Wednesday Club Past Programs

Inside the New York Times Book Review November 4, 2009 Reception, 5:30 p.m.; Presentation, 6:15 p.m. Speaker: Jenny Schuessler, editor, The New York Times Book Review The New York Times Book Review has been the nation's leading source for literary news since it's founding. How do its editors decide which of the hundreds of thousands of books published each year to cover? Who chooses the reviewers? How do books get on the best-seller list? And do old-fashioned book reviews still matter in the age of blogs and the Kindle? Jennifer Schuessler, an editor at the Book Review and a long-time contributor to its pages, will talk about the publication's history, its role as a cultural gatekeeper, and the state of book reviewing in America. Jennifer Schuessler is an editor at The New York Times Book Review. Before joining The Times in 2003, she was an editor at The New York Review of Books and The Boston Globe's Sunday Ideas section. She has contributed articles on books and culture to a number of publications, including the Book Review (where she writes the weekly "Inside the List" column), The New York Review, The American Scholar, and The Washington Post.

Life of Johnson October 7, 2009 Reception, 5:30 p.m.; Presentation, 6:15 p.m. Speaker: June Sawyers, author, Newberry Library seminar instructor Description: Samuel Johnson was a bookseller's son from Lichfield, England. A poet, critic, essayist, and lexicographer, his most famous work is Dictionary of the English Language (1755). In honor of the 300th anniversary of his birth, June Sawyers will offer a brief overview of his remarkable life and career while actor Brad Armacost will present an excerpt from Ms. Sawyers' one-man play, "Dr. Johnson."

 Performers, Patrons, and Publishers, the Colorful Characters in the Life of George Frideric Handel  

May 6, 2009
Reception, 5:30 p.m.; Presentation, 6:15 p.m.
Speaker: David Douglass, Newberry Library Musician-in-Residence and Director of the Newberry Consort

Handel was beset by the tabloid lives of his artists, the nearly criminal actions of his publishers, and the demanding needs of his high-society patrons, including the King of England, and as a result we are left with many anecdotes that remind us of our own time. When viewed from his own time, Handel appears less the giant of music history, and more like the talented showman and genius of marketing that he was, struggling against the social, political, and economic forces of his time. Come learn the inside story of the life of Handel, complete with recorded performances of the Newberry Consort's 2008-2009 season opening concert "Handel in Miniature."

President Obama Changes Sports: Olympics in Chicago, Players Union Power, and Gender Equity April 1, 2009  Reception, 5:30 p.m.; Presentation, 6:15 p.m. Speaker: Lester Munson, Senior Writer and Legal Analyst, ESPN

Join us for this interesting and fun evening as Lester Munson discusses the impact of the Obama Administration on the world of sports. The issues include the possibility of the Olympics in Chicago, taxation of the wealthy, increased power for player unions, and gender equity in college sports.

Lester Munson, is a writer and producer at ESPN who specializes in legal affairs and investigations. He is a frequent commentator on NPR, PBS, Court TV, and other broadcast outlets. He writes a political and sports column for Crain's Chicago Business. He has received numerous awards, and his work has appeared in the series "Best American Sports Writing." He has a B.A. from Princeton University and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.

Virginio Ferrari: Full Circle

March 4, 2008

Reception, 5:30 p.m; Presentation, 6:15 p.m.

Speaker: Virginio Ferrari

Virginio Ferrari will discuss the evolution of his work along with video projections, which will be followed by a question and answer session. Cavaliere Virginio L. Ferrari is an internationally acclaimed contemporary sculptor, who's monumental sculptures can be found on street corners and public parks, at universities and libraries, corporations and in private collections in Chicago, and all over the world. Ferrari's current work has been described as lyrical abstract sculpture in bronze, stainless steel, marble and granite. His work is preoccupied with creating situations that delight the eye, allowing for the interaction of sculpture and the casual observer, giving the modern city a human dimension.

Love's Messenger: Victorian Valentines

February 4, 2009

Reception, 5:30 p.m.; Presentation, 6:15 p.m.

Speaker: Dr. Debra N. Mancoff, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Few men today - and even fewer women - would wish to return to the strictly regulated rituals of Victorian romance. But nostalgia surrounds the Victorian legacy, and in a world of mass-produced and disposable cards, many long for handmade and heartfelt keepsakes of the past. Don't be deceived by the whimsical appearance of Victorian valentines, these confections of paper lace and scraps and silk and artificial flowers were serious symbols of honorable intentions. Join author and exhibit curator Debra N. Mancoff to explore Victorian valentines and the traditions that made them "Love's Messenger."

Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons

January 7, 2009

Reception, 5:30 p.m.; Presentation, 6:15 p.m.

Speaker: Jonathan Rosenbaum, Film Critic, Author, Instructor

Now that DVDs have made countless films that were formerly unavailable accessible to anyone who knows about them and knows where to find them, the task of choosing what movies to see is more complicated as well as more potentially adventurous than it ever was before. This makes the use of canons in general and film lists in particular more important, despite the resistance to canons expressed by many contemporary academics. In his 2005 collection, Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons, which came out in paperback last year, Jonathan Rosenbaum entered the fray by concluding his book with a chronological list of his 1000 favorite films, which he has subsequently added to in his Afterword to the paperback edition. Discussing recent changes in film culture that have made such lists more popular as well as useful, Rosenbaum will also bring up related issues, such as the formation of niche markets, blogs, chatgroups, and new kinds of cine-clubs that have reconfigured cinephilia and filmgoing as a collective as well as a solitary activity, and will talk about some of his individual favorites.

Book sales and signing will follow the lecture.

The Revival and Transformation of Antiquity in the Renaissance

December 3, 2008

Reception, 5:30 p.m.; Presentation, 6:15 p.m.

Speaker: Dr. Hanna Holborn Gray, President Emerita, The University of Chicago

The lecture will discuss the question of how intellectuals of the early modern period looked to the ancient past and the authority of its great books to reform the education and culture of their own time. But the "revival" of antiquity of course meant interpreting, and reinterpreting, that past in the context of a different era and so inevitably creating new versions of its history and teachings. To characterize the program and the goals of Renaissance humanism is to explore this tension between the ideal of revival and its application to contemporary problems and conditions.

Reception includes a violin performance by David Douglass, Director of the Newberry Consort

Fermilab: The Ring of the Frontier

November 5, 2008
Reception, 5:30 p.m.; Presentation, 6:15 p.m.
Speaker: Adrienne Kolb, Laboratory Archivist, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; Author; and Lecturer

From buffalo to bottom quarks, Fermilab is connected with frontier exploration and discovery. Fermilab has stood at the frontier of physics for 40 years and is home to trail-blazing scientific breakthroughs, including the discoveries of the top and bottom quarks. This lecture reveals how and why Fermilab came to Illinois and discusses the founders of Fermilab: two Nobel Prize winners and a maverick cowboy physicist. Rooted in the Manhattan Project, the Lab's history spans the Cold War years as it became the most powerful high energy accelerator in the world. Exemplifying science in harmony with nature, this talk will highlight Fermilab's attention to art and architecture and consideration for the lived environment through green space, prairie restoration, and even a herd of buffalo.

Ms. Kolb co-authored the new book, "Fermilab: Physics, the Frontier and Megascience," the first history of Fermilab. It also illuminates the growth of the modern research laboratory and captures the drama of human exploration at the cutting-edge of science.

Book sales and signing will follow the lecture.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates and the Nature of the American Republic

October 1, 2008
Reception, 5:30 p.m.; Presentation, 6:15 p.m.
Speaker: Dr. Robert Sprott, Newberry Instructor

In the summer of 1858, in seven different Illinois towns, the Democratic incumbent senator Stephen A. Douglas shared the platform with Abraham Lincoln, his Republican challenger. Although there were a number of issues on which they clashed, the question of slavery and its extension into the Territories was the issue of greatest interest to the public, both in Illinois and nationally, and the issue on which they spent most of their time. Although Douglas's doctrine of "popular sovereignty" seemed to be the quintessentially American political philosophy in its respect for personal liberty and its confidence in the ability of citizens (both as individuals and in groups) to make the correct choice, Lincoln was convinced that the triumph of Douglas's views would lead to the political and moral collapse of the American republic. A century and a half later, we find that although the specific issues these men debated have changed, the underlying intellectual currents of those debates are still very much with us. This lecture will present those currents and attempt to show how, in spite of our admiration for Lincoln, we are, many of us, on the side of Douglas.

Robert Sprott holds an M.A. in anthropology and theology, and a Ph.D. in linguistics. A Roman Catholic priest and a Franciscan, he is on the staff at St. Peter's Church in the Loop.

