PLATO Weekly Update

October 19, 2021

CURRICULUM

PLEASE NOTE that Don Reeder's course, Where is Everybody?, has been canceled. It met on Thursday mornings at Oakwood. 

INVITATION

PLATO is always looking for more members to share their interests or expertise with other members by offering a course. If you are thinking of becoming a course coordinator, please visit our Propose a Course page to learn more about this process. Or you can contact Therese Stevens at thmstevens@gmail.com for more information. 

REMINDER

The following COVID-19 Protocols are still 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 - visit the Courses Page or check with your course coordinator.

SPECIAL EVENTS

FALL LECTURES
Join us next week Tuesday, October 26th at 1:30pm for “What is Critical Race Theory, and Why is it Controversial?” In this timely 90-minute lecture with Gloria Ladson-Billings, Professor Emerita at UW-Madison, we will learn about how CRT applies to education and why it has become part of the culture wars in this country. Gloria Ladson-Billings is also the former Kellner Family Distinguished Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Please register online – it is required to attend.

Until then, members are welcome to access Past Recordings of lectures online.

NEW! At-home virtual streaming options:

The Tragedy of Macbeth  – A little later than now, in the ruins of a theatre, three witches make a prophecy. A warrior and his wife enter the darkness. A war begins. Yaël Farber directs James McArdle and Saoirse Ronan, in an elemental production about a world in transformation, the shadows in all of us, and one couple’s spine-chilling quest for power.

Designing Women – A WORLD PREMIERE – The place, Atlanta, the time, before and after the presidential election in November, 2020. The show contains adult language and themes, a confetti cannon, and, much like the television show that preceded it, fiery political debate and humor with many references to recent events. Written by L. Bloodworth Thomason, the same playwright who wrote the popular television series.

AN AUDIO PLAY for listening at home: 

Coal Country
Written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, Coal Country is an audio play that tells the story of the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine explosion in West Virginia, the most deadly mining disaster in recent U.S. history. It is a riveting, emotionally stunning work based on first-person accounts by survivors and family members. Blank and Jensen are a writing team who The New Yorker calls "among the foremost practitioners of documentary theater in the U.S." The performance is directed by Blank and features original music by three-time Grammy award-winning country/folk legend Steve Earle. 

To access Coal Country free for one month:

· Go to audible.com

· Search for Coal Country

· Follow the prompts

· After your 30-day free trial the cost is $7.95 per mont; cancel anytime.

INVITATION
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 be too? Send your ideas for new lecture topics and include the name of a speaker if you have it to mdiiorio1234@gmail.com.

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. This week we offer Foot of Yosemite Falls, a painting by Jim Albright.

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 Fall reading, viewing, or listening, 

curated by PLATO's Diversity Awareness Committee.

DID YOU KNOW? for October 19 – November 1, 2021

Did You Know...The winner of the 1980 Law and Economics Center Prize was a black man, Thomas Sowell, an economist, academic, and social theorist. His book, Knowledge and Decisions, was heralded as a "landmark work," selected for this prize "because of its cogent contribution to our understanding of the differences between the market process and the process of government."

Visit the Social Justice Webpage for more about Thomas Sowell
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).