Art historian Jeff Mishur will discuss a selection of notorious art heists, some that have been solved and others that still remain open. Mishur’s program features art crimes involving private collections and churches as well as museums such as The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and The Louvre.
Coordinators: Ruth Sellers and Alvin Helfgot
Guest Speaker: Jeff Mishur
This workshop offers an opportunity to explore different techniques and forms of art, such as brush painting, pen and ink, watercolor, and drawing. All levels of experience and expertise are welcome. Participants will bring their own supplies and materials and will work independently. While class facilitators and participants can offer encouragement, ideas and suggestions to each other, this will NOT be an instructional class.
Coordinators: Basilio King, Christopher Melby and Alfredo Rodriguez
Compete with your ICLRU friends in class. I will present some familiar games like Left, Right and Center, Ticket to Ride and Rummikub. There will be something for you. Join us for our Fun and Games’ class. Please bring any games that might be fun in class.
Young Coco Chanel works as a seamstress by day, a cabaret entertainer by night. Then she meets a wealthy heir and becomes his lover and fashion consultant. Tired of the flowery hats, tight corsets, and yards of lace the defines women’s fashion, Coco uses her lover’s clothing as a starting point to distill an elegant and sophisticated line of women’s clothing that propels her to the top of Parisian haute couture.
Every group of humans ever discovered has had some kind of religious belief. Yet these beliefs and practices vary widely from one culture to another and even within the same religion. To understand people of other cultures and ethnicities, we need to understand their religions. In this study group, we will explore the earliest evidence of religious practices. As we then strive to gain a basic understanding of the Abrahamic (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), Dharmic (Hindu and Buddhist), and Taoic (Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto) religions, we will also examine the similarities and differences among them.
This is a continuation of a study group that is planned to continue through successive Spring and Fall sessions. We will be looking in depth at the Civil War and Reconstruction from a military, political, societal, and economic perspective. These continuing sessions will include many stand-alone topics covering people; political and moral viewpoints; foreign affairs; life on the home front; military life; tactics and many more aspects of this period in American history. The military events of the conflict will be covered in considerable detail. We will be using lecture, discussion and audio/visual throughout this study group. Participants are encouraged to suggest topics for discussion and make short presentations if so inclined.
Just who were the first migrants to the lands we now call the Americas? When did they come? Where did they originate? How did they get here? Current scholarship, sometimes controversial, sometimes conflicting, sometimes competitive, is pointing in directions other than what we may have believed or what we may have been taught. Did you know a current claim for the oldest human settlement in the Americas lies in South Carolina, dating back 15,000 years?
This study group will explore some of the new findings and paradigm shifts coming from the fields of archaeology, anthropology and genetics. We will also explore some of their descendants. The data is not “settled science” but it is thought provoking and provides interesting and disparate hypotheses about the ancient immigrants to the land.
Persecution or prosecution? This study group will discuss the many charges and trials facing the former president of the United States, Donald Trump. We will do a deep dive into the facts and law, surrounding the allegations of misconduct against Mr. Trump. The participants in the study group will discuss the merits or lack thereof surrounding the many legal challenges facing Mr. Trump and decide whether to find him guilty or not guilty of each charge.
This study group is for people who already know how to play bridge. Join us if you would like to meet other ICL members who play and want to have more opportunities to play the game. We welcome those who have recently learned the game as well as intermediate and advanced players. We will be playing for FUN, not cutthroat! Hopefully we can all learn from one another.
NOTE: This is an ongoing study group, but new participants are always welcome.
The Thin Man was a series of six movies which were produced between 1934 and 1947. The movies starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. The plot for these films centered around Nick and Nora's relationship as high society detectives. The films are full of laughs and mystery as Nick and Nora toast each other with champagne cocktails as they solve the latest "who done it"! The seventh class we will show two documentaries, one each on the lives of William Powell and Myrna Loy.
Young Coco Chanel works as a seamstress by day, a cabaret entertainer by night. Then she meets a wealthy heir and becomes his lover and fashion consultant. Tired of the flowery hats, tight corsets, and yards of lace the defines women’s fashion, Coco uses her lover’s clothing as a starting point to distill an elegant and sophisticated line of women’s clothing that propels her to the top of Parisian haute couture.
