world’s foremost showcase for avant-garde art, held in Kassel,
Germany, every fve years. He discusses his work with art historian
and fellow Northwestern University professor Hannah Feldman.
The annual Richard Gray Visual Art Series recognizes a signifcant
gift from founding CHF board member and distinguished art dealer
Richard Gray.
Captive Audience: The Future of Information in America 406
12:30–1:30 pm
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
$5/Free
Susan Crawford teaches Internet law and communications law and is
one of the world’s leading thinkers on the intersection of technology
and democracy. In 2009, she served as Special Assistant to the
President for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy and co-led
the FCC transition team between the Bush and Obama adminis-
trations. She is the author of the upcoming book Captive Audience:
The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age.
Professor at Cardozo Law School in New York City, columnist for
Bloomberg View and Wired, and visiting professor at Harvard’s
Kennedy School and Law School, Crawford will discuss the hot topics
in technology policy—monopoly power over access networks and
innovation, competition, and transparency in government—as well
as the fascinating connections and overlap among them.
Railroaded: The Transcontinentals 407
and the Making of Modern America
12:30–1:30 pm
The Newberry Library
Ruggles Hall
$10/5
Railroaded, by Stanford historian Richard White, paints a provoc-
ative portrait of one of the frst corporate behemoths of America:
the transcontinental railroads. Published in 2011, the book was
quickly and widely hailed as a landmark, sharp-edged account of
its subject. In place of the traditional narrative—the triumph of
technology symbolized by that gold spike driven into the ground
in 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah—White tells a much more
nuanced story, attentive to environmental costs, the exploitation
of laborers, and the impact on Native Americans. As he exposes
the project’s corruption and mismanagement, he challenges us
to reconsider our cherished assumptions about one of the great
achievements in American history.
This program is presented in partnership with The Newberry Library
and the Karla Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture at the
University of Chicago.
saturday, november 3
The Hip Hop Pioneer 408
12:30–1:30 pm
UIC Forum
Main Hall C
$10/5
Tricia Rose invented hip hop studies with her 1994 book Black Noise.
Since then, the Brown University professor has continued to be
on the vanguard of scholarship on race, music, gender, inequality,
and youth culture—topics she frequently discusses on NPR, CNN,
Current TV, and MSNBC. Join Rose as she presents her thoughts
on the current state of hip hop, which, she argues, is in some ways
following the path forged by jazz, frst an African American, then
an American, and now a global art form.
This program is presented in partnership with the Cogut Center for the
Humanities at Brown University.

Tricia Rose
The Best Idea America Ever Had 409
1:30–2:30 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$5/Free
Critically acclaimed author Shelton Johnson plumbs geography, history,
and his own experience as a national park ranger. His 2009 historical
novel Gloryland traces the journey of a young black Indian from South
Carolina in the Reconstructed South across the Great Plains to Yosemite.
The novel, the result of 16 years of research, recounts the history of the
Buffalo Soldiers and the once little-known story of their service as some
of the frst national park rangers. Johnson’s writing and advocacy for
their story ultimately led to his appearance in the Ken Burns PBS
series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Johnson’s talk weaves
his own journey from Detroit to Yosemite together with an insider’s
look at the challenges and rewards of serving as a park ranger. Don’t
miss his perspective on misperceptions about the relevance of our
national parks for people of color.
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Sharing ideas is as important
as having them.
We are proud to sponsor
the Chicago Humanities Festival
Francis W. Parker School | 330 W. Webster Ave. Chicago, IL 60614 | 773.353.3000 | www.fwparker.org
saturday, november 3 34 | 35 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Herman Miller Design Program: Designing for Tomorrow 410
1:30–2:30 pm
Northwestern University School of Law
Thorne Auditorium
$10/5
Yves Béhar—one of the world’s top designers—is known for such
civically minded projects as the One Laptop per Child program, for
which he was lead industrial designer, and NYC Condom, the New
York City Department of Health’s initiative to reduce HIV/AIDS and
teen pregnancy, for which he redesigned the logo and packaging. His
other collaborations with renowned partners such as Herman Miller,
Jawbone, GE, Puma, PayPal, SodaStream, Samsung, Issey Miyake,
and many others have received international acclaim. Béhar’s works
are included in the permanent collections of museums worldwide,
and he is a frequent speaker on design, sustainability, and business.
Béhar discusses design as a critical driver of 21st-century ideas, from
sustainability to education and health.
This program is generously underwritten by Herman Miller.
Spencer Foundation Lecture on Education and Learning 411
True Grit
2–3 pm
Chicago History Museum
Rubloff Auditorium
$10/Free
Traditionally, success in school and in life has been associated with
some combination of intellect, opportunity, and yes, a little bit of
luck. Angela Lee Duckworth, assistant professor of psychology at
the University of Pennsylvania, advocates for adding a fourth ingre-
dient to that recipe—grit, also known as perseverance or tenacity.
Duckworth’s research looks at the psychology of achievement, as
she considers how effort as well as talent determine our accom-
plishments, what factors increase effort, and what high-quality vs.
low-quality effort looks like. As educators at every level, from pre-
school to graduate school, seek new ways to motivate and maintain
their students’ efforts, Duckworth offers specifc suggestions on
how to cultivate grit over time.
This annual lecture recognizes a generous multiyear grant from the
Spencer Foundation, which seeks both to support and disseminate
exemplary research about education, broadly conceived.
Beyond Macondo: Contemporary Latino Fiction 412
2–3 pm
UIC Forum
Main Hall AB
$10/5
With his lush family saga, recounted in his novels The Humming bird’s
Daughter and Queen of America, Luis Urrea has vividly brought the
story of his ancestor Teresita Urrea to life. Spanning two centuries
and ranging from a magical, rural Mexican village to 20th-century
Manhattan, these books defne not only Urrea’s career but also
the remarkable diversity of Latino/Latina fction in America. In this
program, Urrea, as the genre’s established voice, introduces with
excitement Cristina Henriquez, whose fction brims with promise.
For Henriquez, the Latina experience is one of dualism, rooted both
in her father’s native Panama and in the United States. In both
the novel The World in Half and the story collection Come Together,
Fall Apart, she plumbs Panamanians and Panamanian-Americans’
perspectives with nuance and grace. Join Urrea and Henriquez for a
wide-ranging conversation that will absorb writers and readers alike.
This program is presented in partnership with the UIC Institute for
the Humanities and the Writing Program at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago.
Karla Scherer Endowed Lecture Series 413
for the University of Chicago
Capitalism for the People
2:30–3:30 pm
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
$10/5
Twenty years later, we are back to “It’s the economy, stupid” this election
year. From the personal to the political—America’s struggling middle
class to the Occupy movement and the Tea Party—capitalism in the
United States is perceived as a fraught and frustrated system. Luigi
Zingales’s new book A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost
Genius of American Prosperity is a blueprint for recovery. Zingales, an
Italian-born economist and professor at the University of Chicago’s
Booth School of Business, uses his frsthand knowledge of Italy’s cro-
ny-capitalist system and his years researching entrepreneurship and
fnance to outline pragmatic solutions to restore the American version
of capitalism.
This program is presented as part of the annual Karla Scherer Endowed
Lecture Series for the University of Chicago.
saturday, november 3 36 | 37 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Crossing the Color Line in Gilded Age America 414
2:30–3:30 pm
The Newberry Library
Ruggles Hall
$5/Free
Clarence King was a prominent 19th-century geologist, mining engineer,
and mountaineer. Chiefy responsible for mapping the West after the
Civil War, he gained additional renown for his legendary explorations of
the Sierra Nevada and served as the frst director of the United States
Geological Survey. But this scion of a prominent white family from
Newport, Rhode Island, lived a double life for 13 years. After falling in
love with an African American woman, King lived in a common-law
marriage as James Todd, representing himself as a black Pullman porter,
and passing back and forth across the color line to maintain his own
identity for professional work in the feld. He revealed this double life in
a fnal deathbed letter to his wife. Princeton University historian Martha
Sandweiss, one of the leading scholars of the American West, unfurls
this extraordinary story and reveals what it tells us about this country’s
complicated racial history.
