last call lectures: storytelling is community building: how spoken art brought chicago together

before chicago had podcasts or open mics, it had settlement houses. immigrant families packed into rooms taught each other how to speak, perform, and be heard in a new country. in this lecture, dr. fiona maxwell will be diving into the art of storytelling and its history based in chicago's late 1800s immigrant populations and beyond. 

dr. maxwell is a historian at north central college who studies how chicagoans used drama, oratory, and storytelling to build civic life in the early 1900s. her research digs into the settlement houses that immigrant and working class families relied on, places like hull house, where spoken performance became a tool for organizing, belonging, and making others laugh. 

how the night runs: 45 minutes of dr. maxwell walking us through the immigrant roots of storytelling in the city, 15 minutes of q&a, then 45 minutes of small group discussion with other people just as curious as you are.