Friday 9/4 – Thursday 9/10
5 SATURDAY When Princess Diana died last August, local royalists bedecked one end of the Michigan Avenue bridge with a monstrous load of flowers, stuffed animals, and letters of condolence expressing a collective sorrow as profound as the spelling errors and grammatical mistakes within them. Presumably editors Rick Blalock and K. Thomas Oglesby employed modern proofreading techniques when compiling Remembering Diana: The People’s Tribute to Their Princess, a collection of over “400 heartfelt words of sympathy, reflections and original works of poetry” culled from the global eulogy. Blalock and Oglesby have invited locals who made the cut to read their contributions tonight at 6 at Borders Books & Music, 2817 N. Clark (773-935-3909). It’s free.
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10 THURSDAY A hundred years ago, when the population in this country was decidedly more WASPy, readin’, writin’, and religion were all part of the lesson plan in public schools. Students said their prayers or stayed after school. Thank God immigrants of different faiths started to make a fuss and separation of church and state started to become more than just a few pious words in the Bill of Rights. This morning eminent theologian Martin Marty kicks off a ten-month breakfast lecture series at DePaul University on the changes in church-state issues over the last century with his talk, “The Protestant Nation: How Has the Last Century Changed Protestant Understandings of the Relationship of Church and State?” Nine more lectures will be held, on the second Thursday of each month, and each will feature a prominent representative of a different major belief system, including Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, and secularism. They’re free but reservations are required. Marty’s talk is at 8 in the Union League Club of Chicago, 65 W. Jackson. Call 312-362-8818 to claim a spot.