Discussion: Why did kidnapped children on the American Frontier choose to stay with their Native American kidnappers? They apparently became Indian in every way and rarely adjusted when returned to their birth families even if their stay with their capturers was less than a year. Is this an indictment of Western culture?
We will read “News of the World” by Paulette Jiles and 'The Captured” by Scott Zesch on our own before meeting for discussion on Thursday, April 4th at 1 pm.
What happens when we peel an onion? Most cry, and then enjoy it in many different ways. The same is true of your family tree. Every person and branch we add is like peeling another layer of an onion revealing more about our ancestries. The purpose of this study group is to introduce people to some basic tools and concepts to build a family tree. The first two sessions will cover Ancestry and Family Tree Maker. They will center upon the traditional resources with only a brief discussion of DNA. In the third session, attendees can ask questions, talk about their brick walls, and present their own family trees.
Coordinator: Merle Silverstein
Guest Speaker: Bob Silverstein
Feathers are needed for birds to fly, but they also enable them to show off, blend in, stay warm, keep dry, and more. Join Lilli Holden of The Chicago Bird Alliance to learn about the complex structure, types and functions of feathers as she traces their evolution.
Coordinators: Andi Basalay and Ruth Sellers
Guest Speaker: Lilli Holden
This workshop offers an opportunity to explore different techniques and forms of art, such as brush painting, pen and ink, watercolor, and drawing. All levels of experience and expertise are welcome. Participants will bring their own supplies and materials and will work independently. While class facilitators and participants can offer encouragement, ideas and suggestions to each other, this will NOT be an instructional class.
Coordinators: Basilio King, Christopher Melby and Alfredo Rodriguez
Compete with your ICLRU friends in class. I will present some familiar games like Left, Right and Center, Ticket to Ride and Rummikub. There will be something for you. Join us for our Fun and Games’ class. Please bring any games that might be fun in class.
This eight-week study group presented on Zoom Tuesday and in the classroom on Thursday, begins March 12, ending May 2. Our films include documentaries on a skilled photographer, a legendary musician, a clever fraudster, Broadway entertainment, women’s fashion, and a comedian celebrated for starring in both black and white and technicolor movies. Plus, a couple of surprises.
Every group of humans ever discovered has had some kind of religious belief. Yet these beliefs and practices vary widely from one culture to another and even within the same religion. To understand people of other cultures and ethnicities, we need to understand their religions. In this study group, we will explore the earliest evidence of religious practices. As we then strive to gain a basic understanding of the Abrahamic (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), Dharmic (Hindu and Buddhist), and Taoic (Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto) religions, we will also examine the similarities and differences among them.
This is a continuation of a study group that is planned to continue through successive Spring and Fall sessions. We will be looking in depth at the Civil War and Reconstruction from a military, political, societal, and economic perspective. These continuing sessions will include many stand-alone topics covering people; political and moral viewpoints; foreign affairs; life on the home front; military life; tactics and many more aspects of this period in American history. The military events of the conflict will be covered in considerable detail. We will be using lecture, discussion and audio/visual throughout this study group. Participants are encouraged to suggest topics for discussion and make short presentations if so inclined.
Basic Math Refresher Course. Review addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems using our brains, (along with pencil and paper), vs a calculator to keep our math skills sharp.
Just who were the first migrants to the lands we now call the Americas? When did they come? Where did they originate? How did they get here? Current scholarship, sometimes controversial, sometimes conflicting, sometimes competitive, is pointing in directions other than what we may have believed or what we may have been taught. Did you know a current claim for the oldest human settlement in the Americas lies in South Carolina, dating back 15,000 years?
This study group will explore some of the new findings and paradigm shifts coming from the fields of archaeology, anthropology and genetics. We will also explore some of their descendants. The data is not “settled science” but it is thought provoking and provides interesting and disparate hypotheses about the ancient immigrants to the land.
This study group is for people who already know how to play bridge. Join us if you would like to meet other ICL members who play and want to have more opportunities to play the game. We welcome those who have recently learned the game as well as intermediate and advanced players. We will be playing for FUN, not cutthroat! Hopefully we can all learn from one another.
NOTE: This is an ongoing study group, but new participants are always welcome.
