We hope you enjoy this month’s Humanities Broadsheet — a compilation of events organized by or featuring members of the Washington University community, as well as our colleagues in the greater humanities community in the St. Louis area. 

With the restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, many public events have moved online. Things change quickly these days, so we recommend you check with organizers for the latest details before you head out or log on.

As you’ll see below, there’s always something going on! 


Organizers may submit events to cenhumcal@wustl.edu.
Visitors to Washington University should be aware of the university’s Health and Safety Protocols.
For last month’s issue, follow this link.

Humanities Broadcast

The Humanities Broadcast section spotlights virtual public events featuring WashU faculty and scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences, organized by internal and external hosts. If you are a faculty member with an upcoming public lecture, please let us know and we will include it here! Email us at cenhumcal@wustl.edu and please include the URL for the event page at your host institution.

 

1 DECEMBER  |  4 PM
Race and K12 Education - Part 2
EBONY DUNCAN-SHIPPY is an assistant professor in the Department of Education at Washington University. Curtis O’Dwyer, MAT ’16, is a middle school science teacher and founder of STEAMaster, a program that remixes science education by integrating a hip-hop praxis, pedagogy and critical lens into science curriculum. Anna-Stacia Allen has spent her career working in non-profit and education-based organizations. How should race be addressed in K12 classrooms in America? That question — which has proved so controversial over the past year — raises fundamental questions about the contentious role of public education in America. This series of webinars will address this question, the local history of a nationwide controversy and more. Americanist Dinner Forum, American Culture Studies program.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

3 DECEMBER  |  3 PM
American Idiolect: Punk, Prose, and Cross-Cultural Synergies
G’RA ASIM, assistant professor of English, Washington University. Asim, a writer and musician, is the author of Boyz n the Void: A Mixtape to My Brother (Beacon Press). He has served as a writing director at the African American Policy Forum and a graduate teaching fellow in Columbia University’s Undergraduate Writing Program. His work has appeared in Slate, Salon, Guernica, The Baffler and The New Republic. When not writing or teaching, he sings, plays bass and writes lyrics for DIY pop punk quintet babygotbacktalk, who were named one of Alternative Press’s “17 rising Black alternative bands who are leading the next generation.” Department of African and African-American Studies.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

6 DECEMBER  |  2 PM
Think Inside the Box
A presentation from award-winning game designer Ian Bogost, director and professor of the film and media studies program in Arts & Sciences and professor of computer science and engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering. This event will also include a special announcement from Chancellor Andrew Martin, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Beverly Wendland and Dean Feng Sheng Hu. Hosted by Arts & Sciences Advancement, this series aims to highlight the impact of Arts & Sciences among our worldwide network of supporters. See website for full schedule of events taking place December 6–10, 2021. The Power of Arts & Sciences Week.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

 

7 DECEMBER  |  6 PM
Rivals in the Gulf: Religious Authority and the Qatar-UAE Contest Over the Arab Spring and the Gulf Crisis
DAVID WARREN, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies, Washington University, is a scholar of contemporary Islam, politics and media in the Middle East, with a particular focus on the understudied Arab Gulf states and Islamic soft power. He is author of Rivals in the Gulf: Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Abdullah Bin Bayyah, and the Qatar-UAE Contest Over the Arab Spring and the Gulf Crisis, which analyzes the competing political interventions of two of the most famous Sunni Muslim scholars and their relationships with Qatari and Emirati foreign policy. Joining him to discuss the book are Nancy Reynolds, associate professor of history, and Arika Nakissa, assistant professor of Islamic studies, both at Washington University. Department of Jewish, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

9 DECEMBER  |  5 PM
Composing Creativity: Perspectives on Musical Expression
Join Christopher Stark, associate professor of composition, Department of Music, alumnus Cole Reyes, AB ’20, and undergraduate student composer, Joseph Mosby, to talk about the work of expressing yourself through music. The event will include a performance of the student composition. Hosted by Arts & Sciences Advancement, this series aims to highlight the impact of Arts & Sciences among our worldwide network of supporters. See website for full schedule of events taking place December 6–10, 2021. The Power of Arts & Sciences Week.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

