One Book, One Chicago Fall 2010
Programs and Events
These programs took place in 2010.
Quicklinks: Programs and Events | Author Event | DePaul Course | For Teens
Programs and Events
One Book, One Chicago Opening Events
Tuesday, September 7, 6:00 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S. State Street
Chicago Public Library is proud to present Dwight McBride, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Professor of African American Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies, in a lecture on Toni Morrison’s importance not just as a novelist, but as a leading American intellectual. This kick off to the fall city wide reading initiative also includes a brief performance from the opera Margaret Garner, for which Morrison wrote the libretto, presented with help from the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera; and a give-away of free copies of A Mercy for the first 385 attendees!
Genealogy Workshops
With A Mercy, Toni Morrison creates an incredibly accurate portrait of the early melting pot of colonial America, and allows us to hold a mirror to our multi-cultural society today. These workshops provide a tutorial on how to get started with your own genealogical search, no matter what your background.
Genealogy Workshop 1: Introduction to Online Databases
Get your feet wet exploring family records and other genealogical information by conducting a simple online search available for free to anyone with a library card. Examples are given, followed by time for personal searching. Please bring the name and birth or death date of at least one relative.
- Saturday, October 2, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
ERC, Fourth Floor North
400 S. State Street - Saturday, October 2, 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
ERC, Fourth Floor North
400 S. State Street - Thursday, October 7, 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Sulzer Regional Library
4455 N. Lincoln Avenue
Genealogy Workshop 2: Tracing Slavery and Slaveholding in the Family
These talks/workshops feature Pam Smith, a local communications consultant and genealogist whose decades-long look into her own family’s past have led to her to Africa and to appearances on NPR, Lifetime and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Smith is now writing a book with a descendant of the slaveholding family that once owned hers.
- Saturday, October 9, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Legler Branch
115 S. Pulaski Road
Space is limited. For reservations call: (312) 747-8191 - Saturday, October 30, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Avalon Branch
8148 S. Stony Island Avenue
Space is limited. For reservations call: (312) 747-8191
Research and Creativity
Thursday, October 7, 6:00 p.m.
Newberry Library, Ruggles Hall
60 W. Walton Avenue
For authors interested in distant historical places, libraries and archives become part of their creative process. Join a panel of scholars whose insights into early America provide context and depth to the story of A Mercy, and how Toni Morrison may have researched the period that became the backdrop to her novel. Panelists include Eric Slauter, Director of the Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture at the University of Chicago; Sarah Pearsall, lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and recipient of the Mellon/National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship at the Newberry Library; and Scott Stevens, Director of the Newberry’s D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies.
Presented in partnership with the Newberry Library. Rare primary materials from the Newberry Library collection will be on display.
Staged Reading
Tuesday, October 12, 6:00 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S. State Street
Join actors from the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble for readings from A Mercy. Bringing Morrison’s lyric prose to life, these readings focus on the journeys—physical, emotional and spiritual—of the novel’s women, all braving life in early America. Martha Lavey, Artistic Director of Steppenwolf, leads a talk-back with the actors and the audience after the performance.
Toni Morrison as Storyteller
Thursday, October 14, 6:00 p.m.
John R. Cortelyou Commons Building
2324 N. Fremont Street
Chicago scholars and writers Deborah Holton, Haki Madhubuti, Francesca Royster, Philip Royster and Ann Stanford explore Toni Morrison’s distinctive voice from the perspectives of performance, poetry, and pedagogy. As a novel that features stream-of-consciousness narratives and writing that revels in its lyricism as well as its narrative arc, A Mercy provides an extraordinary opportunity to explore the dynamics of identity, literacy, and art both on the page and on the stage.
Sponsored by DePaul University’s Department of English.
Film Screening: Beloved
Saturday, October 16, 12:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Woodson Regional Library
9525 S. Halsted Street
This 1998 adaptation of Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. Set after the Civil War, this psychological and fantastic drama tells the story of an ex-slave dealing with her past decision to kill her child so that she will not become a slave herself. Join Francesca Royster after the screening for a discussion of the film, the book, and where Beloved and A Mercy dovetail in theme and story. Royster is Director of African and Black Diaspora Studies at DePaul University.
Film running time: 172 minutes
Film Screening and Panel Discussion: The Black List, Vol. 1
Monday, October 18
Film: 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Panel: 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
DePaul University Student Center, Room 120A
2250 N. Sheffield Avenue
The Black List, directed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders with interviews by Elvis Mitchell, features prominent African Americans—Toni Morrison, Bill T. Jones, Susan Lori-Parks, Colin Powell and Chris Rock among them—talking about struggle, success and inspiration. Following the film screening and a brief break, join an insightful panel discussion on race in America—with focus on family life, education, and culture—featuring Francesca Royster, Director of African and Black Diaspora Studies at DePaul University; David Stovall, Associate Professor of Education Policy at the University Illinois at Chicago; and Mia Henry, Director of Youth Led Social Change at the Chicago Freedom School.
