Events for May 17, 2024 - May 17, 2024

Rachel Devlin History Professor, Rutgers University Rachel Devlin offers the first new history of the struggle for school desegregation in more than four decades, revealing it as a grassroots movement led by girls and young women. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, young African American women and girls, almost exclusively, attempted to register [...]

Hugh Taft-Morales Leader, Philadelphia Ethical Society What is it to “own” something? Is it just to have exclusive access to, or control over, a resource? How did the concept of “ownership” arise? Is it true that “property is theft”? How have the concepts of property and money evolved so as to de-emphasize the shared resources [...]

Ryan Coffman Philly Works, Philadelphia Department of Public Health This talk focuses on the tobacco industry's extensive prior and current history of deception and manipulation to promulgate the tobacco epidemic domestically and globally and will reference real internal industry quotes secured by litigation and actual campaigns the industry has launched to targeting vulnerable populations. This presentation will expose the source of the tobacco epidemic and pandemic. [...]

Hugh Taft-Morales Leader, Philadelphia Ethical Society Human beings are social creatures. Social media seduces us into more and more communication with others, some in person and a lot virtually. But most people need to be alone sometimes, without electronic distractions and conversation. Many find solitude a source of inspiration, creativity, and renewal.  How can we better [...]

Jovida Hill Mayor’s Office of Engagement for Women Jovida Hill, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Engagement for Women, discusses her office and the Philadelphia Commission for Women and the role they play in advancing the administration’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. Since the office was created in 2016, they have tackled issues of [...]

Anne Klaeysen Leader, New York Society for Ethical Culture The Encampment for Citizenship, founded in 1946 by Ethical Culture Leader Algernon D. Black and Alice (“Nanny”) Pollitzer, a prominent civic leader, offered an opportunity for young adults of many religious, racial, social and national backgrounds to learn the principles and techniques of citizenship…through lived experience. Black believed that [...]

Hugh Taft-Morales Leader, Philadelphia Ethical Society For many people, sexual identity and expression is an important part of life.  Shouldn’t Ethical Humanism support them as sources of energy, joy, and pride?!  Unfortunately too often American culture wraps up sexuality in layers of shame, and this can hurt everyone, but especially people seen as not conforming to traditional [...]