10 DECEMBER  |  12 PM
Policy, Inequality and Motherhood
Join Caitlyn Collins, assistant professor of sociology, and Zakiya Luna, associate professor of sociology and dean’s distinguished scholar, both in the Department of Sociology, for a discussion on the causes and consequences of social inequality and policies that impact motherhood. Collins’ work has been featured in The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, National Public Radio, The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others. Luna is author of the recently published Reproductive Rights as Human Rights: Women of Color and the Fight for Reproductive Justice. Hosted by Arts & Sciences Advancement, this series aims to highlight the impact of Arts & Sciences among our worldwide network of supporters. See website for full schedule of events taking place December 6–10, 2021. The Power of Arts & Sciences Week.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

14 JANUARY  |  3 PM
The Future of Black Comics Inside and Outside of the Academy
This reprise of the very first panel discussion at the Black Comic Book Festival in 2011 will explore the ever-expanding field of Black comics scholarship that charts the cultural and historical significance of Black representation in comic books, sequential art, graphic novels, and animation. Featured guests include Rebecca Wanzo, professor and chair of the department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Washington University (author of The Content of Our Caricature), Qiana Whitted (author of EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest), and JoAnna Davis-McElligatt (author of the forthcoming BOOM! Splat: Comics and Violence). 10th Annual Black Comic Book Festival, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

17 JANUARY  |  7 PM
35th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration
Featuring keynote address by John Baugh, Washington University (Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Psychology, Anthropology, Education, English, Linguistics, and African and African-American Studies) “Equality Matters: St. Louisan Contributions in the Quest for Racial Harmony”; and performances by Black Anthology, a WUSTL student-run performance arts show celebrating Black culture; and the Washington University Concert Choir featuring Joseph Mosby, Washington University undergraduate student.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

28 JANUARY 
Transnational Knowledge: A symposium on the production and circulation of scholarship in translation
Featuring “A Critique of Provincial Reason: Located Cosmopolitanisms and the Infrastructures of Theoretical Translation,” at 10:15 am with Ignacio Sánchez Prado (Romance Languages & Literatures, Latin American Studies, Film & Media Studies, Washington University) and “Translation and the Archive” at 2 pm with Ignacio Infante (Comparative Literature and Romance Languages & Literatures). How does knowledge change as it moves from one academic language culture to another? How “placed” are our intellectual concepts? In what ways does the dominance of English-language scholarship shape the production of knowledge around the world? Who is qualified to undertake a scholarly translation? This two-day, online symposium will address these and many other questions related to the location of scholarship in translation. School of Arts and Humanities, University of Texas at Dallas.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

WashU Events

1 DECEMBER  |  3 PM
Virtual Book Club: The Map Thief
Book club will begin with a presentation of historic maps, followed by a discussion of the book. Join us to discuss the December book club selection, The Map Thief by Michael Blanding. Once considered a respectable antiquarian map dealer, E. Forbes Smiley spent years doubling as a map thief until he was finally arrested slipping maps out of books in the Yale University library. The Map Thief delves into the true history of this fascinating high-stakes criminal and the inside story of the industry that consumed him. University Libraries.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

2 DECEMBER  |  6 PM
Reading in Time: On the Question of Palestine
SHERENE SEIKALY, associate professor of history and the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, explores how practices of reading and writing intersect with history, family and the question of Palestine. Seikaly’s Men of Capital: Scarcity and Economy in Mandate Palestine explores how Palestinian capitalists and British colonial officials used economy to shape territory, nationalism, the home, and the body. Her forthcoming book, From Baltimore to Beirut: On the Question of Palestine, focuses on a Palestinian man who was at once a colonial officer and a colonized subject, a slaveholder and a refugee. His trajectory from 19th-century mobility across Baltimore and Sudan to 20th-century immobility in Lebanon places the question of Palestine in a global history of race, capital, slavery and dispossession. Department of Jewish, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

2 DECEMBER  |  8 PM
Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint reads from her fiction
THIRII MYO KYAW MYINT is the author of the novel The End of Peril, the End of Enmity, the End of Strife, a Haven, which won an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and a book of creative nonfiction, Names for Light: A Family History, which was the winner of the 2018 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. She holds a BA in literary arts from Brown University, an MFA in prose from the University of Notre Dame, and a PhD in creative writing from the University of Denver. She is an assistant professor of English at Amherst College. Department of English.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

 

