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April 5, 2024
The Chicago Humanities Festival will return to Evanston Sunday, Oct. 27 for its annual Morris and Dolores Kohl Kaplan Northwestern Day. The day features a dozen programs with some of the biggest names in arts and culture, from former New York Timesexecutive editor Jill Abramson to Emmy Award-winning actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus (C’83, H’07).
Literature lovers can attend sessions with authors Madeline Miller (“Circe”), Amitav Ghosh (“Gun Island”), Jonathan Safran Foer (“We Are the Weather”), Patrick Radden Keefe (“Say Nothing”), and the winners of the 2019 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prizes, “Heartland” author Sarah Smarsh and Rebecca Makkai, author of “The Great Believers.”
Chicago’s Indignant Women Collective, in collaboration with In the Spirit, and authors Imani Perry and Angela Jackson, will explore the lives and legacies of Lorraine Hansberry and Gwendolyn Brooks through a performance piece and conversation.
A number of Northwestern faculty also will present, including Daniel Immerwahr on American imperialism, Jennifer Lackey on incarceration and education, and Debbie Cenziper, the new director of investigative reporting at Medill, on the hunt for America’s hidden Nazis.
Morris and Dolores Kohl Kaplan Northwestern Day is made possible with the support of the Dolores Kohl Education Foundation, the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities in Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a multitude of departments and offices at Northwestern University.
All events take place Sunday, Oct. 27 on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. More information is available on the Kaplan Institute for the Humanities website.
Jill Abramson: Merchants of Truth
Oct. 27, 11 a.m. to noon
Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson St.
Join Abramson and Emmy award-winning journalist Rebecca Jarvis in conversation as they discuss where the news business has been, where it’s going and why, now more than ever, it matters.
2019 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Nonfiction: Sarah Smarsh (SOLD OUT)
Oct. 27, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Ryan Center for the Music Arts, Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall
70 Arts Circle Dr.
“Heartland” has received praise from sources as diverse as The American Conservative and Mother Jones for its poetic prose, precise observations and powerful message. Smarsh will be joined in conversation by Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich.
Daniel Immerwahr: How to Hide an Empire
Oct. 27, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Norris University Center, McCormick Auditorium
1999 Campus Drive
In “How to Hide an Empire,” Northwestern professor Daniel Immerwahr traces the crucial yet oft-obscured role that U.S. overseas territories have played in the development of the nation.
Amitav Ghosh: Gun Island
Oct. 27, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Norris University Center, John J. Louis Room
1999 Campus Dr.
Named a top global thinker by Foreign Policy, Ghosh’s genius is on display in his latest work, “Gun Island,” a novel rich with mythology yet still firmly rooted in today’s realities of climate change and globalization.
This program is sponsored by Anita and Prabhakant Sinha.
Jonathan Safran Foer: We are the Weather
Oct. 27, 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Cahn Auditorium
600 Emerson St.
This conversation with Foer and WBEZ food and culture reporter Monica Eng will have you considering your own power to improve the planet just by changing what you eat.
Madeline Miller: Circe (SOLD OUT)
Oct. 27, 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Ryan Center for the Music Arts, Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall
70 Arts Cir Dr.
Miller will discuss how she created a nuanced portrayal of a complicated woman trying to succeed in a world allied against her -- a narrative that many modern readers will find more than a little familiar. Greta Johnsen, host and producer of WBEZ’s Nerdette podcast, will join Miller in conversation.
Jennifer Lackey: Incarceration and Education
Oct. 27, 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Norris University Center, McCormick Auditorium
1999 Campus Dr.
Join Lackey for a conversation about using education to create a more equitable, rehabilitative and effective criminal justice system.
Patrick Radden Keefe: Say Nothing (SOLD OUT)
Oct. 27, 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Norris University Center, John J. Louis Room
1999 Campus Dr.
Join Keefe and journalist Alex Kotlowitz as they discuss the Troubles, the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland, and the lasting effect such an atmosphere can have on both the individual and the society.
2019 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Fiction: Rebecca Makkai (SOLD OUT)
Oct. 27, 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Ryan Center for the Musical Arts, Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall
70 Arts Circle Dr.
Makkai, a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, will join Rick Kogan of the Chicago Tribune to discuss the power of fiction to excavate and reveal a more nuanced understanding of our shared histories.
Debbie Cenziper: America’s Hidden Nazis
Oct. 27, 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Norris University Center, McCormick Auditorium
1999 Campus Dr.
In “Citizen 865,” Cenziper, the new head of investigative journalism at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, provides an antidote to today’s rising tide of intolerance with an inspirational tale of Americans standing up to hatred and rooting it out.
Indignant Women
Oct. 27, 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Norris University Center, John J. Louis Room
1999 Campus Dr.
Had Gwendolyn Brooks and Lorraine Hansberry ever met, they would have had much to discuss. Chicago’s Indignant Women Collective has envisioned such a conversation, by creating an imagined dialogue between the two artists, which will be performed by Emily Hooper Lansana and Zahra Glenda Baker from In the Spirit.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (SOLD OUT)
Oct. 27, 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Cahn Auditorium
600 Emerson St.
CHF welcomes Louis-Dreyfus back to Northwestern for a conversation reflecting on her portrayals of power throughout her career, from Elaine Benes’s signature shove to Selina Meyer’s conniving and often precarious political moves.
This program is presented as part of the Elaine and Roger Haydock Humor Series.
