The Colona District Public Library invites everyone to come and enjoy our new outdoor artwork. Artist Sarah Robb has painted a spectacular 60 foot long mural on the outside of the building, for all to see!

With "Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition," an exhibition created by the Library of Congress, will open at the Newberry Library on October 10, 2009, in commemoration of the 200th birthday of America's 16th president. The exhibition offers the public the opportunity to view rarely seen treasures from the Library of Congress's collections.

"With Malice Toward None" charts Lincoln's growth from prairie lawyer to preeminent statesman and addresses the monumental issues he faced, including slavery and race, the dissolution of the Union, and the Civil War. The exhibit reveals Lincoln the man, whose thoughts, words, and actions were deeply affected by personal experiences and pivotal historic events.

By placing Lincoln's words in a historical context, the exhibition gives visitors a deeper understanding of how remarkable Lincoln's decisions were for their time and why his words continue to resonate today.

This exhibition is on display from October 10, 2009 - December 19, 2009.

Witness the emotional impact of war through the lenses of award-winning photojournalists: Ron Haviv, Antonin Kratochvil, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey, and Franco Pagetti.

The exhibit will display from September 25, 2009 through November 20, 2009 on Mondays - Fridays from 9 AM - 7 PM and Saturdays from 9 AM - 5 PM.

The student exhibit will be displayed at Standard Bank & Trust Co. for the month of October, 2009 on Mondays - Thursdays 9 AM - 5 PM; Fridays 9 AM - 6 PM; and Saturdays 9 AM - 1 PM.

A "Meet the Artist" reception will be held on Saturday, October 3rd from 4 - 5 PM at the bank.

Artist Reception Sunday, October 18 1-4pm; Exhibit will be up 10/3/09 thru 10/31/09 Gallery Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm

This exibition is on display from October 2, 2009 - December 6, 2009. Tarble Arts Center hours are 10 AM - 5 PM Tuesdays - Fridays; 10 AM - 4 PM Saturdays, and 1 PM - 4 PM on Sundays.

Note: Related film showings on October 29 and November 5, 7 PM

Note: As part of Latino Heritage Month, there will be a ublic guided tour of this exhibition on October 13, 2009 at 3 PM.

Journey Stories tells how we and our ancestors came to America. From Native Americans to new American citizens and regardless of our ethnic or racial background, everyone has a story to tell.

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 October 24 - December 6, 2009.

This one-day conference seeks to push the traditional bounds of human rights programming and explore an effective, yet underutilized, method of human rights education and communication the arts. Panels will address the use of art as a therapeutic outlet for the artists, the use of mediums in interactive education and communication efforts, and the use of art as a means of storytelling and documentation.

Retrospecitve Exhibition featuring Illinois Artist Glen C. Davies that focuses on his series of "Bannerline" paintings influenced by his experience traveling with circuses and carnivals. Loose canvas formats reveal his personal language.

This exhibit will be on display from October 5, 200 - November 17, 2009.

Hours: Mondays - Fridays 10 AM - 3 PM; Mondays - Thursdays 6 PM - 8 PM; and Saturdays Noon - 2 PM

Most beautiful is a delicate moving sculpture of bones in the 2004 Sublime Beauty of Hands, which tells an oblique, poetic story about evil munitions makers, the vulnerability of the body, and the limitations of puppetry.

Matters turn much less serious in the delightful Klown Kantos: six very funny puppet bits, loosely connected by the ensemble's clowning.

Montenegro's interactions with his creations--comic revelations of the tender, antagonistic, complicated relationship between puppet and puppeteer--are a highlight.

Display running Friday & Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 3pm from October 16, 2009 - November 1, 2009.

Send pictures of your late loved ones for our authentic "Ofrenda", or altar, by emailing them to waygoodmusic@gmail.com. Sample the special "Pan de Muerto" (bread of the dead).

Beer and wine will be available at the bar of our special "clubhouse". It's the Mexican holiday with a slight Celtic twist!

Journey Stories tells how we and our ancestors came to America. From Native Americans to new American citizens and regardless of our ethnic or racial background, everyone has a story to tell.

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 October 24 - December 6, 2009.

Tracing his rise from Prairie State rail-splitter to America's favorite president this blend of history and humor will attempt to disentangle the man from the myth. Told from the perspective of Austin Gollaher, a childhood friend of Lincoln who once saved his life, Brian Fox Ellis steps into character to allow audiences to step back in time and meet Lincoln during many facets of life, including his childhood, his career as a lawyer, and his presidency.

A Road Scholar Program by Heineman & Marcotte 

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.

Journey Stories tells how we and our ancestors came to America. From Native Americans to new American citizens and regardless of our ethnic or racial background, everyone has a story to tell.

