For 25 years, the Chicago Humanities Festival has celebrated the questions that shape and define us as individuals, communities, and cultures. For the curious at heart, CHF's vibrant year-round programming and robust Fall Festival offer the opportunity to engage with some of the world's most brilliant minds. Collaborating with leading arts, cultural, and educational organizations, it presents scholars, artists and architects, thinkers, theologians, and policy makers that change how we see the world, where we're from, and where we're going.

BASIC INFORMATION

Dates: The 26th Chicago Humanities Festival, Citizens: October 24-November 8, 2015

Location: In and around Chicago, with full days of programming in Evanston, Hyde Park, the Loop, North Michigan Ave, UIC, and Pilsen

Schedule:  chicagohumanities.org/citizens

Ticketing: Tickets are available at chicagohumanities.org or by calling the CHF Box Office at 312-494-9509 Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 5 PM. 

Follow on Twitter: @chi_humanities | #CHF2015

Visit chicagohumanities.org for more information.

The Freedom to Read Foundation awards grants to organizations in support of 2015 Banned Books Week events.

Check out one of this year's winners!

Chapel Hill Public Library

Banned Books Week Trading Cards Sneak Peek and Artists’ Reception

Friday, September 25th, 7 – 9 PM

Banned Books Trading Cards have become a Chapel Hill tradition. Join us for a chance to see the winning artwork, meet the artists, and get a first look at ALL of this years’ entries.  (There were 101!) Here are the details:

More info....

The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) and American Library Association (ALA) on Thursday joined with booksellers, international librarians, and research librarians to file an amicus brief defending their ability – and the ability of similar organizations – to challenge on behalf of their users government actions that burden readers' First Amendment rights.   The amicus brief was filed in support of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit  Wikimedia Foundation v. National Security Agency.

The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)  on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation and a broad coalition of educational, human rights, legal, and media organizations.   It challenges the National Security Agency's "Upstream" surveillance program.  According to NSA, the "Upstream" surveillance program involves copying Internet traffic—including e-mails, chat, web browsing and other communications—as the data traverses the fiber optic backbone of the Internet. 

This means that the NSA is looking over every reader's shoulders while they're online, compromising the privacy of every library user and bookstore patron who searches a library's or bookseller's online catalog, obtains an e-book, or consults online databases and journals for research, and deterring individuals from exercising their First Amendment right to obtain and read materials that are controversial or reflect deeply private concerns.

The amicus brief, written by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of the library and bookseller organizations, explains the importance of privacy to the unfettered exercise of First Amendment rights and argues that libraries, booksellers, and similar organizations can assert the rights of their users   related to privacy concerns associated with government access to, and surveillance of, users' reading habits.  It further emphasizes the chill on First Amendment rights that results when the government has unrestricted access to the records of what users read and view online.   

The Electronic Frontier Foundation provides more information on their website, and the full brief can be read online at this link.   The ACLU has full details about Wikimedia Foundation v. NSA on its website, linked here.    Other amici on the brief include the American Booksellers Association, the Association of Research Libraries, and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.