Here are more Chicago Humanities Festival events, focusing on those that take place on the festival’s two weekends and, at deadline, are not oversubscribed. Descriptions are provided by the festival staff. Each event’s program number is provided to facilitate ticket ordering via that shortcut.
SATURDAY, NOV. 5
401. Family event: Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra with Chicago Children’s Choir — “Music from Home … and from Away.” Concert performed by the Chicago Children’s Choir and the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. Selections from Copland, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and more. For all ages. A Children’s Humanities Festival program.
10 to 11 a.m., Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center.
406. “Journal of Ordinary Thought — Finding a Way.” Writers from the Neighborhood Writing Alliance/Journal of Ordinary Thought demonstrate how individual circumstances connect to broader issues such as homelessness, immigration, demolition of Chicago Public Housing complexes and the relocation of public housing residents.
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Chicago Architecture Foundation.
Free program, reservations required.
407. Beatrice Medicine: “Never Away from Home.” Lakota writer and anthropologist Medicine describes leaving the world of academia behind and returning to her home and family on “macoce ki le wakan” (sacred land).
Noon-1 p.m., Alliance Francaise de Chicago.
408. Panel: “American Dialects.” Joan Houston Hall, chief editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English, joins other language experts for a discussion on American regional dialects. Panelists include writer Simon Winchester and dialect coach Robert Easton.
Noon to 1 p.m., Chicago Cultural Center, Claudia Cassidy Theater.
410. Family event: “Musical Celebration of Children’s Illustrators.” Family concert featuring Fulcrum Point New Music Project led by Stephen Burns in two world premiere musical commissions based on children’s picture books. Features Ana Lara’s adaptation of “Frida” by Jonah Winter, with illustrations by Ana Juan, and Chris Van Allsburg’s Caldecott winner “Just A Dream.” For all ages. A Children’s Humanities Festival program.
Noon to 1 p.m., Field Museum, Simpson Theater, free program, reservations required.
413. Lawrence Joseph, Stuart Dybek: “The Time and Place of the Poem.” In readings from their work, these prominent poets explore how a poem imagines and recreates different times and places.
12:30 to 1:30 p.m., Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Auditorium.
414. Film screening: Sudhir Venkatesh, “Dislocation” A candid documentary film following Robert Taylor Homes residents as they relocate to new neighborhoods. Filmmaker Venkatesh takes questions afterwards.
1 to 2:30 p.m., Chicago Architecture Foundation.
415. Performance: Ars Musica Chicago — “Chief Chicagou in Paris” The local early-music group explores the interplay between Native American music and the music of 18th Century France, including works by Rameau and others.
1:30 to 2:30 p.m., Roosevelt University, Ganz Hall.
418. Panel: “William Maxwell’s Literary Life.” The life and influence of the Illinois-born author and legendary New Yorker editor discussed by biographer Barbara Burkhardt, fiction writer Charles Baxter and poet Edward Hirsch.
2 to 3:30 p.m., Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center.
419. Shashi Tharoor: “The Future of the United Nations.” The author and United Nations official envisions a UN of tomorrow, from structure to aid programs. Tharoor is currently under-secretary general for communications and public information.
2 to 3 p.m., First United Methodist Church (Chicago Temple).
421. David M. Kennedy: “The Past, Present and Future of American Immigration.” The award-winning historian explores the history of immigration to the U.S. and the lessons, if any, that this narrative might suggest about the motives and consequences of contemporary immigration.
2 to 3 p.m., Northwestern University (Chicago campus), Thorne Auditorium.
422. Panel: “A Home for Poetry.” Discussion exploring poetry’s place in American culture, with Poetry magazine editor Christian Wiman, poet and critic Christina Pugh and Poetry Foundation president and poet John Barr.
2:30 to 3:30 p.m., Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Auditorium.
423. Fashion program: “All Dressed Up with Somewhere to Go.” Walk, bike, ride or fly — how we get around says a lot about who we are and how we look. Timothy Long, assistant curator for costumes at the Chicago Historical Society, examines travel wear from the late 19th Century through the present day. Lisa Lenoir of the Chicago Sun-Times addresses current trends.
2:30 to 4 p.m., Field Museum, Simpson Theater.
