CHICAGO, June 26, 2008 - Get your heckling voice ready! The 22nd Annual Bughouse Square Debates is taking place on Saturday, July 26, 2008, and we want you to come give us a piece of your mind.
This year's soapbox debate topics include the Chicago smoking ban, US torture policy, health care reform, and more. The debates are centered on informal soapbox speeches (heckling encouraged) and a main debate. This year's main debate topic is titled: "Americans Should Choose the President by National Popular Vote." A poetry reading and a live band will also be a part of the festivities this year.
In the spirit of courageous advocacy of freedom of speech, the John Peter Altgeld Award will be presented to Dawn Sherman, a student who challenged her high school's implementation of the Illinois Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act. Her initial lawsuit resulted in an injunction from U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman prohibiting the law's continued observation at Buffalo Grove High School, then expanded into a class-suit allowing other students and school districts statewide to participate. Ultimately, on May 29, 2008, Gettleman applied the injunction to the entire State of Illinois while the constitutionality of the law is considered.
"This year's Altgeld Award honors young people who stand up for their First Amendment freedoms in the schools they attend even when it is unpopular," said Shawn Healy, resident scholar, McCormick Freedom Musuem. "Sherman represents the noble cause of civic activism that will without doubt inspire students across Illinois to stand up for what they believe is right, and to be active participants in this constitutional democracy."
Previous award recipients include Jorge Mújica, the American Library Association, Kathy Kelly, and Leon Despres. The award is named for John Peter Altgeld, governor of Illinois from 1893 to 1897, who is best remembered for championing labor reform and pardoning three men convicted for the Haymarket bombing.
The festivities are scheduled from 12 pm to 4 pm on Saturday, July 26 in Washington Square Park. The park is directly across the street from the Newberry Library, which is located at 60 West Walton Street, between Clark and Dearborn.
Along with the Bughouse Debates, the Newberry Library's 24th Annual Book Fair will be held inside the Library's main floor lobby. More than 100,000 books will be sorted into 66 categories in this four-day book extravaganza. The Fair begins on Thursday, July 24, and will continue to be replenished until Sunday, July 27.
Schedule of Events on July 26
12:00 pm - Welcome and Live Music
12:15 pm - Presentation of the Altgeld Award to Dawn Sherman
12:35 pm - Main Debate (Americans Should Choose the President by National Popular Vote)
1:05 pm - Candidate Debate (McCain representative vs. Barack representative)
1:45 pm - Soapbox Speeches
3:15 pm - Poetry Reading: "Let America Be America," by Langston Hughes
3:30 pm - Soapbox Winner Announced
3:40 pm - Open Mic
List of Confirmed Soapbox Debaters and Topics
Keith Bolin, American Corn Growers, "Family Farms"
Allison Carter, ACLU-Illinois; US Torture Policy
Susan Gzesh, Director of the Human Rights Program at the University of Chicago
Nick Kreitman, Elmhurst College Students for a Democratic Society
Jing Luo, American Medical Students Association; "Health Care Reform"
Erwin Lutzer, Moody Bible Institute, "Why God is Not More Tolerant Than He Used To be"
Joseph Paschen, Writer and bartender; "Anti-smoking ban"
Paige Philips, Bi-sexual activist; reading from The Grapes of Wrath, speaking on the depression then and now
Rob Sherman, State-imposed mandatory "moment of silence" laws
Don Transue, Architect of gunmap.org; "Expanded gun rights"
Sarah Triano, Access Living and Disability Pride Parade
Kelly Underman, "Your Life Doesn't Wait: Why Abstinence Only is Failing This Generation"
About Bughouse Square
Bughouse Square (from "bughouse" slang for mental health facility), the popular name for Washington Square Park, was the city's most popular, boisterous, and radical free speech space from the 1910s through the 1930s. Orators mounted soapboxes and spoke to responsive, vocal crowds. Bohemians, poets, atheists, and religionists of all persuasions entertained bystanders. The Square's core contributors, however, came from the ranks of the Wobblies, men and women of the Industrial Workers of the World, whose radical views, wit, and humor made them champion soapboxers and perennial crowd favorites. World War II and a post-war crackdown against socialists and communists, however, led to Bughouse Square's decline and by the mid 1960s it had all but ceased to exist. The Newberry Library revived the Park's free speech legacy with the Bughouse Square Debates in 1986.
This year's debates are sponsored by the McCormick Freedom Museum, the Poetry Foundation, and the Newberry Library. For more information, visit www.bloghousesquare.blogspot.com.