Chicago Humanities Festival Announces Winter 2015 Season

The Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) announces its Winter 2015 Season, featuring performances of Le Petit Cirque, as well as presentersDinaw Mengestu, Scott McCloud, Kim Gordon, and Cristina Henríquez. Kicking off the new year, CHF and Adventure Stage Chicago will present Le Petit Cirque by Laurent Bigot January 17-18, as part of the inaugural Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Later that month, CHF will host writer Dinaw Mengestu who will discuss his latest novel, All Our Names, on Wednesday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Old Town School of Folk Music. The following month, cartoonist and author Scott McCloud will speak about his new graphic novel, The Sculptor, on Friday, Feb. 13 at 6 p.m. at the Art Institute of Chicago, and Sonic Youth founder and musician Kim Gordon will share her new memoir, Girl in a Band, on Thursday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. at Music Box Theatre. To conclude the winter season, CHF will welcome Chicago author Cristina Henríquez to talk about her recent work, The Book of Unknown Americans, on Wednesday, March 18 at 6 p.m. at the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago.

Tickets for Le Petit Cirque are $20 and are on sale now at adventurestage.org. Tickets for all other winter programs range from $5-18 and are currently on sale to CHF Members at chicagohumanities.org. Tickets will go on sale to the general publicWednesday, Jan. 7 at 10 a.m.

"Building on the great success of our 25th Anniversary Festival this fall, our winter season features creative individuals who have broken new ground in the areas of music, literature, and theater," said Executive Director Phillip Bahar. "We've organized a series of compelling conversations and presentations that bring us up close and into the lives and minds of some truly original thinkers. The Chicago Humanities Festival is committed to providing opportunities year-round that engage Chicagoans, and open our collective minds to new ways of thinking and imagining the world."

Winter 2014 Schedule:

G=General Public, M=CHF Member, ST=Students & Teachers

Le Petit Cirque | By Laurent Bigot

Jan. 17-18, 2015 | 2 & 5 p.m. | G $20

Adventure Stage Chicago at the Vittum Theater (1012 N Noble St)

Within a circus-like, tabletop installation, electroacoustic musician Laurent Bigot sets various objects in motion. A "circus of sound" and a theater of objects, Le Petit Cirque is made from odds and ends, salvaged material and cheap gadgets. Action nourishes sound and sound gives new meaning to action, via improvisation and the chance of mechanics. The piece explores two distinct and interacting concepts. The first is how stereotypical circus imagery alters one's perception of the performance's musical aspect. The second, and more abstract, is how sound allows the spectator to see these theatrical situations from a different perspective. The spectator skips from one point of view to another, engaging ears, eyes, skin, imagination, and thought associations. Le Petit Cirque is presented in partnership with Adventure Stage Chicago and the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, and supported by the Cultural Service at the Consulate General of France in Chicago.

Dinaw Mengestu

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015
| 7 p.m.

Old Town School of Folk Music, Szold Hall (4545 N Lincoln Ave)

G $15, M $10, ST $5

Born in Ethiopia and raised in Illinois, global citizen Dinaw Mengestu is one of the bright young voices redefining contemporary fiction. Over the course of three novels he's developed a distinct exploration of identity and belonging, and earned comparisons to Chinua Achebe and V.S. Naipaul. He'll discuss his latest novel, All Our Names, a moving meditation on the personal and political dislocations wrought by love and war.

Dinaw Mengestu is an Ethiopian-American writer who was raised in Peoria, IL and Forest Park. His debut novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, was named The New York Times Notable Book of 2007 and awarded the LA Times Book Prize in 2008. He also received the "5 under 35" Award from the National Book Foundation. His second novel
How to Read the Air was published in 2010, and helped garner him a "20 under 40" Award from The New Yorker. Mengestu's latest novel, All Our Names, will be released in paperback on Jan. 6, 2015.

Scott McCloud

Friday, Feb. 13, 2015 | 6 p.m.

Art Institute of Chicago, Rubloff Auditorium (230 S Columbus Dr)

G $15, M $10, ST $5

In Understanding Comics Scott McCloud made it cool to take comics seriously. Now the man hailed by graphic icons from Neil Gaiman to Alan Moore is back with a brand new graphic novel, five years in the making! The Sculptor reworks the classic tale of an artist willing to do anything to succeed, including making a deal with Death. Join Scott McCloud as he takes to the CHF stage to discuss life in and outside of comics.

A leading theorist on comics, Scott McCloud is a three-time Harvey Award winner and aWill Eisner Comic Industry Award recipient. McCloud is the inventor of the "24-Hour Comic," an artistic challenge that has been replicated internationally since its inception in 1990. He is also the author of Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics. McCloud will debut a new graphic novel, a Faustian tale called The Sculptor, onFeb. 5, 2015.

Kim Gordon

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015 | 7 p.m.

Music Box Theatre (3733 N Southport Ave) | G $18, M $14, ST $8

Book and ticket package: G $38, M $33, ST $33

Is there anyone cooler than Kim Gordon? The founding member of the seminal band Sonic Youth is also a talented musician, artist, writer,

and, oh yeah, role model to a generation of women. Now she's written a memoir recounting her life as a musician and artist, including her partnership and eventual professional and personal breakup with Thurston Moore. Girl in a Band takes us back to the post-punk scene of New York in the 1980s and '90s, when Sonic Youth helped create a musical revolution. Come spend the evening with Gordon, a trailblazing lady of rock and roll, with a special opening performance by Girls Rock! Chicago. This program is presented in partnership with the Music Box Theatre.

Kim Gordon is a musician, artist, writer, and music producer. She formed the band Sonic Youth with Thurston Moore, her future husband, and Lee Ranaldo in 1981. In 1985 TheNew York Times credited them with "making the most startlingly original guitar-based music since Jimi Hendrix." Sonic Youth went on to record 16 studio albums until their breakup. Gordon's latest band is Body/Head, founded in 2013 with Bill Nace. Gordon's forthcoming memoir, Girl in a Band, will be published on Feb. 24, 2015.

Cristina Henríquez

Wednesday, March 18, 2015 | 6 p.m.

Instituto Cervantes of Chicago, Auditorium (31 W Ohio St)

G $15, M $10, ST $5

Cristina Henríquez's The Book of Unknown Americans follows the journeys of two families--one Panamanian, one Mexican--from Latin America to their adopted homeland of the United States. At its heart, though, this is a love story, one by turns suspenseful and wry. Henríquez returns to the CHF stage with a story that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be American.

Chicago author Cristina Henríquez has written the story collection Come Together, Fall Apart (a New York Times Editors' Choice selection) and another novel, The World in Half. Her nonfiction work has appeared in The New Yorker and The Atlantic. She is a recipient of the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Award and was recently named to Crain's "40 under 40" list. Her critically-acclaimed novel, The Book of Unknown Americans, was named one of The New York Times' 100 Notable Books as well as a Top 10 Book of 2014 by Amazon.

TICKETS:

Tickets for Le Petit Cirque are $20 and are on sale now at adventurestage.org or by calling Adventure Stage Chicago's box office at 773-342-4141. Tickets for all other CHF Winter Season programs are $5-18 and are now on sale to CHF Members online atchicagohumanities.org. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Wednesday, Jan. 7and will be available online or by calling the CHF Box Office at (312) 494-9509 Mondaythrough Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Discounted tickets are available for CHF members and students/teachers. To become a member, visit supportchf.org.

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