427. Debra Dickerson: “Coming Back Home to Church After Thirty Years.” The author of “An American Story” and “The End of Blackness” discusses the joys, confusions and compromises of a wayward daughter returning to the religious fold.
4 to 5 p.m., Loyola University (downtown), Rubloff Auditorium.
SUNDAY, NOV. 6
505. Dale Maharidge: “Journey to Homeland.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning author looks at post-9/11 America, arguing that the attacks were an amplifier of pre-existing tensions.
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Loyola University (downtown), Rubloff Auditorium.
506. Mae C. Jemison: “Without Boundaries.” The first woman of color to go “away”– into outer space, aboard the space shuttle Endeavour in 1992 — shares stories from her life as a trailblazer. Jemison is dedicated to promoting widespread science literacy and the design and development of sustainable global technologies.
Noon to 1 p.m., Field Museum, Simpson Theater.
507. Sallie Wolf: “Ten Years of Looking at the Moon.” In a 30-minute talk, the Chicago artist discusses the origins of her “Moon Project,” stunning works on paper that capture a decade of her lunar observations.
507a. 1 to 1:30 p.m. or
507b. 2 to 2:30 p.m., Adler Planetarium. Free program, reservations required.
508. Annie Proulx: “Landscape in American Fiction.” Award-winning author Proulx (“The Shipping News,” “Close Range,” “Wyoming Stories”) discusses the use of landscape to give meaning and shape to story, citing examples from 20th Century fiction and contemporary writers.
1 to 2 p.m., Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center.
511. Pico Iyer: “Our New, Invisible Homes.” The distinguished travel writer talks with Lonely Planet’s Don George about how the nature of home has changed in the global age — grown subtler, more complex and more inward.
1:30 to 2:30 p.m., Chicago Cultural Center, Claudia Cassidy Theater.
513. Geoff Dyer: “The Ongoing Moment.” Dyer, an essayist and constant traveler, considers what people see when they look at photographs, with examples of work by Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Diane Arbus.
1:30 to 2:30 p.m., Loyola University (downtown), Rubloff Auditorium.
514. Charlayne Hunter-Gault: “From Jim Crow America to Apartheid South Africa and Beyond.”
CNN’s Johannesburg bureau chief recounts her remarkable journey as one of today’s most accomplished and fascinating international journalists.
2 to 3 p.m., Field Museum, Simpson Theater.
515. Jonathan Kozol: “The Shame of the Nation.” The Rhodes Scholar and National Book Award-winning author speaks about the rapidly increasing segregation and the gross inequities of urban U.S. schools.
2 to 3 p.m., First United Methodist Church (Chicago Temple).
518. Witold Rybczynski: “The Perfect Houses of Andrea Palladio.” The professor of urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design discusses the Renaissance master who influenced architects from Jefferson to the present day.
3 to 4 p.m., Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Auditorium.
520. Tom Lewis: “A Space Filled with Moving.” In an illustrated talk, the historian of the Interstate Highway System discusses the automobile in American culture.
3:30 to 4:30 p.m., Alliance Francaise de Chicago.
525. Mary Frances Berry: “Callie House and the Ex-Slave Pension Movement.” The former chairwoman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission talks about the 300,000 former slaves whom Callie House, in an effort to attain the group’s civil rights, sought reparations for as an alternative to immigration.
4 to 5 p.m., Field Museum, Simpson Theater.
529. John D. Callaway: “Leaving Home with 71 Cents in His Pocket.” The legendary Chicago journalist performs his autobiographical monologue describing a young man’s move from home and family in West Virginia to big-city Chicago.
$10, 7 to 8:15 p.m., Northwestern University (Chicago Campus), Thorne Auditorium.
SATURDAY, NOV. 12
700. Richard J. Franke: “Cut From Whole Cloth.” Festival founder and chairman shares stories from his recent book, an intimate account of his grandparents’ struggle to build a new life in America. Franke is interviewed by journalist David Gergen.
10 to 11 a.m.
Loyola University (downtown), Rubloff Auditorium
702. Ronne Hartfield: “Another Way Home.” The Chicago author, poet and arts educator discusses her moving memoir tracing her mixed-race family’s life from the turn-of-the-century south to mid-twentieth century Bronzeville.
10:30 to 11:30 a.m., Alliance Francaise de Chicago.