3 DECEMBER  |  3 PM
Harmonic Rebellion
How and why the rules evolve and grow, only to be overtaken and replaced by new rules with more complexity and power, which evolve and grow, only to get overtaken and replaced by new rules with more complexity and power, which evolve and grow, only to … Jazz pianist and composer Marc Copland has been spinning out sounds like no other pianist since the mid 1970s. A player with a lyrical sense of touch, unique innovative harmonies and a deep sense of swing, his output as a leader is staggering: over 40 albums, recorded for over 10 different labels, featuring major jazz voices of the past and present. His latest release, John, received several “best of” citations from Down Beat (USA), Jazz Magazine (France), Stereoplay (Germany), Rondo (Germany) and Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland). Department of Music.
IN PERSON: Music Classroom Building 102
VIRTUAL – RSVP

3 DECEMBER  |  7 PM
Josephine Baker: Artist and Activist
Celebrate Josephine Baker through dance performances by Heather Beal, Antonio Douthit-Boyd, Ashleyliane Dance Company, and the Best Dance and Talent Center. Sponsored by the Griot Museum of Black History and the Divided City-sponsored research working group The Land on Which We Dance.
IN PERSON: Harris-Stowe State University, Emerson Performance Center, 3031 Laclede Ave., St. Louis, 63103

3–5 DECEMBER
Washington University Dance Theatre: Return
After the year of “lockdown,” where social and event spaces became entirely virtual, we gained a new appreciation for communities of people gathering in person to witness and share experiences. Live performance generates palpable sensations of authentic presence that only being with others can bring. Join us for the return of Washington University Dance Theatre to the Edison Theater and experience the art of human movement and its power to bring us back together again. This annual concert dance showcase features diverse and creative choreography by resident and guest artists, performed by select student dancers of the Performing Arts Department. Artistic direction by David Marchant. Performing Arts Department.
IN PERSON: Washington University, Edison Theater

4 DECEMBER  |  11 AM
Artists Deborah Roberts and Adrian Octavius Walker with Adrienne Davis
The Outwin artists Deborah Roberts and Adrian Octavius Walker speak with Adrienne Davis, the William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law in the School of Law, professor of organizational behavior and leadership in the Olin Business School, and co-director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity. Both artists use portraiture to depict the complexity of Black subjecthood, exploring themes of race, identity, beauty and gender politics. Kemper Art Museum.
VIRTUAL

5 DECEMBER  |  2 PM
Public Tour: The Outwin-American Portraiture Today
Join student educator Jay Buchanan, graduate student in the Department of Art History & Archaeology, Washington University, for a tour of The Outwin: American Portraiture Today. This exhibition features the finalists of the National Portrait Gallery’s fifth triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. The selected portraits in a variety of media respond to the current political and social context, offering perspectives on a range of themes of sociopolitical relevance, including immigration, the status of American workers, mass incarceration, gun violence and LGBTQ+ rights. Kemper Art Museum.
IN PERSON: Washington University, Kemper Art Museum

7 DECEMBER  |  10 AM
On Sport for Development: Empowering Individuals and Communities in Africa
LOMBE MWAMBWA is the executive director of the National Organization for Women in Sport Physical Activity and Recreation in Zambia. “Sport for Development” is an approach to health promotion that also has objectives regarding violence prevention and gender equity. This conversation explores themes of progress, tensions and contradictions in sport for development interventions that address inequalities in Africa. We will reflect on the practices and relationships within local and international sport for development. Brown School Open Classroom.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

8 DECEMBER  |  4 PM
Featuring Truth Values
Performing artist, women’s equality activist and former mathematician Gioia De Cari was recently featured in the Association for Women in Mathematics’ We Speak series in Perspectives on Women in STEM from a “Recovering Mathematician.” She will discuss her work creating the play and soon-to-be filmed “Truth Values: One Girl’s Romp Through MIT’s Male Math Maze” and founding the Truth Values Community, which aims to create a profoundly supportive environment for women in STEM through an innovative pairing of science and the arts. Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
VIRTUAL

3 DECEMBER  |  2 PM
Annual Display of Rare Anatomical Texts
The Becker Library’s Archives and Rare Books Division’s largest exhibit of the year is a unique opportunity to see a selection of spectacular medical works dating from the Renaissance to the 20th century up close. The Becker Library’s Archives and Rare Books Division, Bernard Becker Medical Library.
VIRTUAL

18 JANUARY  |  12 PM
Cultivating Empathy and Change: Recognizing the Life and Legacy of Henrietta Lacks, Film and Discussion
Born in rural Roanoke, Virginia, on August 1, 1920, Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman, wife and mother of five. She also became the “Mother of Modern Medicine,” changing the world with her immortal HeLa cells. Henrietta’s HeLa cells, taken without her or her family’s knowledge or consent, would become responsible for some of the greatest scientific advancements of the last century and continue to benefit all of humanity. We will view part of the 1997 documentary film The Way of All Flesh, with reflecting remarks by Darrell Hudson, associate professor at the Brown School. An opportunity for discussion with the audience will also be facilitated. MLK Week Commemoration 2022, School of Medicine.
ZOOM - RSVP