The Thin Man was a series of six movies which were produced between 1934 and 1947. The movies starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. The plot for these films centered around Nick and Nora's relationship as high society detectives. The films are full of laughs and mystery as Nick and Nora toast each other with champagne cocktails as they solve the latest "who done it"! The seventh class we will show two documentaries, one each on the lives of William Powell and Myrna Loy.
This eight-week study group presented on Zoom Tuesday and in the classroom on Thursday, begins March 12, ending May 2. Our films include documentaries on a skilled photographer, a legendary musician, a clever fraudster, Broadway entertainment, women’s fashion, and a comedian celebrated for starring in both black and white and technicolor movies. Plus, a couple of surprises.
This workshop offers an opportunity to explore different techniques and forms of art, such as brush painting, pen and ink, watercolor, and drawing. All levels of experience and expertise are welcome. Participants will bring their own supplies and materials and will work independently. While class facilitators and participants can offer encouragement, ideas and suggestions to each other, this will NOT be an instructional class.
Coordinators: Basilio King, Christopher Melby and Alfredo Rodriguez
Compete with your ICLRU friends in class. I will present some familiar games like Left, Right and Center, Ticket to Ride and Rummikub. There will be something for you. Join us for our Fun and Games’ class. Please bring any games that might be fun in class.
Every group of humans ever discovered has had some kind of religious belief. Yet these beliefs and practices vary widely from one culture to another and even within the same religion. To understand people of other cultures and ethnicities, we need to understand their religions. In this study group, we will explore the earliest evidence of religious practices. As we then strive to gain a basic understanding of the Abrahamic (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), Dharmic (Hindu and Buddhist), and Taoic (Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto) religions, we will also examine the similarities and differences among them.
This is a continuation of a study group that is planned to continue through successive Spring and Fall sessions. We will be looking in depth at the Civil War and Reconstruction from a military, political, societal, and economic perspective. These continuing sessions will include many stand-alone topics covering people; political and moral viewpoints; foreign affairs; life on the home front; military life; tactics and many more aspects of this period in American history. The military events of the conflict will be covered in considerable detail. We will be using lecture, discussion and audio/visual throughout this study group. Participants are encouraged to suggest topics for discussion and make short presentations if so inclined.
Just who were the first migrants to the lands we now call the Americas? When did they come? Where did they originate? How did they get here? Current scholarship, sometimes controversial, sometimes conflicting, sometimes competitive, is pointing in directions other than what we may have believed or what we may have been taught. Did you know a current claim for the oldest human settlement in the Americas lies in South Carolina, dating back 15,000 years?
This study group will explore some of the new findings and paradigm shifts coming from the fields of archaeology, anthropology and genetics. We will also explore some of their descendants. The data is not “settled science” but it is thought provoking and provides interesting and disparate hypotheses about the ancient immigrants to the land.
The Renaissance is commonly known for beautiful and impressive works of art. Less known, however, are the political and social foundations that made much of this Renaissance possible. This session will review the Italian city states during the Renaissance, the political giants of Florence, Milan, Venice, Naples and Rome, their politics, and the formation of the personal dynasties on the Italian peninsula. From the beginning of the Renaissance to the Peace of Lodi, we will review the thinkers and doers of the Renaissance who balanced the world and destiny for decades.
This study group is for people who already know how to play bridge. Join us if you would like to meet other ICL members who play and want to have more opportunities to play the game. We welcome those who have recently learned the game as well as intermediate and advanced players. We will be playing for FUN, not cutthroat! Hopefully we can all learn from one another.
NOTE: This is an ongoing study group, but new participants are always welcome.
The Thin Man was a series of six movies which were produced between 1934 and 1947. The movies starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. The plot for these films centered around Nick and Nora's relationship as high society detectives. The films are full of laughs and mystery as Nick and Nora toast each other with champagne cocktails as they solve the latest "who done it"! The seventh class we will show two documentaries, one each on the lives of William Powell and Myrna Loy.
The problem with Tom is that he said things like, “The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most ... unremitting despotism” while continuing to hold and profit from slaves. We cannot justify Jefferson by saying, "well, he was just a man of his times," for he spoke out against slavery more than any other Founder, and yet relied on slavery for his livelihood and comforts, all of his life. What gives? Historian Joyce Haworth will explore the ways in which Jefferson justified his slave-holding. His choices illustrate the conflicts embedded in early American society.
