Take a magic carpet ride to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt in story and song with storyteller Judith Heineman and musician Daniel Marcotte in an engaging and interactive performance. Learn how tales like Star Wars and Harry Potter got their start. Hear of ancient quests, magic, monsters, epic battles between good and evil, and how mummies are made. Replica artifacts, early musical instruments (the oud), and period costumes enhance their lively presentation. The epic story of the world's first superhero, Gilgamesh, deals with the basic qualities of what it means to be human-courage, strength, friendship, loss, betrayal, death, and the quest for immortality. It lay hidden for over 4500 years until it was literally unearthed about 150 years ago. This program brings these lost stories to life.

Some of the issues we will address in these seminars include the effects of technology and urban environments on individuals and society, the fragmentation and anonymity as well as the freedom and autonomy of life in a metropolis, the longing for nature and unity, the proliferation of forms of mass culture (film, newspaper, radio, illustrated magazine), the role of art in modern life and everyday life in art, the shifting status of "high" and "low" culture, as well as the idea of modern culture as alienating and "decadent."

Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Healthcare is a discussion-based program that brings hospital staff together monthly to reflect on the larger mission of medicine through facilitated conversations about literature.

Lee Murdock has uncovered a boundless body of music and stories in the Great Lakes region (16 CDs and 2 books so far). There is an amazing timelessness in this music. Great Lakes songs are made of hard work, hard-living, ships that go down, and ships that come in. The music is grounded in the work-song tradition from the rugged days of lumberjacks and wooded sailing schooners. Murdock comes alongside with ballads of contemporary commerce and revelry in the grand folk style. Making folk music for the modern era, Murdock's work is a documentary and an anthem to the people who live, work, learn, and play along the freshwater highways of North America.

Bruno Bettleheim in The Uses of Enchantment, Jane Yolen in Touch Magic, and other acclaimed writers and psychologists have discussed the power of fright in children as a necessary and useful tool. Listening to narrow escapes and horrible demises in ghost stories and gothic tales strengthen human survival instincts. The imagination is primed to act in reality should these dangerous situations arise, thus justifying the enjoyment shared in hearing a good scary story. This program challenges the popular, modern versions of fairy tales by reinstating the original gothic tales long before the stories were edited in the Victorian era. For example, what happened after Sleeping Beauty is awakened by the Prince's kiss? Most people believe they lived happily ever after, but this was far from the truth or intent of the original tale. Find out more through this innovative program.

The Meaning of Service (MoS) is a reading and discussion program for Americorps volunteers featuring discussions that use short philosophical and literary texts on the nature of justice, service, and related themes. Meaning of Service presents participants with the opportunity to examine, refine, and regenerate the beliefs underlying their work.

Bruno Bettleheim in The Uses of Enchantment, Jane Yolen in Touch Magic, and other acclaimed writers and psychologists have discussed the power of fright in children as a necessary and useful tool. Listening to narrow escapes and horrible demises in ghost stories and gothic tales strengthen human survival instincts. The imagination is primed to act in reality should these dangerous situations arise, thus justifying the enjoyment shared in hearing a good scary story. This program challenges the popular, modern versions of fairy tales by reinstating the original gothic tales long before the stories were edited in the Victorian era. For example, what happened after Sleeping Beauty is awakened by the Prince's kiss? Most people believe they lived happily ever after, but this was far from the truth or intent of the original tale. Find out more through this innovative program.

Bruno Bettleheim in The Uses of Enchantment, Jane Yolen in Touch Magic, and other acclaimed writers and psychologists have discussed the power of fright in children as a necessary and useful tool. Listening to narrow escapes and horrible demises in ghost stories and gothic tales strengthen human survival instincts. The imagination is primed to act in reality should these dangerous situations arise, thus justifying the enjoyment shared in hearing a good scary story. This program challenges the popular, modern versions of fairy tales by reinstating the original gothic tales long before the stories were edited in the Victorian era. For example, what happened after Sleeping Beauty is awakened by the Prince's kiss? Most people believe they lived happily ever after, but this was far from the truth or intent of the original tale. Find out more through this innovative program.

"Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa."