This program is presented in partnership with The Newberry Library
and the Karla Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture at the
University of Chicago.
Arab Detroit, Before and After 9/11 415
2:30–3:30 pm
UIC Forum
Main Hall C
$5/Free
In the decade since 9/11, Arab Americans have navigated rough
waters. Lionized by some as model immigrants and beacons against
terrorist threats, they have also been questioned about their loyalty
to the United States. How have these mixed messages echoed in
greater Detroit’s Arab community, one of the country’s oldest and
largest? University of Michigan anthropologist Andrew Shryock, a
leading scholar of the Arab American experience, draws on decades
of feldwork to illuminate this community’s past, present, and future,
revealing much about America—ideal and reality—that rings true
for us all.
This program is presented in partnership with the Institute for the
Humanities at the University of Michigan.
Doris Conant Lecture on Women and Culture 416
What Can You Do for Your Country?
4–5 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$10/5
In 1960, an impromptu remark by John F. Kennedy at a University of
Michigan campaign stop planted the seed for the Peace Corps. By the
time he was sworn in as president, that idea of service had worked its
way into the heart of Kennedy’s inaugural address. Cynical politicians
grudgingly embraced the idea as a new strategy for winning hearts
and minds in the Cold War. But Kennedy’s idea and the vision of
frst Peace Corps director Sargent Shriver tapped an unprecedented
idealism in America’s young adults. Two of those young people were
Maureen Orth and Michael McCaskey. Orth has gone on to become
an award-winning journalist, author, and special correspondent for
Vanity Fair. McCaskey taught at Harvard and UCLA’s business schools
before serving as president and board chairman of the Chicago Bears.
The Festival is delighted to present Orth and McCaskey in conversa-
tion as they share their experiences as early Peace Corps volunteers,
their perspective on what the Peace Corps has meant to the world
and to their own lives, and their take on its identity in the 21st century.
This annual lecture honors Festival supporter Doris Conant in recognition
of a generous gift to the Chicago Humanities Festival by the Doris and
Howard Conant Family Foundation.
On the Common Good 417
4–5:30 pm
Northwestern University School of Law
Thorne Auditorium
$10/5
By most measures, Americans no longer trust the representative insti-
tutions that bind our nation’s civil society. Media segmentation and
sensationalism have eroded the public discourse and wrought pro-
found changes in the way Americans receive information about poli-
tics, international affairs, scientifc discoveries, and public opinion. In
this program, former Republican congressman Mickey Edwards, Uni-
versity of Chicago law professor Geoffrey Stone, and political theorist
and Institute for Advanced Study scholar Danielle Allen will discuss
growing concern about the decline of public confdence in govern-
ment and the media and seek a way forward.
This program is presented in partnership with the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences.
saturday, november 3
The Ethics of American Health Care 418
4–5 pm
UIC Forum
Main Hall AB
$10/5
Ezekiel Emanuel is one of America’s leading bioethicists as well as a
key fgure in the national debate on health care. Professor and vice pro-
vost for global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, he served
in the Obama Administration as the Special Advisor for Health Policy
to the Director of the White House Offce of Management and Budget.
Emanuel discusses the pressing issues facing US health care today,
from access to insurance to the overall cost of American medicine.
This program is generously underwritten by Lynn Hauser and Neil Ross
and is presented in partnership with the Penn Humanities Forum.
Helen B. and Ira E. Graham Family ASCAP Cabaret 419
Nathan Gunn and Julie Jordan Gunn
7:30 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$25/5
This year’s ASCAP cabaret features baritone Nathan Gunn and pianist
Julie Jordan Gunn in a recital of selections from the Great American
Songbook. Nathan Gunn, one of today’s most in-demand singers, has
performed title roles at the world’s great opera houses, is a champion
of new works, and has appeared as soloist with premier symphonies at
home and abroad. Recently, he has ventured outside the standard opera
repertoire, appearing in performances of Camelot with the New York
Philharmonic and Showboat both at Carnegie Hall and here at Chicago’s
Lyric Opera. The Gunns will present a special program illustrating the
breadth and depth of American song with works ranging from the early
American songs of Charles Ives, to notable classics from Cole Porter
and Richard Rodgers, to the modern compositions of Tom Waits.
This program is generously underwritten by the Helen B. and Ira E.
Graham Family.
American Utopias 420
7:30 pm
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Edlis Neeson Theater
$28/22
CHF members may purchase $22 tickets.
Free tickets are not available for Charter Humanist Circle members.
Teachers must purchase regular price tickets to all performances.
Student tickets are not available for this performance.
See program 301 for more information.
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sunday, november 4 42 | 43 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Sunday, November 4
Grant Achatz and the Culinary Cutting-Edge 500
10–11 am
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$15/5
Grant Achatz is one of America’s most admired and infuential chefs.
At his Chicago restaurants, he is reinventing both food and the dining
experience. At Alinea, he builds on the molecular gastronomy pio-
neered by Spanish chef Ferran Adrià, pushing the boundaries of
favor, texture, and consistency ever outward. His new restaurant Next
offers themed menus for 12 weeks—inspired by early 20th-century
Paris or Achatz’s Michigan childhood—and experiments with theat-
ricality, seasonality, and the senses. Achatz’s work parallels that of any
avant-garde artist, challenging preconceived notions in a relentless
search for the new. Join him as he discusses his culinary and aesthetic
vision with Madeleine Grynsztejn, Pritzker Director of the Museum of
Contemporary Art Chicago.
This program is generously underwritten by Sylvia and Lawrence Margolies
and is presented in partnership with TimeOut Chicago.
Freedom Papers: An Atlantic Odyssey in the 501
Age of Emancipation
10:30–11:30 am
The Newberry Library
Ruggles Hall
$5/Free
Freedom Papers, coauthored by historians Rebecca Scott of the
University of Michigan and Jean Hébrard of the École des Hautes
Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, tells the extraordinary story of
the Tinchant family. Building on archival material, the book traces the
lives of its members across fve generations and three continents. It
commences around 1785, when a woman, later named Rosalie, is
taken from her home in West Africa and sent to the Caribbean as
a slave. The book ends 160 years later, with the arrest of Rosalie’s
great-great-granddaughter Marie-José by Nazi forces occupying Bel-
gium. In between lies a decades-long struggle for dignity and equality
that plays out against three cataclysmic events: the Haitian Revolution,
the French Revolution of 1848, and the Civil War and Reconstruction in
the United States. Let Scott be your guide for an epic American journey
that spans the globe, from the Old World to the New and back again.
This program is presented in partnership with the Institute for the
Humanities at the University of Michigan.
Creating an American Opera from Scratch 502
11:30 am–12:30 pm
Chicago Cultural Center
Claudia Cassidy Theater
$10/5
Early in 2012, Lyric Opera of Chicago announced a major new opera
commission to receive its world premiere during the 2015–16 season.
Based on Ann Patchett’s award-winning novel and inspired by the
1996–97 hostage crisis in Lima, Peru, Bel Canto presents the character
of Roxanne Coss—an American opera singer who is caught up in the
events and emerges as a symbol for the power of music in forging
unexpected emotional bonds. The new opera will be the collabora-
tion of acclaimed Peruvian-born composer Jimmy López and Pulitzer
Prize–winning Cuban American playwright Nilo Cruz. Join them as
they discuss both their careers and their creative process with opera
dramaturge Colin Ure.
This program is presented in partnership with Lyric Opera of Chicago.
The United States of Chocolate 503
12–1 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$15/5
Belgium and Switzerland, move over! The new leader of the chocolate
world is the USA! We’re not just Hershey’s anymore. Our sweet teeth
crave something more sophisticated and adventurous: we seek out
chocolate with bacon, wasabi, pink peppercorn, and citrus salt. Or
we tease out the subtle differences in bars sourced from Ecuador,
Honduras, Tanzania, or the Philippines. Vosges and Askinosie Choco-
late are the midwestern juggernauts at the epicenter of this delectable
revolution. Join founders Katrina Markoff and Shawn Askinosie as
they reveal their sweet secrets. And yes, there will be samples!