19 JANUARY  |  11:30 AM
Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland
JONATHAN METZL is the Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University, where he is also director of the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society. He will discuss his book Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland, followed by conversation with David H. Perlmutter, dean of the Washington University School of Medicine.  MLK Week Commemoration 2022, School of Medicine.
ZOOM - RSVP

23 JANUARY  |  2 PM
Public Tour: The Outwin-American Portraiture Today
Join student educator Jay Buchanan, graduate student in the Department of Art History & Archaeology, for a tour of The Outwin: American Portraiture Today. This exhibition features the finalists of the National Portrait Gallery’s fifth triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. The selected portraits in a variety of media respond to the current political and social context, offering perspectives on a range of themes of sociopolitical relevance, including immigration, the status of American workers, mass incarceration, gun violence and LGBTQ+ rights. Kemper Art Museum.
IN PERSON: Washington University, Kemper Art Museum

26 JANUARY  |  12:30 PM
Race and Human Trafficking: How Racial Inequality Impacts Human Trafficking
SHIMA ROSTAMI, executive director, Gateway Human Trafficking. A 400+ year history of institutional racism in America has created economic and social inequities that heighten the likelihood that African Americans could become victims of human trafficking. This discussion will provide information about the vulnerabilities to trafficking members of Black and brown communities and other minority groups might face in our society. Brown School Open Classroom.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

27 JANUARY  |  6 PM
Mythologizing the West: A Conversation about American Identity, National Heroes, and Their Representations
Amid the worldwide racial justice protests of 2020, demands for institutional change and accountability came swiftly and grew loud. One critique that arose from those demands concerned the ways in which American history is (mis)represented in museums. Nineteenth-century American history is complex, contentious, and often contested. The period of American Westward expansion captured the imagination of American genre and landscape painters, including Missouri-based artists George Caleb Bingham and Charles Ferdinand Wimar. These artists mythologized white settler colonialism and contributed to the formation of an American national identity through the landscape. But the “progress” of Westward expansion and the white supremacist ideology which justified it came at a tremendous cost to the Indigenous people as stewards of the land and to their cultures. This talk will investigate how constructions of American identity and national memory are presented within the gallery space. The talk will also explore how nineteenth-century American landscape paintings inform or contribute to the current conversation about representation and diversity within art museums, as well as the current movement to reexamine America’s history and national heroes. Speaker Alexis Carr is a second-year graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis. She is pursuing a master’s degree in art history and archaeology. Mildred Lane Kemper Art Musem, Washington University.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

St. Louis Community Events

1 DECEMBER  |  2 PM
President Grant and Chinese Immigration
Examine the history of Chinese immigration to the United States and explain why Asian Americans were increasingly excluded from the country’s borders as the 19th century progressed. St. Louis County Library and the National Park Service.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

1 DECEMBER  |  5:30 PM
Day With(out) Art: Enduring Care
Every year on December 1, World AIDS Day offers a show of support for people living with HIV and AIDS. This year for Day With(out) Art: Enduring Care, CAM pairs screenings of artist videos commissioned by Visual AIDS with a panel discussion featuring individuals from our community. To begin the program, there will be a roundtable conversation featuring local voices on the power of community care through art, activism, and cultural organizing. The program disrupts the assumption that an epidemic can be solved with pharmaceuticals alone, pointing to corrupt leadership within government and nonprofit organizations, as well as broader racial and gender inequities that persist despite scientific advances. Community care was the only option for people living with HIV prior to 1981, and due to the limitations of biomedical intervention, it remains just as essential today. Seven short videos commissioned by Visual AIDS will highlight strategies of community care within the ongoing HIV epidemic. The program will feature newly commissioned work by Katherine Cheairs, Cristóbal Guerra, Danny Kilbride, Abdul-Aliy A. Muhammad, Beto Pérez, Steed Taylor, and J Triangular. Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.
IN PERSON: Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 63108

1 DECEMBER  |  7 PM
The History and Mystery of Music: A Beginner’s Guide to Brian Eno
This program will discuss Brian Eno from his humble beginnings in Glam as a founding member of Roxy Music to his expansive solo career to producing David Bowie and U2 among others using his Oblique Strategies. St. Louis County Library.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