The 2008 Presidential and Congressional Elections: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

September 3, 2008
Reception, 5:30 p.m.; Presentation, 6:15 p.m.
Speaker: Dr. Alan R. Gitelson, Professor of Political Science, Loyola University, Chicago

This lecture will review the candidates, events, and issues leading up to the 2008 presidential and congressional elections and analyze and discuss the possible outcomes. Emphasis will be placed on the role of candidate strengths and weaknesses, issues, retrospective voting, the media, and campaign financing in our effort to better understand the importance and impact of the 2008 campaign and elections.

Dr. Alan R. Gitelson is a professor in the Department of Political Science, Loyola University Chicago. He is the author of three books and numerous papers on political parties and the campaign and election process and is a frequent guest analyst on television and radio.

Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?

Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Reception, 5:30 pm, Presentation, 6:15 pm
Speaker: Robin P. Williams, Author; Lecturer; Instructor; Associate Member of the Shakespearean Authorship Trust (London)

The legitimate question of whether William Shakespeare penned his own works lies not in his lack of education, but in the lack of documented evidence that he was a writer (we know he was an actor). Robin P. Williams explores the possibility that a woman wrote the sonnets -- most of which are love poems to a younger man -- and the plays; a woman who developed the movement to establish English as a flexible and worthy language, who added many words to our language, who published the first play in English that was written by a woman. In eight years of research, Robin has discovered documented connections that make it look mighty suspicious that Mary Sidney (Herbert), the Countess of Pembroke, wrote the works attributed to the man named William Shakespeare. Is it possible?

Sweet Swan of Avon will be available for sale at the Newberry Library's A. C. McClurg Bookstore. A book signing will follow the talk..

British and American Elections in Perspective

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 (Please note the date)
Reception, 5:30 pm, Presentation, 6:15 pm

Speaker: Michael L. Mezey, Author, Lecturer, Professor of Political Science at DePaul University

The United States and the United Kingdom both consider themselves democracies. However, the process and theory of elections, and the practical business of electioneering, are remarkably different in the two countries. The role of advertising, the media, electoral law, the personal appeal of candidates, and the outcome of electoral strategies, is marked by the individual cultures of the USA and UK. In this American election year, and with a new British administration in place, this lecture will illuminate the differences between, and throw a light on, the continuing relationship of two of the hubs of the English-speaking world, and perhaps indicate what Britain and America can learn from each other.

Irish Fairy Tales and Magic: An Evening with the Shapeshifters Theater

Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Reception; 5:30 pm; Presentation, 6:15 pm
Performers: Shapeshifters Theater

Come celebrate the magic of the Irish in a night of theatrical and musical performances! The Shapeshifters Theater of the Irish American Heritage Center will present a variety of readings from Celtic mythology and fairy tales: Irish Fairy and Folktales, edited by William Butler Yeats; excerpts from their Spring production, Knocknashee (the hill of the Irish fairies and the magic it weaves); storytelling by its resident Seannachai; and songs centered on the magic of May Eve and the power of the Spirits.

Orson Welles: Tragic Genius of Stage and Film

Wednesday, January 9, 2008 (Please note the date)
Reception, 5:30 pm; Presentation, 6:15 pm
Speaker: Michael Wilmington, Film Critic, Author, Instructor

Orson Welles was a phenomenon, incredible—a genius of American film and theater whose achievements still stagger us. He was only 25 when he directed, co-wrote and starred in “Citizen Kane.” 1941’s “Citizen Kane” is still widely regarded as the greatest movie ever made. Other masterpieces followed his bittersweet memory film of Booth Tarkington’s “The Magnificent Ambersons,” his electrifying film noirs “The Lady From Shanghai” and “Touch of Evil,” and his great Shakespearean adaptations “Macbeth,” “Othello,” and “Chimes at Midnight.” Tragically though, Welles himself almost vanished as a director from American studio sound stages after “Kane;” he had only four more studio directorial assignments for the rest of his career. What was the true measure of the man and of his movies? We’ll explore those questions while viewing clips from “Kane,” “Ambersons” and other Welles classics.

Cultural, Technological, and Sociological Changes in Cookbooks from the Early Twentieth-Century to the Present

Wednesday, December 5
Reception, 5:30 pm; Presentation, 6:15 pm
Panel: Penelope Bingham, Author and Illinois Humanities Council Road Scholar; Connie Fairbanks, Author

After watching all those TV food shows, does anyone really cook? Penelope Bingham and Connie Fairbanks will explore how cookbooks have changed over the last 75 years. What have we learned? What trends in American society have been mirrored in cookbooks? Is anything really new? Is good food tastier and easier to make in 2007? What's comfort food, and does it still exist? Prepare yourself for a lively discussion and interesting insights into cookbooks and our society.