This program is presented in partnership with TimeOut Chicago.
sunday, november 4 44 | 45 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Crazy Brave: The Life and Poetry of Joy Harjo 504
12–1 pm
Poetry Foundation
$10/5
For more than 30 years, poet Joy Harjo, of Muskogee Nation heritage,
has evoked the landscape of the Southwest with language steeped
in American native cultures and visionary lyricism. From ancient,
earth-centered rituals to contemporary challenges, she explores
the lives and experiences of indigenous Americans with poignant,
poetic brilliance. Harjo’s many-faceted artistic life includes the
poetry collections She Who Had Horses and the American Book
award-winning In Mad Love and War, as well as her new memoir
Crazy Brave and stints playing saxophone in Joy Harjo and the Arrow
Dynamics Band. Harjo traces her journey from a hardscrabble
Oklahoma childhood and shares the poetry that has made her
one of the most compelling and treasured voices in indigenous
American literature.
This program is presented in partnership with the Poetry Foundation.
A Sneak Peek at Gay History 505
12:30–1:30 pm
Chicago History Museum
Rubloff Auditorium
$10/5
In 1994, University of Chicago historian George Chauncey published
an epoch-making book. Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and
the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940 not only won every
major award in the feld of American history, it also accomplished
something previously thought impossible: it restored the complexity
of gay lives to full historical view. An extraordinary feat of archival
sleuthing, Gay New York made ingenious use of such sources as
police and court records, the papers of “social hygiene societies,”
and countless individuals’ diaries. But how does the story continue?
Chauncey, now a professor at Yale University, has been working on
the sequel for more than a decade—to the scholarly community’s
collectively bated breath. He is nearing the completion of the vol-
ume and gives us a preview in a lecture that focuses on the 1940s
and ’50s, the heyday of Leonard Bernstein, Tennessee Williams, and
the Bloomingdale’s sales clerk. Their world was culturally rich and
sexually confusing, marked by a distinctive aesthetic and populated
by “homophiles” and “beards.” Chauncey illuminates their experience
and explains how a world so rich and varied in its own time dis-
appeared from historical memory with the rise of the gay liberation
movement a mere decade later.
Creole America 506
12:30–1:30 pm
The Newberry Library
Ruggles Hall
$5/Free
When we hear the word “America,” we tend to think of the stars, bars,
and the 50 states. But what if we consider America in its hemispheric
context—as part of the Americas? After all, the Founding Fathers had
deep political, economic, and familial ties to the West Indies. Alexander
Hamilton, for example, was born and raised in the Leeward Islands, and
Benjamin Franklin had printing partnerships in Antigua, Dominica, and
Jamaica. Join eminent literary critic and Pennsylvania State University
professor Sean X. Goudie as he radically redraws America’s national
boundaries, guiding us through the Caribbean’s ties to United States
culture. In this fresh conceptualization, there is no America as we know
it without the Americas.
This program is presented in partnership with the Institute for the Arts
and Humanities at Pennsylvania State University.
Truth Be Told: Mike Daisey in Conversation 507
1:30–2:30 pm
Chicago Cultural Center
Claudia Cassidy Theater
$5/Free
Mike Daisey, known for his extemporaneous monologues that weave
together autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted perfor-
mance, is one of the most controversial and provocative theater artists
in America. This freewheeling discussion with Daisey will cover his
body of work and career, the lines between art and journalism, and his
entanglement with This American Life and its fallout. Hear a passion-
ate discussion with Mike Daisey, whose latest work, American Utopias,
has its Chicago premiere as part of the Festival.

Mike Daisey
46 | 47 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509 sunday, november 4
Boxing: Going for the Head 508
1:30–2:30 pm
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
$5/Free
Carlo Rotella’s passion for boxing has taken him ringside amid
bruisers and hustlers in rundown gyms and glittering casinos. The
fght world may seem an unlikely home for a scholar, but Rotella
opens our eyes to how much we all can learn there. In both Cut
Time and his forthcoming collection Playing in Time, the journalist,
essayist, and Boston College professor reveals the parallels between
the intellectual and physical world with insight and lyricism. From
the surprising literary connection between the Iliad and Muhammad
Ali to the sulfurously profane students of the human condition we
encounter at the fghts, Rotella shows us again and again the secret
links between the library and the street, the academy and the ring.
Ellen Stone Belic Presents: In Her Infnite Wisdom 509
Camille Paglia—Culture Critic, Provocateur
2:30–3:30 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$10/5
Since her bestselling debut Sexual Personae, Camille Paglia has been
one of our most audacious cultural critics, probing sex and beauty in
art, literature, and media. In her frst book in seven years, Glittering
Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars, Paglia takes
on the visual arts. Acting as art historian and provocateur, Paglia
threads together historical context with some of Western art’s most
important works, focusing on such vastly disparate mediums as an
Egyptian tomb, French rococo interiors, and performance art. In classic
Paglia fashion, her conclusions—that the avant-garde tradition is dead
and that director George Lucas is the world’s greatest living artist—
astonish and challenge her audience.
This program is generously underwritten by Ellen Stone Belic and
features an artist, writer, or other creative authority refecting on her
extraordinary career.

Camille Paglia
Gentlemen Prefer Bonds 510
2:30–3:30 pm
The Newberry Library
Ruggles Hall
$5/Free
Money is the lifeblood of Wall Street. What else pumps through
the veins of its people? Karen Ho, professor of anthropology at the
University of Minnesota, researches investment bankers, illuminat-
ing a social world populated by stressed frst-year associates, over-
worked and alienated analysts, undergraduates eager to be hired,
and seasoned managing directors. Collectively, they create a work-
place culture of expediency and high reward—a place where job
insecurity is intended to build character and drive smart, effcient
business. It’s a model, Ho argues, that has gradually expanded to
all of corporate America.
This program is presented in partnership with the University of Minnesota
Institute for Advanced Study.
Karla Scherer Endowed Lecture Series 511
for the University of Chicago
Kafka’s Amerika
2:30–3:30 pm
Poetry Foundation
$5/Free
Like many of his contemporaries in Central Europe, Franz Kafka was
utterly fascinated by the New World. And though he never traveled
here, he made it the setting of his frst (unfnished) novel. Written
just before World War I, it was published posthumously by Max
Brod in 1927. Ever since, Amerika has confounded readers and crit-
ics alike—both for its surreal depiction of Karl Roßmann’s wander-
ings through New York, where he is greeted by a Statue of Liberty
holding a sword, and his eventual arrival at the “Nature Theatre of
Oklahoma,” one of Kafka’s most delirious literary inventions. Leading
scholar of German literature and University of Chicago professor
David Wellbery interprets this great modernist text, in the process
uncovering the many meanings of America in the Old World.
This program is part of the annual Karla Scherer Endowed Lecture
Series for the University of Chicago.
sunday, november 4 48 | 49 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
The Banjo 512
3–4 pm
Chicago History Museum
Rubloff Auditorium
$5/Free
The banjo’s sound is synonymous with country, folk, and blue-
grass—music as “white” as it gets. For many, it’s the quintessential
American instrument. Its origin, though, lies in Africa, in various
instruments featuring skin drum heads and gourd bodies. Slaves
fashioned them into the modern version in the colonial Caribbean,
from where it traveled, via 19th-century minstrel shows, into the very
heart of American popular culture. Duke University historian Lau-
rent Dubois, one of the world’s foremost experts on the Caribbean,
traces the banjo’s extraordinary trajectory and the part it has played
in the very concept of America.
This program is presented in partnership with the John Hope Franklin
Humanities Institute at Duke University.
August Wilson’s America 513
3:30–4:30 pm
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
$10/5
August Wilson was a titan of American theater. The creator of the
unparalleled Pittsburgh Cycle—10 plays chronicling each decade of
the 20th-century African American experience, frst staged in full by
Chicago’s Goodman Theatre—revolutionized the country’s dramatic
tradition. Stanford University scholar and provost Harry J. Elam Jr. is
the foremost expert on Wilson’s work. He has also directed several
of Wilson’s plays. Elam refects on Wilson’s enduring legacy in the
contexts of both African American drama and the global history
of theater.
This program is presented in partnership with the Stanford Humanities
Center and the Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts.