This workshop offers an opportunity to explore different techniques and forms of art, such as brush painting, pen and ink, watercolor, and drawing. All levels of experience and expertise are welcome. Participants will bring their own supplies and materials and will work independently. While class facilitators and participants can offer encouragement, ideas and suggestions to each other, this will NOT be an instructional class.
Coordinators: Basilio King, Christopher Melby and Alfredo Rodriguez
Compete with your ICLRU friends in class. I will present some familiar games like Left, Right and Center, Ticket to Ride and Rummikub. There will be something for you. Join us for our Fun and Games’ class. Please bring any games that might be fun in class.
This energy-packed documentary follows her career from mail girl at Newsweek to reporter for the New York Post to becoming a prestigious essayist at Esquire to successfully writing and directing Hollywood movies that revitalized the romantic comedy genre. The film captures Ephron’s razor-sharp wit while at the same time presenting her flaws through interviews with her closest friends like Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, and the late Mike Nichols. This movie is a hoot!
Every group of humans ever discovered has had some kind of religious belief. Yet these beliefs and practices vary widely from one culture to another and even within the same religion. To understand people of other cultures and ethnicities, we need to understand their religions. In this study group, we will explore the earliest evidence of religious practices. As we then strive to gain a basic understanding of the Abrahamic (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), Dharmic (Hindu and Buddhist), and Taoic (Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto) religions, we will also examine the similarities and differences among them.
This is a continuation of a study group that is planned to continue through successive Spring and Fall sessions. We will be looking in depth at the Civil War and Reconstruction from a military, political, societal, and economic perspective. These continuing sessions will include many stand-alone topics covering people; political and moral viewpoints; foreign affairs; life on the home front; military life; tactics and many more aspects of this period in American history. The military events of the conflict will be covered in considerable detail. We will be using lecture, discussion and audio/visual throughout this study group. Participants are encouraged to suggest topics for discussion and make short presentations if so inclined.
Just who were the first migrants to the lands we now call the Americas? When did they come? Where did they originate? How did they get here? Current scholarship, sometimes controversial, sometimes conflicting, sometimes competitive, is pointing in directions other than what we may have believed or what we may have been taught. Did you know a current claim for the oldest human settlement in the Americas lies in South Carolina, dating back 15,000 years?
This study group will explore some of the new findings and paradigm shifts coming from the fields of archaeology, anthropology and genetics. We will also explore some of their descendants. The data is not “settled science” but it is thought provoking and provides interesting and disparate hypotheses about the ancient immigrants to the land.
The Renaissance is commonly known for beautiful and impressive works of art. Less known, however, are the political and social foundations that made much of this Renaissance possible. This session will review the Italian city states during the Renaissance, the political giants of Florence, Milan, Venice, Naples and Rome, their politics, and the formation of the personal dynasties on the Italian peninsula. From the beginning of the Renaissance to the Peace of Lodi, we will review the thinkers and doers of the Renaissance who balanced the world and destiny for decades.
This study group is for people who already know how to play bridge. Join us if you would like to meet other ICL members who play and want to have more opportunities to play the game. We welcome those who have recently learned the game as well as intermediate and advanced players. We will be playing for FUN, not cutthroat! Hopefully we can all learn from one another.
NOTE: This is an ongoing study group, but new participants are always welcome.
The Thin Man was a series of six movies which were produced between 1934 and 1947. The movies starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. The plot for these films centered around Nick and Nora's relationship as high society detectives. The films are full of laughs and mystery as Nick and Nora toast each other with champagne cocktails as they solve the latest "who done it"! The seventh class we will show two documentaries, one each on the lives of William Powell and Myrna Loy.
This energy-packed documentary follows her career from mail girl at Newsweek to reporter for the New York Post to becoming a prestigious essayist at Esquire to successfully writing and directing Hollywood movies that revitalized the romantic comedy genre. The film captures Ephron’s razor-sharp wit while at the same time presenting her flaws through interviews with her closest friends like Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, and the late Mike Nichols. This movie is a hoot!
The third president and his enslaved mistress had a decades-long relationship. Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings is historical fiction that imagines what that relationship might have been like. But it goes beyond other historical fiction in its creative take, shifting between history and fantasy, imagining Jefferson and Hemings in other time periods and places. As good fiction does, it makes us ask questions we had not thought to ask and presents possibilities we had not considered. This is a book discussion about Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings which will be held over two sessions and will work most beautifully if those attending have read the book. Session #1 will consider the first half of the book, and Session #2 will focus on how its various themes resolve. Discussion will be led by American historian Joyce Haworth.
