{"id":144598,"date":"2025-08-14T08:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T08:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/144598\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T08:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T08:24:13","slug":"author-margaret-atwood-comedians-cheech-marin-and-kate-mckinnon-top-2025-chicago-humanities-fall-festival-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/144598\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Margaret Atwood, comedians Cheech Marin and Kate McKinnon top 2025 Chicago Humanities Fall Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u201d author Margaret Atwood, former Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon, Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi and author Salman Rushdie will appear this fall as part of the Chicago Humanities Fall Festival. Tickets go on sale<\/a> to the public Thursday.<\/p>\n

The festival, running Sept. 18 through Nov. 13 with events throughout the city, will also feature program days within different city neighborhoods. Pilsen Day on Sept. 21 comes in partnership with the National Museum of Mexican Art and will bring a talk from David de Baca on the Chicano magazine Teen Angels, plus appearances by chefs Jesse Valenciana and Rick Bayless. Highlights for University of Chicago Arts & Humanities Day programming on Oct. 18 include a talk from Roxane Gay and an exploration of the poetry of Taylor Swift from literary critic Stephanie Burt.<\/p>\n

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\"AP25051812624084.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Former Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon will speak at the festival on Oct. 4 to discuss \u201cSecrets of the Purple Pearl,\u201d the second book in her bestselling series for young readers.<\/p>\n

Evan Agostini\/Invision\/AP<\/p>\n

\u201cOur priority is to reach around the entire community and when we say that we mean from Evanston all the way down to South Shore,\u201d said festival Executive Director Phillip Bahar. \u201cWith each place that we move in, each partnership we\u2019re working with, it allows us to peel into different aspects of Chicago as a city, and the people that make Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s festival comes as federal humanities funding cuts<\/a> by the Trump administration have left the statewide group Illinois Humanities short of an estimated $1 million. <\/b>That group funds libraries, museums and history and literary projects. Though Chicago Humanities has received federal funding in the past, the organization did not take any funding for 2025 and was not impacted directly by cuts. Still, Bahar said his group\u2019s events unfold at a critical time for humanities on a national level.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe as a nation should be committed to capturing the telling and sharing the stories of America through the arts and humanities. When you look back at other civilizations in the past, the remnants are the humanities,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen our nation can\u2019t support that kind of creativity, it has ripple effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is a full calendar of the events.<\/p>\n

Sept. 18 <\/b>Annual Benefit with Evan Osnos<\/a> at Four Seasons Hotel<\/p>\n

Pilsen\/Little Village Day, Sunday Sept. 21 <\/b>featuring chefs Jesse Valenciana & Rick Bayless<\/a>,<\/b> actor Zosia Mamet and <\/b>Cheech Marin: Chicano Art<\/a><\/p>\n

Oct. 2<\/b> Kurt Elling with Christian Sands Performance at Old Town School of Folk Music<\/p>\n

Illinois Tech Day, Saturday, Oct. 4 <\/b>featuring Nate Silver and Richard Thaler: On the Edge<\/a>, a talk on late Chicago fashion designer Virgil Abloh, and Kate McKinnon: Secrets of the Purple Pearl<\/a> at Hermann Hall<\/p>\n

Oct. 12 <\/b>Catherine Russell: American Songbook at Old Town School of Folk Music<\/p>\n

Oct. 12 <\/b>Chicago Sukkah Design Festival at James Stone Freedom Square<\/p>\n

Oct. 13 <\/b>Robin Wall Kimmerer<\/a> at Morton Arboretum<\/p>\n

Oct. 15 <\/b>Cory Doctorow & Kara Swisher: On \u201cEnshitification\u201d at Old Town School of Folk Music<\/p>\n

University of Chicago Arts & Humanities Day, Saturday, Oct. 18 <\/b>featuring talks by Roxane Gay, Sally Mann, Amitav Ghosh: Wild Fictions<\/a>, Stephen Dubner, Steven Pinker and Nick Offerman: Woodworking and Tomfoolery<\/a><\/p>\n

Nov. 5 <\/b>Jill Lepore: We the People<\/a> at Francis Parker<\/p>\n

Nov. 6, 7<\/b> Kurt Vile & Terry Allen Performance at Old Town School of Folk Music<\/p>\n

Nov. 8<\/b> Margaret Atwood: Book of Lives<\/a> at Francis Parker<\/p>\n

Nov. 11 <\/b>Padma Lakshmi\u2019s All American at Athenaeum Center<\/p>\n

Nov. 12<\/b> Samin Nosrat: Good Things<\/a> at Athenaeum Center<\/p>\n

Nov. 13<\/b> Salman Rushdie: The Eleventh Hour<\/a> at Athenaeum Center<\/p>\n

Camila Trimberger-Ruiz is an intern on the WBEZ Arts & Culture Desk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u201d author Margaret Atwood, former Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon, Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":144599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-144598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115026163665598425","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}