Karla Scherer Endowed Lecture Series 514
for the University of Chicago
Austan Goolsbee on Jobs, Politics, and America’s Future
5–6 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$10/5
Employment, economic performance, and fnancial stability are
complex issues that occupy the forefront of political debate. Former
chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, longtime
contributor to the New York Times and Slate, frequent guest on The
Daily Show, and currently the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics
at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, Austan
Goolsbee is not only one of our leading economists, but a gifted
and entertaining interpreter of the esoteric feld for the popular cul-
ture. Goolsbee brings his trademark clarity and incisive humor to
an examination of jobs, politics, and America’s future.
This program is presented as part of the annual Karla Scherer Endowed
Lecture Series for the University of Chicago.
Mark Helprin: In Sunlight and in Shadow 515
7:30–8:30 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$15/5
Whether as a novelist (Refner’s Fire, Winter’s Tale, A Soldier of the Great War,
Memoir From Antproof Case, and Freddy and Fredericka), a children’s book
author with Chris Van Allsberg (Swan Lake, A City in Winter, and The Veil
of Snows), a short story writer for the New Yorker, or as an editorial writer
for the Wall Street Journal, Mark Helprin’s sculpted prose, lyrical bent, and
provocative ideas have made him an essential read for more than 30 years.
Helprin discusses both his new novel, In Sunlight and in Shadow, and his
career with Chicago Tribune editorial page editor Bruce Dold.
This program is presented in partnership with the Chicago Tribune’s
Printers Row Live! series.
American Utopias 516
7:30 pm
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Edlis Neeson Theater
$28/22/10
CHF members may purchase $22 tickets.
Free tickets are not available for Charter Humanist Circle members.
Teachers must purchase regular price tickets to all performances. A
limited number of $10 student tickets are available for this performance.
See program 301 for more information.
monday, november 5 50 | 51 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Wednesday, November 7
Marc Ribot: Sounds Like America 601
6–7 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$10/5
Rolling Stone magazine has dubbed guitarist Marc Ribot the “go-
to guitar guy for all kinds of roots-music adventurers”—an apt
description given the versatility of his playing and the breadth of his
collaborations. From Tom Waits’s 1985 Rain Dogs to recordings with
Laurie Anderson, The Black Keys, Allen Ginsburg, Elton John, Norah
Jones, Alison Krauss, Robert Plant, John Zorn, and others, Ribot has
again and again proved himself a formidable partner and a musical
force in a 30-year career. With 19 albums under his name, running
the gamut from pioneering jazz to experimental no-wave, he has
performed on numerous flm scores, including Walk the Line and The
Departed, and works frequently with producer T Bone Burnett. Guitar
at his side, Ribot shares what it’s like to have a busy and innovative
hand in American music.
Write Club 602
7:30–9 pm
Poetry Foundation
$10/5
Chicago has one of the most active and prolifc “live lit” scenes in
the country. Leading that vanguard is WRITE CLUB, the salty and
subversive competitive reading series founded by noted monologist,
former stand-up comedian, and everybody’s favorite curmudgeon
Ian Belknap. Each 90-minute show consists of three “bouts” that
pit two opposing writer/performers against each other to advocate
on behalf of an assigned idea: think “Guts vs. Glory” or “Liberty vs.
Death.” Combatants have seven minutes to make their case and the
audience selects the winners. Join us for a special CHF evening of
lively dialectics and raucous repartee. The gloves are off! (And stay
tuned to CHF social media—Facebook and Twitter—in August for
the chance to help choose the topics for the bouts.)
Monday, November 5
The William and Greta Wiley Flory Concert 600
Assassins
7:30 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$20/5
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by John Weidman
Assassins is based on an idea by Charles Gilbert Jr.
Playwrights Horizons, Inc., New York City, produced Assassins
off-Broadway in 1990.
It’s a tough subject, but an indelible piece of US history—four of
our presidents have had their lives and terms cut short by assassins,
with more than a dozen additional attempts. With humor, insight,
and memorable music, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman dove
into this subject and created Assassins. In his book Look, I made a
Hat, Sondheim wrote, “Were I asked to name the show that comes
the closest to my expectations . . . the answer would be Assassins.”
Longtime Lincoln Center Theatre artistic director André Bishop
writes, “We are accustomed, in our musical theatre, to examining
the lives of those Americans who reveal to us the best part of who
we are. Sondheim and Weidman set themselves to a different task.
And what they succeeded in doing, brilliantly, was to humanize
these assassins . . . and thereby to allow us to get into their minds.”
Mounting a show on a painful and controversial subject on the
eve of the 2012 presidential election is a bold choice for CHF and
collaborators Doug Peck and Rob Lindley—the team who brought
Follies and A Night at the Oscars to the Festival stage. Peck, whose
recent Chicago credits include Porgy and Bess at Court Theatre and
Candide at Goodman Theatre, has received four Jeff awards for Best
Musical Direction. Lindley, who will play The Balladeer in Assassins,
recently portrayed Prior Walter in Angels in America at the Court
Theatre and received a 2010 Jeff Award for his role in Oh, Coward!.
TimeLine Theatre associate artistic director Nick Bowling will direct
the CHF production. At TimeLine, he has directed The History Boys,
Fiorello!, and the world premiere of My Kind of Town. He recently col-
laborated with Peck on A Catered Affair for Porchlight Theatre and
has received fve Jeff awards for Outstanding Direction. Accompanied
by a 12-piece orchestra, Peck, Lindley, and Bowling will join some of
the hot talent from Follies and Oscars to bring Sondheim’s Assassins
to life at this year’s Festival.
This program is generously underwritten by a gift from Greta Wiley Flory
in memory of her late husband Bill, a longtime friend and supporter of
the Festival.
thursday, november 8 52 | 53 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Thursday, November 8
Art Institute of Chicago President’s Lecture 603
Songs Without Words: Tales from America’s Past
6–7 pm
Art Institute of Chicago
Fullerton Auditorium
$15/5
The feld of cultural history had never seen a more innovative or ambi-
tious project than A History of the World in 100 Objects. Conceived by
Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, it tells the human
story through 100 selected objects from the institution’s unparalleled
holdings of eight million works. Presented originally as a 100-part BBC
radio series (one episode per object) that aired in 2010, it was recog-
nized immediately as a landmark achievement and quickly became a
global phenomenon (with millions and millions of downloaded pod-
casts). The accompanying book became an international best seller
as well, a gorgeous atlas of human creativity’s physical manifestations.
The Americas have a prominent place in this list of greatest hits—from
a Clovis spear point and a buckskin map to an Aztec goddess statue
and a golden Inca llama. Join MacGregor as he makes these objects
sing to tell the tales of our hemisphere and mark its place in the pan-
theon of human civilization.
This program is presented in partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago.
American Utopias 604
7:30 pm
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Edlis Neeson Theater
$28/22/10
CHF members may purchase $22 tickets.
Free tickets are not available for Charter Humanist Circle members.
Teachers must purchase regular price tickets to all performances.
A limited number of $10 student tickets are available for
this performance.
See program 301 for more information.
Friday, November 9
Deborah and S. Cody Engle Program 605
Going Solo: The State of American Society
6–7 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$10/5
In 1950, only 22 percent of American adults were single. Today,
nearly 50 percent are, and roughly one in every seven adults lives
alone. In fact, adults living alone make up a larger percentage of US
households than the nuclear family, creating the most signifcant
demographic shift in our country since the Baby Boom. What effects,
positive and negative, does this change hold for our country? Where
are we now, and where do trends suggest we will be—as individuals
and communities—in 50 years? New York University professor and
Chicago native Eric Klinenberg, author of the widely debated Going
Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone, gives
a broad account of the current state of American society.
This program is generously underwritten by Deborah and S. Cody Engle.
Karla Scherer Endowed Lecture Series 606
for the University of Chicago
Baseball and Politics: The Numbers Don’t Lie
8–9 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$10/5
As an undergraduate, Nate Silver studied economics, but baseball was
his frst and enduring love. He soon earned a reputation as a formidable
baseball statistical analyst. A disciple of Bill James, Silver’s remarkable
PECOTA (Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algo-
rithm) system for predicting player performance, career development,
and seasonal winners and losers has changed the way baseball-insiders
and fans alike think about the game. In 2007 and 2008, Silver applied
his statistical models to the presidential election and impressed the
world of political polling with his uncannily accurate election forecasts.
