Laurie Anderson coming to Humanities Fest
Programming for this fall's 22nd annual Chicago Humanities Festival, dubbed "Tech-knowledge," has been gradually rolled out since April, when the first round of speakers was confirmed. With the winner of the Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for lifetime achievement (Stephen Sondheim) and two Heartland Prizes for fiction and non-fiction, awarded to Jonathan Franzen and Isabel Wilkerson respectively, announced over the weekend, three more names are out of the bag.
In anticipation of the complete lineup of some 80 events going live on CHF's website, artistic director Matti Bunzl spoke Friday about the final round of confirmations for the November festival. Among the late-breaking guests is experimental performance artist Laurie Anderson.
"We're calling the event 'O Superwoman,' riffing off her big hit, 'O Superman,'" Bunzl said. "She was a dream guest from the beginning. Thinking about technology and great artists that have made that medium (appropriate) for artistic expression, she comes to mind first and foremost."
Anderson will be interviewed onstage by Steppenwolf Theatre artistic director Martha Lavey, "two power women onstage together," Bunzl said, jump-starting the festival Nov. 2.
Before the November events, which continue through Nov. 13 at 21 venues, are two kickoff events on opposite ends of the city: Oct. 16 on Northwestern University's Evanston campus and Oct. 23 on the University of Chicago's campus. The Northwestern event is new in 2011.
"Last year's full day in Hyde Park was wonderful, but it lacked symmetry (geographically)," Bunzl said. "All of us were particularly keen on duplicating the collaborative efforts in Hyde Park with University of Chicago to do it in Evanston with Northwestern. … I'm expecting that (the Northwestern day) will become a regular theme."
Another new theme this year is the involvement of the Big Ten Athletic Conference.
Each member of the conference will send a representative to lecture during the festival.
"Every single one (of the conference) is represented in the festival with an event that is co-presented with the campus, and features one of their star faculty members," said Bunzl, a humanities professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The University of Iowa, for instance, has elected to send professor Kate Gfeller, director of the Music Therapy Program at Iowa's School of Music.
In a lecture dubbed "Lend Me Your (Bionic) Ears," Gfeller will explain the results of her work on the musical experiences of people with ear implants.
"What's so wonderful about this initiative," Bunzl said of the Big Ten collaboration, "is that I had never heard of this woman prior. Just about every one of the Big Ten has a humanities institute. This is just one example of the result (of collaboration): Iowa is basically sending one of its stars to Chicago."
Tickets to the 2011 Chicago Humanities Festival are available Sept. 6 for CHF members and Sept. 19 for the general public, both via 312-494-9509 or chicago
humanities.org.
lviera@tribune.com
Twitter @LaurenViera
In anticipation of the complete lineup of some 80 events going live on CHF's website, artistic director Matti Bunzl spoke Friday about the final round of confirmations for the November festival. Among the late-breaking guests is experimental performance artist Laurie Anderson.
"We're calling the event 'O Superwoman,' riffing off her big hit, 'O Superman,'" Bunzl said. "She was a dream guest from the beginning. Thinking about technology and great artists that have made that medium (appropriate) for artistic expression, she comes to mind first and foremost."
Anderson will be interviewed onstage by Steppenwolf Theatre artistic director Martha Lavey, "two power women onstage together," Bunzl said, jump-starting the festival Nov. 2.
Before the November events, which continue through Nov. 13 at 21 venues, are two kickoff events on opposite ends of the city: Oct. 16 on Northwestern University's Evanston campus and Oct. 23 on the University of Chicago's campus. The Northwestern event is new in 2011.
"Last year's full day in Hyde Park was wonderful, but it lacked symmetry (geographically)," Bunzl said. "All of us were particularly keen on duplicating the collaborative efforts in Hyde Park with University of Chicago to do it in Evanston with Northwestern. … I'm expecting that (the Northwestern day) will become a regular theme."
Another new theme this year is the involvement of the Big Ten Athletic Conference.
Each member of the conference will send a representative to lecture during the festival.
"Every single one (of the conference) is represented in the festival with an event that is co-presented with the campus, and features one of their star faculty members," said Bunzl, a humanities professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The University of Iowa, for instance, has elected to send professor Kate Gfeller, director of the Music Therapy Program at Iowa's School of Music.
In a lecture dubbed "Lend Me Your (Bionic) Ears," Gfeller will explain the results of her work on the musical experiences of people with ear implants.
"What's so wonderful about this initiative," Bunzl said of the Big Ten collaboration, "is that I had never heard of this woman prior. Just about every one of the Big Ten has a humanities institute. This is just one example of the result (of collaboration): Iowa is basically sending one of its stars to Chicago."
Tickets to the 2011 Chicago Humanities Festival are available Sept. 6 for CHF members and Sept. 19 for the general public, both via 312-494-9509 or chicago
humanities.org.
lviera@tribune.com
Twitter @LaurenViera
Source: Chicago Tribune