SOAPBOX JUDGES ABOUT THE DILL PICKLE AWARD Anthony Di Lorenzo, Loyola University The Dill (sometimes spelled Dil) Pickle Award is presented to honor the champion soapbox GIVE Ben Joravsky, Chicago Reader and 2014 orator. The Dill Pickle Club was founded by Altgeld Award Co- Recipient labor activist and Bughouse soapboxer Jack Angel Ysaguirre, Illinois Humanities Council Jones in 1914 to provide an indoor forum for free expression. By 1917 the Dill Pickle had located CHICAGO ENVIRONMENTAL ENCROACHMENT MARCHING BAND just around the corner from Bughouse Square and the Newberry, at 22 Tooker Place. Picklers Chicago performance art group Environmental attended lectures, plays, dances, concerts, and, a Piece of Your Encroachment uses circus theatrics, live music, and costumes to create unique entertainment of course, had plenty of talk. , environments. Performance formats include stage , Maxwell Bodenheim, Lucy shows, parades, and punk artist marching band Parsons, , Charles MacArthur, MIND! encroachments; visit www.encroach.net. Sherwood Anderson, and were just a few of the literary, political, and social SOCIETY OF SMALLNESS luminaries who regularly attended. The club The SocietySA of SmallnessTURDA believes thatY less is less closed in 1933. and thinking small is a needed antidote in an age of supersizing and overachieving. Through playful The Newberry Library thanks the BUGHOUSE interactions,July the society invites 25 a closer look and a SQUARE DEBATES COMMITTEE, who created this shift in perspective. event: Rachel Bohlmann, Jennifer Coufal, Paul ABOUT BUGHOUSE SQUARE Durica, Stephanie Fong, Vince Firpo, Rachel Shrock, Noon – 4 pm and Alex Teller. Bughouse Square (bughouse is slang for Across from the Newberry, mental health facility), the popular name for in Washington Square Park HECKLING Washington Square Park, was the city’s most boisterous and radical free-speech space from Responding to speakers is a Bughouse Square the 1910s through the 1930s. Orators mounted tradition, and interaction is part of the fun. Please soapboxes and spoke to responsive, vocal crowds. keep it civil and friendly. Bohemians, poets, atheists, and religionists of all #BUGHOUSESQUARE persuasionsRick entertained K bystanders.ogan The square’s core contributors,Master however, of Ceremonies came from the ranks of Want to supplement your heckling with some online the Wobblies, men and women of the Industrial commentary? Share your thoughts, musings, and Workers of the World, whose radical views, wit, ruminations with us on social media. and humor made them champion soapboxers and perennial crowd favorites. World War II and a post-war crackdown against socialists and communists, however, led to Bughouse Square’s SPECIAL THANKS decline, and by the mid-1960s it had all but The 2015 Bughouse Square Debates are ceased to exist. The Newberry revived the park’s supported in part by a grant from the Free for free-speech legacy with the Bughouse Square All Fund of the Chicago Community Trust. Debates in 1986. SATURDAY, July 25, noon – 4 pm Across from the Newberry, in Washington Square Park Rick Kogan, Master of Ceremonies 1:25 pm ­— MAIN DEBATE on the Main Stage 2:55 pm —Rachel Goodstein, “Tough Talk Howard Cort received an MA in political BUGHOUSE SQUARE DEBATES science from SUNY Albany in 1965 and wrote Public or Private? What Should Be the Future of Public for Tough Times in the Toddling Town: Serious Solutions for the Second City’s Crises” approachestocoexistence.com in 2008. NOON ­— MUSIC by Environmental Encroachment Education in Chicago? Jerry Field is an Army veteran, serves on 3:10 pm — Jamie Albert, “A Hard Rain’s 1 pm — WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION TO Troy LaRaviere, Principal of Blaine Elementary School, a half-dozen veterans committees, and has Chicago Public Schools Gonna Fall: The Blame Pattern” advocated for veterans for three decades. He BUGHOUSE SQUARE by Rick Kogan and teaches at the college level and is currently on SOAPBOX 3 a STEM grant. 1:10 pm — PRESENTATION OF THE 2015 JOHN Bruno Behrend, Senior Fellow for Education Policy, PETER ALTGELD FREEDOM OF SPEECH AWARD the Heartland Institute 2:25 pm — Erwin Lutzer, “Jesus and a Skeptic: Bill Geraci started young and got older, hopefully correctly figuring some things Recipient: Wendy Kaminer. David Spadafora, A Q&A with the audience will conclude the main Why All Rational People Should Believe in Jesus” out along the way. As for work, he’s a staff President of the Newberry, will present the award. debate. computer guy for the University of Chicago. 