Book signings will follow the presentation.

The Dark Side of the Universe

Wednesday, November 7
Reception, 5:30 pm; Presentation, 6:15 pm
Speaker: Rocky Kolb, University of Chicago and Fermilab

Ninety-five percent of the universe is a mystery. Astronomical observations suggest that most of the universe is "dark." The stuff out of which we are made, the visible world we see around us, seems to comprise only 5% of the mass-energy of the universe. An unknown dark matter holds our galaxy together and a mysterious dark energy pushes the galaxies apart. Follow Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Rocky Kolb to the dark side of the universe - the frontier of twenty-first century cosmology.

The Mysteries within The Hound of the Baskervilles

Wednesday, October 3
Reception, 5:30 pm; Presentation, 6:15 pm
Speaker: Tom Joyce, Rare Book Dealer and Lecturer

Do you like dogs - or do they scare you to death? How well do you know Sherlock Holmes' legendary adventure, The Hound of the Baskervilles, the mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle that has spooked and challenged readers for over a century? Find out from a longtime member of the Baker Street Irregulars and the Hounds of the Baskervilles what "Sherlockians" know about it that you don't. Reread the case (or don't) but come to explore the mysteries within the mystery of the Baskervilles and their curse.

Here, There, and Still Everywhere: The Beatles in Contemporary Pop Culture

Wednesday, September 5
Reception, 5:30 pm; Presentation, 6:15 pm
Speaker: June Skinner Sawyers, Author
Performers: Bucky Halker, Don Stiernberg

The Beatles' music is so timeless that whatever it is that you wish to find, it will probably be there. In a music-filled talk, the author of Read the Beatles: Classic and New Writings on the Beatles, Their Legacy, and Why They Still Matter takes us on a whirlwind tour through their career as a band and as solo artists, illustrated with images from the past and the present. Singer-songwriter Bucky Halker and mandolin player Don Stiernberg will offer their own unique interpretations of classic Beatles songs. So, come together one and all.

Beatles reader and Bucky Halker CDs will be available for sale. Signings will follow the program.

After Tony Blair: Constitutional Revolution or Revelation in Britain's Disguised Republic?

Wednesday, May 2, 2007
5:30 PM Reception; 6:15 PM Presentation
Presenter: Dr. Martin Meenagh, Former Oxford Tutor; Member of Middle Temple, The Inns of Court (London)

During the Blair years, profound reforms to Britain's unwritten and monarchial constitution have occurred, including the human rights act, devolution, the reform of the House of Lords, and the virtual elimination of the mysterious Crown power known as the "Royal prerogative." Has the United Kingdom become, as Walter Bagehot described it in 1873, "a disguised republic"? Do these changes simply ratify and bring into the open Britain's hidden republican settlement? What should foreign observers expect to happen after Tony Blair steps down as Prime Minister?

An Arctic Odyssey

Presenter: Edmund B. Thornton
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
5:30 PM Reception; 6:15 PM Presentation

During the summers of 1949 and 1950, Mr. Thornton served as a crew member on the Schooner Bowdoin out of Boothbay Harbor, Maine on two expeditions to the Arctic. He reached a latitude of eleven degrees from the North Pole, and had contacts with the Native Inuit in North Greenland. Please join us for this visually stunning program that will include highlights of Mr. Thornton's Arctic experience together with comments on the history and exploration of the Arctic Regions.

Fathers and Daughters and Wives in Late Shakespeare

Wednesday, March 7, 2007
5:30 PM Reception; 6:15 PM Presentation
Presenter: Dr. David Bevington, The University of Chicago

David Bevington is professor emeritus in the humanities and a leading Shakespearean scholar. He will explore Shakespeare's fascination with family relationships in his late plays, especially in Othello, King Lear, Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and the Tempest. Can this be a working out in dramatic form Shakespeare's own thoughts about the end of his London theatrical career, and his return to Stratford-upon-Avon to live with his wife, Anne? This problem of interpretation is especially acute because Shakespeare is so reticent, so unwilling to talk about himself.

Bevington's new book, Shakespeare: The Seven Ages of Human Experience, will be available for purchase from the Newberry Library's A. C. McClurg Bookstore. A book signing will follow the presentation.