703. R.W. Apple: “A Discriminating Appetite.” The associate editor of The New York Times has written of politics, art, music, architecture, food, drink and now “Apple’s America,” a refreshing, honest and adventurous look at North American cities.
10:30 to 11:30 a.m., Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center.
704. James N. Gregory: “The Southern Diaspora and the Transformation of America.” Between 1900 and 1980, more than 20 million Southerners — black and white — left their homes for the North. The migrants helped create both the civil rights movement and modern conservatism, reshaped popular music and transformed American religion.
10:30 to 11:30 a.m., Newberry Library.
706. Panel: “Public Housing Beyond the Walls.” A panel of experts discusses the importance of stable, affordable housing for low-income families. Panelists include LR Development’s Tom Weeks, author and lawyer Alexander Polikoff, the Chicago Housing Authority’s Terry Peterson, the MacArthur Foundation’s Susan Lloyd and Central West Community Organization’s Earnest Gates. Moderated by veteran Chicago journalist John McCarron.
Noon to 1:30 p.m., DePaul University (Lincoln Park), Student Center.
707. Panel: “The Mexican-American Identity.” Authors Luis Alberto Urrea, Manuel Munoz, Ruben Martinez and Brenda Cardenas ponder their heritage in a conversation that asks how the Mexican-American identity factors into their lives and work. Urrea is a recent Pulitzer Prize nominee for “The Devil’s Highway”; Martinez is the author of “Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail”; Munoz is the author of “Zigzagger”; Cardenas is a Chicago poet.
Noon to 1 p.m., HotHouse.
711. Robert Sietsema: “America Eats Its Immigrants.” The Village Voice food critic searches for a way to quantify the effects of the flood of immigrants that entered the U.S. in the wake of the 1965 Immigration Act.
12:30 to 1:30 p.m., Alliance Francaise de Chicago.
714. Adam Hochschild: “Twelve Men in a Printing Shop — and the Birth of a Great Human Rights Movement.” The acclaimed historian (“King Leopold’s Ghost”) argues that the late 18th Century British anti-slavery campaign was the first time a large number of people became outraged about the plight of others of another color and continent.
12:30 to 1:30 p.m., Newberry Library.
716. “Appreciating Alex Katz”: Richard Gray Visual Arts Series Panel. A highly distinguished panel of critics, scholars and curators considers the works and influence of American artist Alex Katz. Including Art in America contributing editor Carter Ratcliff; consulting director of the Cleveland Museum of Art Katharine Lee Reid, critic and New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik, New York University art historian and curator Robert Rosenblum and Whitney Museum of American Art Director Adam Weinberg.
3 to 4:30 p.m., Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Auditorium.
723. Noel Riley Fitch: “Julia Child and the French Connection.” Julia Child taught us how to cook, eat and enjoy the pleasures of the table. Fitch, the author of the definitive Child biography, “Appetite for Life,” explores Child’s connection to the cuisine of France.
2:30 to 3:30 p.m., Alliance Francaise de Chicago.
725. Louise W. Knight: “What Jane Addams Gained on Halsted Street.” The Northwestern professor describes Addams’ struggle to free herself from the limitations of the rural home of her birth.
2:30 to 3:30 p.m., DePaul University (Lincoln Park), Student Center.
726. Linda Gordon: “Dorothea Lange and the World War II Incarceration of Japanese Americans.”
Gordon, one of the most important scholars in the field of American history, women’s history and social policy, discusses her biography of American photographer Dorothea Lange.
2:30 to 3:30 p.m., Newberry Library.
731. Philip Deloria: “Home and Away in a Dakota Family.” The chairman of the Program in American Culture at the University of Michigan discusses his mixed-race family’s cultural and geographic migrations between New York and the Dakotas. Deloria delves into the success and pain born from his family’s movements.
4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Alliance Francaise de Chicago.
SUNDAY, NOV. 13
802. Vikram Seth: “Two Lives.” The author of “A Suitable Boy” discusses his latest work, a fusion of memoir, biography and history that creates an extraordinary tapestry of India, the Third Reich and World War II, Auschwitz and the Holocaust, Israel and Palestine, post-war Germany, and 1970s Britain.
10:30 to 11:30 a.m., Northwestern University (Chicago Campus), Thorne Auditorium.