Silver continues to follow political races around the country in his
FiveThirtyEight column for the New York Times. In this program, CHF
asks Silver to share his insights and oversights about America’s greatest
game. He might just talk about the election, too.
This program is presented as part of the annual Karla Scherer Endowed
Lecture Series for the University of Chicago.
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saturday, november 10 56 | 57 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Saturday, November 10
The Trials of Muhammad Ali 700
10–11 am
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
$10/5
Since it was founded as a nonproft organization in 1966, Kartem-
quin Films has produced documentaries that examine social issues
through the stories of real people. Kartemquin’s latest feature-
length flm covers Muhammad Ali’s toughest bout: his battle to
overturn a fve-year prison sentence for refusing US military service
in Vietnam. At the time the most recognizable face on earth, Ali
found himself in the crosshairs of conficts concerning civil rights,
religion, and wartime dissent. Zeroing in on the years 1967 to 1971,
The Trials of Muhammad Ali is not a boxing flm, but it is a fght flm.
Ali sacrifced fame and fortune to uphold his principles and lived in
exile within the United States, stripped of his heavyweight belt and
banned from boxing. While discussing the challenges they encoun-
tered in making the flm, director Bill Siegel and producer Rachel
Pikelny will delve into a man’s hidden story of personal confict and
courage, one that speaks to generations coming of age today.
Richard Gray Visual Art Series 701
The Iconic American City
11 am–12 pm
Art Institute of Chicago
Fullerton Auditorium
$5/Free
In the 1920s, New York surpassed London as the most populous and
industrially advanced city in the world. This rapid urban transforma-
tion was documented by a group of extraordinary photographers—
Morris Engel, Louis Faurer, Robert Frank, Helen Levitt, Paul Strand,
and Weegee—who captured the city in still and moving pictures.
The Art Institute of Chicago celebrates their accomplishments in
the exhibition Film and Photo in New York, curated by Katherine
Bussard. Join her as she discusses the ongoing relevance of this
work with Paul D’Amato and Zoe Strauss, two of today’s leading
photographers.
The annual Richard Gray Visual Art Series recognizes a signifcant
gift from founding CHF board member and distinguished art dealer
Richard Gray. This program is presented in partnership with the Art
Institute of Chicago in conjunction with the exhibition Film and Photo
in New York.
Ian Frazier on the American Family 702
11 am–12 pm
First United Methodist Church at The Chicago Temple
$10/5
Ian Frazier’s comedic genius delights readers. The New Yorker writer
has kept his gaze frmly on the United States of America, from its
geography and its people (Great Plains, On the Rez) to its pathos and
its people (the forthcoming Cursing Mommy’s Book of Days), except
when his view has extended beyond America’s borders (Travels in
Siberia). Frazier’s rich, knowledgeable perspective comes steeped in
absurdist wit. Join him and Victoria Lautman, broadcast journalist
and writer, for a conversation on American humor.
This program is generously underwritten by Paula R. Kahn.
Elizabeth A. Liebman Program 703
Dancing With—Not Around—The Issues
12–1 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$10/5
Chicago-based dance company The Seldoms is steadily gaining
a national profle, thanks in large part to artistic director Carrie
Hanson. By skillfully applying dance’s tools of abstraction to powerful
effect—and illuminating nuances in the process, without being
trite or preachy—Hanson and The Seldoms address current political,
economic, and environmental issues with aplomb. And boy, can
they dance! In this program, The Seldoms performs excerpts from
the 2010 work Stupormarket (which tackles the economic crisis) and a
yet-to-be-named work on clean energy technologies that will premier
this fall. Susan Manning, Northwestern University professor of dance
studies, then joins Hanson for a discussion about the development
of these works and, more broadly, about how dance can uniquely
address current issues.
This program is generously underwritten by Elizabeth A. Liebman.
saturday, november 10 58 | 59 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Little Rock: The Long Arc of the Civil Rights Movement 704
12–1 pm
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
$10/5
In 1957, nine black teenagers walked through the doors of Little
Rock Central High School for the frst time. Ernest Green was the
eldest of the Little Rock Nine and the frst to graduate. Green went
on to serve in the Labor Department of the Carter administration
and to a career in business, electoral politics, and economic devel-
opment. In 1999, he and other members of the Nine received the
Congressional Gold Medal, the highest national honor bestowed
to civilians. His son, Adam Green, is a professor of history at the
University of Chicago, a frequent contributor to the New York
Times, WBEZ, and WTTW, and an advisor to many flm, book, and
museum projects. Join father and son for a discussion about the
promises, the disappointments, and the enduring achievements
of the civil rights movement in the United States.
Russ Feingold on Campaign Finance Reform 705
12–1 pm
Northwestern University School of Law
Thorne Auditorium
$15/5
Russ Feingold, former Democratic senator from Wisconsin, is one
of this era’s most progressive and independent political voices.
His record includes party-breaking votes on the Iraq War, long-
time opposition to capital punishment, and contributions to the
national discourse on immigration reform. Arguably, it may be cam-
paign fnance reform that will go down as his greatest legislative
battle. Along with Senator John McCain, Feingold spearheaded the
Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002, which restricted
campaign funding by corporations and unions. When many of
their efforts were reversed in the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in
Citizens United v. the Federal Election Committee, which rejected
limits on corporate spending during elections, Feingold contin-
ued to advocate for limits on corporate infuence in government
as founder of the advocacy group Progressives United. Feingold
joins constitutional scholar and Stanford University law professor
Pamela Karlan and the University of Chicago Law School’s Geoffrey
Stone to share perspectives on this topical and divisive debate.
Karla Scherer Endowed Lecture Series 706
for the University of Chicago
America’s Tongues
1–2 pm
Art Institute of Chicago
Fullerton Auditorium
$5/Free
It’s fun cocktail conversation, comparing accents and pronuncia-
tions from regions across the country. You’ve played the game—the
Chicago “a,” the Boston “park the car,” the Minnesotan “don’t you
know.” University of Chicago anthropologist and linguist Michael
Silverstein studies the great variety of American dialects. He is par-
ticularly intrigued by the language(s) of New York City, that pinnacle
of the US melting pot. For Silverstein, New York provides a pathway
to understanding how we, as Americans, speak. Or as he likes to put
it, “Oy♥ Noo Yawk!”
This program is presented as part of the annual Karla Scherer Endowed
Lecture Series for the University of Chicago. This program is presented
in partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago in conjunction with the
exhibition Film and Photo in New York.
Terra Foundation Lecture on American Art 707
A Harrowing Masterpiece
1–2 pm
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Edlis Neeson Theater
$10/5
In the late 1960s, celebrated American artist Edward Kienholz took
on arguably his most fraught subject to date—the toxic legacy of
race relations in America. Five Car Stud was as ambitious as it was
gruesome. A life-size tableau, it depicted four automobiles and a
pickup truck, their headlights revealing a shocking act of violence.
Too controversial to be exhibited in the United States at the time,
the work was shown at the 1972 Documenta in Kassel, Germany.
Shortly thereafter, it was sold into a Japanese collection, where-
upon it languished in a warehouse for nearly 40 years. It has only
just resurfaced, and, in this slide presentation, CHF Artistic Direc-
tor Emeritus Lawrence Weschler, longtime friend of the late artist,
discusses both Five Car Stud and its historical political backdrop,
suggesting that it might be one of the most charged and revelatory
works of the past half century of American art.
This lecture is one of three 2012 programs generously sponsored by the
Terra Foundation for American Art. The Terra Foundation is dedicated
to fostering the exploration, understanding, and enjoyment of the visual
arts in the United States for national and international audiences. This
program is presented in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary
Art Chicago.
saturday, november 10
American Nietzsche 708
1:30–2:30 pm
First United Methodist Church at The Chicago Temple
$5/Free
Friedrich Nietzsche seems an unlikely contender for philosophical
prominence in the United States. After all, much of his thought
directly counters some of the foundations of modern American life:
Christian morality, the Enlightenment faith in reason, and the idea
of human equality. And yet, his ideas have had a tremendous impact
on American intellectuals, from the time they burst on American
shores at the turn of the 20th century to the present. University of
Wisconsin historian Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen charts this unlikely
love affair, shedding new light on both Nietzsche and the American
tradition he inspired.
