Past Events

The Townsend Acts marked a new radical phase in the crisis that eventually destroyed Britain's empire. When Parliament enacted the law in 1767, it seemed as though the imperial stresses at the end of the Seven Years' War could be contained. Just over a year later, occupied Boston was the toast of radical patriots throughout George III's dominions, and observers began to wonder whether Britain's days as an imperial power were numbered. University of New Hampshire Professor of History Eliga Gould tells the fascinating story of this transformation - as it appeared to Bostonians and from the standpoint of people on the far shores of the Atlantic. One of four lectures in the series "Lead, Glass, Paper, Tea: The Townshend Acts, Colonial Unrest, and the Occupation of Boston, 1768." Part of the Lowell Lecture Series presented by the Paul Revere Memorial Association at Old South Meeting House. Image: Presentation Slide

Chris Hedges, who writes a regular column for truthdig, and was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times for nearly two decades, seeks to jolt us out of our complacency about the current state of affairs, while we still have time. In conversation with Chris Lydon, producer & presenter of WBUR’s “Open Source”, Hedges discusses his latest book, 'America: The Farewell Tour.'
Image: Book Cover

Olga Tokarczuk joins translator Jennifer Croft and moderator Shuchi Saraswat as part of the Transnational Literature Series. A seventeenth-century Dutch anatomist discovers the Achilles tendon by dissecting his own amputated leg. Chopin’s heart is carried back to Warsaw in secret by his adoring sister. A woman must return to her native Poland in order to poison her terminally ill high school sweetheart, and a young man slowly descends into madness when his wife and child mysteriously vanish during a vacation and just as suddenly reappear. Through these brilliantly imagined characters and stories, interwoven with haunting, playful, and revelatory meditations, Flights explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer, a body in motion not only through space but through time. Where are you from? Where are you coming in from? Where are you going? We call to the traveler. Enchanting, unsettling, and wholly original, Flights is a master storyteller’s answer. Image: Book cover

Emilie Townes, an African American Christian social ethicist and theologian who serves as Dean of the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University, explores what a good theological education should look like.

As part of a two-day Afrofuturism and Black Comix symposium celebrating black creativity, hosted by The Museum of African American History in Boston, artist John Jennings lectures on Sequential Sankofa: Critical Nostalgia, Afrofuturism and the Black Comix Archive. Image: Event Materials

“Breathing Room: Mapping Boston’s Green Spaces,” was an exhibition on view at the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library in 2018. It presented an array of historical maps that display Boston’s great tradition of understanding open space as a vital resource for the city and for the region. As Boston grapples with pressing issues like access, equity and climate change, it is essential to recognize the critical role landscape plays in the creation of resilient places. Boston is experiencing higher seas, warmer temperatures, and stronger storms. As its citizens accommodate more water and heat, the landscapes must be both functional and beautiful. In partnership with the Leventhal Center, the [Boston Society of Landscape Architects](http://bslanow.org/ "") and [NBBJ](http://www.nbbj.com/ "") host a conversation on what our priorities should be as we build upon this legacy and look ahead. Photo: Stoss Landscape Urbanism

How to stay healthy? Be inspired by dating coach, Neely Steinberg, to take control of your love life. Learn from Registered dietitian, Skylar Griggs, how to improve your eating habits in the fall season. Plus, Eric Janszen, Co-founder & CEO of VirZOOM,Inc. shares how he is making fitness virtual with VR technology.

Charles Sennott is the Founder and Executive Director of The GroundTruth Project. He is an award-winning foreign correspondent, author, and editor with 30 years of experience in journalism. Sennott has reported on the front lines of wars and insurgencies in at least 15 countries, including the 2011 revolution in Cairo and the Arab Spring. Drawing from his years of experience reporting and working to train the next generation of journalist, Sennott discusses the crisis in the journalism field, the gap in local reporting, and the importance of covering truth from the ground of local communities. Learn more about: [The GroundTruth Project](http://thegroundtruthproject.org/ "The GroundTruth Project") Image: Presentation Slide

Stephen Nash, the author of award-winning books on science and the environment, writes that America’s public lands “will tumble away” unless people act. Nash discusses the precarious future of our national parks, monuments and wildlife refuges with Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. Given the prospect that climate change will dislocate wildlife populations and vegetation across hundreds of thousands of square miles of the national landscape, what can we do about it? Image: Book Cover

Dubravka Ugrešić will be in conversation with translator Ellen Elias-Bursać about _American Fictionary_ as part of the Transnational Literature Series. In the midst of the Yugoslav wars of the early 1990s, Dubravka Ugrešić — winner of the 2016 Neustadt International Prize for Literature — was invited to Middletown, Connecticut, as a guest lecturer. A world away from the brutal sieges of Sarajevo and the nationalist rhetoric of Miloševic, she instead has to cope with everyday life in America, where she’s assaulted by “strong personalities,” the cult of the body, endless amounts of jogging and exercise, bagels, and an obsession with public confession.
 Organized as a fictional dictionary, these early essays of Ugrešić's (revised and amended for this edition) are as pertinent to today’s America as when they were first published. It’s here, in these pieces filled with Ugrešić's unparalleled wit and devastating observations, that the comforting veil of Western consumerism is ripped apart as the mundane luxuries of the average citizen are contrasted with the life of a woman whose country is being destroyed.