CHICAGO – The Illinois Humanities Council is pleased to announce the expansion of their Humanities Youth Project (HYPe) to Carbondale, Illinois. The IHC has partnered with the Attucks Community Service Board to work with a group of youth to study the history of what is now the Tuscan Masonic Lodge. Built in the late 1800ís, the building was originally the Oddfellowís Lodge and later a night spot where Ike and Tina Turner reportedly played. Fern Logan, Assistant Professor of Cinema and Photography at Southern Illinois University, will be working with the group of Carbondale youth on the project. During the months of June and July, youth in the drama group will interview and photograph members of Carbondaleís African-American community and then begin the development of characters for a play they will perform based on their research.

Through HYPe, the Illinois Humanities Council develops and administers programs that provide an after school, humanities-based educational experience for youth while simultaneously helping them develop skills as humanist scholars. Targeted toward underserved youth, HYPe nurtures young peopleís efforts to develop hands-on humanities programs by and for youth. All the projects also include an arts component, translating their scholarship into an artistic form that is accessible to their community.

“These programs are a way to engage young people in research in ways that their history classes cannot because the topics addressed are deeply personal to them,” explains Angel Ysaguirre, Director of Programs at the Illinois Humanities Council.

For complete descriptions of humanities youth programs sponsored by the IHC and biographies of the scholars involved, as well as further information about the IHC and HYPe, please contact us at 312.422.5580 or visit our website at http://www.prairie.org.

D A R E T O K N O W

# # #