This program is presented in partnership with the Center for the Humanities
and the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison.
The Myth and Reality of Charlie Chan 709
2–3 pm
Chicago Cultural Center
Claudia Cassidy Theater
$5/Free
Charlie Chan was a cultural sensation in 20th-century America. The
literary creation of Earl Derr Biggers, who made him the protagonist of
half a dozen crime capers, the character appeared in over 50 movies
before midcentury. Few, however, knew the real-life Chan: the wiry,
bullwhip-wielding Honolulu police offcer Chang Apana, on whom
Biggers based his honorable detective. University of California, San-
ta-Barbara English professor Yunte Huang masterfully blends Apana’s
story with the evolution and meaning of the Charlie Chan character
in Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His
Rendezvous with American History. The book became a national best-
seller, won the Edgar Award, and was shortlisted for the 2010 National
Book Critics Circle Award in Biography. To add another layer, the Chinese-
born Huang weaves his own immigration story into his analysis. The
result is a poignant refection on the undulations of the American
cultural experience.
saturday, november 10 62 | 63 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Icons of the Americas: Josephine Baker and Santa Evita 712
3–4 pm
Art Institute of Chicago
Fullerton Auditorium
$5/Free
Josephine Baker and Eva Perón both came from humble backgrounds,
bootstrapped their way to fame as entertainers, and set the standards
for fashion and glamour in their time. In the early 1950s their lives
intersected in Buenos Aires, and they forged an association built on
their shared commitment to the future of human and civil rights in
both Argentina and the United States. Matthew Guterl, Brown Univer-
sity professor of Africana Studies and American Studies, reveals the
unlikely but true story of the parallel and interconnected lives of two
of the 20th century’s most iconic women of the Americas.
How Did We Get Here? 713
4–5 pm
Chicago Cultural Center
Claudia Cassidy Theater
$5/Free
When did humans come to the Americas? And how? Those are some
of the oldest (and greatest) questions of anthropology. Theories
abound, but they are obsolete. Over the last few years, new genetic
research technologies have upended our understanding, suggesting
an intriguing model that turns on multitiered colonizations along with
settlements in Beringa. University of Illinois professor Ripan Malhi
is at the forefront of this scholarly revolution, which also involves the
development of novel research collaborations with native commu-
nities. Malhi discusses his research with Stephanie Levi, founder of
Science Is Sexy, which gives Chicagoan nonscientists and scientists
alike a short, sweet taste of science in their everyday lives through a
series of public events.
This program is generously underwritten by Colette and John Rau and
is presented in partnership with the Illinois Program for Research in
the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Millennials and the American Dream 710
2–3 pm
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
$10/5
As this year’s college graduates return to the nest, Occupy protestors
hunker down in continued opposition to the 1%, and student loan
debt reaches a staggering one trillion dollars, many people lament the
demise of the American Dream. The Millennial Generation (born after
1980) is the frst generation that may end up worse off economically
than their parents. But what lies behind these grim assertions? Heather
McGhee, vice president of public policy center Demos and a frequent
guest on MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN, advocates for a stronger, more
robust democracy, especially regarding policies that have the greatest
impact on this generation. As a Millennial herself, she is on the front
lines of conversations about democratic reform, economic opportunity
and fnancial regulation, trade, and globalization. Join her for an insight-
ful look at this generation’s greatest challenges.
This program is generously underwritten by the Lohengrin Foundation.

Heather McGhee
Franke Lecture in Economics 711
David Brooks
2–3 pm
Northwestern University School of Law
Thorne Auditorium
$15/5
One of our leading writers and commentators, David Brooks possesses
a curiosity and incisiveness that extend well beyond the boundaries
of politics and the economy: he has become a keen observer of how
Americans live their lives. Best known for his regular column in the New
York Times and his weekly appearances on NPR’s All Things Considered
and PBS’s The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Brooks is also a prolifc author.
In his 2011 book The Social Animal, he considers how we humans build
relationships and connect to big ideas. He weaves together research from
neuroscience, behavioral economics, philosophy, and psychology to illu-
minate the largely unconscious realm of emotions, intuitions, biases,
genetic predispositions, and social norms, and how our life choices
emerge from a web of human relationships and interdependence.
This annual lecture recognizes the signifcant contributions to the Chicago
Humanities Festival made by its founder and chairman emeritus
Richard J. Franke.
saturday, november 10 64 | 65 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
America Dances 716
7:30 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$20/5
Tap, Lindy Hop, Charleston, Swing, Hip Hop, Stepping, Footwork-
ing—and that’s just a short list of the powerful dances that hail
from the United States. What’s more, many of these dance forms
have done double-duty as social dances, in dance halls and clubs,
and on the stage. Why has our culture been such an engine for new
movement? How is innovation in dance related to our American
responses to historical events and social attitudes? There is no
better tour guide through this particular slice of American history
than Lane Alexander, Chicago Human Rhythm Project founder
and artistic director. He, along with the performing ensembles
FootworKINGz, BAM!, and others, bring this living, grooving history
to the CHF stage.
This program is generously underwritten by Gilda and Henry Buchbinder.
American Utopias 717
7:30 pm
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Edlis Neeson Theater
$28/22
CHF members may purchase $22 tickets.
Teachers must purchase regular price tickets to all performances.
Free tickets are not available for Charter Humanist Circle members.
Student tickets are not available for this performance.
See program 301 for more information.
A Musical Tour of New Orleans with Victor Goines 714
4–5 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$10/5
If America’s greatest contribution to world culture is its music, then
no exploration of our country is complete without a trip to New
Orleans. There, over the last 120 years, African, Caribbean, Spanish,
European classical, and a host of other musical traditions fused
and evolved into jazz, blues, rock, and R & B—the world’s popular
music. Who better to teach us about the city’s pivotal role in
American history than the Big Easy’s favorite son, world-class reed
player, head of Northwestern University’s venerated jazz program,
and CHF favorite Victor Goines? Clarinet in hand, Goines takes us
through the playing of Buddy Bolden, Sidney Bechet, and Louis
Armstrong, the “Spanish Tinge” of Jelly Roll Morton, the “second
line tradition,” the Afro-Cuban-blues fusion of Professor Longhair,
and much, much more.
Bill and Penny Obenshain Global Affairs Program 715
Ourselves as Others See Us—Latin America
4–5:30 pm
Northwestern University School of Law
Thorne Auditorium
$15/5
“All politics is local,” former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill
famously asserted. That’s certainly true, even on the vast scale of
our presidential election, which might well be decided by specifc
issues in Florida or Ohio. So yes, our politics is local. But it’s also
global. Indeed, no political event is more carefully watched by the
world than our presidential contest. And rightly so—the global
ramifcations, from economics to geopolitics, are huge and the
impact often immediate. Consider our hemispheric neighbors in
Central and South America, where US policies, from trade agree-
ments to the war on drugs, affect all aspects of political and social
life. In a discussion moderated by former Washington Post political
correspondent Peter Slevin, a panel of Latin American journalists
refects on these dynamics and explores the lessons of the 2012
campaign, just a few days after the polls close.
This program is generously underwritten by longstanding supporters
Bill and Penny Obenshain.
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sunday, november 11 68 | 69 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Richard Gray Visual Art Series 801
A Conversation with Artist Liza Lou
11:30 am–12:30 pm
Art Institute of Chicago
Fullerton Auditorium
$5/Free
Visual artist Liza Lou spent the frst decade of her career reimagining
America, one bead at a time. Her intricate tableaux include the life-
scale, fully equipped Kitchen (the beading over of every surface took
fve years to complete); the 525-square-foot Backyard (with over a
million individually beaded blades of grass); and American Presidents,
a sequence featuring portraits of each of the United States’ frst 43.
