RETROSPECT: Recent Events

Recent Events

JUN FUJITA: AMERICAN VISIONARY CURATOR TALK WITH GRAHAM LEE, KATHERINE LITWIN, AND FRED SASAKI

To commemorate the opening of Jun Fujita: American Visionary, an exhibition jointly presented by the Newberry and the Poetry Foundation, curators Katherine Litwin and Fred Sasaki of the Poetry Foundation sat down with Jun Fujita’s great-nephew Graham Lee on February 4. The speakers provided a behind-the-scenes look at the development of the exhibition, how it expanded upon the Poetry Foundation’s earlier version staged in 2017, and how they worked with Newberry staff to bring it to the library. Lee shared illuminating biographical details about the man who captured images of many of the most infamous moments in Chicago history, including the Eastland Disaster, the 1919 race riots, and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

The exhibition and this program were co-sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.

Fred Sasaki discusses the bookplate designed for Jun Fujita’s book Tanka: Poems in Exile.

Graham Lee (Jun Fujita’s great-nephew), Katherine Litwin, and Fred Sasaki discuss Fujita’s life and photography at the opening event for the exhibition Jun Fujita: American Visionary. Photos by Anne Ryan

FLOE: DANCE AND DIALOGUE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

On February 25, the Chicago dance company The Seldoms presented excerpts of FLOE, a new dance theater work about climate instability. Through dance, FLOE represents the way anti-science conspiracy theories undermine global efforts to fight climate change. The choreography expresses the urgency of confronting and mitigating the effects of global warming: vanishing polar ice, rising sea levels, extreme weather, and forced migration.

Following the performance, Daniel J. Vimont, Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Director of the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research, spoke about the effects of climate change on our midwestern region.

In the third part of the program, Carrie Hanson, Founding Artistic Director of The Seldoms; Director Seth Bockley; and members of the dance company spoke to the audience about performing FLOE and translating science into choreography.

As part of the Newberry’s What Is the Midwest? project, the program was made possible by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Daniel J. Vimont, Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discusses the effects of climate change in the Midwest.

Members of the Chicago dance company The Seldoms perform a new work reflecting on the consequences of climate change. Photos by Anne Ryan

Listen to recordings of these programs at soundcloud.com/newberrylibrary.

Recent Events

IMAGINING THE END: WE SHALL NOT BE MISSED!

On February 18, Jonathan Lear, the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago, inaugurated the Newberry’s David L. Wagner Distinguished Lectureship for Humanistic Inquiry. Lear’s lecture was the first in a three-part series exploring how our fears of catastrophe (from climate crisis to political collapse) shape the ways we imagine the ends and purposes of human life.

During his lecture—titled “We Shall Not Be Missed!”—Lear meditated on the psychological and imaginative challenges of living in our times. Drawing upon both philosophy and pop culture—from Aristotle to The Simpsons—Lear questioned whether focusing on the possible extinction of human life inspires us to meet today’s challenges or instead cripples us with fear, anger, and despair. Throughout his lecture, Lear paid special attention to the activity of mourning in the broadest sense: how do In a well-attended virtual talk held on Zoom on April 14, historian Ann Durkin Keating spoke with the Newberry’s Brad Hunt about nineteenth-century writer and historian Juliette Kinzie, one of Chicago’s forgotten female founders. Drawing

Jonathan Lear

humans relate to the past as a way of making room for the present and future?

The David L. Wagner Distinguished Lectureship for Humanistic

JULIETTE KINZIE AND CHICAGO BEFORE THE FIRE: A VIRTUAL CONVERSATION

Inquiry Series is funded by David L. Wagner and Renie B. Adams.

on her book The World of Juliette Kinzie, Keating—a professor of history at North Central College—traced her subject’s biography, recounting how Kinzie defied gender norms to become one of the few nineteenth-century American female historians and an influential player in the civic development of Chicago. Illustrating her virtual talk with fascinating photographs and maps, Keating discussed how the New England-born Kinzie married a US government official and moved with him to Wisconsin, where she researched and wrote a detailed account of the region and its Indigenous groups. The Kinzies profited off the eventual appropriation of HoChunk and Potawatomi lands, and, moving to Chicago in the mid-1830s, used their newfound wealth to fund churches, hospitals, and train stations. Meanwhile, Juliette transformed their home in River North into a salon from which she fostered the city’s bourgeoning civic culture.

During a live virtual event, Ann Durkin Keating shared her new research on early Chicago historian Juliette Kinzie.

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