Past Events

A reinterpretation of ancient music at the Chinese Tang Court: enjoy a cello concert with College of the Holy Cross visiting musician-in-residence, Jan Muller-Szeraws. This performance will be introduced by Shirish Korde, composer and professor, College of the Holy Cross.

Leonard Bernstein's identity as both a composer and conductor was deeply influenced by a combination of his own Jewish heritage and the place of religion in 20th Century society and culture. This panel explores, through the Jeremiah and Kaddish Symphonies and Mass, the impact of those formative religious experiences and the wider existentialist doubt of life in the nuclear age on the man and his music. Audio clips of Leonard Bernstein via _The Bernstein Experience_ on Classical.org. Copyright: Estate of John Gruen. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Special thanks to Julia Gruen. [Hear more on Classical.org](https://bernstein.classical.org/ ""). _Bernstein Week_ panels are supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. ###### Special thanks to the following for providing research and content: Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives New York Philharmonic Archives Loeb Music Library, Harvard University Congregation Mishkan Tefila Archives The Bernstein Experience at https://bernstein.classical.org

Dan-El Padilla Peralta shares the story of his own American dream. Arriving in the US from the Dominican Republic at the age of four, he lived in a NYC homeless shelter as an undocumented immigrant before eventually graduating from an Ivy league school at the top of his class. Dan-el received his MPhil from the University of Oxford and his PhD in classics from Stanford University. In addition to his successful academic career, Padilla Peralta is an activist on immigration issues and will speak about the implications of the DACA decision not just for immigrants, but for all Americans. Photo credit: Citizens' Committee for Children of New York

Founded in 1973 as the Jamaica Plain Tenants Action Group, for over 40 years City Life/Vida Urbana has responded to the needs of Boston’s poor and working people. In recent years, the advocacy group has focused on halting housing displacement through eviction defense. Learn from a representative of this local group about the organization’s history and current strategies to ensure housing for Bostonians of all income levels.

This is the second presentation in the Citizens Literacy program, a joint project between Science for the Public, Belmont Library and Belmont Media Center. The Citizens Literacy program will present speakers on science, civic, and media issues in an effort to promote public awareness and response to important concerns of our time. Dr. Prentiss explains the vital need to switch to renewable energy and she describes here –and in her book Energy Revolution- just how that change can be implemented.

Representatives from the most innovative and dynamic programs in the country will convene to testify to the range, scope, and depth of prison education. Organizers will highlight the work that has been done at Harvard, and what's next. Featuring Michelle Jones, NYU and Indiana Women's Prison Higher Education Program; Steven Hahn and José Diaz, NYU Prison Education Program; Garrett Felber and Paul Henry Grice III, Liberation Literacy; Kaia Stern and Catherine Sirois, Harvard Prison Studies Project; Darren Mack, Center for Justice at Columbia Univ., Just Leadership USA, Bard Prison Initiative; Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor and Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard. _Presented by Harvard University's Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Inequality in America Initiative, and Mahindra Center for the Humanities._ Photo credit: Pixbay

Kenneth Pomeranz is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His current projects include a history of Chinese political economy from the seventeenth century to the present. In this talk Pomeranz examines how and why contemporary China's huge land mass and population have wound up forming a single political unit.

Join Barbara Stephenson, President of the American Foreign Service Association, and Nicholas Burns, one of the country’s best-known commentators on international affairs, at a special WorldBoston event on “The State of the State Department” and its implications for the future of the U.S. national interest.

Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the FCC from 2013 to 2017 under President Obama and Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow, discusses technological change, President Trump’s FCC, regulation of social platforms, and more during a talk at the Shorenstein Center. Image: [Shorenstein Center](https://shorensteincenter.org/tom-wheeler-fcc-net-neutrality-platform-regulation/ "Shorenstein Center")

Acclaimed health and food policy journalist and Brandeis University Senior Fellow Maryn McKenna talks about her book 'Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats.' She is joined in conversation by University of Massachusetts Lowell philosophy professor Nicholas Evans.