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What are the historical roots of nationalism? How does it impact nations across the globe today? What is the future for this political ideology? Nationalism is at the root of most of the violence in the world today, both internationally and domestically. Dictators and would-be dictators appeal to nationalism to solidify their support. Their ideology...

This is a one time FREE course. Meet the Author: Tom Shachtman, How the French Saved America Americans today have a love/hate relationship with France, but in this illuminating new history, Tom Shachtman shows that without France, there might not be a United States of America. How the French Saved America: Soldiers, Sailors, Diplomats,...

Meet the Author: Lia Markey, Imagining the Americas in Medici Florence The first full-length study of the impact of the discovery of the Americas on Italian Renaissance art and culture, Imagining the Americas in Medici Florence demonstrates that the Medici grand dukes of Florence were not only great patrons of artists but also early conservators of...

The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home was written by Charles Dickens in 1845. It is the third of Dickens’ five short Christmas books (the best-known of which is A Christmas Carol). Featuring a cast of eight professional actors, Jeff Christian’s adaptation brings this heart-warming and touching tale of love, loss, empathy, and...

Hold the Mirror up to Nature: The Past, Present, and Future of Shakespeare Performance.  Shakespeare’s plays are filled with fourth-wall-breaking moments in which characters share their methods for successfully performing emotions, political alliances, and gender roles.  His work challenges directors and actors to reflect on the very...

This is a one time FREE course The upcoming wedding of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales to American actress and Northwestern University alumna Meghan Markle has ignited anticipation in fashion circles around the world. Threaded through the speculation of who will design the bridal gown, there is a lot of curiosity about the dress code for...

I Breathe My Own Breath! Connect to breath to breathe it and exchange during the story.

This is a one time FREE course Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago Set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, Linda Gartz’s Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago, exposes the racist lending rules that refuse mortgages to anyone in areas with...

This is a one time FREE course. Celebrate the fiftieth anniversary and new edition of Wilder’s National Book Award-winning novel with a reception, actors, commentators, and cake! Participants: Tappan Wilder, Thornton Wilder’s nephew and literary executor, is Honorary Chairman of the Thornton Wilder Society. Jeremy McCarter, author of Young...

Summer Literary Series: Chasing Dragonflies in Literature, Life, and Art Celebrate the release of author Cindy Crosby’s newest book, Chasing Dragonflies: A Natural, Cultural, and Personal History. Cindy will be joined by the book’s award-winning illustrator, Peggy MacNamara,  artist in residence at the Field Museum. Enjoy a talk from the...

Wing Foundation Lecture Series on the History of the Book The year 2017 marks the centenary of the death of John M. Wing, the remarkable and eccentric collector whose bequest founded the Newberry’s John M. Wing Collection on the History of Printing. Over the last one hundred years the collection’s curators have amassed an extraordinary group...

Don’t miss our annual Newberry Book Fair, one of the largest used book sales in the country. Browse through more than 120,000 used books, movies, records and more in 70 categories, many of which are priced at $3 or less. Admission is FREE! Everything for sale at the Book Fair is generously donated, and all proceeds help further the Newberry’s...

Join experts from Chicago Opera Theater (COT), as well as musicologist Linda Austern, in a discussion, and sneak peek performance, of their 2016 production of The Fairy Queen, by Henry Purcell.  This adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dreampremiered in 1692, creating an opera based on the masques from...

This is a one time FREE course. Join us for a conversation between Chicago Opera Theater’s Music Advisor Francesco Milioto and Amy Hutchison, director of our upcoming Donizetti Double Bill: Il Pigmalione and Rita. Featuring performances that span Donizetti’s body of works, following his compositional journey...

In 1973, the Austrian-born experimental physiologist, Karl von Frisch, received a share of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the honeybee dance language. Von Frisch argued that bees communicate the distance and direction of food sources via their dance-like movements.  Language had long been considered the exclusive...