This article originally appeared in the Quad Cities Online
The Road Scholars Speakers Bureau, a program of the Illinois Humanities Council (IHC) has announced a new roster of speakers and topics, ready to present to organizations statewide who are seeking affordable, entertaining, and thought-provoking humanities events for their communities. The speakers, hailing from 20 different towns and cities across Illinois, will be presenting topics in history, culture, literature, music, politics, law, science, and many more.
Nonprofit organizations that are interested in hosting a Road Scholars speaker should visit prairie.org, or contact Mallory Laurel, program coordinator, at (312) 422-5585, ext. 239, or by email at mal@prairie.org for directions on how to apply.
The 2013-2014 Roster:
Jon Austin (West Peoria) – Civil War Field Embalming: A Demonstration of Period Technique
Jeanne Schultz Angel (Chicago) – The Anti-Slavery Movement in Black & White
Joe Bean (Libertyville) – Adlai!
Penelope Bingham (Chicago) Thanksgiving: The Great American Holiday
Nancy Caldwell (Effingham) – A Soundtrack for Wartime: Songs of the Civil War
Cynthia Clampitt (Arlington Heights) – Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum
Pete Ellertsen (Springfield) – Swing Low: Dwight Moody, an Original Crossover Music Artist
Brian “Fox” Ellis (Bishop Hill) – Black Jack Logan: Civil War General, Senator, King-Maker
Leslie Goddard (Darien) – Never Lost: Amelia Earhart Before the Legend
Barbara Gregorich (Chicago) – When Women Played Baseball
Bucky Halker (Chicago) – Goin’ Down to Cairo: Folksongs in the Land of Lincoln
John Hallwas (Macomb) – Cemeteries and Graves: American Historical and Literary Perspectives
Dan Haughey (Moline) – Edgar Allan Poe’s Imagination
Judith Heinemann & Daniel Marcotte (Chicago; Bolingbrook) – Grimm’s Grimmest: The Darker Side of Fairy Tales
Erika Holst (Springfield) – Love’s Young Dream: Courtship and Weddings in the Lincoln Era
William Iseminger (Collinsville) – Telling Time in Ancient North America
Lasana Kazembe (Chicago) – Check the Rhime: The Cultural and Political Roots of Hip Hop
Amy Levin (DeKalb) – The World Out There- Myanmar’s Journey from the Inside
Paddy & Jon Lynn (Mundelein) – Selections from Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology
Larry McClellan (Crete) – Road Tripping: 100 Years of Named Highways and Good Roads
Jon Musgrave (Marion) – The Warring 20’s: Bloody Williamson
Pangratios Papacosta (Chicago) – Einstein’s Angels and Demons: The Man Behind E=mc2
Stephen Parry (Chicago) – The Hayloft Gang: The Story of the National Bar Dance
Donna Pierce (Chicago) – Meals on Wheels: Great Migration Recipes Ride the Rails North
Brian Russell (Troy) – Superheroes and Patriots: Comic Book Propaganda Unveiled
Jose Sandoval (Mt. Prospect) – The Spirit of Motown
Ronald Solberg (Downers Grove) – Those Magnificent ‘Whizbang’ Travelling Salesmen of Illinois
Dennis Stroughmatt (Albion) The Illinois French Season of Carnival: La Guillannee to Le Mardi Gras
Chris Vallilo (Macomb) Parallel Paths: Sandburg and his Legacy