Chicago Humanities Festival Announces 2017 Springfest

This April, the Chicago Humanities Festival invites its fans to join us for a bit of spring cleaning during CHF's second annual Springfest, Stuff. Springfest/17: Stuff will feature more than 20 events taking place in and around Chicago April 28-April 30.

Springfest/17: Stuff will be for the recyclers, hoarders, American Pickers, Antique Roadshow warriors, and more. Springfest/17 will shine a spotlight on our relation to the things we value, protect in collections, and hand down as heirlooms. It will also consider what we throw away, ignore, or consign to oblivion.

Marie Kondo, the master organizer and author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, will come to Chicago to discuss how she created the KonMari Method, which advocates for holding onto objects which "spark joy" and winnowing possessions which do not.

"Our relationship to things is changing: we don't need shelving because our books are on our Kindle and files are kept in the cloud. But the topic goes way beyond personal storage when you consider the threat posed by garbage thrown into our oceans," observes Marilynn Thoma Artistic Director, Jonathan Elmer. "More people have more things than ever before, but our possessions still divide us into those with too much and those with not enough."

Facebook Chief Operating Officer and Lean In author Sheryl Sandberg is another confirmed presenter for Springfest/17. Sandberg will tackle the topic of resilience and how to deal with loss, drawing on the sudden death of her husband, David Goldberg, which is the topic of her newest book Option B. Sandberg co-wrote Option B with best-selling author of Originals, Adam Grant. Grant will join Sandberg for the CHF event.

The full line-up for Springfest/17: Stuff will be revealed on March 2. For more information about Springfest/17: Stuff visit, chicagohumanities.org/stuff.

Tickets for Springfest/17: Stuff will go on-sale to CHF members on March 8. Tickets will go on sale to the General Public on March 15. Tickets will be available online at tickets.chicagohumanities.org or by calling the CHF Box Office at (312) 494-9509.

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