2:40 pm — Bill Geraci, “Problems in Wendy Kaminer is a lawyer, social critic, and 2:15 pm ­— SOAPBOX JUDGES INTRODUCED Fourth-time soapboxer Rachel Goodstein Translation; or, Jesus’ Virgin Birth?” long-time defender of free speech and civil — SOAPBOX SPEAKERS INTRODUCED has lived in Chicago for over 30 years and has liberties. We wish to recognize in particular 2:55 pm — Natia Weathers, “The Irrelevance of been involved in good government causes and — MUSIC by Environmental Encroachment general do-gooding. her efforts against censorship on college Coincidence and Hard Work” campuses, including her involvement with Malik January attends Urban Prep Academies FIRE: Foundation for Individual Rights in 3:10 pm — Howard Cort, “Emerging for Young Men and has an enigmatic passion Education and her response to criticism she SOAPBOX DEBATES Alternatives for Israeli-Palestinian Coexistence” for computers. faced after participating in a Smith College Senior pastor at Moody Church since 1980, alumnae panel discussion on free speech, Soapbox speeches run no longer than 15 minutes; SOAPBOX 4 all four soapboxes run simultaneously. Speakers Erwin W. Lutzer is an award-winning author, civil discourse, and the liberal arts last fall. an international conference speaker, and the on boxes 1–3 compete for the Dill Pickle Award for OPEN MIC — moderated by the Society of Smallness Following accusations of racial violence Step up, one and all! featured guest on three radio programs. brought against her by members of the Smith best soapbox speaker. Speakers may change without notice, and times are approximate. Tom O’Donnell is a 19-year-old independent community and the editorial decision of the researcher developing solutions to world college’s student newspaper to label some problems so everyone can have great living SOAPBOX 1 AFTER THE SOAPBOX DEBATES of her words as “slurs”in a transcript of the conditions. event, Kaminer reaffirmed the importance 2:25 pm — A.J. Segneri, “A Democratic ENTERTAINMENT ON THE MAIN STAGE of freely discussing potentially offensive and Gail Schechter is the Executive Director of Revolution from Below” A reading of August Schiermeyer’s poem “Bug-House Open Communities, a housing, economic, and disturbing language. In an op-ed in The social justice advocacy organization covering 2:40 pm — Gail Schechter, Square” (ca. 1919) by Darrell Blobaum. Blobaum is the Washington Post, she noted that the “reliance “The Chicago north suburban Chicago. on subjectivity, in the interest of equality, Region as The Picture of Dorian Gray; or, The great-nephew of Schiermeyer and a /labor history is a recipe for arbitrary, discriminatory Co-Dependency of Winnetka and Englewood and enthusiast. A.J. Segneri, Lead Organizer for the Foundation for a United Front, is an Evanston- enforcement practices, with far-reaching Why We Should Care” 3:35 pm — SOAPBOX CHAMPION ANNOUNCED based activist who has served on political effects on individual liberty.” 2:55 pm — Malik January, “The Prioritization — DILL PICKLE AWARDED campaigns and has founded socially and and Faults of Security” economically conscious organizations. The Altgeld Freedom of Speech Award is dedicated to the memory of the former Illinois 3:10 pm — Jerry Field, “The Care and Natia Weathers is a rising freshman at Treatment of Veterans for Education and SOAPBOX SPEAKERS Wheaton College interested in studying governor (1892-96) who pardoned the surviving psychology and sociology with the goal of anarchists wrongfully convicted of the Haymarket Employment” As a folk singer and union and protest song becoming an Army psychologist. bombing of 1886. The award is presented revivalist, Jamie Albert performs about labor, each year to an organization or person who has SOAPBOX 2 poverty, and other social justice issues. He is a distinguished him- or herself as a defender of free member of the Industrial Workers of the World. 2:25 pm — Michael Brennan, “The Best speech and ideas. Health Care Plan for America” Michael Brennan, with the Illinois Single Payer Coalition, is a retired court researcher, 2:40 pm — Tom O’Donnell, “The Root teacher, and debate coach. He advocates Causes and Solutions to World Problems” guaranteeing health care as a human right.