Humanities fest seeks climate change in attitudes
Women scientists and crafters the world over are crocheting "The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef" to bring attention to the plight of The Great Barrier Reef. Two Humanities Festival events take on this topic, and you can see the crochet version at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., Chicago.
A video installation called "thaw" by artist Doug Aitken will be on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, in conjunction with the Chicago Humanities Festival and its 2007 theme, "The Climate of Concern."
"I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists … We think some plastic bags, some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? … The planet isn't going anywhere. We are! And we won't leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little styrofoam. The planet'll be here and we'll be long gone … The planet'll shake us off like a bad case of fleas."
-- George Carlin, "The Planet is Fine" routine
Ren Weschler loves that George Carlin routine.
"Is it hilarious or is it horrifying?" he asks, indicating the answer is "both."
Clearly, he sees this as an idea that needs to be discussed.
And as artistic director of the Chicago Humanities Festival, Weschler can bring in the finest minds in the country to talk about it. He's booked a comedian and two philosophers to dissect this bit of comedy.
That will make up one event out of the annual festival of great ideas.
This year's theme, "The Climate of Concern," promises to let playwrights, musicians, historians, philosophers, scientists, artists and more all have their say about the environment.
It's kind of like tossing dozens of great minds and thousands of fabulous ideas up in the air to see where they land. They just might intersect and produce new great ideas.
The whole thing, comprised of almost 150 separate events, will run 16 days, from Saturday to Nov. 11, at various venues in Chicago. See the schedule at www.chfestival.org.
Weschler ticks off some of the programs he's looking forward to.
There's a concert of sounds recorded in the Arctic, such as glaciers breaking, condensed into a one-hour symphony.
Author Philip Pullman will speak, just weeks before the movie version of his book, "The Golden Compass," opens.
A MacArthur Fellowship recipient will explain how she helped turn the barren South Bronx into one of the greenest areas of New York.
Theater companies will present six plays commissioned just for the festival, by hot playwrights such as Sarah Ruhl, whose work "Passion Play: A Cycle in Three Parts" just closed at the Goodman Theatre.
Weschler hopes the theme of the environment will draw audiences beyond the Humanities Festival's usual upper-income, graying-at-the-temples, culture-vulture crowd.
"First, we want young people, because climate change is going to affect them," he says. "And second, the poor, who will bear the brunt of whatever happens. Just look at New Orleans."