African American Music as a Front of the Cultural War

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

5:30 PM Reception; 6:15 PM Presentation
Presenter: Robert Rhodes, Ohio University
Musical Guest: Nicole Mitchell, musician and composer

Robert Rhodes, jazz critic and Ohio University professor emeritus of African American Studies, will explore the theme of political activism that is expressed by such jazz musicians as Louis Armstrong, Sonny Rollins, and Max Roach. He will be joined by Nicole Mitchell, Chicago flautist and "3rd Generation" member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). "(Mitchell) values innovation, reveres the majesty of black musical history and celebrates the breakthrough out of the 20th-Century jazz." wrote Tribune Music critic Howard Reich. Mitchell will perform works from her Harambee Project (Coming Together) commissioned and performed for the "MADE IN CHICAGO" Jazz Festival in Poland, November 2006.

Ben Hecht: Chicago's Gift to Hollywood

Wednesday, January 10, 2007
5:30 PM Reception; 6:15 PM Presentation
Presenter: Michael Wilmington, The Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times

Film critic Michael Wilmington discusses the career of writer Ben Hecht (1893-1964), one of the great Chicago journalists in the early decades of the twentieth century. His classic newspaper play, The Front Page, has been presented many times on stage and in film versions, including the classic screwball comedy, "His Girl Friday." After leaving Chicago, Hecht became one of Hollywood's top screenwriters of the Golden Age of the studio system, producing scripts for "Scarface," "20th Century," "Notorious," and "Wuthering Heights," among others. It was Chicago, however, that remained Hecht's first love, and upon his death, his papers came to the Newberry Library.

Dickens: Issues of Sentiment, Materialism and Commerce

Presenter: James Chandler, Franke Institute for the Humanities, University of Chicago, Joseph Regenstein Library

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Doors open at 5:30 PM

A discussion of A Christmas Carol, in relation to some other Dickens' novels, especially A Tale of Two Cities and Martin Chuzzlewit, that will focus on issues of emotion, materialism, and commerce in Dickens -- the whole mix of topics that helps us to locate his fiction in the tradition of the great founders of the sentimental tradition in the eighteenth century, such as Laurence Sterne and Adam Smith.

The Aztec Influence on Today's Arts: The Ambiguity of Confluence

Presenter: Encarnación Teruel

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Doors open at 5:30 PM

Join us for an exploration of the cultural arts of the Aztecs and the influence, impact and presence of the Aztec cosmology in today's arts.

From Azteca to meta-hi-techno learn about the creativity and inspiration of artists such as: poet Nezahualcoyotl ("Fasting Coyote"), 16^th century writer Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz the Fifth Muse, influential muralist Diego Rivera, cultural phenom Frida Kahlo, Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz, actress Jesusa Rodriquez, cabaret performer Astrid Hadad, best-selling author Sandra Cisneros, performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena a MacArthur "Genius Award" winner, and Enrique Chagon. This fast paced lecture will explore the Mexicanidad that runs through the veins of these artists and beyond.

Encarnación M. Teruel is a performance artist, educator, curator and performing arts presenter. Mr. Teruel created and established the Performing Arts Department for the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum (1989-96), where he initiated two annual international performing arts festivals now in their tenth year: The Del Corazon: Mexican Performing Arts Festival and The Sor Juana Festival: A Tribute to Mexican Women. Mr. Teruel is currently the Director of Visual Arts, Media Arts & Multi-Disciplinary Programs at the Illinois Arts Council.

500 Years of Children's Books: Tradition and Change

Presenter: Jenny Schwartzberg, Children's Book Specialist at the Newberry Library

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Doors open at 5:30 PM

What did children read in the 17^th century? To answer that question, join us for a fascinating discussion about how children's books changed over the centuries as the needs of parents, educators, and the children themselves shifted. This talk will cover the spectra of children's books from the Middle Ages to the present day based on the Newberry's deep collection. Writers and illustrators, aficionados of works for children, and those who are simply young at heart will find Ms. Schawrtzberg's presentation on the Newberry's children's collections both fascinating and relevant.

Celebrate Brazil!

Presenter: Ambassador Ricardo Carvalho, Brazilian Consul General in Chicago

Wednesday, September 6, 2006

Doors open at 5:30 PM

Join us on the eve before Brazilian Independence Day for an unforgettable night! Celebrate with a reception for Ambassador Ricardo Carvalho who will afterward present Brazil in the world today, highlighting the present situation of the eighth largest economy of the world, the democratic stability of the country, its pursuit of international free trade, and Brazil's role in the promotion of peaceful solutions to conflicts in the world.