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 October 24 - December 6, 2009.

AmeriCorps of Belleville volunteers will discuss 'Mending Wall' by Robert Frost.

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.

This presentation traces the image of Abraham Lincoln in the history of American art. It illustrates how and why artists have used images of the great man. From Mathew Brady's photographs, to statues by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, to paintings by contemporary artists such as Ed Paschke, the sixteenth President has been the subject of many important American works of art. Besides description and analysis of these pieces, this lively multimedia presentation will also involve history, art, media, and the biography of Abraham Lincoln.

At the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876, Mary Florence Potts' cold-handled sad iron was the toast of the fair. She spent the next two decades touring the country with a promotional lecture. Mrs. Potts will visit your group as a stop on her tour to promote her invention. She will discuss domestic life in the 19th Century, the science and technology behind the development of her invention, and what it means for a woman to hold a US Patent and manage her own affairs. Mrs. Potts can appear at your event in 1885, or if you prefer, in 1893 when she was in Chicago for the Columbian Exposition. Mrs. Potts arrives costumed in the preferred year, with examples of her invention and period appropriate promotional materials.

A Road Scholar Program by Heineman & Marcotte

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.

Author and activist Anne Elizabeth Moore will be a special guest at Valois, this Thursday, November 5 from 7:00pm -8:00pm. 

In a piece entitled Women are Diamonds: A Brilliant Future for Cambodia Means Creating Female Employment Now, author and activist Anne Elizabeth Moore explores the dwindling employment opportunities for young Cambodian women. She writes, "While education may be a way to move the country forward, and volunteerism an excellent means to bolster education with hands-on skills, the fact remains that Cambodia's job opportunities are few and far between. A full 40 percent of the country is in poverty, and most Cambodians survive on only a dollar a day."

Moore gives the reader background on Cambodia's economy: "In recent years, Cambodian industry - most natural resources save rice were destroyed under the Khmer Rouge regime - had begun to edge away from agriculture toward garment export. Women's long association with textiles made them the go-to labor force in the emerging market. This sudden increase in women's economic opportunities had begun to shift, however slightly, the assumption that women were valueless."

Mark Twain said "Inventors are the creators of the world-after God." This presentation is a first-person Chautauqua style program by Warren Brown as Mark Twain. You will journey on water, land, and air sharing insights from the "Diaries of Adam and Eve" to friendships with inventors and thoughts about Galileo and Newton. "I have found out there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them."- Mark Twain.

In a piece entitled Women are Diamonds: A Brilliant Future for Cambodia Means Creating Female Employment Now, author and activist Anne Elizabeth Moore explores the dwindling employment opportunities for young Cambodian women. She writes, "While education may be a way to move the country forward, and volunteerism an excellent means to bolster education with hands-on skills, the fact remains that Cambodia's job opportunities are few and far between. A full 40 percent of the country is in poverty, and most Cambodians survive on only a dollar a day."

Moore gives the reader background on Cambodia's economy: "In recent years, Cambodian industry - most natural resources save rice were destroyed under the Khmer Rouge regime - had begun to edge away from agriculture toward garment export. Women's long association with textiles made them the go-to labor force in the emerging market. This sudden increase in women's economic opportunities had begun to shift, however slightly, the assumption that women were valueless."

Journey Stories tells how we and our ancestors came to America. From Native Americans to new American citizens and regardless of our ethnic or racial background, everyone has a story to tell.

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 October 24 - December 6, 2009.

Join us as Evelynn M. Hammonds, Dean of Harvard College, discusses “Diversity in Higher Education.” Prior to her tenure as dean, Hammonds served as Harvard University’s first Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity from July 2005 to June 2008. She is also the Barbara Gutman Rosenkrantz Professor of History of Science and of African and African American Studies.

Her scholarly interests include the history of scientific, medical, and sociopolitical concepts of race and sexuality; the history of disease and public health; gender in science and medicine; and African-American history.

Welcome and introductions will be made by Professor Barbara Ransby, Director of Gender and Women’s Studies at UIC; Michael Tanner, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; and Professor William Walden, Special Assistant to the Provost for Diversity.

Journey Stories tells how we and our ancestors came to America. From Native Americans to new American citizens and regardless of our ethnic or racial background, everyone has a story to tell.

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 October 24 - December 6, 2009.

A Road Scholar Program by Penelope Bingham

Nine out of ten Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving, and most do so around a family table. Food and tradition are the heart and soul of this most-loved, most-observed holiday. Thanksgiving has become the origin myth of America and the expression of deeply held American cultural ideals. As it considers the evolution of Thanksgiving, from the "First Thanksgiving" in 1621 to the present day, this program invites the audience to think about what this holiday and its food traditions mean for American culture and identity.