WHAT: “SPEAK Cafe,” featuring Malik Yusef, et. al.
WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 3 @ 7 p.m.
WHERE: Krannert Art Museum East Gallery, 500 E. Peabody, Champaign
From the event announcement: “Young, Gifted, and Black: OUR Story; Headliner: Malik Yusef; Poets: Amira Davis, Brandon a.k.a. Xplicit, and Hip Hop Detoxx; represented by Phenom and Awthentik; DJ E-Dub on the tables and Brotha A-Dub as the host.”
WHAT: “The Alternatives of Andrei Sakharov,” Tatiana Yankelevich, Cold War Studies Fellow, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 3 @ 4 p.m.
WHERE: Levis Center 3rd Floor, 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana
Yankelevich, the daughter of Sakharov’s wife, will give some perspective on the legacy of the Soviet dissident and human rights activist.
WHAT: “The Epic of Gilgamesh & the Journey Archetype in World Literature,” Sevinc Turkkan
WHEN: Friday, Feb. 4 @ 4 p.m.
WHERE: Lucy Ellis Lounge, 1080 Foreign Languages Building
I don’t know how you feel about Mesopotamian literature, but if you’re a fan of its “greatest surviving work” (according to Wikipedia) then I don’t think you can miss this one in good conscience, regardless of whether or not you have to get there in snowshoes.
WHAT: “Tax Evasion, Relative Poverty, and the Optimum Income Tax,” Enlinson Henrique Carvalho de Mattos, Vargas Foundation Brazil
WHEN: Monday, Feb. 7 @ 4 p.m.
WHERE: An undisclosed location, hopefully to be revealed soon
You live near a major university and a community college. There are smart people that come here every week to talk to the general public about interesting topics. Perhaps you were not aware of this fact, or were overwhelmed by the sheer number of opportunities for possible enlightenment. If that’s the case, Smile Politely understands and is here to help. Here are several events going on in town this week. Check out one or more of them if you have time. Get your learn on, as they say, and join the cognoscenti. It’s free, you know. Plus, sometimes there’s free food, too!
If you have a community event, speaker, or film event that you’d like to see featured on Listen Up!, send the event information to joelgillespie [at] smilepolitely [dot] com by Friday the week prior to the event. Listen Up! runs on Tuesdays.