1 DECEMBER  |  7 PM
Brendan Borrell, The First Shots: The Epic Rivalries and Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine (Author Talk)
In conversation with New York Times health and science reporter Apoorva Mandavilli. Award-winning journalist Brendan Borrell brings the defining story of our times alive through compulsively readable, first-time reporting on the players leading the fight against a vicious virus. The First Shots, soon to be the subject of an HBO limited series, draws on exclusive, high-level access to weave together the intense vaccine-race conflicts among hard-driving, heroic scientists and the epic rivalries among Washington power players that shaped 18 months of fear, resolve and triumph.
VIRTUAL

2 DECEMBER  |  7 PM
Artist Talk: Damon Davis
DAMON DAVIS is a postdisciplinary artist based in St. Louis. In a practice that is part therapy, part social commentary, his work spans a spectrum of creative media to tell stories exploring how power is informed by identity and mythology. During this talk, Davis will introduce his All Hands On Deck project, which is currently on view at the Saint Louis Art Museum, and discuss how, through his art, he seeks to empower and give voice to the powerless and combat systems of oppression, focusing not only on pain but also on the joy of the Black experience. Saint Louis Art Museum.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

2–12 DECEMBER
Songs for Nobodies Revival
The 2021 season concludes with the Max & Louie Productions’ hit revival of Songs for Nobodies, which is written by Joanna Murray-Smith. This one-woman powerhouse performance, starring Debby Lennon, weaves the music of legendary divas Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf and Maria Callas throughout a mosaic of stories told by the everyday women who had unexpected life-changing encounters with these musical icons. Max & Louie Productions.
IN PERSON: Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 63103

3 DECEMBER  |  1 PM
TEDxStLouisWomen: What Now?
At this year’s TEDxStLouisWomen event, we'll spotlight the talent and forward-thinking nature of the women who make our city shine. We'll learn the what now? in fields including design, entertainment, technology, science and culture. $45–$125. TEDxStLouisWomen.
IN PERSON: Ferrara Theater (America’s Center), 701 Convention Plz., St. Louis, 63101

3 DECEMBER  |  6 PM
TEDxStLouis: What Next?
This year’s live-and-in-person TEDxStLouis Innovation event brings together cutting-edge leaders who approach their fields from new directions: crafting opportunities and meeting challenges in fields as diverse as they are. $45–$75. TEDxStLouis.
IN PERSON: Ferrara Theater (America’s Center), 701 Convention Plz., St. Louis, 63101

5 DECEMBER  |  7 PM
An Evening with David Sedaris
DAVID SEDARIS, author of the previous best-sellers Calypso, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, will be appearing for one night, following the release of his newest books The Best of Me and A Carnival of Snackery. Sedaris will be offering a selection of all-new readings and recollections, as well as a Q&A session and book signing. With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that he is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today. His new book, The Best of Me, is a collection of 42 previously published stories and essays. $40–$55+. Left Bank Books.
IN PERSON: Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St., St. Louis, 63103

6 DECEMBER  |  7 PM
Hattie Felton, More Than Ordinary: Early St. Louis Artist Anna Maria von Phul (Author Talk)
Anna Maria von Phul (1786–1823) was the earliest-known female artist working in what was then called the Missouri Territory. Though von Phul never considered herself a professional artist, her sketches and watercolors depict not only the landscape and natural world of early-19th-century St. Louis but also its architecture, fashions and social life. Hattie Felton is a senior curator for the Missouri Historical Society. More Than Ordinary is the first complete catalog of von Phul’s work and serves as a companion piece to an exhibit at the Missouri History Museum, which opens on May 22. St. Louis County Library.
VIRTUAL

7 DECEMBER  |  11 AM
National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
Following a brief memorial ceremony, historian Paul Stillwell will describe the events of the day that has lived in infamy, including the story of the light cruiser that bore our city’s name and avoided destruction. Missouri Historical Society.
VIRTUAL

7 DECEMBER  |  2 PM
Preserving Father Dickson Cemetery
Hear how students and community members mapped essential information about a historic African-American cemetery in St. Louis County, and learn why its preservation is essential to our local history. Co-sponsored by Lindenwood University and St. Louis County Library.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