Perhaps that refrain from Michael Jackson's hit "Wanna Be Startin' Something" played in your head after the news on June 25 that he had died, two weeks before his series of comeback concerts were set to begin in London. People everywhere, it seems, could relate to something about the man who was arguably America's biggest pop culture export.

Shock. Grief. Denial. Celebration. Fellow celebrities, Jackson's friends, and people who never met him reacted to the megastar's death with a collective response unlike that seen since perhaps the tragic accident that killed Britain's Princess Diana. When she died, though, no one had the Internet, Facebook, and Twitter to broadcast story after story, or their personal feelings, around the world. For almost three days, the Jackson story occupied prime real estate on both CNN and the New York Times' websites, two of the most visited news outlets online. 

Join storyteller Judith Heineman and musician Daniel Marcotte in period costume as they present songs and tales of maidens, pirates and dragons, Irish fairy legends, stories of Robin Hood and King Arthur, including the Arthurian Legend of "the Loathly Lady" that asks, "what do women desire most?" This age-old puzzlement is answered in this engaging program, as listeners ultimately get to make new choices while taking the journey into their imagination. Story allows us to reflect on values and customs and to pass on culture. As part of this process, audiences will also explore the baric tradition in early modern Europe as led by this skillful teller and gifted musician.

"Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa."

Perhaps that refrain from Michael Jackson's hit "Wanna Be Startin' Something" played in your head after the news on June 25 that he had died, two weeks before his series of comeback concerts were set to begin in London. People everywhere, it seems, could relate to something about the man who was arguably America's biggest pop culture export.

Shock. Grief. Denial. Celebration. Fellow celebrities, Jackson's friends, and people who never met him reacted to the megastar's death with a collective response unlike that seen since perhaps the tragic accident that killed Britain's Princess Diana. When she died, though, no one had the Internet, Facebook, and Twitter to broadcast story after story, or their personal feelings, around the world. For almost three days, the Jackson story occupied prime real estate on both CNN and the New York Times' websites, two of the most visited news outlets online. 

This exhibit runs from May 23, 2009 - July 11, 2009.

Our history is filled with stories of people leaving behind everything - families and possessions - to reach a new life in another state, across the continent, or even across an ocean.

Many chose to move, searching for something better in a new land. Others had no choice, like enslaved Africans captured and relocated to a strange land and bravely asserting their own cultures, or like Native Americans already here, who were often violently removed by newcomers.

This exhibition runs from May 30, 2009 - July 11, 2009, at the Engh Farm at 1730 North Main Street in Sycamore.

This exhibit runs from May 23, 2009 - July 11, 2009.

But fences are more than functional objects. They are powerful symbols. The way we define ourselves as individuals and as a nation becomes concrete in how we build fences.

Through an examination of boundaries, place, and space, Between Fences will explore how neighbors and nations divide, protect, offend, and defend through the boundaries they build.

This exhibit runs from June 13, 2009 - July 26, 2009

The Meaning of Service (MoS) is a reading and discussion program for Americorps volunteers featuring discussions that use short philosophical and literary texts on the nature of justice, service, and related themes. Meaning of Service presents participants with the opportunity to examine, refine, and regenerate the beliefs underlying their work.

The life of Abraham Lincoln spanned a period of great change and growth in the state of Illinois. From his days as a flat-boater, through his time at New Salem, his years as a circuit lawyer and on up through his presidency, Lincoln's life is a microcosm of the development of Illinois during that period. Award-winning folksinger Chris Vallillo uses historic narratives, contemporary folk music, and period folk songs Lincoln may well have known and sung to bring Illinois' favorite son and his times to life.

Since Illinois failed to pass a state budget before the new fiscal year began on July 1, 2009, many social services organizations that provide health care, domestic violence shelter, youth services, and other kinds of essential care were forced to close their doors.  Alex Parker of the Chi-Town Daily News writes, "If state legislators and Gov. Pat Quinn are unable to resolve the budget impasse, the city would have to reduce the number of food inspections, offer fewer vaccinations for diseases like polio and measles, see fewer mental health patients, offer fewer mammograms, and reduce lead inspections and screenings."