[act-ma] Cambridge Forum Spring 2010 Program Schedule

[Cambridge Forum]

Cambridge Forum
Winter Spring 2010  Program Schedule
Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. ** (unless otherwise noted)
First Parish In Cambridge
3 Church Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

FREE and Open to the Public

8 programs

Creativity and Challenges

Cambridge Forum continues its 43rd season of programming in Harvard Square examining the challenges facing the Obama administration and the endlessly surprising ways that human creativity is expressed.  The President  and his administration face challenges that go beyond the explicit policy choices of health care reform and emissions cap and trade programs.  The challenge of creating a language beyond the language of war and vengeance for discussions of America’s 9/11 injuries;  the need to measure well-being by more than quarterly financial results; the imagination to envision governance in terms others than the strictly majoritarian are among the major implicit challenges facing our government today.   By reflecting on the human capacity for creativity in words, and music, in science and art, Cambridge Forum also hopes to foster the creative expansion of the range of options on the table in discussions of our social well-being.


Thursday**										
January 28	Global Climate Change: Mini-Conference
1:00 pm

Cambridge Forum hosts the re-scheduled mini-conference on global climate change from beginning at 1:00 p.m.  During the afternoon, scientists explore the impact of atmospheric methane on the earth’s temperature, as well as the impact that climate change will have on human health, environmental migration, agricultural production, and sea level.  The impact of the 350.org movement, the Copenhagen talks, and the likely follow-up on the part of individual governments will be the focus of the 7:00 pm closing address. 

Co-sponsored by Hubert Jessup and Tim Weiskel.

	
February 3	Health Care: Tales from the Edge

Danielle Ofri, practicing psychiatrist at New York’s Bellevue Hospital discusses the cases of the people marginalized by our society and our health care system. How will current proposals for health care reform affect their lives?  What changes in the American health care system would make Ofri’s stories a thing of the past.

February 10	 American Passage: Immigration Then and Now

Historian Vincent Cannato discusses his history of Ellis Island with political scientist Paul Watanabe. Watanabe’s research examines contemporary immigration trends as a counterpoint to Cannato’s’s historical research.  Ho has the immigrant experience changed since Ellis Island was the key entry point to the United States?  How has it remained the same?  What are the nation’s expectations from immigrants today, as compared with a century ago?
 

February 24	Theatre: Realizing Imaginary Space 
8:00 pm

Actress Maeve Kincaid and ART artistic director Diane Paulus. examine the four imaginations–of playwright, actor, director, and audience–that work together to create a theatrical space that feels “real,” but actually does not exist outside the theatre.

This program is supported by a grant from the Cambridge Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a public agency.


March 3	Empire of Illusion

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges discusses his new book..  Has the United States become a society impressed only by spectacle?  Have our media shortened our attention spans and our government blurred the edges of the truth enough so that we can no longer tell the difference between reality and fantasy?


March 17	Criticizing Creativity 

Critic Daniel Mendelsohn and former New York Times Book Review editor, Charles McGrath examine the ways in which criticism itself becomes a creative act.

This program is supported by a grant from the Cambridge Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a public agency, and co-sponsored by Ann Daily.


April 7	Science and Music 

Science journalist Marcia Bartusiak and physicist/composer Lisa Randall explore the ways in which creative inspiration crosses traditional boundaries between musical composition and scientific research methodology. 

This program is supported by a grant from the Cambridge Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a public agency.


April 21	Framing the Story: Cartooning and Graphic Novels 

Sage Stossel and Hilary Price explore creativity under the pressure of daily deadlines and rigid formal requirements.  What impact do external structural demands have on the creative artist?  The work of art?  Using the parameters of the daily cartoon strip and the graphic novel as models, they ask how do formal rules change and develop as an art form grows, attracting new audiences and taking on new roles in the world of art.

This program is supported by a grant from the Cambridge Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a public agency.


May 12	Comedy’s Creative Power to Persuade 

Representatives from The Onion examine the place of comedy in our public discourse in an era when Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are the news sources of choice for a generation of citizens. How does The Onion craft stories that are persuasive enough to be taken seriously by governments around the world?

This program is supported by a grant from the Cambridge Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a public agency.

	





Cambridge Forum
3 Church Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone:  617-495-2727
email:  mailto:director at cambridgeforum.org
website:  http://www.cambridgeforum.org

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