Chicago Humanities Festival Shifts Strategy in Reaction to Health Crisis

Chicago Humanities Festival has shifted its strategy in reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic, rescheduling spring programs for later in the year and moving some events to digital platforms. Three digital programs are already confirmed with more in the works.

The first digital event, on Wednesday, April 15th, is a Members-Only Digital Preview, a conversation between CHF's Marilynn Thoma Artistic Director Alison Cuddy and Director of Programming Tiff Beatty about what the 2020 Vision theme means now. This special program-a perk for CHF members-will address how a live events-centric organization like CHF is navigating the current moment and how you can help foster community and self-care even in this time of social distancing.

Later in the month, join CHF for two 30-minute digital conversations with presenters. On Thursday, April 16th at 6 PM comic Cameron Esposito, author of the bestselling memoir Save Yourself, will join community enthusiast Kristen Kaza for a conversation, including answering audience questions. Then, on Tuesday, April 21st at 6 PM, novelist Veronica Roth, author of the Divergent series, will join the host of WBEZ's Nerdette Podcast Greta Johnson for a conversation, including audience questions.

Chicago Humanities Festival also has hundreds of rich and rewarding recordings in their archives which are currently accessible on the website chicagohumanities.org and on CHF's YouTube Channel. In addition, they are working to re-package these videos into compilations and playlists around timely topics like public health and leadership.

In short, although the format has changed for a moment, Chicago Humanities Festival is still working hard to fulfill their mission of connecting people and ideas to cultivate a more informed, inspired, empathetic, and participatory society, even during this time of profound disconnection.