COURTESY OF OAK PARK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Oak Park, IL— Dr. Neal Lester, award-winning Professor of English, and former Dean of Humanities at Arizona State University, will launch Humanities 101 with Straight Talk about the N Word by Dr. Neal Lester, at Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake St., at 7 pm Wednesday, Oct. 1.
“The goal of this series is to talk, listen, and connect,” said Cynthia Landrum, Assistant Director of Programs at the library. “That aligns with the library’s focus on tuning outward and connecting the community.”
Lester is a popular public speaker, frequent radio guest, columnist, Teaching Tolerance blogger (Southern Poverty Law Center), and discussion facilitator. He created and now directs the highly successful and award-winning ASU Project Humanities, a multidisciplinary initiative that brings diverse communities together to talk, listen and connect.
What’s Project Humanities about? “What are the things that make us look at what it means to be human on this planet,” Lester said in a recent video, available at http://humanities.asu.edu/about.
Developed through Project Humanities, all Humanities 101 programs will be held at the Main Library. The series represents a comprehensive effort to promote and sustain robust understanding and dialogue between individuals and across communities about seven values (respect, kindness, integrity, empathy, forgiveness, compassion, and self-reflection) that affect all human interactions and behaviors across disciplines. To learn more about Humanities 101 in Oak Park, visit oppl.org/events/calendar.
Oct. 4 – Oak Park Area Arts Council Opening Reception: Celebrating Arts & Humanities in Illinois Month
Oct. 5 – Unexpected Lessons from the Heartland: Conversations with Rural Women
Oct. 8 – Shen Yun Chinese Symphony Orchestra
Oct. 9 – Author Janis Kearney: Sundays with TJ
Oct. 12 – Lyric Opera Lecture Series: Il Trovatore
Oct. 15 – The Business of Humanity: Starting a Social Enterprise, Part 1 of 3
Oct. 16 – Folk Music Concert featuring Andrew McKnight
Oct. 22 – Art and Poetry of the Haymarket Martyrs’ Monument
Oct. 22 – The Business of Humanity: Starting a Social Enterprise, Part 2 of 3
Oct. 26 – Casa Italia: Italian Women in Chicago
Oct. 29 – The Business of Humanity: Starting a Social Enterprise, Part 3 of 3
Oct. 30 – American Promise documentary screening and discussion, Oak Park River Forest High School
Nov. 1 – Author Omar Yamini: What’s Wrong with You!
Nov. 2 – Lyric Opera Lecture Series: Porgy and Bess
Nov. 2 – Explore the Art and Culture of Haiti
Nov. 6 – @home documentary screening and discussion in collaboration with West Suburban PADS