The 2011-2012 Hunter Lecture Series kicks off with Michelle Rhee, an education reform advocate, on September 20 at the Tivoli Theatre. All lectures are free and open to the public. Additional speakers will discuss the environment, culture, and community.
Throughout her career, Michelle Rhee has been working to give children the skills and knowledge they will need to compete in a changing world. She is a fierce and sometimes controversial advocate for public education reform. From her service as a Teach for America corps member to her leadership as Chancellor of the DC Public Schools, each chapter of Rhee ‘s story has convinced her: students of every background and ZIP code can achieve at high levels, and teachers are the most powerful driving force behind student achievement in our schools.
Armando Carbonell will be speaking on November 1 in the Roland Hayes Auditorium in the UTC Fine Arts Center. Co-author of the book Regional Planning in America, Carbonell is a nationally recognized expert on land-use planning for growing metropolitan regions and sustainable growth. He teaches planning at Harvard and is the Chairman of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Carbonell is also the co-chair of America 2050, a national initiative focused on developing a framework to meet the infrastructure, economic development, and environmental challenges of the nation in the face of rapid population growth and development.
Former United States Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky will deliver his lecture on February 7, 2012, in the Roland Hayes Auditorium in the UTC Fine Arts Center. Pinsky’s first two terms as United States Poet Laureate were marked by such visible dynamism, and such national enthusiasm in response, that the Library of Congress appointed him to an unprecedented third term. Throughout his career, Pinsky has been dedicated to identifying and invigorating poetry’s place in the world. As Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky founded the Favorite Poem Project, in which thousands of Americans – of varying backgrounds, all ages, and from every state – shared their favorite poems. Pinsky believed that, contrary to stereotype, poetry had a vigorous presence in the American cultural landscape. The project documents that presence, giving voice to the American audience for poetry. The anthology Americans’ Favorite Poems, which includes letters from project participants, is in its 18th printing.
Bestselling author Michael Pollan will speak on April 19, 2012 at the Tivoli Theatre. For the past 20 years, Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect – with a focus on food and agriculture. He is the author of the bestsellers In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto and The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which was named one of the 10 best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post. It also won the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, the James Beard Award for best food writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Pollan’s previous book, The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, was also a New York Times bestseller, received the Borders Original Voices Award for the best non-fiction work of 2001, and was recognized as a best book of the year by the American Booksellers Association and Amazon.com. PBS premiered a two-hour special documentary based on The Botany of Desire in fall 2009. His most recent book is Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, which was an immediate #1 New York Times bestseller upon publication; an expanded, illustrated edition of Food Rules will be published in November 2011.
This year marks the fourth annual George T. Hunter Lecture Series, which is sponsored by the Benwood Foundation in partnership with The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, The Ochs Center, and CreateHere. Named in honor of the founder of the Benwood Foundation, the George T. Hunter Lecture Series brings speakers that address issues in the foundation’s four focus areas – Arts & Culture, Education, Environment, and Community Building. For more information, visit benwood.org
