Events

“It’s not about where you belong, it is about what belongs to you. The struggle of immigrants is to retain what they left behind while they are making their own a place claimed by someone else. I can live in Chicago, only because it belongs to me, but I had to work hard to make it mine.”

—Aleksandar Hemon, Chicago author originally from Sarajevo

These events took place in 2006.

Theater Lunchbreak Performance
Thursday, September 14, 12:15 p.m.
Chicago Cultural Center’s Randolph Cafe
77 E. Randolph Street
Join Lookingglass Theatre ensemble members as they read selections from Interpreter of Maladies.

Jhumpa Lahiri in Conversation with Mary A. Dempsey
Monday, October 9, 6:00 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S. State Street
Please join us as Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Interpreter of Maladies, talks with Mary A. Dempsey, Commissioner of the Chicago Public Library. Ms. Lahiri’s books will be available for purchase, and a book signing will follow the conversation.

The following free events are sponsored by DePaul University’s Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program.

Jhumpa Lahiri and Thomas Jefferson: Two Writers in Dialogue with Each Other Over a 200-Year Distance: What America Was and What It Has Become, 1806-2006
Wednesday, October 11, 6:00 p.m.
DePaul University
Student Center, Room 120
2320 N. Sheffield Avenue
In Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri offers a compelling critique of the American dream. How might Thomas Jefferson respond to Lahiri’s collection of short stories and her novel The Namesake? Drawing on his recent edition of Thomas Jefferson’s Scrapbooks, Professor Jonathan Gross discusses what Lahiri gets right and wrong about the American dream by examining how Jefferson defined American democracy through the newspaper clippings he sent to his grandchildren while president. Sponsored by DePaul University’s Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program. For more information, please call (773) 325-7840.

The Immigrant’s Journey and the Tangle of Identity: A Panel Discussion on Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies
Wednesday, October 25, 6:00 p.m.
DePaul University
Student Center, Room 120
2320 North Sheffield Avenue
Join a panel of distinguished DePaul faculty who will explore Lahiri’s collection of short stories from literary and historical perspectives. How do longing and loss shape the lives of immigrants in America? Do the challenges of assimilation and acculturation mean something different for the older and the younger generations? How do shifting definitions of happiness and success emerge from the lives of Lahiri’s characters and reflect contemporary struggles in America? Sponsored by DePaul University’s Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program. For more information, please call (773) 325-7840.

Gerber/Hart Library Book Discussion
Thursday, October 27, 7:00 p.m.
1127 W. Granville Avenue
(773) 381-8030

Loyola University Chicago Book Discussion
Thursday, October 19, 6:00 p.m.
Cudahy Library, Lake Shore Campus
6525 N. Sheridan Road
(773) 508-2641

Barnes & Noble Booksellers Book Discussions
Presented by The Great Books Foundation

• Tuesday, October 17, 7:30 p.m.
  1441 W. Webster Avenue
• Tuesday, October 24, 7:30 p.m.
  55 Old Orchard Center, Skokie

Harold Washington College Book Discussion
Thursday, October 26, 2:00 p.m.
Room 1001
30 E. Lake Street
(312) 553-5883