7 DECEMBER  |  6:30 PM
Ann Patchett with Amor Towles, These Precious Days (Author Talk)
ANN PATCHETT will be in conversation with New York Times best-selling author Amor Towles. As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. She ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart. Turning her writer’s eye on her own experiences, she transforms the private into the universal, providing us all a way to look at our own worlds anew, and reminds how fleeting and enigmatic life can be. Donation or book purchase required. Left Bank Books.
VIRTUAL

8 DECEMBER  |  10 AM
Black People Who Hike
Learn about equity in outdoor spaces with Debbie Njai, founder of Black People Who Hike, a local organization working to empower, educate and re-engage black people to the outdoors. St. Louis County Library.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

8 DECEMBER  |  12 PM
Soldiers Chow and Chat with the Civil Air Patrol
Representatives of the Civil Air Patrol, the civilian auxiliary to the U.S. Air Force, will discuss the organization’s often overlooked contributions during WWII. Chow and Chat, Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Soldiers Memorial, Court of Honor, 1315 Chestnut St., St. Louis, 63103

8 DECEMBER  |  7 PM
Suzanne Corbett and Deborah Reinhardt, A Culinary History of Missouri: Foodways & Iconic Dishes of the Show-Me State (Author Talk)
Missouri’s history is best told through food, from its Native American and later French colonial roots to the country’s first viticultural area. Learn about the state’s vibrant barbecue culture, which stems from African-American cooks, including Henry Perry, Kansas City’s barbecue king. Trace the evolution of iconic dishes such as Kansas City burnt ends, St. Louis gooey butter cake and Springfield cashew chicken. Discover how hardscrabble Ozark farmers launched a tomato canning industry, and how a financially strapped widow, Irma Rombauer, would forever change how cookbooks were written. Historian and culinary writer Suzanne Corbett and food and travel writer Deborah Reinhardt also include more than 80 historical recipes to capture a taste of Missouri’s history that spans more than 200 years. St. Louis County Library.
VIRTUAL

9 DECEMBER  |  11 AM
Have Blues, Will Travel
Take a digital tour of the National Blues Museum’s new special exhibit. The exhibit encapsulates Black blues musicians’ struggle while traveling highlighting artists like Bessie Smith, Blind Willie McTell and Dorothy Donegan. Co-sponsored by the National Blues Museum and St. Louis County Library.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

9 DECEMBER  |  12 PM
Art Speaks: (Re)Framing Weimar’s New Woman and Modern Life in the Metropolis
CAIT LORE, Cinema St. Louis film educator and festival programmer and film instructor at Webster University, will examine the related development of urban modernity and the German New Woman through the intersections of fine arts, early film and the changing social landscape of Weimar Germany. In exploring the works of artists such as Max Beckmann (Valentine Tessier, 1929–30) and filmmakers like Joseph von Sternberg (The Blue Angel, 1930), Lore will discuss modernism as it relates to the Weimar Republic, its crisis of national identities, and the so-called feminization of its culture. Saint Louis Art Museum.
VIRTUAL

10 DECEMBER  |  6 PM
StitchCast Studio
Live Story Stitchers Youth Council lead live podcast recording sessions that include art interludes and discussion with community guests. Stories, music, video and dance from the community are shared. Tickets are $15 but are free with a student ID or for members of Stitchers Youth Council. Saint Louis Story Stitchers.
IN PERSON: 3524 Washington Ave., St. Louis, 63103

10 DECEMBER  |  7 PM
Annie Leibovitz, Wonderland (Author Talk)
Legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz will be in conversation with her longtime editor at Phaidon, Deb Aaronson. Fashion has been both the subject of, and the vehicle for, many of Leibovitz’s images, which have graced the covers and interiors of countless publications and magazines around the world. Leibovitz will share stories from her ambitious fashion shoots —including looks by designers such as Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent and Rei Kawakubo — alongside tales of her encounters with a wide and diverse range of icons: from fashion designers such as Stella McCartney and Karl Lagerfeld to Kate Moss, Serena Williams, politicians Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nancy Pelosi, and cultural figures — Queen Elizabeth II, Lady Gaga and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — to name a few. Starting in 1970, when Leibovitz began creating what became her ground-breaking work for Rolling Stone, to her work at Vogue and Vanity Fair in the 1980s, and through to present day, Leibovitz will reflect on her career, the individuals she has photographed, the editors she has worked with, and how her distinctive approach has developed and evolved over the last half century. Left Bank Books.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

