PLATO Weekly Update

October 5, 2021

CURRICULUM

We hope that participants and course coordinators are enjoying this Fall's course offerings! Please note the following COVID-19 Protocols continue to be in place for in-person participants:

· Wear masks inside of Host Location buildings.

· Follow social distancing guidelines.

· Follow any additional guidelines required at Host Locations - see the Courses Page or check with your course coordinator.

SPECIAL EVENTS

FALL LECTURES

Join us for “What is Critical Race Theory, and Why is it Controversial?” on Tuesday, October 26th at 1:30pm. Register here for this 90-minute Zoom lecture with Gloria Ladson-Billings, Professor Emerita at UW-Madison and former Kellner Family Distinguished Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She will talk with us about how CRT applies to education and why it has become part of the culture wars in this country. Registration is required to attend.

In the meantime, members are invited to access Past Recordings.

THEATER

NEW! For virtual streaming at home:

Plays by Latinx Playwrights 
This 10th annual Crossing Borders (Cruzando Fronteras) Festival of new plays by Latinx playwrights, curated by José Zayas, features Paz Pardo’s "Ciertas Astillas/Certain Shards" and Francisco Mendoza’s "Machine Learning"; juliany f. taveras’ "Syzygy Or, The Ceasing of the Sun"; and Nick Malakhow’s "Optional Boss Battle". Available now though October 10th.

Can I Live?
Fehinti Balogun offers an invitation to a vital new digital performance about the climate catastrophe, sharing his personal journey into the biggest challenge of our times. Weaving his story with spoken word, rap, theatre, animation and the scientific facts, Balogun charts a course through the fundamental issues, identifying the intimate relationship between the environmental crisis and the global struggle for social justice, and sharing how, as a young Black British man, he has found his place in the climate movement. Available at October 11th - 17th.

And, browse a variety of options on PLATO’s Virtual Theater Trips page where new items are frequently added. 

An invitation from Special Events Committee: Have you attended a talk you enjoyed and think more people should be aware of it? Are you curious about something and think others might also be? Send your ideas for new lecture topics and include the name of a speaker if you have it to mdiiorio1234@gmail.com.

PLATO UPDATE
We’re on the move! 

PLEASE NOTE PLATO’s new phone number and mailing address:

Telephone: 608-572-6869

Mailing Address: 6209 Mineral Point Rd. #203, Madison, WI, 53705-4549

Our email address remains: info@platomadison.org

PLATO has had a long partnership with the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies (DCS) where they provided staffing, office space, and other supports. As we’ve updated you during the past year, this partnership is changing.  

In June we hired our own office coordinator, Stephanie Steigerwaldt. And now, due to space restrictions imposed on DCS by campus building projects, we have moved out of the DCS office at 21 N. Park Street and moved our files and equipment to Oakwood Village West.

We appreciate the support of Oakwood Village in making space available to us. Despite all the recent challenges, PLATO’s offerings are going strong with Fall courses, lectures and walks underway to engage our members in meaningful, life-long learning opportunities. 

FEATURED AGORA WORKS

Each week, we offer for your enjoyment, a featured piece from contributors to The Agora, PLATO's journal of arts and ideas. We begin October with Heatwave, a collage by Grethe Brix-Leer.

SOCIAL GATHERINGS

Social Gatherings - due to the pandemic, we hope to resume next semester.

SOCIAL JUSTICE EVENTS & READINGS

Select from a range of topics and formats 

for your early Fall reading, viewing, or listening, 

curated by PLATO's Diversity Awareness Committee.

NEW ARTICLE “It’s easy to see why they consider books dangerous..." says Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. Click on the Social Justice Webpage button below for more on Pitts’ column written during last week’s national Banned Books Week . 

DID YOU KNOW? for October 4-19, 2021

Did You Know… Maria Tallchief was the first Native American woman to break into ballet. Elizabeth Marie Tallchief was born in 1925 in Oklahoma; her father was a member of the Osage Nation. At age 17, she moved to New York City to pursue her dreams of becoming a dancer.

Visit the Social Justice Webpage for more about
Maria Tallchief and past DID YOU KNOW? features.

DID YOU KNOW? – spotlighting notable contributions made by non-mainstream individuals you might not have learned or read about.  Suggestions for inclusions are welcome (send to Kathy at: ksmichaelis@gmail.com).