Surviving the Long Wars: Residues and Rebellions
Pairing historic works and contemporary art, this exhibition reflects on the persistence of anti-colonial resistance, from the so-called “Indian Wars” to the “Global War on Terror”.
The Life and Times of Sultan Süleyman
This program will be held in-person at the Newberry and livestreamed on Zoom. Free and open to all. Advance registration required.
Join us as historian Kaya Şahin, author of Peerless among Princes: The Life and Times of Sultan Süleyman, and art historian Elizabeth Rodini discuss the sixteenth-century ruler, during whose reign the Ottoman Empire became a truly global power.
Süleyman presided over a multilingual and multireligious empire that promised peace and prosperity to its subjects while he clashed with the Catholic Habsburgs in Europe and the Shiite Safavids in the Middle East. His poetic output, his appearances during public ceremonies, his charity, and his patronage of arts and architecture enhanced his reputation as a universal ruler with a well-rounded character.
Behind that public façade, Süleyman led a complicated life. He grew up with an overbearing father whose legacy was an advantage and a burden. Defying established practice, he married a concubine named Hürrem whose love and affection became his true refuge. Toward the end of his life, facing both debilitating sickness and the agitations of his sons, he struggled to remain on the throne.
Peerless among Princes will be available for purchase in the Newberry Bookshop, and Dr. Şahin will sign books after the program.
Mutinous Women: How French Convicts Became Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast
This program will be livestreamed on Zoom. Free and open to all. Register in advance here.
Join us as Joan DeJean and Jack McCord use maps from the Newberry collection to recreate the European settlement of the vast territory in North America that the French named Louisiana, and to tell the story of one remarkable woman, Marie Baron.
On February 27, 1720, Marie Baron and 95 other female inmates who had been serving time in a notorious Parisian prison were abandoned on an uninhabited island off the Gulf Coast. Most of the women had, like Marie Baron, been falsely charged with “public prostitution.” Those who survived their deportation on a ship named La Mutine, “the Mutinous Woman,” forged such remarkable lives that their impact on this country continues, three centuries later. Their lives are recounted in Joan DeJean’s new book, Mutinous Women: How French Convicts Became Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast.
In Louisiana, Marie Baron became a person of note and the wife of Jean François Dumont—a mapmaker responsible for many extraordinary maps in the Newberry collection. Dumont recorded events in Louisiana’s history that he himself had not witnessed but that his wife had, embedding her perspective into his vision of the European settlement of North America.
Signed copies of Joan DeJean’s book Mutinous Women are available for purchase online from the Newberry Bookshop.
This event is cosponsored by the Alliance Française de Chicago.
The Life and Times of Sultan Süleyman
This program will be held in-person at the Newberry and livestreamed on Zoom. Free and open to all. Advance registration required.
Join us as historian Kaya Şahin, author of Peerless among Princes: The Life and Times of Sultan Süleyman, and art historian Elizabeth Rodini discuss the sixteenth-century ruler, during whose reign the Ottoman Empire became a truly global power.
Süleyman presided over a multilingual and multireligious empire that promised peace and prosperity to its subjects while he clashed with the Catholic Habsburgs in Europe and the Shiite Safavids in the Middle East. His poetic output, his appearances during public ceremonies, his charity, and his patronage of arts and architecture enhanced his reputation as a universal ruler with a well-rounded character.
Behind that public façade, Süleyman led a complicated life. He grew up with an overbearing father whose legacy was an advantage and a burden. Defying established practice, he married a concubine named Hürrem whose love and affection became his true refuge. Toward the end of his life, facing both debilitating sickness and the agitations of his sons, he struggled to remain on the throne.
Peerless among Princes will be available for purchase in the Newberry Bookshop, and Dr. Şahin will sign books after the program.
A Close-Up of the Opera “Albert Herring”
This program will be held in-person at the Newberry. Free and open to all. Register in advance here.
Benjamin Britten’s comedic opera, Albert Herring, tells the story of an aristocratic lady who seeks a young, unmarried woman of unstained virtue to crown as her small town’s May Queen – only to discover that no maidens of the town meet her qualifications!
At this “Close-Up” event at the Newberry, Michael Pecak, Dame Jane Glover DBE, and Stephen Sposito from Chicago Opera Theater will discuss COT’s upcoming production of Albert Herring, the Newberry’s Stuart Fraser will draw connections with the library’s extensive opera-related collection, and COT singers will perform excerpts to illustrate points of the conversation.
A wine reception will begin at 5:30 pm. Also be sure to arrive early and register for the raffle where you can win two tickets to the opening night of Albert Herring!
Chicago Opera Theater’s production of Albert Herring, conducted by Dame Jane Glover and directed by Stephen Sposito, will run January 26 through 29.