10 DECEMBER  |  7 PM
Tony Messenger, Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice (Author Talk)
As a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Tony Messenger has spent years in county and municipal courthouses documenting how poor Americans are convicted of minor crimes and then saddled with exorbitant fines and fees. If they are unable to pay, they are often sent to prison, where they are then charged a pay-to-stay bill, in a cycle that soon creates a mountain of debt that can take years to pay off. These insidious penalties are used to raise money for broken local and state budgets, often overseen by for-profit companies, and it is one of the central issues of the criminal justice reform movement. St. Louis County Library.
IN PERSON: St. Louis County Library – Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, 63131

13 DECEMBER  |  6:30 PM
Golden Anniversaries Discussion: Werner Herzog Double Feature
This twin bill of two Werner Herzog films from 1971 — Fata Morgana and Land of Silence and Darkness — offers a potent double shot of the director’s intoxicatingly unconventional approach to nonfiction filmmaking. Shot in the Sahara (and elsewhere in Africa) over 13 months in 1968 and ’69, Fata Morgana features an array of oddball characters, mesmerizing tracking shots of the desert landscape, and eerie footage of filmed mirages. A more conventional documentary, albeit with typically Herzogian fictional elements, Land of Silence and Darkness profiles the blind and deaf Fini Straubinger, whose job is to help others similarly afflicted. The introduction and discussion are presented by Pete Timmermann, director of the Webster University Film Series and adjunct professor of film studies at Webster University. Cinema St. Louis.
IN PERSON: Webster University, Webster Hall, Moore Auditorium, 470 East Lockwood Ave., Webster Groves, 63119

14 DECEMBER  |  11 AM
St. Louis Holiday
Stories Did you know that colonial St. Louisans went around and pledged food to one another on New Year’s Day? Or that the first documented complaint of celebratory holiday gunfire predates Missouri’s statehood? How about the time a cow from a live nativity got loose in Famous-Barr? Join Community Tours Manager Amanda Clark as she explores more than 250 years of St. Louis holiday celebrations and traditions. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Missouri History Museum, Lee Auditorium, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112

17 DECEMBER  |  10 AM; 18 DECEMBER  |  10 AM
St. Louis Food Traditions
Food is a big part of holidays and culture. Celebrate with us as we learn about the history of food here in St. Louis and the many diverse cultures and people who have shaped St. Louis’s culinary traditions. Missouri Historical Society.
VIRTUAL

27 DECEMBER  |  1:30 PM
It’s a Wonderful Life Screening & Discussion
An angel is sent from heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed. Stay after the film for a talk from film critic Joshua Ray of Cinema St. Louis’ The Lens. Additional screenings in Buder Library’s Monday Matinée Film Series are Dec. 6: Meet Me in St. Louis; Dec. 13: Holiday Inn; Dec. 20: White Christmas (all at 1:30 pm). St. Louis Public Library.
IN PERSON: St. Louis Public Library – Buder Library, 4401 Hampton Ave., St. Louis, 63109

30 DECEMBER  |  5:30 PM
Prohibition Party with The Arcadia Dance Orchestra
Ring in the new year one night early with a live performance by the Arcadia Dance Orchestra, an authentic 1920s-style jazz band that focuses on St. Louis’s musical history. Bandleader T.J. Muller will discuss how New Year’s Eve was celebrated in St. Louis a century ago, from stories of all-night dances in decadent ballrooms to prohibition-agent raids. These stories will be brought to life with hot-jazz performances from this 11-piece orchestra. Wear your Roaring ’20s wardrobe to join us in the speakeasy. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112

7 JANUARY  |  11 AM
Canvas Is the New Cashmere
Curator of Clothing and Textiles Adam MacPhàrlain will discuss the influence of military uniforms on civilian fashion, with examples from the Soldiers Memorial and Missouri Historical Society collections. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Soldiers Memorial, 1315 Chestnut St., St. Louis, 63103

11 JANUARY  |  11 AM
1904 World’s Fair, a film by Alex Mathiesen
This new film is an energetic examination of the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, an event many historians consider the pinnacle of Victorian World’s Fairs. The piece presents hundreds of facts and images from the fair and includes interviews with Mike Truax, president of the 1904 World’s Fair Society. MHS Public Historian Adam Kloppe will also discuss the Missouri History Museum’s plans to update its 1904 World’s Fair gallery. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Missouri History Museum, Lee Auditorium, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112