The MacArthur Award–winner, who has been based in Los Angeles
and Durban, South Africa, over the past decade, challenges us to
reconsider suburbia, gender roles, and America’s relationship to the
rest of the world—all of which and more she will be discussing with
CHF Artistic Director Emeritus Lawrence Weschler.
The annual Richard Gray Visual Art Series recognizes a signifcant
gift from founding CHF board member and distinguished art dealer
Richard Gray.

Liza Lou
Karla Scherer Endowed Lecture Series 802
for the University of Chicago
On Deck with Kim Ng
11:30 am–12:30 pm
Northwestern University School of Law
Thorne Auditorium
$10/5
Baseball, the most American of all games, is today as much about
quantitative analysis (as told in Moneyball) and international oper-
ations as it is about the suicide squeeze and the long ball. As the
senior vice president of baseball operations for Major League Base-
ball, Kim Ng confronts these issues, and more, as she charts the
future of the game. Ng started her career with the Chicago White Sox,
and was an assistant general manager with the New York Yankees
and the L.A. Dodgers. Oh, and did we mention that Ng is a role
model for girls across the country? She has advanced further in the
upper ranks of baseball management than any woman in history.
This program is presented as part of the annual Karla Scherer Endowed
Lecture Series for the University of Chicago.
Sunday, November 11
2012 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize: Elie Wiesel 800
10–11 am
Symphony Center
Armour Stage
$15/5
The Festival is pleased to again host the presentation of the annual
Chicago Tribune Literary Prize. The prize is part of the Chicago
Tribune’s ongoing dedication to reading, writing, and ideas.
“Never shall I forget that night, the frst night in camp, which has
turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven
times sealed.” With those words, Elie Wiesel has brought gener-
ations of readers into one of the 20th century’s gravest tragedies.
Night is Wiesel’s powerful and haunting telling of his experiences
in the Holocaust camps of World War II—he survived; his parents
and one of his sisters did not. Although his spare, poetic language
urges contemplation, a space to consider these nearly unimaginable
horrors, Wiesel’s vision for humanity is far from bleak. Since the
publication of Night in 1960, Wiesel, a Romanian Jew born in 1928,
has been tireless in his literary and human rights activities. He is
founder, along with his wife Marion, of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for
Humanity, an organization dedicated to combating indifference and
intolerance, and promoting justice through international dialogue.
“The world does not stop with Night . . . some worlds were shattered
. . . but life does continue, if not what would we do here?” Wiesel has
said. It’s with this profound commitment to humanity that Wiesel has
persevered. He is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities
at Boston University and has received numerous awards, including
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US Congressional Gold
Medal, the National Humanities Medal, the Medal of Liberty, and
the rank of Grand-Croix in the French Legion of Honor and, in 1986,
the Nobel Prize for Peace.
This program is presented in partnership with the Chicago Tribune’s
Printers Row Live! Series.

Elie Wiesel
sunday, november 11 70 | 71 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Terra Foundation Lecture on American Art 805
When Modern Art Came to America
1:30–2:30 pm
Art Institute of Chicago
Fullerton Auditorium
$5/Free
The Armory Show of 1913 was a watershed moment in art history.
In introducing the European avant-garde to America, it scandalized
a public accustomed to realist art by confronting them with such
confounding fare as Marcel Duchamp’s cubist Nude Descending a
Staircase. We know this New York–centered account. But it’s not the
whole story. After the show closed in the Big Apple, it traveled to the
Art Institute of Chicago. What was its reception here, and how did
it affect the art produced in our city? Join Art Institute of Chicago
curator Judith Barter as she shares her brand-new research on the
Armory Show in Chicago, undertaken as the centenary of the revo-
lutionary exhibition approaches.
This lecture is one of three 2012 programs generously sponsored by the
Terra Foundation for American Art. The Terra Foundation is dedicated
to fostering the exploration, understanding, and enjoyment of the visual
arts in the United States for national and international audiences. This
program is presented in partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago.
The Case for Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer: 806
Advocating for the Avant-Garde
2–3 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$5/Free
William S. Burroughs, D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller. These writers
have come to occupy the core of our 20th-century literary canon,
but American readers might have missed their works completely
were it not for one unwavering advocate. Chicagoan Barney Rosset
and his fedgling Grove Press led the charge against censorship
in the 1960s, helping to redefne the parameters of obscenity and
bring this essential and provocative literature to college classrooms
and the greater American reading public. Loren Glass, University
of Iowa associate professor of 19th- and 20th-century American
literature and cultural studies, recounts Rosset’s campaign and
explores how the literary avant-garde joined the mainstream.
This program is generously underwritten by Rose L. Shure and is presented
in partnership with the American Library Association and the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Obermann Center for Advanced
Studies at the University of Iowa.
History Detectives, Chicago Edition 803
12–1 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$10/5
Armed with innovative thinking and keen curiosity, Gwendolyn
Wright tackles intriguing mysteries about America’s history. As
a scholar of the humanities—a historian of architecture at New
York’s Columbia University—and one of the hosts of the popular
PBS television series History Detectives, Wright enjoys showing the
public how historians think, evaluate, and analyze. In some of the
show’s recent episodes she has investigated whether US astronauts
smuggled a microchip loaded with art by Andy Warhol to the moon,
whether the plot to assassinate President Lincoln was hatched in a
New York City boarding house, and how a six-dollar bill from 1776
reveals the Founding Fathers’ ideas about fnancial and political
freedom. In this talk, she also refects on her wide-ranging career,
which commenced with a celebrated study of Chicago’s domestic
architecture and the defnitive social history of American housing.
What secrets will she uncover at this year’s Festival?
This program is presented in partnership with the Society of Architec-
tural Historians.
Nazis on the Run 804
1–2 pm
First United Methodist Church at The Chicago Temple
$10/5
After World War II, thousands of Nazis and their collaborators
evaded justice by escaping to the Americas, both North and South.
Rumors circulated that a secret organization named “Odessa” was
ferrying the Nazis out of Europe. But that was just a myth. The truth,
though, is no less startling. As University of Nebraska historian
Gerald Steinacher has uncovered in newly opened archives, the Red
Cross, Vatican, and CIA all played a role, sometimes unwittingly, in
the “ratline” from Germany to Italy and on to the New World. Join
Steinacher as he discusses this extraordinary episode in 20th-
century history with the Third Coast Audio Festival’s Gwen Macsai,
herself the child of Holocaust survivors.
This program is presented in partnership with College of Arts and
Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
sunday, november 11 72 | 73 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Walden, a Video Game 808
2–3 pm
Northwestern University School of Law
Thorne Auditorium
$5/Free
“To be awake is to be alive,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in Walden.
Perhaps American literature’s most contemplative text, Walden
seems an unusual subject for a modern-day video game. How can
the serene pond and quiet woods be translated to a virtual expe-
rience? And how can a video game evoke the experiment in living
that Thoreau set out for himself in the woods at Walden Pond?
These questions are why we eagerly anticipate Tracy Fullerton’s latest
project. An audience favorite from the 2011 festival, Fullerton is pro-
fessor and chair of the Interactive Media Division at USC and director
of its Game Innovation Lab. In Walden, a game, Fullerton and her
collaborators posit a new genre of play, where the players can walk
in Thoreau’s virtual footsteps, refect on his writings, and cultivate
their thoughts and responses to the deeper meaning behind events
that transpire in the virtual—and, by extension, the real—world.
Lessons from the Ancient Maya 809
3–4 pm
First United Methodist Church at The Chicago Temple
$5/Free
University of Illinois archeologist Lisa Lucero has been digging up
the secrets of the ancient Maya for more than 20 years. Her most
far-reaching discovery, though, is a recent one and carries implica-
tions for our own era. At the height of Maya Classic culture, around
the year 800, several multiyear droughts may have hastened the
end of the civilization’s ruling kings. Lucero’s research centers on
the resilience and water management practices of the commoners,
helping us understand the importance of rituals, strategy, and con-
servation to their ingenuity and perseverance. Hear her talk about
the ideas Maya history may offer for present-day sustainability.
