Friday, April 8
Seminary Co-Op, 5751 South Woodlawn Avenue, 6 p.m.
Join Indiana University associate professor of history Alex Lichtenstein and social historian Rick Halpern as they discuss Life magazine’s famous photographer Margaret Bourke-White and her visually compelling yet unpublished photos of racially segregated South Africa in 1949.
Logan Center Theater West 115, 915 East 60th Street, 8:30 p.m. Also playing Sat., April 9, 7:30 p.m. and Sat, Apr 9, 2 p.m. $6 Advance/$8 Door
See through the eyes of an adopted Chinese girl as she explores America with the guidance of her trusty folk hero, the Monkey King. Directed by Andrew Mao, the show is inspired by the Chinese folktale Journey to the West and features a wide variety of music and symbolic cultural references.
Jamie Kalven And Craig Futterman: “Police Encounters On The South Side”
KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, 1100 East Hyde Park Blvd, 8:20 p.m.
Become a part of the national conversation about racial discrimination in both law enforcement and legal prosecution with Jamie Kalven and activist and UChicago Law Professor Craig Futterman, who was involved in the release of the Laquan McDonald tape and has investigated other cases involving minority victims of police violence.
Connected event: Panel discussion “Lessons from Elsewhere: Models for Reform” on Saturday 4/9, at 11:15 am. Saturday event includes lunch and a talk at 1:30 called “Call to Action: What can we do?” Registration recommended. RSVP at www.kamii.org/rsvp for the Saturday discussion/lunch
Saturday, April 9
The Future of Religious Minorities in the Middle East
Swift Lecture Hall, 3rd Floor, The University of Chicago Divinity School, 1025 East 58th Street, 9 a.m.–5:15 p.m. Register online.
Listen to scholars discuss what the future might look like for Copts, Baha’is, and Assyrians in the Middle East. The event will highlight the current status and potential future of religious minorities in Egypt, Iraq, and Syria in a time of strife and uncertainty.
Space: Speculation and Exploration
International House Assembly Hall, 1414 East 59th Street, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Register online.
Space out and rocket on over to student group Chicago Society’s annual spring conference with the Global Voices Lecture Series. This year’s event will feature experts dissecting the scientific findings about outer space and the universe and its effects on politics, law, business, and pop culture.
Sunday, April 10
Seminary Co-Op, 5751 South Woodlawn Avenue, 4 p.m.
Haitian author Kettly Mars and Haitian History Scholar in residence William L. Balan-Gaubert will discuss Mars’ new book Savage Seasons. The novel is set under the dictatorial regime of Francois Duvalier in 1960s Port-au-Prince and tells the story of Nirvah, the wife of the editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper and her family’s struggle. The event is co-sponsored by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the creative writing department, the Center for Latin American Studies, and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture.
Hyde Park Community Players Staged Readings: “Not Here” by Geri Hudson
Augustana Church, 5500 South Woodlawn Avenue, 8 p.m., $5 at the door.
Author Gerri Hudson shares her drama about seven women who must hide in a bathroom for 100 days to survive. This short story, which was inspired by the 1994 Rwandan genocide, will be followed by a discussion.
Monday, April 11
Becker Brown Bag: Measuring Polarization in Congressional Speech
Charles M. Harper Center Room 104, 5807 South Woodlawn Avenue, noon–1 p.m.
How divisive has political rhetoric become? Associate Booth School professor of econometrics and statistics Matthew Teddy will explain how partisanship has changed in congressional speeches since 1872 using machine learning in high-dimensional data. Lunch will be provided in this semi-uickuarterly event.
Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, 5701 South Woodlawn Avenue, 4–5:50 p.m. Space is limited, Register online.
In a lecture entitled “What Do We Live For?”, Anselm Mueller, a visiting professor with the project “Virtue, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life” will discuss the tension between acting well and faring well. She will also discuss the way various thinkers from different cultures have approached the problem. Mueller is Professor Emeritus at the University of Trier in philosophy. A light reception will be served.
“How Scandinavian Countries Became Non-Corrupt” with Bo Rothstein (Oxford)
Harper Center Room 104, 5807 South Woodlawn Avenue, 5–7 p.m. Register online.