11 JANUARY  |  1 PM
Kekla Magoon, Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People (Author Talk)
KEKLA MAGOON will be in conversation with Left Bank Books’ Cliff Helm and Danielle King. With passion and precision, Magoon relays an essential account of the Black Panthers as militant revolutionaries and as human rights advocates working to defend and protect their community. In this comprehensive, inspiring and all-too-relevant history of the Black Panther Party, Magoon introduces readers to the Panthers’ community activism, grounded in the concept of self-defense, which taught Black Americans how to protect and support themselves in a country that treated them like second-class citizens. For too long the Panthers’ story has been a footnote to the civil rights movement rather than what it was: a revolutionary socialist movement that drew thousands of members, mostly women, and became the target of one of the most sustained repression efforts ever made by the U.S. government against its own citizens. Revolution in Our Time puts the Panthers in the proper context of Black American history, from the first arrival of enslaved people to the Black Lives Matter movement of today. Left Bank Books.
VIRTUAL

12 JANUARY  |  1 PM
The Holocaust through the Lens of The Twilight Zone
In this virtual event, Amy Lutz, the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum’s manager of communications and social media, will discuss two episodes of the classic television show The Twilight Zone. The episodes, “Death’s Head Revisited” (Season 3, Episode 9, 1961) and “He’s Alive” (Season 4, Episode 4, 1963) are both available for free to Hulu subscribers and for a small cost on Amazon and iTunes. Please watch the film on your own before joining the discussion. In “Death’s Head Revisited,” a former German SS captain returns to Dachau concentration camp and begins reminiscing on the power he enjoyed there, until he finds himself on trial by those who died at his hands. In “He’s Alive,” a tiny neo-Nazi organization struggles pathetically to succeed in a big city. A mysterious figure begins to ruthlessly guide a young, insecure U.S. Nazi leader, and the group begins to draw more attention. Follow link to register. St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum.
VIRTUAL

13 JANUARY  |  5:30 PM
Voices from the Grave: Missouri Emancipation Day
On January 11, 1865, delegates of the Missouri state convention, led by Radical Republican Charles Drake, passed the immediate emancipation of all enslaved persons. Join representatives from Greenwood Cemetery as they give a voice to those who were once enslaved and celebrate their lives and contributions to this region. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112

13 JANUARY  |  6 PM
Curator Tour: Lisa Melandri, Wassan Al-Khudhairi, and Misa Jeffereis
Join Executive Director Lisa Melandri, Chief Curator Wassan Al-Khudhairi and Assistant Curator Misa Jeffereis for a tour of the exhibitions. Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. RSVP.
IN PERSON: Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 63108

15–17 JANUARY
MLK Community Celebration
Celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. throughout the holiday weekend. Families are invited to join us on Saturday and Monday for youth activism workshops, meaningful conversations on race and social justice, storytelling, movement, craft workshops and day of service opportunities. A special program honoring young women who are leading positive social change in our region will be offered on Saturday at 2 pm. On Sunday afternoon all are invited to a keynote address, a brief musical performance and an all-levels yoga class set to live gospel music. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112

20 JANUARY  |  5:30 PM
Wrestling at the Chase
The 1959 premiere of Wrestling at the Chase fueled a trend that drew hundreds of men and women dressed to the nines ringside each week to the Khorassan Room in the opulent Chase Park Plaza Hotel while thousands more tuned in from home. The new book, Wrestling at the Chase, offers an in-depth view of wrestling’s “golden years,” the story of the rise of professional wrestling that started right here in St. Louis and continues to play out today on television and at venues across the country. Join author Ed Wheatley for a discussion with some of the wrestlers, organizers and announcers who recall those nights at the Khorassan. At the end of this evening, you’ll be on the edge of your seat as the official historic bell from Wrestling at the Chase signals live matches at the Missouri History Museum by Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112

21 JANUARY  |  10 AM; 22  JANUARY  |  10 AM
The Making of a Museum: Behind Beyond the Ballot
Get a behind–the–scenes peek at the many different jobs and tasks that go into creating a museum exhibit. Through an investigation of Beyond the Ballot, you can step into different roles of museum staff members and learn how our exhibits come alive. Missouri Historical Society.
VIRTUAL

25 JANUARY  |  11 AM
Breaking the Glass Ceiling
Join Bev Schuetz of History Talks as she details the extraordinary lives of several women entrepreneurs who were inspired by the activist spirt of suffragettes. You’ll learn about how these trailblazing women, from Madam C. J. Walker to Katharine Graham, forged their way into history. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Missouri History Museum, Lee Auditorium, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112