This program is presented in partnership with the Illinois Program
for Research in the Humanities at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
2012 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize 807
Nonfction
Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost
by Paul Hendrickson
2–3 pm
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
$15/5
This annual prize, awarded separately for fction and nonfction,
recognizes recently published works “embodying the spirit of the
nation’s heartland.” The prizes are part of the Chicago Tribune’s ongoing
dedication to reading, writing, and ideas.
Please note: the 2012 Heartland Prize will be awarded at two
separate Chicago Humanities Festival programs, both taking place
on November 11, 2012.
Ernest Hemingway, son of Oak Park, man—and writer—of the
world, looms large in our literary pantheon. From the frontiers of
the 20th century’s greatest wars to the expatriate literati of Paris,
his characteristic prose and colorful personal life, which included
marriages, torrid affairs, and crippling depression, have secured
his place in our collective imagination. It is only now, more than
50 years after his death, that a defnitive biography has emerged
to deepen our understanding of this complex man. Hemingway’s
Boat by Paul Hendrickson was published in 2011 to rave reviews.
“Through painstaking reporting, through conscientious sifting of
the evidence, and most of all, through vivid, heartfelt, luminous
writing, Hendrickson gets to the heart of both Hemingway and
his world,” writes the Chicago Tribune’s Julia Keller. Hendrickson
is the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the
Heartland Prize for his previous book, Sons of Mississippi. He is a
senior lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania.
This program is presented in partnership with the Chicago Tribune’s
Printers Row Live! series.
sunday, november 11 74 | 75 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
Richard Gray Visual Art Series 812
America: Now and Here with Eric Fischl
4–5 pm
Francis W. Parker School
Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
$15/5
For more than three decades, fgurative painter Eric Fischl has
been one of our most admired and agile visual artists. His work
spans lush and sensuous portraits, spare watercolors, and bronze
sculpture, including his memorable and controversial Arthur Ashe
memorial statue. In 2011, he began a multidisciplinary artistic
exchange called America: Now and Here. As founder and lead cura-
tor, Fischl has brought together an unprecedented tour of works
by more than 150 artists, poets, and musicians to spark a national
conversation on American identity through the arts. CHF Artistic
Director Emeritus Lawrence Weschler talks with Fischl about this
project, an ideal subject for this year’s Festival.
The annual Richard Gray Visual Art Series recognizes a signifcant
gift from founding CHF board member and distinguished art dealer
Richard Gray.
Baskes Lecture in History 813
The Other 1960s
4–5 pm
Northwestern University School of Law
Thorne Auditorium
$10/5
The 1960s conjure up strong images of love-ins, fower power, anti-
war demonstrations, and civil rights marches. While these crucial
reference points continue to resonate throughout our culture, they
don’t tell the whole story. Many Americans regarded the progressive
vanguard with considerable suspicion, giving rise to a political and
cultural retrenchment that can be considered the other 1960s. Ohio
State University historian Kevin Boyle, winner of the 2004 National
Book Award for Arc of Justice, is fnishing a much-anticipated book
on this topic. He argues that the other 1960s, especially when
viewed from a midwestern perspective, sheds new light on the current
trajectory of our country.
This annual lecture recognizes a generous multiyear contribution to
the Chicago Humanities Festival by Julie and Roger Baskes and is
presented in partnership with the Humanities Institute at The Ohio
State University.
American Utopias 810
3 pm
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Edlis Neeson Theater
$28/22/10
CHF members may purchase $22 tickets.
Free tickets are not available for Charter Humanist Circle members.
Teachers must purchase regular price tickets to all performances.
A limited number of $10 student tickets are available for
this performance.
See program 301 for more information.
Terra Foundation Lecture on American Art 811
Rediscovering the American Landscape
3:30–4:30 pm
Art Institute of Chicago
Fullerton Auditorium
$5/Free
American art history brims with gorgeous landscape paintings, but
are they important art? To our modern aesthetic, these paintings
can seem awfully pretty, even precious. But to dismiss them would
be a grave mistake, says Princeton University art historian Rachael
DeLue, one of the leading authorities on the American landscape.
She argues that the work of artist George Inness (1825–1894), for
example, is full of innovation, not just on painterly grounds but in
its engagement of optics, psychology, physiology, and even mathe-
matics. Let DeLue be your guide to seeing the American landscape
in an altogether new light.
This lecture is one of three 2012 programs generously sponsored by the
Terra Foundation for American Art. The Terra Foundation is dedicated
to fostering the exploration, understanding, and enjoyment of the visu-
al arts in the United States for national and international audiences.
sunday, november 11 76 | 77 www.chicagohumanities.org | 312-494-9509
2012 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize 814
Fiction
Canada by Richard Ford
6–7 pm
Northwestern University School of Law
Thorne Auditorium
$15/5
This annual prize, awarded separately for fction and nonfction,
recognizes recently published works “embodying the spirit of the
nation’s heartland.” The prizes are part of the Chicago Tribune’s
ongoing dedication to reading, writing, and ideas.
Please note: the 2012 Heartland Prize will be awarded at two
separate Chicago Humanities Festival programs, both taking place
on November 11, 2012.
Celebrated for his nuanced language and eminently relatable story-
telling, Richard Ford is best known for his trilogy The Sportswriter,
Independence Day, and The Lay of the Land. Alongside Raymond Carver
and Tobias Wolff, he has been instrumental in defning contemporary
American fction. “I like people. I write about people. So when they
want to tell me things, I’m willing to listen,” Ford said in a recent inter-
view. This generosity translates to his characters and imbues Ford’s
writing with the empathy that marks his most recent New York Times
best-selling novel, Canada, a family drama set in America’s Heartland.
Bev and Neeva Parsons, a seemingly mild and unremarkable couple,
decide, bewilderingly, to solve their fnancial woes by orchestrating
a bank robbery. The robbery, executed with unsurprising ineptness,
results in their arrest, which reverberates in harrowing and haunting
ways through the life of their teenage son Dell. With its author’s signa-
ture grace and storytelling prowess, Canada is a tour de force. Winner
of the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, Ford is
the newly appointed Emmanuel Roman and Barrie Sardoff Professor
of the Humanities and Professor of Writing at the Columbia University
School of the Arts.
This program presented in partnership with the Chicago Tribune’s Printers
Row Live! series.
CHF Year-Round
Winter/Spring 2013

This past winter and spring, CHF brought you the best in the arts
and humanities. From art historian Wanda Corn’s lecture on the
Women’s Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and
contemporary iconic performance artist Marina Abramovi´c, to the
frst female Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and international
short story sensation Israeli author Etgar Keret in conversation
with Nathan Englander, the riches, and perspective, abounded.

Don’t miss out on CHF’s 2013 “off-season!” Join our email list to
be on frst alert when we release our spring roster of programs.
Become a CHF Member!

Did you know that 100% of our Year-Round programs sold out in
2012? Only CHF members get discounts and early access to these
in-demand tickets. To join or learn more about CHF Membership
perks, see page 1 or visit supportchf.org/signup/.
Serious. Smart. Culture.
Celebrating the arts and humanities doesn’t end after the fall Festival.
Visit our website, chicagohumanities.org, throughout the year. There
you will have access to over 200 talks from throughout our history.
Not sure where to start? Here are fve great programs from our
archive that are available right now on the CHF site:
Nancy Pelosi: Women in Government
Adrian Belew: A Personal History of the Electric Guitar
Marina Abramovi´c: A Lecture on Performance and Its Future
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: The Body at Its Finest
Dick Gregory: The Color of Funny

Marina Abramovi´c Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The talks and performances from the 2012 fall Festival will be available
on the CHF website and as podcasts in the months following the
Festival. Sign up for our weekly email to receive the latest updates
on fresh content.
Watch. Listen. Discuss.
CHF wants you to have access to the humanities everywhere, all
the time. Our web presence spans the most engaging social media
platforms. We invite you to join the online CHF community. Fresh
content from this year’s Festival will be posted throughout the winter.
Stay connected with us:
Facebook.com/chicagohumanities
Follow us on Twitter:
@ Chi_Humanities
Relive the Festival experience on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/ChicagoHumanities
Download free CHF podcasts on iTunes.
CHF Multimedia