Sponsored in part by DePaul University’s Department of English
One Book, One Chicago Keynote Lecture
Toni Morrison
Tuesday, October 19, 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Presented by the Chicago Public Library and the McCormick Foundation
Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center
220 S. Michigan Avenue
Professor Morrison gives a talk about her life, her work and A Mercy. Join us at this very special program with an American icon. This event does not include a book signing.
Please note: This event is sold out and tickets are no longer available.
Film Screening: Traces of the Trade
Monday, October 25, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
John R. Cortelyou Commons Building
2324 N. Fremont Street
In this compelling documentary, an official selection of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, filmmaker Katrina Browne explores the history and the “living consequences” of one of our nation’s most shameful episodes—slavery. Traces of the Trade is an important historical corrective to America’s view of slavery and its repercussions, and a probing essay into divergent versions of the past that continue to divide black and white in America, North and South. After the film, Francesca Royster, Director of African and Black Diaspora Studies and Associate Professor of English at DePaul, leads a discussion of the issues the film presents.
Film running time: 86 minutes. Sponsored by DePaul University’s Department of English.
Cross Racial Alliance and the Turning Point of Slavery in A Mercy
Wednesday, October 27, 6:00 p.m.
John R. Cortelyou Commons Building
2324 N. Fremont Street
Scholars of U.S. culture and history Sharon Holland, Thomas Foster, Francesca Royster and John Shanahan explore the unexpected fluidity of interpersonal relationships across race and class in colonial America. Morrison’s novel represents a wide range of alliances between white indentured servants and free blacks, between enslaved and free blacks, between Native Americans and blacks, between mistresses and servants, and between hetero and non-heteronormative men. How do these relationships challenge our assumptions about traditional categories of identity and difference? What are the points of shared stakes and tension between groups? How and why did such tenuous communities change?
Sponsored by DePaul University’s Department of English.
DePaul University Course
Imperfect Community: Toni Morrison’s Vision of Social Engagement
DePaul University’s Department of English offers a course dedicated to exploring literary facets of the city’s One Book, One Chicago selection. In fall 2010, English 378: “Literature and Social Engagement – Imperfect Community: Toni Morrison’s Vision of Social Engagement” is taught by Francesca Royster, Director of African and Black Diaspora Studies and Associate Professor of English. In this class, students explore Toni Morrison’s development and return to the ideals of community and social engagement in the context of racial history, personal violence, desire, spirituality and economic struggle in A Mercy, Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Paradise and in some of the author’s nonfiction essays. Students consider some of the following questions: how does literacy, its absence or presence provide a means of connection? How do characters see themselves as citizens of a larger social world, as well as part of the localized black communities? What role do family connections (blood and found) serve to mediate and/or complicate one’s place in a community? This ten-week course meets Mondays and Wednesdays, from 11:20 a.m. – 12:50 p.m., beginning September 8, 2010.
Sponsored by DePaul University’s Department of English, this is a paid tuition-based course. For more information go to depaul.edu/~oboc or call (773) 325-7485.
Programs for Teens
YOUmedia Open Studio Days
Fridays, September 10, 17 and 24 and October 1, 8 and 15; 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
YOUmedia
400 S. State Street
What ideas intrigue or inspire you about A Mercy and Toni Morrison? Chicago Public Library teens are invited to speak their minds in YOUmedia. Bring your family and create family history interviews to explore the windows through time, sing a spiritual or act out a scene from a period of our history. Use the question prompts and video recording equipment provided.
Teen Literary Showcase
Thursday, October 21, 6:00 p.m.; doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S. State Street
Experience how One Book, One Chicago has inspired teens all over Chicago to create original design, artwork, music, spoken word, performance and videos. This free showcase event for teens, parents and educators feasts your eyes and ears with literary excitement.
For more information, or to reserve seats for groups of 10 or more, please contact teenvolume@chipublib.org.
Nicole Jones: Dare to Walk in Her Shoes
Wednesday, October 20, 5:30 p.m.
Woodson Regional Library
9525 S. Halsted Street
In A Mercy, much is made of Florens’ unlikely “vice for shoes.” Chicago Public Library invites teens and adults, ages 13 and up, to meet Nicole Jones, “the Shoe Professa” and nationally known marketing guru and lecturer, as she takes you on a journey of her personal trials and tribulations in beginning a successful business venture. As owner of Sensual Steps Shoe Salon and founder of P.U.M.P.S. (Providing U Motivation to Pursue Success), she provides the motivation to build your finances, your dream business and take your life on an unstoppable road to success.
This Money Smart Program for teens, parents and teachers is one of many free financial literacy programs made possible through a partnership with members of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Money Smart Week Planning Committee.
Teen Volume Book Discussion
Thursday, October 28, 4:00 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
YOUmedia
400 S. State Street
Teens in high school are invited to join a lively discussion and engaging activities related to themes from Toni Morrison’s A Mercy.