Political scientist Bo Rothstein will discuss social science advances in eradicating corruption and transforming countries into advanced democracies by analyzing Scandinavian historical experiences.
The Future of Food: A Social Entrepreneur’s Vision
Institute of Politics, 5707 South Woodlawn Avenue, 6–7:15 p.m. Register online.
Josh Tetrick, CEO of food technology company Hampton Creek, will discuss his focus on social entrepreneurship within the food industry and his efforts to use financial incentives for the social good. Hampton Creek, which sells products such as cookie dough and mayonnaise, focuses on sustainability in its supply chain and producing healthy, all natural foods. In his talk, Tetrick will discuss how these efforts in the food industry can catalyze change.
Tuesday, April 12
Liesl Shurtliff Book Launch – “Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood”
57th Street Books, 1301 East 57th Street, 4 p.m., RSVP on Facebook.
Children’s book author Liesl Shurtliff will be hosting the release party for her new book, Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood. The book reimagines the classic children’s fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood and crafts a main character who is “strong, brazen, and not afraid of anything”. Shurtliff’s first book Rump, a reinterpretation of Rumpelstiltskin, earned an IRA Award, a Texas Bluebonnet nomination, and a Whitney nomination.
“Welfare, Competition, Quality of Government” Rothstein, Mulligan, Zingales
Harper Center Room 104, 5807 South Woodlawn Avenue, 5 p.m.
Bo Rothstein (Oxford), Casey Mulligan (Chicago), and Luigi Zingales (Chicago Booth) will discuss different aspects of what makes an ideal economic system and government by answering questions such as whether competition is the natural evolution of every economic system and whether the best government is the smallest government.
“Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War”
International House Assembly Hall, 1414 East 59th Street, 6–7:30 p.m., Free.
Journalist Robin Yassin-Kassab and human rights activist Leila Al-Shami present their new book on the political, social, and humanitarian crises that have erupted as a result of the Syrian conflict. Books will be available for purchase and autographs after the event. Chicago Public Radio’s Program Worldview host Jerome McDonnell will moderate.
Wednesday, April 13
Fiction & Forms Reading by Viet Nguyen
Rosenwald Hall 405, 1101 East 58th Street, 6 p.m.
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s first novel, The Sympathizer, which provided an often-missing Vietnamese perspective on the Vietnam War, debuted a little over a year ago to general acclaim. At this reading, he will present some of his more recent work.
UT/TAPS Presents New Work Week
Reynolds Club Francis X. Kinahan Third Floor Theater, 5706 South University Avenue, Continues Thursday, April 14–Saturday, April 16 and Thursday, April 21–Sunday, April 24 in Logan Center rooms 501 and 701, 7:30–9:30 p.m., $5 per performance/$10 festival pass.
New Work Week brings student-written theater to the stage and includes works ranging from brief sketches to major academic projects. Adaptations, devised work, and wholly original scripts are all accepted and all works will be written, directed, and produced by students.
Thursday, April 14
A Smart Lecture by Crispin Branfoot
Cochrane-Woods Art Center Room 157, 5540 South Greenwood Avenue, 4:30 p.m.
Crispin Branfoot, professor of South Asian Art and Archeology at SOAS University of London, will hold a lecture as part of the Department of Art History’s Smart Lecture series.
Manisha Sinha – The Abolitionist International: Anatomy of a Radical Movement
Social Science Research Building Room 224, 1126 East 59th Street, 4:30–6:30 p.m.
Manisha Sinha’s most recent book presents a new conception of abolition in America as a movement that was persistent, radical, multiracial, and, in the era of Black Lives Matter, compellingly relevant. At this event, Sinha will expound on that description.
Index of the Disappeared | Chitra Ganesh & Mariam Ghani
Logan Center, 915 East 60th Street, 6 p.m.
It has sometimes been difficult to make concrete the consequences of America’s post–9/11 activities overseas—see, for instance, the variety of estimates for civilian casualties during the Iraq War. In this archive-cum-art piece, Chitra Ganesh and Mariam Ghani try to communicate the reality of the situation.
Blurbs written by Jae Ahn, Katie Akin, Cairo Lewis, Eileen Li, Christine Schmidt, Hilly Steinmetz, and Garrett Williams.