803. John Mack Faragher: “A Forced Migration.” The Yale historian recounts the expulsion of the French Acadians from Nova Scotia in the mid-18th Century and their dispersion throughout the Atlantic world.
11a.m. to noon, Alliance Francaise de Chicago.
806. The Jewish Diaspora: Frederic Brenner. Brenner, born in Paris in 1959, has spent 25 years chronicling the Jewish Diaspora with his stunning photographs, and has traveled everywhere to do so — from Rome to New York, India to Yemen, Morocco to Ethiopia, and Sarajevo to Jerusalem.
Sidra Dekoven Ezrahi — “Diasporic Entitlements”
Sidra Dekoven Ezrahi, currently visiting professor at Duke University, comments on the themes evoked by Brenner’s photographs that have informed her own work. She also wrote some of the commentary for Brenner’s book.
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., DePaul University (downtown), Merle Reskin Theater.
807. Kartemquin Films: “Revisiting The New Americans.” “The New Americans” tracks four years in the lives of a diverse group of contemporary immigrants and refugees as they journey to start new lives in America. A 40-minute excerpt of the award-winning film is followed by discussion with the filmmakers.
Noon to 1:30 p.m., DePaul University (Lincoln Park), Schmitt Academic Center, Room 154.
808. Robert Farris Thompson: “The Kongo Heritage.” The distinguished Yale professor illustrates how key black dances in Latin America exhibit strong, vivid influences from the kingdom of Kongo. Thompson examines Latin dance traditions such as tango, mamba and the conga line, relating them to recent trends in hip-hop and L.A.’s black dance scene.
Noon to 1p.m., Museum of Contemporary Art.
813. Ted C. Fishman: “China Shops — How the Next Superpower is Changing Main Street America.” Fishman, a Chicagoan and the author of the influential best seller “China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World,” looks at the effects of China’s momentous change on the lives and businesses of people everywhere.
1 to 2 p.m., Loyola University (downtown), Rubloff Auditorium.
814. Andrew Carroll: “Letters Home.” The editor of the best seller “War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars” recalls his often heart-wrenching, enlightening and impassioned findings in his quest to preserve wartime correspondence.
1 to 2 p.m., Newberry Library.
815. Howard Reich, Gordon Quinn: “Prisoner of Her Past.” The Kartemquin Films artist and the Chicago Tribune arts critic present excerpts of their documentary-in-progress, “Prisoner of Her Past,” which traces Reich’s attempt to uncover his mother’s tragic Holocaust childhood to understand why she is reliving it, 60 years later. John D. Callaway leads the discussion.
2:30 to 4 p.m., DePaul University (downtown), Merle Reskin Theater.
816. Martin Manalansan: “Asian American Identity and Fusion Cuisine.” The professor of anthropology and Asian-American studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and one of the country’s leading “food humanists” explores trends in Asian-American cuisine in the context of immigration and heritage.
2:30 to 3:30 p.m., DePaul University (Lincoln Park), Schmitt Academic Center, Room 154.
817. Performance: “Stories on Stage.” Michael E. Myers directs Chicago actors in a reading of stories by both established writers and new voices that explore ideas of Home and Away.
2:30 to 4 p.m., Museum of Contemporary Art.
819. Bernardine Evaristo, Anthony Joseph: “British Diasporic Voices.” A reading by two British/post-colonial literary talents. Evaristo is the author of three critically acclaimed novels-in-verse. British Afro-Caribbean poet and novelist Joseph is the author of two poetry collections.
3 to 4 p.m., Alliance Francaise.
820. Tom Bissell, Gary Shteyngart: “The Writer Abroad.” Bissell, author of “God Lives in St. Petersburg,” and Shteyngart, author of “The Russian Debutante’s Handbook,” discuss using the experience of going abroad for literary material.
3 to 4 p.m., Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center.
821. John Hollander: “What You Mean by Home.” The award-winning poet and critic reads from his work and discusses poetry about home (and the absence of home).
3 to 4 p.m., Chicago Sinai Congregation.
824. Concert: “At Home and Far Away.” Produced by Chicago musician Dan Stetzel and inspired by the fest theme, this cabaret performance features Joan Curto, Lee Lessack and Tom Michael performing a combination of contemporary songs and standards.
3 to 4:15 p.m., Northwestern University (Chicago Campus), Thorne Auditorium.
