Delia Ephron, Bill T. Jones and More Set for Chicago Humanities Festival's 'Northwestern' and 'Hyde Park' Days, 10/13 & 20

The Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) presents the third annual Morry and Dolores Kohl Kaplan Northwestern Day on Oct. 13 on the Northwestern University campus, and the seventh annual Hyde Park Day on Oct. 20 on the University of Chicago campus. These two annual events kick off the 2013 Fall Festival, which will explore the theme of Animal: What Makes Us Human with 88 events throughout Chicago in October and Nov. 1-10.

Northwestern Day will feature Behind the Beautiful Forevers author Katherine Boo, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Junot Díaz, You've Got Mail and Love, Loss and What I Wore writer Delia Ephron, leading psychoanalytic theorist Julia Kristeva, and more. Hyde Park Day will feature Tony Award-winning choreographer Bill T. Jones, Latin Grammy Award-winning soprano Ana María Martínez, Kartemquin Films documentary filmmaker Gordon Quinn, American poet Brenda Shaughnessy, and more. For a complete list of events, visit chicagohumanities.org.

For over two decades, CHF has made Chicago a more vibrant and culturally enriched community by uniting the arts and humanities in a thought-provoking Fall Festival. In addition to the annual festival, CHF also presents the spring Stages, Sights & Sounds, a global performance festival for students, families, and theatergoers of any age, and programs throughout the year that celebrate the richness of the humanities. In 2012, CHF's intellectually stimulating programs were attended by nearly 50,000 people. By keeping ticket prices low ($5 to $28) and often free to students and teachers, CHF creates an environment that invites people of all ages and economic circumstances to examine the world of ideas.

Morry and Dolores Kohl Kaplan Northwestern Day - Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013:

Katherine Boo: Behind the Beautiful Forevers - Published in 2012 to rave reviews, Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers won the National Book Award and was named a best book of 2012 by The New York Times and The New Yorker, among many others. A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and MacArthur Fellow, Boo will discuss the three years of research behind her latest book.

Junot Díaz: This Is How You Find Him - Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Junot Díaz (The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) demonstrates that nothing plagues the human animal more than love in his newest book This is How You Lose Her. Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey, Díaz will reveal how his cultural backgrounds are an inspiration and a calling to his work.

Delia Ephron: Sister Mother Husband Dog - Writer Delia Ephron's work includes the big screen (You've Got Mail), page (How to Eat Like a Child), and stage (Love, Loss, and What I Wore--a Drama Desk Award-winning Off-Broadway collaboration with her sister Nora Ephron). Her latest book Sister Husband Mother Dog is a collection of stories ranging from her tumultuous twenties to a touching, previously unreleased remembrance of her sister, who passed away last year.

On Julia Kristeva's Couch - Julia Kristeva is one of France's most admired intellectuals and one of the world's leading psychoanalytic thinkers. Having developed a series of books on such topics as abjection, desire, and melancholia, Kristeva's work has unparalleled influence across the contemporary humanities. Northwestern University English professor Jules Law joins Kristeva for a conversation about her remarkable life and work.

Hyde Park Day - Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013:

Bill T. Jones: A Life Well-Danced - Widely regarded as one of the greatest living choreographers, Bill T. Jones has challenged conventions in dance since he and his partner Arnie Zane took New York by storm in the early 1980s. He has created dozens of groundbreaking dance and theater works, receiving a MacArthur Fellowship, two Tony Awards (Best Choreography for Spring Awakening and Fela!), and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2010.

The Operatic Animal - Ana María Martínez is a Latin Grammy Award-winning soprano who has graced the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and this fall will star as Desdemona in The Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Verdi's Otello. Hailed by The New York Times as "luminous" and "fierce and committed," Martinez will discuss the joys and demands of opera singing with opera dramaturge Colin Ure.

Ethics Behind the Lens - Pioneer documentarian and Kartemquin Films cofounder Gordon Quinn explores films such as Hoop Dreams,Prisoner of Her Past, and The Interrupters to illustrate the negotiation of power relationships among the story, subjects, and viewer. In an interactive session mixing video with audience discussion, Quinn will cover ethical issues in filmmaking.

Human Dark With Sugar: A Reading with Brenda Shaughnessy -Poet Brenda Shaughnessy, author of Interior with Sudden Joy,Human Dark With Sugar, and her latest volume Our Andromeda, gives a reading and conversation about her work, which grapples with the theme of love as it relates to motherhood, poetry, and art. Shaughnessy is a professor of English at Rutgers University and the poetry editor-at-large of Tin House.

Save the Dates:

- Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013 - Morry and Dolores Kohl Kaplan Northwestern Day, Northwestern University campus
- Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013 - Hyde Park Day, University of Chicago campus
- Friday, Nov. 1-Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013 - In and around downtown Chicago

For a complete lineup of speakers/events for Northwestern Day, visit chicagohumanities.org/northwesternday and for Hyde Park Day, visit chicagohumanities.org/hydeparkday.

Tickets to the 24th annual Chicago Humanities Festival are currently on sale to members and go on sale to the general public on Monday, Sept. 16. Day passes to Northwestern and Hyde Park Day are available for CHF Members for $45 and must be purchased in advance. Tickets can be purchased at chicagohumanities.org or through the CHF Box Office at 312-494-9509, Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tickets range from $5-28, with free and reduced-price tickets available for students and teachers (with valid ID).

About the Chicago Humanities Festival: The Chicago Humanities Festival began in 1989 as a dream shared by a determined group of Chicago's cultural leaders eager to extend the riches of the humanities to everyone. Since that first year, some of the world's most exciting thinkers, artists, and performers have come to Chicago each fall for a festival that celebrates ideas in the context of civic life. Past Festival themes include Laughter, The Body, tech knowledge, America, and this year's Animal: What Makes Us Human, Oct. 13, 20, and Nov. 1-10, 2013. Under the leadership of Executive Director Phillip Bahar and Artistic Director Matti Bunzl, CHF partners with Chicago's premier cultural institutions and the festival has become an annual highlight for thousands of people from Chicago and beyond. In addition to the annual fall festival, CHF also presents the spring Stages, Sights & Sounds, a global performance festival for families, students, and theatergoers of any age, and programs throughout the year that encourage the study and enjoyment of the humanities.

Pictured: Delia Ephron. Photo Credit: Elena Seibert.