This workshop offers an opportunity to explore different techniques and forms of art, such as brush painting, pen and ink, watercolor, and drawing. All levels of experience and expertise are welcome. Participants will bring their own supplies and materials and will work independently. While class facilitators and participants can offer encouragement, ideas and suggestions to each other, this will NOT be an instructional class.
Coordinators: Basilio King, Christopher Melby and Alfredo Rodriguez
Compete with your ICLRU friends in class. I will present some familiar games like Left, Right and Center, Ticket to Ride and Rummikub. There will be something for you. Join us for our Fun and Games’ class. Please bring any games that might be fun in class.
Description: This contemporary take on cinema’s most iconic figure blends newly-unearthed audio recordings and dramatic reconstructions to trace Chaplain’s meteoric rise from the slums of Victorian London to the heights of Hollywood superstardom, before his scandalous fall from grace. The film sheds new light on the many sides of a groundbreaking, controversial and visionary artist. For decades he was the most famous man in the world – but who was "The Real Charlie Chaplin?"
Every group of humans ever discovered has had some kind of religious belief. Yet these beliefs and practices vary widely from one culture to another and even within the same religion. To understand people of other cultures and ethnicities, we need to understand their religions. In this study group, we will explore the earliest evidence of religious practices. As we then strive to gain a basic understanding of the Abrahamic (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), Dharmic (Hindu and Buddhist), and Taoic (Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto) religions, we will also examine the similarities and differences among them.
This is a continuation of a study group that is planned to continue through successive Spring and Fall sessions. We will be looking in depth at the Civil War and Reconstruction from a military, political, societal, and economic perspective. These continuing sessions will include many stand-alone topics covering people; political and moral viewpoints; foreign affairs; life on the home front; military life; tactics and many more aspects of this period in American history. The military events of the conflict will be covered in considerable detail. We will be using lecture, discussion and audio/visual throughout this study group. Participants are encouraged to suggest topics for discussion and make short presentations if so inclined.
The Renaissance is commonly known for beautiful and impressive works of art. Less known, however, are the political and social foundations that made much of this Renaissance possible. This session will review the Italian city states during the Renaissance, the political giants of Florence, Milan, Venice, Naples and Rome, their politics, and the formation of the personal dynasties on the Italian peninsula. From the beginning of the Renaissance to the Peace of Lodi, we will review the thinkers and doers of the Renaissance who balanced the world and destiny for decades.
This study group is for people who already know how to play bridge. Join us if you would like to meet other ICL members who play and want to have more opportunities to play the game. We welcome those who have recently learned the game as well as intermediate and advanced players. We will be playing for FUN, not cutthroat! Hopefully we can all learn from one another.
NOTE: This is an ongoing study group, but new participants are always welcome.
The Thin Man was a series of six movies which were produced between 1934 and 1947. The movies starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. The plot for these films centered around Nick and Nora's relationship as high society detectives. The films are full of laughs and mystery as Nick and Nora toast each other with champagne cocktails as they solve the latest "who done it"! The seventh class we will show two documentaries, one each on the lives of William Powell and Myrna Loy.
Description: This contemporary take on cinema’s most iconic figure blends newly-unearthed audio recordings and dramatic reconstructions to trace Chaplain’s meteoric rise from the slums of Victorian London to the heights of Hollywood superstardom, before his scandalous fall from grace. The film sheds new light on the many sides of a groundbreaking, controversial and visionary artist. For decades he was the most famous man in the world – but who was "The Real Charlie Chaplain?"
The third president and his enslaved mistress had a decades-long relationship. Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings is historical fiction that imagines what that relationship might have been like. But it goes beyond other historical fiction in its creative take, shifting between history and fantasy, imagining Jefferson and Hemings in other time periods and places. As good fiction does, it makes us ask questions we had not thought to ask and presents possibilities we had not considered. This is a book discussion about Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings which will be held over two sessions and will work most beautifully if those attending have read the book. Session #1 will consider the first half of the book, and Session #2 will focus on how its various themes resolve. Discussion will be led by American historian Joyce Haworth.
