Nov 05 Tuesday
U.S. Election Day 2024. Presidential and other races depending on location.
NPR Illinois will have coverage throughout the day and results as available after polls close.
Nov 06 Wednesday
2024 marks the 19th class of high school seniors NPR Illinois will ask to share what they believe. This I Believe was started by radio journalist Edward R. Murrow in 1951 to allow anyone able to distil the guiding principles by which they lived.
This culminating event celebrates the 10 selected authors from the 2024 NPR Illinois This I Believe Essay program. The authors will read their essays live at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. A dessert reception will follow.
NPR Illinois will air the essays in their authors’ voices the last two weeks of October (at approximately 7:45 am and 4:45 pm). The audio will also be streamed at nprillinois.org. Previous essays are available on the website at nprillinois.org under the “Community Voices” tab.
The Rotary Club of Springfield Sunrise has partnered with NPR Illinois since the program began and provides a monetary award to the selected authors. The Illinois Times also provides support to the program by printing the essays in the weekly paper.
Nov 26 Tuesday
Save the date for our annual celebration of you! Please join us for an evening of appreciation and friendship as we say thank you to the loyal supporters that keep NPR Illinois thriving. Appetizers and desserts will be served and a short program will be held.
We look forward to celebrating with you.
Questions: 217-206-9847 or engage@nprillinois.org
The Underground Gallery, the newest featured space to the SAA Collective showcases over forty community artists with strange, eerie, and bizarre artwork perfect for the Halloween season. Open Wednesday - Saturdays from 11 AM - 5 PM.
The University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery is pleased to present A More Perfect Union, an exhibition by St. Louis-based artist John Early. A More Perfect Union will open on Monday, October 21 and run through Thursday, November 14.
Coinciding with the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, A More Perfect Union is a sculptural installation made for a nation teetering on the precipice. Its focal point consists of a massive, fragile panel of compressed earth held up by a wooden frame and cinderblocks. Pierced with fifty holes, the dirt sign sits in front of a bay of windows, thus allowing natural light to shine through an otherwise impenetrable plane. The sculpture evokes old roadside billboards and DIY signage found throughout the Midwest countryside, yet it makes no pronouncements. Rather, it offers an invitation. To reflect, to connect, and, perhaps, even to hope amidst the precarity of the present moment.
John Early (b. 1978, Richmond, VA) is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose site-based work explores the textures, layers, and histories of place. Much of his recent work addresses power structures of inequity found in the recreational landscape of St. Louis’s public parks. Since 2021, Early has collaborated with sports studies scholar Noah Cohan on Whereas Hoops, an interdisciplinary project combining public scholarship, archival research, spatial interventions, and activism to address the absence of basketball courts in St. Louis’s Forest Park. In April 2022, Early’s essay about a basketball court in North St. Louis was included in the edited volume, The Material World of Modern Segregation: St. Louis in the Long Era of Ferguson. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis and is a Faculty Affiliate at the University’s Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity.
John Early will share images from his studio art practice while discussing projects that engage deeply with the cultural and social landscapes of various communities. Through his site-based work, he explores issues of spatial injustice, urban renewal, and community identity. By addressing topics like the anti-Black racism underlying the absence of basketball courts in St. Louis’s Forest Park and the human toll of urban renewal in the St. Louis Place neighborhood, Early's work highlights the importance of understanding and respecting diverse cultural perspectives. His projects serve as a catalyst for dialogue, advocating for spatial equity, racial justice, and the preservation of community memory. By engaging with issues of social justice and community empowerment, Early contributes to ongoing conversations about the complexities of social change and collective action.
Nov 07 Thursday
Soil & Soul is a multi-part documentary capturing the stories of 10 individuals who have spent their lives farming in the Sangamon River watershed in central Illinois. The project showcases heartfelt interviews, documentary footage, and family photographs, highlighting the area's rich history and the farmers' dedication to carrying on the legacy of agriculture in the region.
In conjunction with our new exhibit, “Freedom of Form: Richard Hunt,” the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum invites you to a special screening of the documentary, “The Light of Truth: Richard Hunt’s Monument to Ida B. Wells,” followed by a discussion with the film’s award-winning director Rana Segal.
Wells was a fierce activist for civil rights and women's rights. Hunt was a major figure in American art for decades. This feature documentary weaves together the sculptor’s process and life story, with that of civil rights crusader, suffragist and antilynching activist. Hunt created the Light of Truth monument for the Bronzeville community at the former site of the Ida B. Wells Home. Wells’ history and the sculptor’s history intersect in their mutual reaction and actions as they confront the injustices of racism with their work.
This special screening of “The Light of Truth: Richard Hunt’s Monument to Ida B. Wells” will happen on Thursday, November 7, 2024, at 6:30 p.m. in the ALPLM Union Theater. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m. This program is free to attend, but advance reservations are required.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR: Rana Segal is an award-winning director, producer and cinematographer. Her work has aired on PBS, The Learning Channel, and Discovery Channel. She has filmed artists and musicians in Senegal, the Midsummer Festival in Sweden, architecture on the Chicago River, fishermen in the wilds of Siberia, the effect of the Exxon Valdez oil spill on the communities in Alaska, and the fight in the Indiana Dunes between environmentalists and industrialists. Her latest film called, “The Oracle of Bronzeville” is about the life of poet, Gwendolyn Brooks and the creation of the Gwendolyn Brooks Monument, by sculptor, Margot McMahon.
A gift to the city from the Ursulines, Franciscans, and Dominican Sisters who began transforming lives in the city in 1857.Limited seating! Register early!Register at: https://springfieldop.org/save-the-date-springfield-catholic-sisters-armchair-tour-is-november-7/
Meet the Ursuline, Franciscan, and Dominican Sisters who’ve made an impact in Springfield.Enjoy a video armchair tour of some of the sites of the sisters’ extraordinary ministries.Hear stories of impact from people whose lives have been transformed by their relationship with the sisters.Socialize and enjoy dessert