Friday 14
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Last year Governor Jim Thompson commuted the sentence of Leslie Brown, who had admitted she’d killed her husband. Brown’s defense had been straightforward; she’d endured her husband’s abuse for years. Brown’s lawyer, Margaret Byrne, a part-time instructor at Loyola University whose law practice focuses on battered women, presents Domestic Violence and the Courts, a free seminar at 3 at Loyola’s Crown Center, 6525 N. Sheridan; 508-2934.
Saturday 15
“I don’t believe that there is only one true answer to any great human question, I believe there are many answers,” writes Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, a professor at the University of Chicago, in her new book, Other Peoples’ Myths. O’Flaherty will argue against the back-to-basics and Judeo-Christian-values solutions to problems in our schools proposed by Allan Bloom–the author of The Closing of the American Mind who also teaches at the U. of C.–in a talk at 2 today titled The Re-Opening of the American Mind: A Humanist Approach to Religious Pluralism. The talk will be given in the Carlson Auditorium, National College of Education, 2840 Sheridan in Evanston. Admission is $3. Call 386-9100.
Saul Bellow will give this year’s Helen Harris Perlman lecture, an annual lecture given by someone whose work is “devoted to the understanding and betterment of the human condition.” Bellow’s talk, “An American Jewish Writer,” will be at 3 PM in Mandel Hall, 5706 S. University Avenue. It’s free. Call 702-8360 for more information.
William Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets deal with a variety of subjects, including a dark but unfaithful lady with whom Shakespeare was in love, a rival poet, and time and its ravages. Most are addressed to a young man, probably his patron the Earl of Southampton, to whom two of the sonnets are dedicated. On the occasion of the bard’s 425th birthday, Loyola University sponsors today’s free sonnet marathon. Volunteers will take turns reading sonnets 1 through 50 from 1 to 2:30, sonnets 51 through 100 from 2:30 to 4, and sonnets 101 through 154 from 4 to 5:30. The location will be the Kerwin Conference Room in Damen Hall at 6525 N. Sheridan; 670-2820.
